15 January 2009
City Vision: Family left homeless
15/01/2009 11:14 AM – (SA)
Family left homeless
LINDA KABENI
A WORRIED family in Guguletu has received an eviction order after a family member allegedly sold their house.
Bongani Goniwe said the eviction order that took them by surprise was received on the 25 of November last year. Goniwe said they did not know what to do as they were still pondering the next step.
“In our understanding even though the house is in her name according to the “will” she still can’t sell the house because we regard council houses especially in the townships as family houses,” he said. On 30 of November the sheriff of the court came to evict them, but with the help of the Anti-Eviction Campaign and Abahlali, their possessions were recollected back to the house. Another rebellious move took its toll, when a group of people who claimed to be sent by the bank to fix the damaged electricity were then chased away.
A visibly distraught 82-year-old Nomalungelo Goniwe said, “This child selling this house has no heart.There is no one who is working in this house. Where does she expect us to go?” she asked.
Goniwe added that their late grandmother who passed away a long time ago, had made a clear instruction that the house was for all the family members and it was not to be sold. “We are now shocked by this decision of our relative to sell this house,” he said looking very disturbed. Spokeperson for the Anti-Eviction Campaign Mncedisi Twalo said, “We are backing up this family. This is sad to see such old people who have spent almost their entire lives in this house are now losing it because of some greedy person.
“We want to put it on record that they are not going anywhere. We are going to fight for this family until they get back their house. We have already put them in and we will make sure that no-one chases them away.” he said. He added: “We need more houses. Not more destitute people. Where does this person expect these people to live?” Twalo asked.
“Anti-Eviction’s record speaks for itself.
“Last year alone we helped about 146 people from eviction out of 150.We appeal to people that if they are experiencing problems of this nature to come forward as we will take on their cause.”