Johannesburg - An attempt to help homeless children ended with a group being evicted on Tuesday from a Roodepoort property after a long dispute and a big municipal bill.
“We are here on the street. We are still moving the things,” said Mavis Tyhala Sehemo on Tuesday night, sitting on a pavement in Florida surrounded by furniture and belongings, and holding an eviction order.
“I still don't know where we are going to go,” she said. Sehemo said she ran a children’s home called Khayalethu, which cared for 39 children from the ages of about 9 and upwards. She said it was legally registered as a non-profit organisation.
On Tuesday night there were few children to be seen. Sehemo said they were scattered around the area without a place to go to. “We are all going to sleep here.” Neighbours brought food for the group.
Sehemo said they’d been granted free use of the property by the owner in 2008, but there had been a dispute over rental and service charges. “There was a big fight for a long time.”
But property owner Aubrey Leeuw said it was no longer a children’s home but was instead being run as a hostel for adults, including illegal immigrants, who were being charged rent.
“Guys were paying R1 500,” said Leeuw. “It has become a den of ugliness.”
He said Sehemo had been living there for years, ostensibly running a children’s home, but that most of the children had left; those who stayed didn’t appear to be going to school; and the hostel took over.
Sehemo failed to pay the electricity and water bills, w
hich grew to R300 000, he added.
Leeuw said the eviction was done legally, through a court, and that he still hoped to use the Rose Street house for a social project.
He said he and his brother had bought the house a few years ago to use it to help homeless children.
The City of Joburg didn’t respond on Wednesday to a request for comment, including queries on aiding the children.
The Star