Category Archives: Hillary

Update from the Valley View Struggle (1 December 2011)

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Update from the Valley View Struggle

1 December 2011–Today, the flats of the 77 families evicted from the Valley
View Flats in Hillary by the Social Housing Company (SOHCO) were being given to
new tenants. However, the evicted tenants picketed against the introduction of
new tenants in their flats. The evicted residents protested by holding a
picket line in front of their flats. They appealed to a sense of solidarity
from the new tenants and they made it very clear that crossing a picket line
and moving into the home of an evicted person is no different to crossing a
picket line and scabbing at a strike.

We call upon all people seeking to find housing in Valley View to boycott SOHCO
while the previous tenants fight their way back to their homes. These new
tenants will certainly become victims of SOHCO and no one should trust them
with their families’ homes. New tenants should be warned that when SOHCO wants
you to come in, they treat you like a king, but after a few months of taking
your money, they begin to increase your rent without cause or explanation. We
advise all new tenants to go to SOHCO to claim their rental deposits back
rather than cross the picket line and betray the people who have already been
evicted.

Although this was meant to be a protest of peaceful resistance, police officers
from the Bellaire Police Station intimidated one of the independent newspaper
photographers and an overseas researcher there to document our struggle. The
officer threatened to confiscate and destroy both the journalist’s and the
researcher’s cameras.

The evicted residents are demanding that they be allowed to return to their
flats and they are warning that they will not give up this struggle until they
have been able to return to their homes. The evicted residents also wish to
note that SOHCO has failed to govern these flats properly and that, therefore,
the residents must be allowed to take over the governance of the flats on their
own by forming a cooperative. The private part of this so called
‘public-private partnership’ must be expelled from the project and it must
become a partnership between the state and the residents’ cooperative.

The evicted residents also wish to note that SOHCO is charging different rents
to everyone even when the size of houses and facilities are the same. The
tenants are prepared for everyone to pay the same rent, the rent that was
agreed to first, which is R850 per month (excluding lights and water) but that
they cannot afford to pay the new rent. When SOHCO was advertising these
homes, we were promised that we could rent to own. But after signing the lease
agreement, it became clear that we would be renters for life.

The evicted residents also wish to note that each citizen in South Africa that
is eligible for access to state housing gets a housing subsidy. That subsidy
usually goes towards an RDP house. In this case it went towards the
‘public-private partnership’ that built the Valley View flats and collects the
rent for the flats. But now that the 77 residents have been evicted they are
told that they are not eligible for RDP houses because they have already been
granted their subsidy. While SOHCOC is making a profit and calling itself a
‘non-profit organization’ we have been evicted and our right to housing has
been taken from us. The capitalists that have invested in SOHCO have taken our
subsidies and we are left homeless and with no other options. Valley View is
clearly no longer a public-private initiative it now only follows market rules
where commercial profit making is more important than our families.

If there have to be further negotiations the evicted residents must be allowed
to collect their post from the flats and they must be removed from the credit
bureau black list.

The evicted residents are also requesting that the public protector investigate
SOHCO. Thuli Madonsela has won the confidence of the people and she can be
trusted to investigate SOHCO fairly.

Comrades visiting Durban for the COP 17 conference are welcome to join the
picket line at the Valley View flats in Hillary. There will be further protests
tonight and if the police are bought in to break up the picket line the evicted
residents will return their protests to the SOHCO offices.

Contact Details: Bonginkosi: 083 735 0171, Nomfundo: 082 541 0855, Ntombi: 073
580 2306

Evicted Valley View Residents (Hillary) to Protest Realllocation of their Flats Tomorrow

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30 November 2011

Evicted Valley View Residents (Hillary) to Protest Realllocation of their Flats Tomorrow

Tomorrow the flats of the 77 people evicted from the Valley View flats in Hillary by SOHOC will be given to new tenants. The evicted residents will protest by holding a picket line in front of their flats. They will appeal to a sense of solidarity from the new tenants and they wish to make it very clear that crossing a picket line and moving into the home of an evicted person is no different to crossing a picket line and scabbing at a strike.

The evicted residents are demanding that they be allowed to return to their flats and they are warning that they will not give up this struggle until they have been able to return to their homes.

The evicted residents also wish to note that SOHOC has failed to govern these flats properly and that, therefore, the residents must be allowed to take over the governance of the flats on their own by forming a cooperative. The private part of this so called ‘public-private partnership’ must be expelled from the project and it must become a partnership between the state and the resident’s cooperative.

The evicted residents also wish to note that they are prepared for everyone to pay the same rent, the rent that was agreed to first, which is R850 per month (excluding lights and water) but that they cannot afford to pay the new rent.

The evicted residents also wish to note that each citizen in South Africa that is eligible for access to state housing gets a housing subsidy. That subsidy usually goes towards an RDP house. In their case it went towards the ‘public-private partnership’ that built the Valley View flats and collects the rent for the flats. But now that the 77 residents have been evicted they are told that they are not eligible for RDP houses because they have already accessed their subsidy. While SOHOC is making a profit and calling itself a ‘non-profit organisation’ they have been evicted and their right to housing has been taken from them. The capitalists that have invested in SOHCO have taken their subsidies but they are left homeless and with no other options.

