POLOKO TAU
THE DA has vowed to challenge Gauteng to deliver on its promise to move hostel dwellers in Meadowlands out of “inhumane living conditions” where services are almost non-existent.
The party’s Gauteng South regional chairman, Khume Ramulifho, said the provincial government was inefficient after failing to improve the lives of hostel dwellers. He had just completed a walkabout in Meadowlands hostel, where blocks of flats earmarked for rent and for RDP beneficiaries had been unoccupied for almost two years.
Ramulifho showed The Star a written reply dated September 2010 by then housing MEC Kgaogelo Lekgoro to the DA’s question in the legislature. In it, Lekgoro said the allocation of units was to start from the end of January 2011, once all services and electricity had been installed.
The department was “completing the internal reticulation such as water, electricity and internal roads” before allocations could start.
Yesterday, workers were seen on site at the flats.
In 2007, Gauteng allocated R85 million for the development of Meadowlands, Diepkloof, Dube and Orlando West in Soweto.
“Despite all the promises, our people continue to live in inhumane conditions which are worse than a pigsty. We can’t have people neglected – especially after all the promises of a better life,” said a livid Ramulifho.
He added that if the government did not deliver on its promises, the DA would engage independent institutions like the SA Human Rights Organisation.
The Star carried a story on September 17, 2010 describing living conditions at the Meadowlands hostel, where up to 10 people were crammed into a two-room unit and about 300 shared a toilet that wasn’t working properly.
Rivulets of sewage and water from burst pipes flowed with garbage around rows of buildings. The stink from uncollected rubbish and grubby rivulets hung permanently in the air.
A year-and-a-half later, this depressing picture hasn’t changed.
Sixty-five-year-old Nora Ntlatleng and her family moved into a small hostel unit in 1977. “I have lived here since then and watched this place decay. Hopes to have it restored or for us to be moved into RDP houses have since vanished after failed promises since we first voted in 1994,” she said.
“It has got worse, in that some people now have locked toilets and don’t want to share with others. This means most use buckets to relieve themselves, and they throw that into the streets.”
Amelia Seheshe, 66, said people were constantly sick because of the unhygienic living conditions.
The council said the hostel redevelopment programme was run by the province.
The Department of Local Government and Housing did not respond to queries.