During 1987 some new trends in the government's forced removals policy emerged within its wider strategy of 'orderly urbanisation'. While allowing Africans to settle outside the non-'independent' bantustans, subject to the availability of suitable housing, local authorities were given more powers to demolish illegal squatter camps and clear areas deemed to be 'slums' and 'health hazards'. (See FOCUS 65 p.8, 70 p.9)
During the year local authorities used these powers to demolish illegal squatter camps or 'upgrade' existing townships. Several communities also faced removal simply because they were near to expanding white residential areas. Anti-apartheid organisations feared that upgrading programmes would lead to the removal of thousands of people unable to afford rentals and site-and-service charges for newly constructed housing. (National Committee Against Removals Report No.4, Sept 1987 pp.3-4)
'UPGRADING'
- Western Cape In the Cape Town area it remained government policy to move residents of squatter communities to Khayelitsha township. (FOCUS 58 p.12) In December almost 600 people were forcibly moved there from Noordhoek. Several smaller communities also faced removal, as the year closed. (NCAR Report, Sept 1987 pp.4-5; South 10.9.87; CT 3/4.12.87)
- Southern Cape African and Coloured residents of Lawaakamp, a shanty town near George, won a crucial legal victory in May. The Cape Supreme Court ruled that the George Municipality's declaration of the settlement as a squatter camp was illegal - residents had paid service charges to the municipality for years. The court also ruled that it was illegal to demolish shacks using the provisions of the National Building Regulations - the municipality had waived its right to enforce these by allowing unregulated structures to be inhabited for so many years. (South 10.9.87; WM 2.10.87)
- Eastern Cape Following the forced removal of Langa, near Uitenhage, several other communities in the region have been targetted for removal. Half the residents of the 10,000-strong community at Red Location (Port Elizabeth) are to be moved to Motherwell 20 kilometres away. What remains of the township is due to be upgraded. In October 1987 several smaller squatter camps in the Port Elizabeth area were also designated for removal to Motherwell. (FOCUS 68 p.3; NCAR Report No.4, Sept 1987 p.8; City Press 11.10.87)
- Border region Although Duncan Village in East London was reprieved from full-scale removal in 1983, plans to upgrade the township went ahead in 1987 and building regulations were invoked to demolish shanties erected on vacant lots. (NCAR Report No.4, Sept 1987 p.9)
- Natal In January 1987 Pietermaritzburg local authorities demolished the Northdale settlement using the provisions of the Prevention of Illegal Squatting Act. In other parts of the province communities once threatened with removal were targetted for upgrading. (NCAR Report No.4, Sept 1987, pp.9-10)
- Transvaal During 1987 there were widescale removals of informal settlements using a variety of regulations, especially in the Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vaal area. (FOCUS 68 p.3; WM 10.7.87; FM 30.10.87)
In August the government announced plans to purchase the freehold farms of 45,000 people engaged in subsistence farming at Daggaskraal in the Eastern Transvaal and redevelop the area as a rural township. The area had been reprieved from incorporation into the Kangwane bantustan earlier in the year. Residents strongly opposed the new plans, which would lead to the destruction of their farming activities and dispossess tenants. (Star 13.8.87; S 24/26.8.87)
INCORPORATION AND CONSOLIDATION
When forced removals were suspended in February 1985 the incorporation of some 30 areas into the bantustans was also reviewed. The incorporation of some of those communities will now go ahead. (FOCUS 70 p.9)
- Bophuthatswana The 10,000 residents of Braklaagte near Zeerust in the Western Transvaal have maintained a long campaign against their incorporation into the bantustan. They won a partial concession when the authorities agreed that they could retain their South African citizenship, even after the incorporation of their land. The community, however, remains opposed to incorporation. (NN 2.7.87; NCAR Report No.4, Sept 1987, pp.12-13)
- Ciskei In this bantustan 2,000 people who were removed from Blue Rock to Potsdam in 1982 continued resisting their forced resettlement inside the Ciskei. They resented paying bantustan taxes, the pressures on them to become members of the ruling Ciskei National Independence Party and attacks by vigilantes. They fled the Ciskei twice in the course of 1987, settling on each occasion on a stretch of road across the bantustan's boundaries. Each time they were forcibly moved back to Potsdam by police and troops. The refugees also sought legal redress. In August the Bisho Supreme Court granted an interim order restraining Ciskei police from assaulting them. (Work In Progress No.48 July 1987, pp.13-16; NN 6.8.87, 11.11.87)
- Kangwane Thousands of people living in Badplaas in the Embuleni Valley (Carolina) in the Eastern Transvaal are faced with removal because the area is due for incorporation into the bantustan, according to government plans announced in August. Earlier plans to forcibly remove the community were dropped in 1983. The addition of the 12,000 hectares of Badplaas land to Kangwane was made conditional on the 'voluntary' removal of the community to another part of the bantustan. (Star 12/20.8.87)
- Kwandebele In December the government announced that the township of Ekangala in the Western Transvaal had been incorporated into Kwandebele. (FOCUS 63 p.3)
- Qwaqwa In December the government declared that the vast resettlement area of Botshabelo near Bloemfontein had been incorporated into Qwaqwa, 330 kilometres away. Some 750,000 people are affected. Plans for incorporation were strongly resisted by local organisations when first mooted. (WM 27.11.87, 4.12.87)
GROUP AREAS
According to official figures released in September, 6,414 families (approximately 32,000 people) were still faced with removal in terms of the Group Areas Act. In the course of the year government officials also indicated that action might be taken to remove African, Coloured and Indian tenants from the city centres of Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg, in order to reverse the trend toward informal integration in these areas. The declaration of Kleinskool, a mixed African and Coloured community near Port Elizabeth, as a Coloured Group Area suggested also that removals might be stepped up against mixed communities. (EPH 13/23.7.87; CT 18.9.87)
