NGO denies mayor’s claim

The Socio-Economic Rights Institute of SA (Seri) yesterday denied allegations that it had frustrated efforts by the City of Johannesburg to relocate residents of abandoned buildings in the inner city.

This comes after three children aged between three and 10 died on Monday when a wall of an abandoned warehouse in Doornfontein in which they were living collapsed on them.

Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba blamed “human rights lawyers” under Seri, saying they had “obstructed” the city’s efforts to address the needs of occupiers of derelict buildings, by refusing to make staff available to assist the council in surveying the occupants of those buildings.

In a statement, Seri’s director of litigation Nomzamo Zondo said the allegations were false.

Seri represents about 300 people living in abandoned buildings around the city centre.

“In the case of the building at 39 to 41 Davies Street, which partially collapsed this week, the city did, in fact, conduct an audit of the occupiers and their personal circumstances. In July 2017, the city also compiled a report for mayor Mashaba recommending that the residents of the building be found alternative accommodation. But nothing was done,” Zondo said.

“In the cases of all other buildings in which Seri has clients, it is, in fact, Seri that first draws the city’s attention to the needs and identities of the occupiers of unsafe buildings.”

Mashaba said the building would be demolished while the city finds alternative accommodation for its occupants.

But Zondo said most of their clients, like the residents of the Davies Street building, had been waiting for the city to provide alternative accommodation for many months, often many years.

“There is not a single instance in which the city has actually provided alternative accommodation, unless Seri or another public interest NGO has gone to court to force the city to make the accommodation available. Approximately 1 000 residents of unsafe buildings have been rehoused in this way since 2008,” Zondo said.

“The truth is ... it is Seri, and other organisations like the Legal Resources Centre, Lawyers for Human Rights and the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, that have obtained court orders that have forced the city to provide residents of unsafe buildings with the accommodation they so desperately need.” – ANA

There is no instance in which the city provided alternative accommodation, unless Seri, or another NGO, went to court. Nomzamo Zondo Director of litigation, Seri