Join Press Conference on Strandfontein Crisis
Press Conference Invitation
The City of Cape Town’s Strandfontein Camp: Lack of Disclosure, Levels of Failure
Date: 13 May 2020
Time: 11h00
On line Location: Zoom invites can be requested from organizer
Physical Location: Limited to 12 persons to abide by Covid-19 Regulations
Physical Address: Community Chest, 82 Bree Street, Cape Town, 8000
Masks must be worn.
Members of the media are invited to a press conference that responds to the City of Cape Town’s claims that all is well at the Strandfontein camp where street-based people have been held since the beginning of the lockdown.
The press conference is being hosted by agencies and individuals that have been active across civil society in assisting vulnerable communities for many years. In addition, C19 People’s Coalition members will be present as the network agency. Representatives will be present to discuss their experiences and research as it relates to its findings at the camp and the untransparent and messy manner in which it is being closed.
The Strandfontein Homeless Action Committee, representing the residents inside the Strandfontein camp, in particular, have been actively excluded by the City from any consultation over their future, where they will go, and how the will be accommodated. They have also repeatedly been denied access to the lawyers on site. It is important that they be engaged with and that they not be dumped in yet another dangerous mass shelter without proper safety measures for COVID-19 and to prevent the spread of lice, diarrhoea, tuberculosis and other diseases.
As will be described by the participants in the press conference, the City’s approach has been an affront on the human rights of street-based people and has put them, as well as the broader Cape Town community in serious danger.
To this effect, independent monitors who have done work on Strandfontein will be making their reports of human rights abuses at the camp available during the conference.
They will also put forward a number of alternative recommendations to ensure that Cape Town’s street-based population receives proper, safe housing that does not encourage the spread of the virus.
The following organisations endorses this press conference:
• Strandfontein Homeless Action Committee
• SWEAT
• Tshisimani Centre for Activist Education
• The A|XARRA Restorative Justice Forum
• SAHRC Commissioner Chris Nissen
• C19 Peoples Coalition
• Community Chest
Issued by Lorenzo Davids, CEO of Community Chest for and on behalf of the above.
Phone: 082 615 9321 | Email: ldavids@comchest.org.za
