Colin Arendse, Wynberg
Thank you for your article “Prasa steams ahead with fencing, evictions” (Southern Mail, July 26) which deserves a cogent response.
The fact that our homeless people are forced to build rudimentary shelters on and across railway tracks is an indictment on all three spheres of government which have failed miserably to ensure the right to housing enshrined in our constitution.
It is also a travesty of justice that there are thousands of acres of barren land available for social housing, but the housing list in our city and province contains in excess of 600 000 names.
Instead of creating more temporary relocation areas like Blikkiesdorp to house the people living on the tracks, why not be the first city and province in the country to radically address the issue of housing by building homes on Rondebosch Common, for example, instead of the periphery of our urban areas?
Not only will we address the critical housing shortage in one fell swoop, but the railway tracks will also be cleared to get our workers to and from their homes and the economy up and running again.
This will be a win-win situation for all concerned and proof that inter-governmental disputes can be resolved if we all work together towards a common attainable goal.
