Safe Future for Kids, a community initiative established in Khayelitsha’€™s RR Section two years ago, is supported by the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) and is the brainchild of its chairperson Angy Peter.

Peter decided to take action, to offer an alternative for the toddlers playing in the streets, but red tape and nonsensical decisionmaking has seen the process come to a grinding halt.

RR Section residents have limited access to clean water and sanitation, with drains often blocked and overflowing, which means the children end up playing in sewerage covered and muddy roads with little supervision. Most of the children are from impoverished households with parents unable to afford any school fees while many of the mothers are teenagers.

Most of the mothers are unable to go in search of jobs as they have nobody to look after the children during the day while the teenage mothers fail to return to school.

Peter established a non’€“profit ‘€œcrèche’€ for the children of RR Section in a temporary shack which is not conducive to housing the children, but she had a bigger vision.

Within months, the dynamic community leader secured donor money from Sanlam to buy a stand from a RR Section resident and installed a container. However, within weeks of the container arriving a baffled Peter was served with an eviction order from the city’€™s Anti-Land Invasion Unit. This despite the fact that the previous occupier ran a car mechanic business from the shack and had erected a structure on the land without paying the city any rent. The city also initially had a refuse container moved to make way for the crèche. There are currently several containers in RR Section used for various purposes, none of which have been threatened with eviction.

However, the SJC has fought a public campaign against the city and mayor Dan Plato in an effort to improve the safety of residents and reduce the inadequate and often hazardous water and sanitation access within the area. Some sources believe the decision to target this project may be due to their run-ins with the city.

The eviction order instructed the organisation to demolish or remove the container within 48 hours.

While Peter and others have been trying to communicate with the city since May 2010 last year, the more than 30 toddlers have remained in the cramped, makeshift shack, while the purpose’€“built container stands empty. It has not been removed.

They now face the prospect of remaining in the leaky shack, which is blistering hot in the summer and cold and damp in the winter for the remainder of the year

Peter confirmed that the organisation has explored every avenue with the city, including numerous correspondences through attorneys. This includes having sent a detailed submission to the City Manager as well as an application to the city of Cape Town to rent the land.

She said efforts to speak to the city of Cape Town in the hope of establishing what they had to do to retain the container have been fruitless. ‘€œWe are continually sent from pillar to post without getting any information or help,’€ she said.

 ‘€œIt is discouraging that the city is against those who try to improve the lives of people living in this area. We were not waiting to see what it (the city) can do for us but we were going out there and doing something for ourselves. But instead of support we are met with opposition,’€ said Peter.

 ‘€œYou often hear of a child going missing in this area. Children are raped and run over by cars in the street. This is due to not having proper adult supervision,’€ said Peter.

Apart from caring for the children at a nominal fee of R20 a month, Safe Future for Kids has been conducting workshops to help mothers learn how to effectively use the R250 grant they receive from government.

Several attempts to get comment for the city of Cape Town were unsuccessful.

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