Water meters spark pensioners’ fears
Cash-strapped Communicare residents concerned they may be evicted
ELDERLY residents who rent from Communicare are concerned about evictions after the social housing company installed water meters and are charging separately for it.
According to Anthea Houston, the chief executive of Communicare, the meters were installed so that tenants could manage their water consumption: “The meters will allow tenants to manage their water consumption more sparingly and to comply with the City’s allocated daily allowance.
“Our complexes exceeded the daily allowance for individual tenants when we had one meter servicing an entire complex,” she added.
“The new meters also allow tenants to pay for their own consumption.”
Residents said they had not been consulted about the meters, although some acknowledged getting a notice from Communicare in October saying they would start installing the devices from November 12. Resident said their water had previously been included in their rent and that, as pensioners, they could not afford any extra costs for water.
“We are struggling already and the problem was lack of communication; no one consulted us and when this was installed in November, we asked what was going on and they blamed the City,” said resident Karen Alexander.
Alexander stays at Communicare’s Lakeside complex and said that the elderly simply cannot afford any extra expenses.
“They are not coping,” she said. An elderly resident, who agreed to speak to the Cape Argus on condition of anonymity, said she and her husband were forced to live off donations.
“We paid, at one stage, R3800 for our rent and water. We’re both on Sassa grants, so our grant comes to R3400, plus my husband gets R750 from his old work pension. We have to pay rent and water. Can you imagine what we have left?” she said.
Justice 4 Cape Town, a social justice campaign representing the elderly residents of Communicare, said they were aware of the problem.
“What we know is that there was no public participation process. Tell me how this works when a pensioner gets a R1600 Sassa grant and has to pay R4000 for water on top of rent. How do these people sleep at night?” said Ghaleema Easton, the chairperson of Justice 4 Cape Town.
Houston, however, said Communicare had been generous in the past by covering the cost of water for some tenants. However, all tenants were expected to pay for utilities like electricity and water.
“Tenants are charged the municipal cost of water, based on their consumption. We are aware of the additional burden on tenants, especially pensioners. However, all tenants are expected to pay for their utilities. Communicare does not get any concessions from the City of Cape Town for pensioners,” she said.
It’s not the first time the social housing giant has made headlines. Last year, fed-up community members from Dunoon, Ruyterwacht and Kraaifontein took to the streets of Cape Town to protest against exorbitant rent increases.