Rehana Rossouw
HAROLD WILLIAMS was shot dead while carrying three dead chickens to his squatter home near Durbanville, outside Cape Town. T
he chickens had been dumped by nearby chicken factories and were due to be burned.
Williams, the father of two children aged 16 and 13, was shot as a trespasser while walking home across private farm land.
Like other squatters he often supplemented his family’s diet with chicken retrieved from the dump. Police have confirmed that the chickens carried by Williams had been thrown away and were not stolen.
Williams’s death last month occurred during a struggle between the people in the Zwelethu squatter camp who want to remain there and the local municipality and farmers who want them out. Three days before Williams was killed, the 200 families at Zwelethu were served eviction notices by the Tygerberg Municipality in terms of the Illegal Squatting Act.
“Most of the people who live here were retrenched at farms nearby like County Fair and others. They lose their homes on the farm when they lose their jobs and are forced to squat,” said Zwelethu community leader Matanzima Mthwa. “We had a meeting with the Cape Metropolitan Council (CMC) last year, which farmers attended as well. The farmers told us we had no right to live here because the black people’s place is Khayelitsha and the farmers feared homeless people would steal their livestock.
“The CMC said they would try and get money for our accommodation, but warned this would take long. They told us not to erect structures until we hear from them. Because we had nowhere to go, we started erecting homes.” Mthwa said shortly after they began building permanent structures, police arrested 12 people. A week later, police and council security guards returned and fired teargas at the squatters.
On October 21, all the families were served with eviction notices and given two weeks to leave the settlement. The squatters marched to the municipal offices and burned the notices there.
Williams’s sister, Maria Adams, believes her brother’s death is the latest salvo in the attempt to get rid of the squatters. “What really hurts us is that he was killed for three chickens the farmers didn’t want anymore. The chickens had been dumped and they’re usually burned if the squatters don’t get there first,” Adams said.
“My brother was walking back across farm land when he was killed. He was trespassing, but the squatters usually use that field when they go and fetch dumped chickens. The woman who shot him hasn’t been arrested yet. Is his life worth less than three chickens?”
The Legal Resources Centre is applying to the Cape Town Supreme Court for an interdict to halt the eviction of the squatters, on the grounds that the matter should be referred to the Constitutional Court. The Tygerberg Municipality has undertaken to halt the eviction for two weeks.
Police spokesman Inspector Veirna Simon confirmed the woman who allegedly shot Williams had not yet been arrested. She said following negotiations between the woman, her attorneys and the chief prosecutor for Kuils River, the woman would appear in court next week. A charge of murder was being investigated.