Cape Town - Domestic workers in Sea Point have spoken out about the conditions in which they live as they make a case for the Tafelberg Remedial School site to be developed into low-cost housing.
The domestic workers say that while some of them have lived close to Cape Town’s CBD for decades, the conditions they live in are not conducive to calling the place they live home.
Reclaim the City’s campaign to stop the sale of the Tafelberg School, a provincially owned property, is borne out of the need for affordable housing in the city.
Tafelberg comprises nearly an entire city block. Studies have proven its suitability for affordable housing development.
The site’s sale to a private buyer flouts the Western Cape provincial government’s legal obligation to use prime public land as a tool to reverse apartheid, through housing delivery.
On May 5, Western Cape Premier Helen Zille agreed to reopen the proposed sale to public comment.
Capetonians now have until Thursday to make submissions on the proposed sale.
The strongest challenge to the sale has come from domestic workers – who have struggled for acceptance and decent living conditions in Sea Point for many years.
Today, under the threat of victimisation from their employers and landlords, some of them share those struggles.
We don’t want luxury lives, we just want houses we can live in - Brenda Nobanda
I have lived in Sea Point for 17 years. I like it here because it feels secure - much safer than the locations - and there are nice flats and safe playgrounds for our children to play in. Also, the shops, library, and hospital are near, so transport is easy.
It would be terrible to have to leave; but the cost of living is going up all the time. I have noticed that food in Sea Point is more expensive than it is in the locations. It seems like every month the prices are going up and up. Same with rent.
Rich people buy old flats and make them nice so that they can charge more for them. Then we can’t afford to stay - the money we earn doesn’t go up as fast.
I feel like this is pushing poor people out, back to the locations, or into tiny rooms where they have to stay on their own, sometimes without electricity and clean toilets. It is sad to see my friends having to move out of Sea Point when they can’t keep up with the rent.
Moving back to the locations but continuing to work in Sea Point means their transport costs become very high. Also, it is not safe to travel through the locations in the early morning or at night when it is dark.
This is why I support the struggle to stop the sale of Tafelberg. We want that land to be used for affordable flats that anyone can live in, no matter where they come from.
At least they can build homes at the Tafelberg site for those who live and work in Sea Point but can’t keep up with rising rents.
We don’t want luxury lives, we just want houses that we can live in, peacefully, with our families.
We want a friendly city, with safe places to gather. It is getting more and more difficult to meet with my friends who still live in Sea Point. Those living with their employers are often not allowed visitors, restaurants are too expensive, and it is too cold to be outside in winter.
It would be great if Sea Point had spaces for us to enjoy ourselves in, like we do in the locations.
I imagine a hall for the public would be a good place for Sea Point residents of all backgrounds to have meetings, birthday parties, and stokvels.
It would be great if Sea Point could become a safe and welcoming place for everyone - a place that proves we are the rainbow nation. Sea Point should be for all of us because we are all equal. It should not just be for rich people.
Society divides and has failed to realise my vision - M, domestic worker, Sea Point
My vision for Sea Point is a place where I can kick off my shoes - a place I can call home. Where I have my own key for my own door. To be by the mountains and sea and say, this is my place.
My vision is for Sea Point to be a place where I can move freely between people and my family can be close to me. I came here to work towards something, I have been working here for 20 years. I would like a place I can settle in.
This is not just a vision for me, it’s for all the mothers and grandmothers (working and not working) in these areas. Society has failed and is failing to realise my vision. Mostly because it divides. I ask myself: Where is the rainbow in the rainbow nation? There is no rainbow in the rainbow.
You know, we are the workers, we make this place lovely and liveable. I live and work in Sea Point but not freely. When I am off work, I must go somewhere else like my brother’s house in Bellville. I look after an elderly woman and when she is in hospital, I must go elsewhere.
Lack of affordable housing means that I am like a bird in a tree without a place to be. My sons cannot visit me because the Sea Point residents ask questions about who they are and where they come from. They do not feel welcome.
Our society continues to divide. I work 24/7. It is hard for me to find time to visit my children in De Doorns, not to mention the cost of R320 to travel there and back.
An alternative would be like Tafelberg developed into flats with different-sized units for different-sized families. Such as the one I have seen proposed by Reclaim the City. And these are places where family can come and stay, where they can stay with me for the weekend.
I support this campaign because I know we will get there. I know one day we will get what we want. We will have a place.
* M. did not want her name to be published, for fear of reprisals.
The city excludes poor black people - Thandeka Sisusa
I want affordable housing in Sea Point because I want Sea Point to be a place that welcomes everyone. I want Sea Point to be a rainbow nation, not just belonging to white people. We are all equal whether we are poor, middle class, or wealthy. That is why I resist the sale of Tafelberg site in Sea Point. We need the site for secure and affordable housing.
Affordable housing will help to build one nation and to make a safer society. If we all have housing then we can assist each other. This will also lower crime in our city because we will be able to give each other a helping hand.
Affordable housing will also be good for children in Sea Point. If we have social housing in Sea Point the schools will be more integrated and children will learn to do things together and not discriminate according to race.
