FRIDAY, 5.00PM:
Cape Town housing chief Billy Cobbett has decided to stay on in his post in spite of death threats from Cape Flats gangsters.
Cobbett returned Cape Town on Friday after spending two weeks in London with his wife and four children, visiting his ill mother-in-law. He fled there a fortnight ago after threats to his life were made following his attempts to crack down on Cape Town’s notoriously corrupt council housing department. The Mail & Guardian last week reported that Cobbett had decided to emigrate to the United Kingdom as a result ofm the death threats.
After meeting city manager Andrew Boraine and the deputy chairman of the council’s executive committee, Saleem Mowzer, on Friday, Cobbett said: “I have come back to continue with my work as housing director for the city, and, together with a team of councillors and officials, complete the process we started.”
Cobbett said his wife and children will remain in Britain, adding he is not too sure how long it will take to get the council’s housing process back on track.
“I will remain here as long as it takes, and, depending on the length of time, will make trips to visit my family.”
Cobbett said the problems being experienced by the present council are the result of decades of mismanagement and the new housing policy is a serious attempt at establishing fairness. “We will continue to evict all illegal tenants,” he said. The death threats followed attempts to evict illegal occupants of council houses.