Dear Editor
The DA condemns the shooting of a construction worker at the Tambo Village housing development site of the Airport Precinct Infills Projects (APIP). The shooting has forced work to be halted at this site, as construction workers fear for their lives. Security personnel at the site were also threatened and property was vandalised.
There has been a long track record of criminals targeting Human Settlements projects with the express goal of extorting protection money from project managers. Criminals cannot continue to hold these housing projects to ransom at the expense of deserving beneficiaries.
The APIP projects are supposed to provide 175 housing units to people in need in the 2022/23 financial year. But now those beneficiaries’ dreams of owning a home are being delayed.
In addition to this, the livelihoods of honest, hard-working citizens employed by the project are also put in jeopardy due to these thoughtless acts. Jobs are already hard enough to come by in South Africa without having your income threatened through violence.
The DA wishes the injured construction worker a full recovery and call on SAPS to investigate and arrest the criminals responsible for the shooting at the Tambo Village. We also call on SAPS to make sure there is a visible police presence around these sites once work can resume. I will be engaging with Western Cape Provincial Minister of Community Safety and Police Oversight, Reagan Allen, to look into all housing projects in the province that are halted by these criminal acts, so that his Department can take the matter up with SAPS.
People need homes, and we cannot allow crime to get in the way of this.
Regards
Matlhodi Maseko, MPP
DA Western Cape Spokesperson on Human Settlements
Cape Town Lens: Llandudno