Dweiqa residents say that corruption and favouritism are depriving them of moving into newly built accommodation, reports Sophia Ibrahim Just 10 minutes from the densely populated shantytown of Dweiqa, where a landslide of massive boulders flattened 40 houses, lies the new compound, dubbed Suzanne Mubarak Housing, where only five per cent of the housing units are occupied. Many residents dream of crossing the railway tracks that separate the impoverished area from the new housing project but few have made the transition. Construction at the new compound began in 1999. Walk in its streets, though, and few windows are open. The roads are empty, as is the kiosk distributing subsidised bread. "Go there and see with your own eyes how it is only ghosts and genies that live there," one angry resident in Dweiqa said. "Only those who can afford LE30,000 to bribe the people in charge can get an apartment in the Suzanne Mubarak compound," says Mohamed Abdel-Wahed. "If I had the money, do you think I would live in this dirt?" A demolition order has been placed on Abdel-Wahed's house but, he says, he has yet to be offered an alternative accommodation. Ramadan Al-Gamal, an official at the Menshiyat Nasser municipality, says the United Arab Emirates' former leader Sheikh Zayed donated millions of dollars to build new houses for Dweiqa residents. Last year Mrs Suzanne Mubarak distributed contracts for more than 4,000 new apartments to residents of Dweiqa, while the compound has a capacity of 80,000. The Cairo governor has suggested in remarks to the press that Dweiqa residents have refused to leave their homes for the new accommodation; suggestions that Rasmiyah Abdu, who has been living in the slum for 10 years, denies. "You offer me pure running water and I insist on buying unclean water for two pounds everyday? Does that make any sense? You offer me a safe house and I insist on living like a dog in this cave? Does that make sense?" Abdu told Al-Ahram Weekly from the one bedroom house that she shares with five others on the edge of the cliff overlooking the crushed houses. Teams from the City Council and Housing Ministry have visited several times, she says, listing their names among those who need immediate evacuation. "Then they leave and never come back." Lawahez Mohamed Hussein lives a few steps from Abdu, with her three sons and husband in a house almost dangling from the cliff. "If I leave here the City Council will take me to the shelter area which is not much better than this house and I will stay there for the rest of my life without ever seeing the inside of the Suzanne Mubarak compound, so why bother?" Amin El-Shafei is one of the lucky few who has made the journey across the railway line. "I am an employee in the Ministry of Finance and I am telling you that there is a great deal of corruption when it comes to the allocation of new houses," he says. He did not elaborate on how he acquired his own apartment.
