March 09, 2009 Edition 1
Tania Broughton
Source: The Mercury
A Durban High Court has ordered an immediate investigation into the “corrupt allocation” of housing at a low-cost estate in northern Durban, and wants a report on it in two months. Read the rest of this entry »
It is with great disappointment and sadness that the committee and community of Newfields Village have realised that after December holidays work has stopped once again on the Newfields council houses – a project which has been mired in corruption and mismanagement since the beginning. The contractor (Jolinde Construction), the electricians, and the carpenters have all stopped work on the site even though renovations have not been completed. Despite the 6 hour meeting with Cape Town Community Housing Company (CTCHC) last year (with the purposes of sorting out communication and transparency), the Community Liaison Officer (CLO) still has no idea why renovations have been halted and whether or not contracters have already drained all the funds.
The main contractor has also devidated from the original specifications as per the painting of the houses. We have 112 units where the paint is already peeling since no primer were applied.
We, the residents of Newfields Village want to have full accountability and transparancy. We are requesting qualified and honest individuals to work on this project. The building inspector, Mr Withers Fisher, has failed dismally in his duties and we would like his formal qualifications because we don’t understand why CTCHC would hire someone so underqualified. The Forman, Mr Deon Hill is acting as the Paint Forman even though he only has qualifications in safety and security. We would like a qualified paint forman to work on this project.
The Newfields Community is sick and tired of corruption and mismanagement. If the government gave us the money, we would have the renovations done by now at a fraction of the cost. The government and CTCHC needs to be accountable to the people and we will hold them to account.For more information, contact Gary Hartzenberg (CLO) at 072-392-5859
To enquire directly with CTCHC and with the contractors, contact:
Favid Birch (Jolinde Construction) – 082-492-5535
Alex Honhaar (Jolinde Construction) – 079-528-8144
Bradley Plaaties (BSP Engineering) – 076-640-8529
Peter Claasen (BSP Engineering) – 084-703-1863
Marenwaan Davids (MSA Construction) – 082-491-7638
Jeff VD Westauren (Keev Construction) – 084-209-0582
Sithembiso Stofile (CTCHC) – 082-786-3505
Bheki Ngonyane (CTCHC) – 083-409-3996
Z.B. (Aid to the MEC for Housing) – 076-550-0992
Today, the 28th of November 2008, the residents and of Newfields Village and Railway council homes are heading to the head offices of Cape Town Community Housing Company as we speak. We are going to occupy the offices until the CTCHC explains the following to our satisfaction (which they have refused to explain to us previously):
For further information, please contact:
Adeeb at 0736007819
Peter at 0781104507
Gary at 0723925859
Wesbank Anti-Eviction Campaign Press Statement
November 11, 2008
Event: Wesbank AEC public meeting
Venue: Wesbank Primary School number 1
Time: 19h00
Recurring eviction problems have been going on in our community since 2001. In 2001, our community elected a housing committee to help us solve all housing related issues in our area.
Still, people were evicted by the Kuilsriver court and with the help of lawyers paid for by corrupt landowners. The community turned to committee members such as Mrs. Brady, Mrs, Sameuls, and Grace Blaauw for help who then went on to pressure government. We went to ex-Mayor Mfeketo as well as current Mayor Helen Zille. We went to ex-minister of housing Mr. Transman and ex-minister of housing Mr. Richard Dyantyi, We even approached the ex-premier, Mr. Rasool.
All of the above people were just full of empty promises.
In Wesbank there is a lot of coruption going on all the time – but no one except the poor in our community take notice. Most of the homeowners here have ever even lived in their houses but instead rent them out at hight rates in order to make money off of the poor. Backyard dwellers are also in a very vulnerable position in our community – their voices also need to be heard.
As we have mentioned, we sought help from many government officials and NGOs, but the only ones that supported our struggle were the communities of the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign. They were the only people that listened to us and struggled with us.
We, the Wesbank Anti-Eviction Campaign will hold a mass meeting in our community this evening, 11th of November, 2008. Everybody is invited! Everybody is welcome!
For more information, contact 078 4031 302
Hanover Park – In 1994, then president Nelson Mandela promised to build one-million homes. In 2000 the Cape Town Community Housing Company (CTCHC), a private company, was entrusted to help make this promise of Mandela a reality by becoming a housing delivery vehicle for the government. In the process, they build 2,193 houses on a ‘rent to buy’ basis in 9 communities across the Western Cape.
In order to make the houses affordable to the poor, families were requested to save between R150 – R350 per month over a period of six months before moving into their new homes. They claimed that this amount would be equal to their monthly rental.
In the year 2000, when people first moved in to their new houses, the rental quadrupled to an averaged of R800 per month. Because the houses were poorly built with latent as well as patent defects (the walls had already begun cracking), thousands of residents collectively decided to go on a rent boycott to show their dissatisfaction. Immediately, the most vulnerable households (single parent households, pensioners, and disabled poor residents) were subjected to evictions from these houses. Yet, after the mobilisation of the community, residents were able to protect one another from eviction.
Then, in 2007, the NHDRC (together with the Department of Local Government and Housing, the City of Cape Town, and the CTCHC), as a result of the pressure from residents, finally embarked on a remedial programme in order to fix the houses. They promised that afterwards they would engage with the poor residents to find a fair payment solution for that would be affordable for each household.
However, during the course of the remedial programme, we have established that the NHBRC Forensic Audit and Assessment is flawed and full of shortcuts. Because the NHDRC cut corners in order to reduce costs of repairs, the houses are now, after the recent floods, in far worse condition than before. The Anti-Eviction Campaign also recently established that the CTCHC are illegally selling their state-subsidised houses to property agents at an enormous profit. The same house that was supposed to be sold for 44,000 Rand a few years ago are now being sold privately for between 350,000-400,000 Rand against the guidelines of the national housing code. As the CTCHC knows, proper procedure is to sell each house back to the government to be redistributed to poor residents.
And on top of all this, residents in the nine housing sites which CTCHC manages, are once again faced with the threat of evictions from homes that are still falling apart. But Anti-Eviction Campaign residents throughout these areas will continue to struggle until their dream of having a stable and secure home becomes a reality.
For comment, please contact:
Gary – 072-392-5859 (Newfields Village) Pathrick – 082-226-6467 (Luyoloville) Robert – 073-359-3229 (Eastridge)
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