If there have to be further negotiations the evicted residents must be allowed to collect their post from the flats and they must be removed from the credit bureau black list.

The evicted residents are also requesting that the public protector investigate SOHCO. Thuli Madonsela has won the confidence of the people and she can be trusted to investigate SOHCO fairly.

Comrades visiting Durban for the COP 17 conference are welcome to join the picket line at the Valley View flats in Hillary. If the police are bought in to break up the picket line the evicted residents will return their protests to the SOHCO offices.

Contact Details:

S’fiso: 079 818 1987
Nomfundo: 082 541 0855

Daily News: Tenants protest against eviction

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http://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/news/tenants-protest-against-eviction-1.1189139

Tenants protest against eviction

Desperate evicted tenants of Valley View housing complex in Hillary appealed to their landlord’s conscience on Tuesday.

This was during their demonstration outside the landlord’s offices on the Jan Smuts Highway under heavy police presence and private security.

The tenants were evicted from the partly goverment-funded housing early this month for unpaid rent, following protracted court battle with landlord Sohco, a non-profit company. The tenants claim they were wrongly evicted as the rental agreed on was not the same as the one that appeared on their leases.

“Most tenants who were evicted are single parents and most are women. When they evicted us, some of our children had already started writing exams. When they arrived at the flat and saw all those cops with guns, some of them just cried,” said one of the tenants, Nomfundo Mdluli.

She said the leases they had signed were blank, with no amount written in the space where the rental should have been. “After a month living in the flats, we had to demand our leases back and when we got these back, the rent price had been filled in ink. This was not the R850 that was agreed upon initially,” she said.

Mdluli said that after three months, the rent was increased and the tenants then decided to stop paying the rent to Sohco and deposit the R850 into a trust account until Sohco was able to explain the increase to them.

“When we questioned the blank leases we were signing, we were told that if we don’t want houses, we should step aside and let those who wanted them sign the leases,” she said.

“I was one of the people who knew nothing about the eviction… I got a phone call from my neighbours telling me that my stuff was being moved out of my place and that they were all sent SMSes about the eviction,” said Mdluli.

However, Sohco chief executive Heather Maxwell denied the allegations about the blank leases, saying that they were not even sure that the tenants who were demonstrating were those who had been evicted.

“Prior to anyone taking occupation, formal written leases stating the value of rentals due were signed,” she said.

Maxwell said a deposit and the first month’s rental had been paid in advance by everyone before occupation. Most tenants had paid rent for at least six months before being influenced to stop doing so.

“Formal written notice was delivered by the sheriff of the court to the evicted tenants,” she said.

Maxwell said Sohco had not been aware of the trust that the tenants were referring to until the company took the matter to court. She said the eviction was tested at the high court with appeal attempts at the Supreme Court, and the evictions were upheld.

Daily News: Evicted tenants try to reoccupy flats

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The evicted Hillary Flats vigorously deny claims of intimidation and point out that being evicted at gun point, and kept out of your home at gun point, is clearly intimidatory.They argue that in fact social housing has been hijacked by private interests seeking private profit.

http://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/news/evicted-tenants-try-to-reoccupy-flats-1.1188398

Evicted tenants try to reoccupy flats

Evicted tenants of Valley View in Hillary tried to reoccupy the block of flats at the weekend, but were stopped and escorted off the property by police and private security.

About 40 tenants were evicted after they allegedly failed to pay rent. This was after Sohco – a company partly funded by government subsidies that provides affordable rental flats – obtained a court order.

In protest against their eviction, the tenants have threatened to occupy Sohco offices in Jan Smuts Highway, Mayville, at 1pm on Tuesday.

According to one of the tenants, Ntombi Mpantsha, their attempt to move back was fuelled by sheer desperation and the hope that KwaZulu-Natal premier, Zweli Mkhize, would have intervened after a memorandum of their demands was handed to an official of his office last week.

Mpantsha said they had joined the march staged by Abahlali BaseMjondolo’s youth league and they had been under the impression that Mkhize had already had discussions with Sohco about the memorandum.

“It’s difficult, we are all squatting wherever people are willing to house us. As I speak to you, I have no idea where to go tonight,” she said.

KZN police spokesman, Captain Thulani Zwane, said the tenants left the property peacefully after it was explained to them that the court order prohibited them from returning to the property.

Sohco’s CEO, Heather Maxwell, said when tenants moved into the flats an agreement and lease was signed, stating the monthly rent.

She said a large number of tenants had continued to pay rent in terms of their agreement with Sohco, despite intimidation from non-paying tenants.

Ransom

“We trust that these evictions, as regrettable as they were, has sent out a clear message that Sohco will not be held to ransom by the actions of a minority intent on hijacking our development. Our mission of providing good quality, affordable housing is simply too important for us to allow that,” Maxwell said.

The premier’s spokesman, Ndabezinhle Sibiya, said the premier was currently consulting with all “internal stakeholders” to sort the matter out.

“He is currently speeding up process in human settlements so that this matter is resolved,” he said.