The following is in response to a statement issued by the City of Cape Town, as reported in the Cape Argus article, “City of Cape Town, De Lille in row over removal of amenities for refugees at Paint City”.
The City’s full statement can be read here.
The City must stop their crèche politics and grow up
by Patricia De Lille
Firstly I want to correct the City of Cape Town, it is not the Department of Public Works, it is the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure.
The City of Cape Town has clearly lost its marbles to falsely assign the mandate of providing sanitation facilities to refugees to the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure. Which country do they live in?
The City must stop their crèche politics and grow up.
I’m wondering who the real leader in the crèche is so that I can buy him some nappies. Nowhere in the country is DPWI responsible for providing sanitation facilities to communities. This is always the responsibility of a municipality.
Furthermore, it is irresponsible to spread fake news by issuing a media statement saying DPWI wants to evict refugees from land owned by the City. That's the equivalent to someone trying to evict a person from a property that does not belong to them. The City has refused to carry out its mandate to provide shelter and sanitation services to refugees at Paint City which is owned by the City.
The use of City land for accommodating the refugees was agreed to by the Mayor and thereafter the decision was changed by the Mayor's boss.
DPWI has on numerous occasions in the past few weeks written to the City of Cape Town engaging them to take responsibility of the site as per the communication from the National Department of Home Affairs and National Treasury in this regard.
To assist during the National State of Disaster due to Covid-19, the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) provided a marquee, mobile toilets and showers at DPWI’s cost even though this is the mandate of the City of Cape Town.
The DPWI has communicated with the CoCT on several occasions and in turn the CoCT has refused to take responsibility for the site.
National Treasury has also indicated that it would assist the CoCT with funding to operate the sites but that the CoCT needs to write to National Treasury in this regard.
Now that we have reached Alert Level 1, the DPWI will be exiting this arrangement in order for those responsible to execute their mandates.
The marquee has, however, not been taken down yet.
* Patricia de Lille, Minister of Department of Public Works and Infrastructure.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Newspapers.
Cape Argus
Do you have something on your mind; or want to comment on the big stories of the day? We would love to hear from you. Please send your letters to arglet@inl.co.za.
All letters to be considered for publication, must contain full names, addresses and contact details (not for publication).