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Tuesday 1 March 2011
FORWARD MARCH: About 3 000 locals marched through the streets of Manenberg on Thursday, calling for the City of Cape Town to scrap their rent arrears. Photo: Tammy Petersen
Tel: 021 713 9440 Fax: 021 713 9481
ONE VOICE: Sulaiman Swartz says residents have been struggling to pay their rent for years and it’s unfair that they will never own their homes.
Campaign takes to the streets Council flat tenants march through Manenberg, demanding that city scrap arrears TAMMY PETERSEN
T
HREE thousand Manenberg residents put up a united front on Thursday in the first of a series of protests focused on the scrapping of the rent arrears of thousands of tenants living in the City of Cape Town’s council flats. The peaceful march, which started at the traffic circle in Manenberg Avenue, formed part of the Eers Kos, Dan Rent campaign and saw young and old take to the streets armed with posters asking the city to lower their rent and write off their rental backlog. Among the throng was Rachel Scheffers, a 63-year-old pensioner who owes the city over R10 000 in arrears. In her neat but well-worn shoes,
she chanted along with the assembled crowd and walked in the sweltering heat with her neighbours and lifelong friends. “When you know that you have so much debt, it gets to you,” the community volunteer says. “If I had the money to pay up, I would. But when you have to decide between paying for a flat, which you have loyally doing for 30 years, and feeding your family, the decision isn’t all that difficult.” The mother of four adults lives in a two-bedroom flat with her children, 12 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. “They are looking for jobs but can’t find any. I can’t throw them out – where will they go? I don’t know what to do any more. “Where must I get enough money to look after my family, pay my grocery debts, put food on the table and
buy electricity? I have no other option but to see that my children and extended family are fed before I see to anything else.” Scheffers says she applied for rent relief and was referred to the Athlone housing office, but still hasn’t received confirmation of whether or not her application was successful. “I regularly go to the Manenberg office but they don’t do anything for me. When they want their money, they want their money. “But when you report problems at your home, they take their own sweet time to see to it. I have been waiting for three years for them to fix my door and my windows are falling out of their frames.” Mario Wanza, the chairperson of Proudly Manenberg, says memorandums were handed to city representatives, who were given seven
days to respond to the organisation’s demand for the scrapping of rent arrears, as well as giving ownership of council’s rental stock to the tenants “who have been paying rent for all these years”. “The level of employment is extremely high and up to 80% of residents are behind with their payments. If they want their arrears scrapped, they get sent from pillar to post and even if they give you a rebate, you are still expected to pay. “Mense moet a plan maak even though they don’t have money. The people don’t want to pay any more. They want the homes they have paid for for up to 30 years.” Petitions drawn up in support of the campaign have seen 11 088 people stand behind Proudly Manenberg and Wanza says the numbers “will grow in the community as more and more residents have had
enough of this abuse against the poor”. A regional manager for the city’s Existing Housing Directorate accepted the memorandum and committed to relaying the organisation’s demand for a meeting “as soon as possible”. The march formed part of a provincial campaign focusing on job creation, a solution to the housing backlog and the scrapping of rent arrears. Other organisations which have taken the campaign to their areas are the Mitchell’s Plain People’s Forum, the Hanover Park Civic Association and Lavender Hill Civic Association. “Our task isn’t just to find a solution for the people of Manenberg, but also for those from Heideveld, Bonteheuwel, Hanover Park and other areas which were given raw deals.”