Cape Town - More than 100 families face eviction at the Steen Villa social housing complex in Steenberg over their failure to pay rent.
The Social Housing Company (Sohco) which developed, and owns the complex, got a high court order to evict the defaulting tenants in the rent-to-own scheme which has been plagued with issues of rental arrears.
Chief executive of Sohco Heather Maxwell said after the High Court granted the group an eviction order in December 2020, it began by removing 11 families from the property on Tuesday.
“The initial court application for these evictions was made in mid-2019, and the households affected by the evictions on Tuesday morning were already in significant arrears at that point,” she said.
However, residents who are on the group’s list for evictions, said yesterday it was the only warning they had that they would soon be homeless.
Resident Phumza Sidingama said that from the group facing eviction, several were still fighting with the City after it allegedly went back on its word to relocate them to a temporary site.
“The City agreed in the High Court to provide us with temporary shelter when we approached them for support, and now they are refusing to do what they said, and are offering us a back-handed deal, saying their plans have changed.
“That’s not how real life works, and we are going to hold them accountable for their actions. We are heading back to the same court they lied to and they will explain to the court their reasons for dishonesty,” Sidingama said.
Meanwhile, the City said it would maintain its position, having offered assistance to the residents.
Spokesperson for the City Aidan Karl van den Heever said it was up to the residents to accept the City’s offer or not, and to inform the City of their decision. He said the City was complying with the court order.
The Western Cape Department of Human Settlements said that while it was aware that the evictions were scheduled to be enforced this week, the initial court application had already been applied for at mid-year in 2019.
Department spokesperson Nathan Adriaanse said all the households on the evictions list were already in significant arrears at the time the eviction order was applied for in court.
Over the years several evictions have been enforced by Sohco. In 2016 and 2017 violence broke out when Sohco tried to enforce evictions, landing the matter in court.