EFF holds rally with shack dwellers
ALEXANDRA – EFF rally in Alexandra addresses poverty, homelessness and landlessness in the township with shack dwellers.
The militant Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in Alexandra held a rally with shack dwellers at the Dr Knak Primary School to draft a memorandum around their plight which will be handed over to the City of Johannesburg.
Once the information is collated, Ward 107 councillor and EFF chairperson, Moshe Mphahlele, said the memorandum would be handed over to the housing department of the City Johannesburg.
“We will give them a time frame in which to respond to the demands contained in the memorandum and if they ignore us, then they will have the might of the EFF descend upon them. We will organise marches and demonstrations until they respond to our demands,” said Mphahlele.
Mphahlele also said the EFF wanted the Wits University-owned land in Buccleuch and another plot owned by SA Deputy President, Cyril Ramaphosa, to be handed over to Alexandra for housing development. “We want this land in order to extend Alexandra and ensure that people currently living in shacks do get their own houses or pieces of land on which they can build a home for themselves,” Mphahlele said.
His communications officer, Kgabo Semenya, said the rally was not an EFF event but a gathering of the homeless people of Alexandra who want to demand the delivery of housing from the City of Johannesburg.
Saying 20 years had gone by with no tangible achievement of economic freedom by the people, Semenya posed the question, “For how long shall the ruling elite of this country continue to postpone the financial freedom of a black person?
“As much as we’re grateful to all the freedom fighters that ushered us to democracy, we still have an obligation to take their fight to another level and fulfill their dreams of economic freedom for the black men and women of this country.
“Black people continue to be marginalised in this country, pushing our youth and children to drugs and other ills as we continue the cycle of poverty from generation to generation. When will this come to an end?” Semenya asked.
