Category Archives: Doreen Premdev

Sunday Tribune: ‘Let them go to hell’

Leave a reply

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20090726065348756C454201

‘Let them go to hell’

July 26 2009 at 10:19AM

By Doreen Premdev

“If they don’t want the houses, then let them go to hell.”

This is what eThekwini Municipality’s head of housing said at an exco meeting this week.

Councillor Nigel Gumede was referring to the families living in the Tara Road Rainbow Barracks, in Merewent.

The 110 families have been given the option to move into the new Landsdowne Road Housing Project in Merewent, but most have refused, saying the housing development is shoddy and being built on swampy ground.

Gumede told the Tribune that he was angry and “pissed off” with the attitude of the Rainbow Barracks residents.
Continues Below ?

Earlier in the week he told DA councillor Colin Gaillard, at an exco meeting, that the municipality was not forcing anyone to occupy the new homes, adding that Rainbow Barracks residents wanted “preferential” treatment.

“Gumede is a community worker. The way he spoke about poor people who are desperate for a decent home is shameful,” said Gaillard.

“When it was mentioned at the exco meeting that more money was needed to complete this housing project, I raised the issue that the cost of building this new housing development was too high.”

Gaillard said the building was being built on stilts, because the site was swampy.

In June, he said, the foundation collapsed twice. The most recent incident was last week.

He said he tried to explain to the council that the project was over budget, as it would now cost R48-million for 128 units.

He said the initial cost of the project was R35-million, but R13-million was now needed to sort out the water drainage problem.

When contacted by the Tribune on Friday, Gumede said he stood by his statement.

“People who pose as community leaders poison the minds of residents and are standing in the way of completing this project,” he said.

“People from the Rainbow Barracks are agitated because they have been waiting for homes for so many years. The government is now giving them homes, so why won’t they take them?

“We will not give any community preferential treatment. I will say it again, those who don’t want the houses can go to hell, I don’t care about them.

“They will never again be a priority on the housing list.”

He said the project had been expected to be completed by the end of the year, but owing to delays he was unable to say when it would be finished.

Chairman of the Crisis Care Line, Mansoor Emam, who represents the people of Rainbow Barracks, said 80 of the 110 families were refusing to move to the new development.

He said the homes the families were living in now were 52m2 to 59m2, while the new homes were 45m2.

“Some families have 15 people living in a one-bedroom unit. The cost of the development is R48-million, each tiny unit costs R375 000. People have been living at the Rainbow Barracks for 36 years. They were promised better housing by the old government. The last time there were any renovations was in 1991. Over the years it has deteriorated into a squatter settlement,” Emam said.

Ward 68 councillor Ebrahim Shaik said he had not been consulted and was not involved in the project.

“It is almost as if the municipality is looking for a new dumping ground for these people. They deserve better homes, they waited 36 years.”

Zelda Kenny and her family have been living at the Rainbow Barracks for 24 years. She said she would not move to the new project.

“I have six people living in a one-bedroom unit. How can we all be expected to move into a smaller unit? If we move our furniture into that place there will be no room for us.

“People here have waited for more than three decades for houses, and now they want to force us into houses the size of a chicken coop,” said Kenny.

Pearly Johnson moved into the barracks on August 4, 1974, and she said she had made a home for herself there.

“I am not moving to that swamp. They can keep their homes, I will stay here. I deserve a decent home and just because I am poor I will not be bullied into taking just anything,” she said.

Raymond and Ann Fynn feel the same way.

They refuse to move into a smaller home.

“Eight people live in this unit,” Ann said.

“How will I accommodate my children in that small house? No, thank you, I don’t want that house. I would rather live in this hell than move into something far worse.”

doreen.premdev@inl.co.za

A house is no castle in the sky

Leave a reply

(For the archive)
http://www.sundaytribune.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3498073

Front Page
A house is no castle in the sky

October 22, 2006 Edition 1

Doreen Premdev

Nonhlanhla Mzobe was born in a shack in Kennedy Road, Clare Estate. For 33 years she has lived with the hope that one day she will have a proper home to raise her four children.

Mzobe and thousands like her are forced to live in informal settlements because they are destitute.

Mzobe, the breadwinner in her family, supports her husband, Sandile Bhengu, and her four children.

She still lives in in Kennedy Road. However, she is adamant she will not face the same fate as her mother, Elizabeth Masika, who died nine years ago at the age of 52, after a short illness.

Masika died waiting for a house.

“People living in informal settlements have begged and pleaded with the municipality for houses, but they have not heard our pleas,” Mzobe said. “Now we demand these houses and when we go into the streets and protest, the municipality calls us ‘criminals’. Are we criminals because we want decent houses to raise our children in?”

Mzobe said over the years more and more people had started building shacks in the Kennedy Road area, which was not safe. Children especially were at risk of being victims of crime and were vulnerable to disease.

‘Safer’

“Thirty-three years ago there were only 40 shacks in Kennedy Road. People lived in an extended family system, unlike now. Life was difficult back then. But even though it was tough, we knew everyone who lived there – it was a much safer and friendlier environment.

“In 1985 the shacks were burnt down and the then municipality promised us low-cost houses. But those were just empty promises. We rebuilt the shacks and continued living there.

“Eleven years ago the government again promised us houses and we made applications for these houses.

“But they too were making empty promises and their only interest was in getting our votes,” she said.

Mzobe said people living in informal settlements were getting frustrated with the “lies” the municipality told to keep them quiet.

She said an organisation, Abahlali baseMjondolo (which includes informal settlements in central Durban, Pinetown, Tongaat and Pietermaritzburg, and represents more than 20 000 people), was started last year to address the concerns of the people living in shacks.

Mzobe said another, earlier group had been formed to fight the cause of the shack dwellers, and her mother was part of this organisation.

“My mother was not successful in getting a house. I was her only child and, as a single parent, she battled to raise me. I don’t want this fight to be carried over to the next generation. We have had enough. We don’t want to listen to any more lies.

“We know we cannot get houses overnight. We have been patient, but the municipality must come clean with us. They must tell us when they will give us houses. People are frustrated, because the conditions we live in are inhumane.

“It is very disheartening when the municipality gives us hope and fails to deliver. The municipality officials should spend a day in our lives and see whether they could cope. When people see us protesting on the streets they must think we just want free housing.

The point is the government promised us free houses and we just want what we were promised.

“We are willing and prepared to fight until we die to get these houses,” Mzobe said.

President of Abahlali baseMjondolo, S’bu Zikode, said 7 000 people lived in the shack settlements in Kennedy Road. They share six toilets and five water stand pipes.

In Forman Road (Clare Estate), 8 000 people share two toilets, he said.

‘Urgency’

“The government can spend hundreds of millions of rands on expanding the ICC (International Convention Centre), developing the Point Waterfront area, building new sport stadiums and relocating airports, but they don’t seem to see the urgency in housing the poor.

“The government wants to impress overseas countries during the 2010 World Cup. But it will shock the rest of the world to see how the poorest of poor have to live in this country,” Zikode said.

City Manager Mike Sutcliffe said that the government had delivered 16 000 houses a year to the “truly poor”, and spent R1 billion a year on these houses. Sutcliffe said no other country in the world did this.

“If Abahlali baseMjondolo is trying to compare the expenses for the World Cup, it pales in comparison to expenditure for low-cost housing. Not only is the World Cup providing jobs for hundreds of people, we are building our country at the same time.

“We are aware that 200 000 very poor families require houses, and they are on our priority list. It will take us five to 10 years to meet this backlog,” Sutcliffe said.

doreen.premdev@inl.co.za