When Candacy Williams mother died two years ago she inherited the struggles of raising the family of four other siblings, the eldest of which has developmental challenges; the youngest is still in school. With a shelter over their heads in Caneview, Mocha Arcadia, Williams stepped in and has kept the family going and together.
That was all shattered recently when the plot of land on which their home was built was deemed to be in the path of a new stretch of road connecting the East Bank to Mandela Avenue. It has been widely disputed that William’s and other homes were in the way, but this did not stop the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) government from demolishing them two weeks ago. She alleges that an officer of the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) approached her inappropriately.
“They’re saying they’re engaging with we, they’re calling. Them ain’t calling, them ain’t saying anything. Aaron call my phone on the 28th of December. He stated I’m not finding time to come into them to query about the place. I said, I’m on night shift and I won’t be able to make it. He asked if he could come and pick me up at work at nine-thirty the night. I said that’s not possible. I’m not leaving work at nine-thirty to come at no office, me alone. And he never call back, he never say anything,” Williams told our publication.
For Candacy William the day her home was obliterated she had “like a nervous breakdown.” Given the fact that January 12th was the two-year mark of her mother’s passing, made the entire ordeal that much heavier to shoulder and bear. “My mother suffered with us, five of us. Sometimes we didn’t even go to school. We go to school today, we stay home tomorrow. When they come and break down the house, me brother go and stand up in the house and say he gon dead inside of the house. He born and grown down there. And it was heartbreaking to know that we struggle so far, lived there for how much years , thirty-one years and still have to go through this,” Williams said in tears.
Williams stated, “Them an even come and say, well, give you no time, like to move anything from out to the place. Them just break down all de bridge. You can’t even say you’re carrying over nothing over nowhere. You teking out, they still breaking down. It was really heart-rending. They didn’t come and say anything. They just come and breakdown everybody thing. They an give you no time to move. We lose a lot of things. We didn’t get to get out we fridge, we bed. Me little sister school clothes, all she computer laptop, everything. My phone, my chain, my jewelry, everything just gone.”
Williams refutes assertions by CH&PA that she and other displaced residents were in possession of “turn-key” houses in the aftermath of the crude demolition. Member of Parliament for the Parliamentary Opposition Nima Flue-Bess with responsibility for Mocha Arcadia has said on the issue, “Guyanese have recognized that many families have been living on these ancestral lands for several decades. The lands not only provided their homes but also their livelihoods. These are real people whose lives were upended by a vicious and vindictive government, whose president only wanted to show that he is a strongman. Such childishness is dangerous and must be condemned by all decent-minded citizens and organizations. The people of Guyana will not forget Mocha.”
