Ward 111’s EFF candidate Sylvia Bakana believes because she has first-hand experience of poverty, she is the perfect person to alleviate poverty in Belmont Park, Scottsville and Wallacedene.
Ward 111 includes Belmont Park (south-east of 12th Avenue, north-east of Station Street, north-west of 1st Avenue and south-west of Plantation Street), Scottsville and Wallacedene.
Born in Kensington, Ms Bakana went through her formative years in Gugulethu before ending up working at the Kraaifontein day hospital. She lived in a backyard shack between 2007 and 2012.
“I know the pain of poverty, I know Wallacedene, and I know they suffer from that pain,” she said.
She said, among other things, people in her ward needed land – so that houses could be built, especially in Wallacedene – employment and the prevention of crime.
Speaking with emphasis on the issue, Ms Bakana said she could not ignore the EFF’s most important policy – it’s land policy. She said the City of Cape Town’s town planning is still centred around apartheid thinking.
“I’ll always raise the issue of land, no matter what. They place shacks far from town, making it difficult for us to reach the city and towns. If we get land, we can overturn that.”
