Khayelitsha residents marched to the Cape Town Civic Centre on Tuesday to demand basic services such as water and electricity.

Close to 100 shack dwellers participated in the march in a bid to highlight that residents of New Monwabisi Park in Khayelitsha, are in desperate need of basic services.

According to reports, community leader Masithini Mnqayi said the shack dwellers are demanding flush toilets, additional water taps and electricity in the informal settlement.

“We want services that the City should have given us shortly after June last year, when we occupied the land. The right to basic services is enshrined in our Constitution, but the City violates it,” he said.

Mnqayi said that without sanitation, women and children had to relieve themselves in the bush, where they were “easy prey for thugs who rob them”. He said that without electricity, people used candles. Shack fires had already broken out three times.

According to community leader Zimasa Mandla, 20 taps has been installed thus far, but it was not enough to accommodate the residents in the area. She further stated that women still had to walk long distances just to have access to drinking water, which led to residents calling for additional taps to be installed.

Mandla read out a memorandum of demands and councillors Xanthea Limberg and Anda Ntsodo received it.

[Source: VOC and News24]