Guest: Bongani Funiselo - Leader of Chatsworth community
Guest: Kwandile Sikhosana - Regional leader of BOSA - Responding on behalf of BOSA
Community Leader “I am Residing in Silvertown which was formed in 2014 by poor people that were tired of renting in back yards.
We been here since 2014 without water a community of over 10 000 units sharing 1 water tap but our people are voting. We don't have toilets electricity water and infrastructure like Roads and sewege systems”
The community was formed in 2014 when a few hundred people settled on a piece of land bought for them by an NGO called the South African Homeless People’s Federation. Since then, the sale of the land has been contested in court numerous times, ending up in the Supreme Court of Appeal.
Over these nine years, while the legal battles ensue, the community has been without electricity and has only one running tap to provide water to tens of thousands of households. It is a human rights violation that cannot go unchallenged any longer. At all levels, the government has failed in its mandate to deliver services to the community of Silverton.