AEC Press Release
On behalf of the N2 Gateway Phase 1 Flats (also known as Joe Slovo Phase 1)
Event: Residents of the N2 Gateway flats will march on Helen Zille to demand radical changes in the project’s management and normalization of rents
When: 11h00 on 30 June 2009
Where: from Keizersgracht to the provincial office of Helen Zille
Contact: Luthando 079 896 6126 at and Jimmy at 073 158 4835
NO TO EXORBITANT RENTS AT N2 GATEWAY! NORMALISE OUR RENTS!
NO TO MANAGEMENT FROM JOHANNESBURG! VOETSAK THUBELISHA!
WE WANT LOCAL MANAGEMENT UNDER OUR CONTROL!
Since we moved into the N2 Gateway flats we have been very unhappy. The flats were very poorly constructed and the rents were much higher than we had been told when we applied for the flats. We pay up to R1050 in rent for defective flats. That is what people paying for bond houses pay, but we are not buying our houses, but only renting them for life! Because of this, we have been on rent boycott for two years. We have raised these issues time and again with Lindiwe Sisulu, Richard Dyantyi, and the Thubelisha management but our complaints have fallen on deaf ears.
In Langa people in the newly-built “show flats” pay maximum rents of R290 and in the old ‘new flats” rents of R40. It is unfair that we should be paying exorbitant rents of up to R1050. We are paying for the well-publicised corruption and overspending that went into the building of the N2 Gateway flats.
We are crying because we are being abused. We demand that our rents be normalised!
We are sick and tired of being managed from Johannesburg. People in Johannesburg do not care about our problems and ignore us when we try to contact them. We are being remote-controlled. We do not need or want Thubelisha, nor its replacement, the National Housing Agency. They must voetsak!
We are well capable of managing our own flats as a community. We demand a management system under our control!
We have no faith in any political parties. We are addressing this memorandum to you, Helen Zille, not because you are in the DA. but because you are in power in the province and the province still bears responsibility for the N2 Gateway project.
We ask you, Helen Zille, and your housing MEC to, jointly with the Anti-Eviction Campaign (who have consistently supported our struggle) convene a meeting of all relevant stakeholders to negotiate and conclude a decent and fair way forward. We demand your personal involvement – it is crucial to this meeting.
The N2 Gateway project was supposed to be a flagship pilot project for the whole country. For us, its first residents, it has been a disaster. We want to change that! We will change that!
PHANTSI THUBELISHA!
PHAMBILI THE STRUGGLE OF N2 GATEWAY RESIDENTS!
AMANDLA NGAWETHU!
Form more information contact Luthando 079 896 6126 at and Jimmy at 073 158 4835
This march is being carried out with the support of the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape and Joe Slovo Informal Settlement. We recognise that communities all over Cape Town are affected by the failure of the N2 Gateway project. This includes the communities of Joe Slovo, Symphony Way and Blikkiesdorp who are all going through struggles relating to the failure of top-down planning and N2 Gateway corruption. To learn more about how the N2 Gateway affects other communities contact Mncedisi at 0785808646, Mzonke at 0732562036, Mzwanele 0763852369.