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Blikkiesdorp residents to take action against airport

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The Blikkiesdorp community are incensed that they were not included in consultations around the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the Airport Expansion Project. Speaking to VOC News, the Blikkiedorp Joint Committee’s Jerome Daniels says the residents will now be taking their concerns to the City of Cape Town.

“We have submitted our grievances on how things have been done so far by the Airport Company SA (ACSA). We were not involved in this whole process and our community will be affected by these plans,” Daniels said.

The committee plans to first meet with ACSA on why they were excluded on the EIA. Daniels explained that it was through the efforts of local civil society organisations that made the committee and residents aware of the public participation forums initiated by SRK consultants, to ascertain the full extent of impact the project would have on the community.

“How is it possible to exclude an entire community from plans of this magnitude? If we are being moved by the City then we want to be moved into decent houses. However, we refuse to be moved to a different area further away. The implications of such a move would affect residents immensely. We already have a 90% unemployment rate here in this settlement, now imagine they move us, all these people will lose their jobs. Our children will no longer be able to attend their schools,” Daniels continued.

A recent report leaked to a local newspaper, revealed that only 2 738 homes will be built for people from Blikkiesdorp, the Malawi Camp and Freedom Farm informal settlements. Meanwhile, the temporary relocation area houses thousands more.

“At the end of the day we are talking about human life. Human lives have been disrupted in a major way. We are already waiting for proper housing structures to be built for us,” Daniels added.

If the plan goes ahead, the runway will be completed in 2019. ACSA was not available for comment. VOC (Ra’eesah Isaacs)


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