Affordable housing will help black people live in Sea Point because at the moment people can’t afford to be here because the rents are too high and the money we earn is not enough. We have families to support. So if we can have housing that can help us to balance our problems and take care of our families when they need support or are sick.
I think that at the moment the city is failing because they exclude poor black people by sending them to places like Blikkiesdorp and Pelican Park instead of giving us housing in the city. These places are very far away from where we work. Some of us have a vision of doing things, like going further with our studies, but because we live far away we spend all our money on travelling. So it makes it hard to afford to do what is in your dreams. If you stay in faraway places you must wake up in the dark and go back home in the dark. You don’t even see your children. You don’t know if they are sick or injured. Again, in the morning you are gone. You don’t know what is going on in your family. Social housing in Sea Point, where we work, would help us.
It is also painful not to have my own house because I want my own space where I can do my own thing and nobody can control me. I want my own space where my family and my children are welcome. The families are not welcome because of the rules of the landlords and because the spaces we are staying in are too small. Sometimes there is that time when you get sick in the middle of the night and you need someone who can help you and you can’t even open the door or reach the phone to call the neighbour or the ambulance. So you need your own place where someone can stay with you. I am saying that because so many people have died in these small rooms because they were alone.
Tafelberg is in the centre of Sea Point so it is close to everything - shopping, transport, schooling, work, everything. That is why I support affordable housing on the site. At the moment I’m not welcome to stay in Sea Point. I stay because I know I also belong here and I have a right to be here. I am one of the victims of evictions who is being pushed away from the neighbourhood. The landlord said I must be out in six months.
My life is in Sea Point since childhood up to now. I mustn't be important only when I come to clean their houses. I must also be important enough to have a home in Sea Point.
Why can't we also have a house in Sea Point? - J anonymous
I love Sea Point. Who does not want to live here?
It is near the shops and the schools. Transport is not so expensive.
So why can't we also have a house in Sea Point? A house is so important.
If you don't have a house you can't raise your children properly, you can't form a proper family, you can't form a community.
This is why I think there should be affordable housing in Tafelberg land area, so that my own children can live with me.
I was born in District Six. I was raised in a very poor family of nine and we all lived together in one room.
My father was a hawker who sold fruit, life was very difficult. We were poor, but there was a family atmosphere in District Six.
When the government came and said they were going to demolish our houses, my father asked them where they were going to move us.
They told him we were going to be moved to the Cape Flats and he asked them how we could stay in a place like that, a desert. We moved to Hanover Park and my parents took my brother out of school so he could find a job.
I have now been working as a domestic worker in Sea Point for 19 years.
I live in a small room, with no bathroom, no kitchen, no table.
In Sea Point, poor and rich people must live together.
We have to interact, white people, coloured people and black people. That is what will change this country. For everybody, especially the poor people.
* J did not want her name to be published, for fear of reprisals.
I am single because I've been exploited - Elizabeth Gqoboka
My name is Elizabeth Gqoboka. I live in St James Road. I have lived in Sea Point for about 22 years.
I started here as a domestic worker and I work as a carer. I am very happy for this opportunity to speak, because we have been fighting for affordable housing in Sea Point for many years.
I’m smiling, but deep down inside me it’s actually very dark. This is just a pretend smile.
I’m a single parent: I have two beautiful daughters and I have two grandchildren.
The reason I am still single is because of the way we have been exploited in Sea Point. You could never have a bond within relationships because you’re not allowed to have visitors.
When I came to Sea Point I saw this beautiful seaside and said to myself: “Gee-whizz, gosh, this is where I want to live.” That is why you see that I am still standing here, because I have been fighting for that all my life.
We have been accommodated in the backyards where nobody can see us. I don’t only want to speak for myself, I also want to speak for those who can’t stand here to speak today.
In many blocks, people are not allowed to even have visitors where they live in the backyard. The conditions are so bad.
We are living with rats as well. Now you can imagine why, today, we have decided we want to support to stop the sale of Tafelberg. The reason is we also want to have our own lives.
We want to be able to live with our families, with our children, and we want to see our grandchildren grow up in front of us. I read in the newspaper the other day that some employers in Sea Point said if we live in Tafelberg we will downgrade the value of their properties.
I felt sad when I read that statement.
We are not good enough to have a place here, but we are good enough to look after your children, so you can get to work on time.
I think at the end of the day it is because of us, domestic workers, who take care of our employers, that they are so successful in their careers.
We cook in these backrooms, we sleep in these rooms, we do everything in these rooms, we don’t even have privacy in these small “hokkies”. But in the morning, when I go inside the house they ask: “Hi Ms Elizabeth, are you okay?” I just have to say: “Yes madam, I’m fine.”
It is very sad. I’m smiling now, but I am very broken inside. I want to say that not all employers are bad people. I want to give those good employers a big hand of applause.
You treat your domestic workers as part of the family. But at the end of the day, you also have to remember that when your employee gets old and sick, you might not need that person anymore. She will not have a place to go.
So please, assist us and say “stop the sale of Tafelberg”. So that we can get our own houses for when we retire one day.
* This text was adapted from testimony Gqoboka gave at a public hearing at Sea Point High School on June 4, 2016.
Cape Argus