Land Party: housing backlog a priority

CAPE Town needs a clear plan on how to integrate the city to eradicate spatial segregation.

That is what Land Party’s mayoral candidate Xoliswa Tsholoba plans to tackle if elected as mayor.

The 58-year-old land and social activist is also a chairperson of Intlungu Yamatyotyombe, a movement formed after land occupations sprung up across Cape Town.

“The current municipality has no integration policy,” said Tsholoba. “If there was a plan like that, we would not be having issues of blocked drains in the Cape Flats. People would not be leaving their homes at 5am only to return at 8pm because of the apartheid spatial planning that the DA-led municipality failed to address.”

She said at her age, she did not have a house, including her children.

“Even the houses that are built by this municipality are small. You cannot even have a small garden, we will build spacious houses that are also closer to the CBD.”

This will be the first time the party contests local government elections.

The Land Party grew out of land access and housing protests in Zwelihle, Hermanus in 2018. It contested the 2019 elections where it failed to win any seats. Last year, in a by-election, it won a ward, unseating the ANC in the Overstrand Municipality.

Ma-Xoli as she is known, said many of the social ills could be resolved if elected leaders had a “servant attitude”. “If we are not dealing with the ANC’s corruption, it is the DA’s incompetence. The country needs leaders who are ready to serve the people. That is what we are promising, not only to the people in townships but also in suburbs too. We know that in the affluent areas, rates are killing residents. Pensioners are forced to move in with their children because the municipality is milking everyone even when they are no longer working. We will put an end to that.”

Tsholoba also wants certain jobs reserved for locals if unemployment is to be tackled.

“We have no issue with foreign nationals but locals must come first. Companies must be told to prioritise locals, foreign nationals can come in if they have special skills.”