Anti-land invasion unit demolishes creche extension

22 January 2016 | By Mary-Anne Gontsana News | Cape Town

Photo of Lungiswa Sasa. — Lungiswa Sasa stands in front of the demolished extension to the creche.

Owners and staff members of a community creche in Delft South were upset yesterday when an extension to their school was demolished by the City of Cape Town's Anti Land Invasion Unit (ALIU).

It appears confusion over who owns the land, as well as what permission the creche owners believed they had, caused the incident.

Lungiswa Sasa who oversees the daily running of the creche, said she did not understand why the ALIU demolished the corrugated iron structure. She says the creche had an agreement with the ALIU that since their structures were temporary, they could build and extend on the City-owned land but had to inform the ALIU at their offices in Bellville.

“The structure was already done, fitted with door and window frames. Today they were finishing up the roof and ceiling. They started erecting it on Monday,” Sasa said.

“When we built the original structure, we were told that each time we build a new structure we must phone land invasion. Before, we used to go to the land invasion offices in Bellville personally and then they would come and give us a note stating that we can build,” she said.

She explained that subsequently they were given permission by the City of Cape Town to build on the land, any time they wanted to set up a structure. All that was needed, Sasa said, was for the creche owners to notify the ALIU by phone.

Sasa said they did indeed phone before the new structure was erected.

“Then on Wednesday an official from the ALIU came here. He didn't want to identify himself, but he was wearing uniform and was driving an ALIU car. He gave us a notice to sign which stated that the structure should be removed within seven hours, but I refused to sign it,” she said

Sasa said that when she asked the man questions and explained that they had called the ALIU offices to notify them, he became irritated and left, but not before threatening that he would be back the following morning to tear down the structure.

On Thursday afternoon at about 1pm the structure was torn down.

However, Councillor Benedicta van Minnen, the City of Cape Town's Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlements told GroundUp that the land does not belong to the City. It in fact belongs to the Western Cape Government's Department of Transport and Public Works.

Van Minnen said, "No permission was obtained from the land owners for the newly erected structure."

She said the new structure posed health and safety concerns, "especially where children are involved."

Van Minnen said the Department ofTransport and Public Works asked the City's ALIU to assist with removing the "illegal" structure.

The creche was started in 2012. The extension would have been two new classrooms in preparation for children that will be attending it from 1 February.

The creche looks after about 40 children between one and five years old. It is aimed at children of low-income parents.

Sasa said the creche does not get any support from government nor do they have funding. They use their own money, but welcome any donations from parents and the community. The children are provided with two meals a day.