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Brett Herron, ID Councillor and Spokesperson for the ID Caucus in the City of Cape Town, today slammed the City's Housing Department for demolishing a backyard structure in Scottsdene ‘just one week before the City hosts a workshop that is likely to see a significant shift in the City's policies and attitudes towards backyard dwellers.'

Backyard Dwellers is a term used to describe people who live in informal housing behind existing houses. The City today demolished a structure being built in the backyard of Mrs Pienaar's rental unit, at Ashbury Court in Scottsdene. In the process of the demolition the City's Anti- Land Invasion Unit apparently shot at the crowd of residents who had gathered at the site in solidarity with the Mrs Pienaar and her family.

Cllr Herron visited this family this morning after they received the notice to demolish.

‘By the time I got back to my office and started making calls to see if I could assist Mrs Pienaar, I received a call to say that her structure had been demolished and that in the process rubber bullets had been fired at the crowd - some of whom were hit,' Mr Herron says.

‘People are living in backyards only because there is a severe shortage of housing in the City and given that the City's best case scenario for breaking the housing back-log is 18 years (if we can build 38 000 homes a year - and last year we only built 8000) it is highly likely that thousands of people will live their entire lives in these backyards.

‘It is for this very reason that the City has decided to re-visit its policies and attitude towards backyard dwellers and is holding a workshop next week to discuss the way forward. I am shocked that we are demolishing these structures one week before a ground-breaking change in direction is possible,' says Herron.

‘This is nothing more than the cruel victimization of the poor.'

The City's Housing Portfolio Committee will be holding a workshop on the 24 February 2010 where councillors and officials will discuss Backyard Dwellers. A Notice of Motion submitted to the Portfolio Committee in September 2009 by Cllr Herron, calling for the City to provide basic services such as water and sanitation to backyard dwellers, is one of the reasons for the workshop.

‘I am deeply concerned about what appears to be a total lack of humanity on the part of the department. Backyard dwellers live in the most vulnerable conditions and are the most marginalised people - current policy does not recognise them as entitled to services - but assumes that they access basic services from the main dwelling.

‘Given that the main dwelling is usually occupied by a family that can ill-afford their own services they are usually not in a position to be able to afford to share these with the family in the backyard,' Herron says.

‘It is for this reason that I submitted a motion to the Housing Committee that the City provides basic services to backyard dwellers; and this motion is one of the reasons for the workshop next week.'

In the case of Mrs Pienaar the structure in her backyard, which has now been demolished, was to accommodate her recently married daughter and son-in-law who have nowhere else to live. Mrs Pienaar has another structure in her backyard that already accommodates her son and his family.

‘I do not believe that the City should be destroying these structures given that there is serious consideration for a change in policy which might well see backyard structures regularised and being provided with some services.

‘In this particular situation the backyard structure would have accommodated an immeadiate family member of the tenant in the main dwelling - which I think is a situation the city should be encouraging, as far as possible, since in these over-crowded conditions it must be preferable that it is a family sharing the space.

‘In any event, I believe a moratorium on these demolitions makes sense given that we are re-looking at the backyard dweller situation - to demolish this week and decide next week to regularise makes no sense and is simply cruel.'

Cllr Herron's motion, submitted in September 2009, proposes that:

‘This Council initiates, develops and adopts a comprehensive policy in respect of the provision of basic services such as water, toilets and electricity to so-called "backyard dwellers" and that the Housing Portfolio Committee urgently set up a special workshop in order to discuss and formulate the framework for such a policy.'