Two families faced the grim reality of being homeless after being evicted from the Kliptown Square flats for non-payment of rent.
A team of Red Ants security guards swooped on the block of flats on Thursday and assisted the forlorn families as they removed their beds, fridges, blankets, TV stands and other household belongings, placing them on the pavement outside.
The families are two of 51 that will be evicted during the course of this month by the Johannesburg Social Housing Company (Joshco), which administers the 478 units on behalf of the City of Joburg.
According to Joshco CEO Rory Gallocher, the total amount owed by residents living in the flats is R11.4 million. “Of that amount, R9 million is rent which is more than 120 days overdue. As far as Joshco is concerned, if the bulk of the debt is beyond 120 days, those defaulters are clearly not going to pay their debt,” he said.
The lowest rental price at the flats is R1 088 for a bachelor flat and the highest is R3 000.61 for a two-bedroom loft. The flats are available to tenants who don’t qualify for government assistance.
Sibusiso Buthelezi and his family of five were renting a one-bedroom flat at a cost of R3 500, excluding water and electricity.
Buthelezi was living in one of the live-work units, where he could operate his tuckshop. When he moved in in 2006, he says, he signed a lease agreement with Joshco with an understanding that in four years the flat’s ownership would be transferred to him.
But with a bill of R96 000 hanging as a dark cloud over his head, his dreams of owning the flat were dashed.
“When I approached Joshco about the original lease agreement, they said they had made a mistake and we were all to sign new leases.
“We were notified last year to either pay half our individual debts or one month’s rent, but I didn’t have that kind of money on the spot,” Buthelezi said as he packed his couches onto a trailer.
When asked where he and his family would now live, he sighed heavily, saying “Eish! That’s the sad part.”
Gallocher said that the matter had been taken to the Johannesburg High Court in 2009, where the residents’ application to stop the evictions had been dismissed.
Yet tenants still came out with their original lease agreements on Thursday, professing that they were duped into thinking they’d be owners of their own properties.
“I have two daughters aged 11 and five andI came here becauseI thought it was a safe place to raise my children. I came here with the hope that after four years the place would be mine, and now I’m living in fear because my children see what is going on and keep asking ‘Where will we live?’, said a resident who didn’t want to be named.
Nozipho Mabasa, a tenant at the flats and mother-of-two, said the most frightening thing was the thought of not having a place for her children to call home.
“It is humiliating how people are being thrown out,” she said.