Atlantis residents march for jobs and houses

“GIVE us houses, Give us work… We are gatvol,” read a banner held aloft by Atlantis residents as they marched yesterday in Charel Uys Drive to protest a lack of service delivery. Their grievances include:

The blocks of flats they lived in were old and not maintained.

Most residents were unemployed.

A shortage of water in the community.

Not enough healthcare facilities.

Atlantis Residents Association chairman Noel Williams said some had lived in the flats for almost 30 years and “the city had never repaired or replaced a thing”.

“No maintenance is done. If I take you to one of those flats, you will see sewage water running inside people’s homes.

“Because the ceilings are rotten, if somebody pulls the chain on the third floor, the water runs down to the second floor,” said Williams.

Williams said the city should get its priorities straight as millions of rands were being spent on constructing Myciti Integrated Rapid Transit (IRT) routes in Atlantis while residents were struggling to survive without jobs and proper homes.

“We are not saying that we don’t want the IRT system but there are more important things in this area that need attention. We need to create opportunities for people to work, people need secure homes,” he said.

Last week he had asked that mayor Patricia de Lille receive a memorandum of the community’s grievances at the march yesterday but had not received a response, said Williams.

Ashraf Slamdien, based at the city’s housing department in Atlantis, was sent instead.

De Lille’s spokesman, Solly Malatsi, responded: “Our office was in constant contact with Mr Williams regarding his organisation’s planned protest. He was informed that the mayor would not be available to collect the memorandum.

“Our office arranged for a senior city official to accept the memorandum on behalf of the mayor.”

Nadeem Bester, 51, said there were no jobs in Atlantis.

“We have hundreds of children matriculating every year who can’t find jobs. What must they do?

”Also, our health care facilities are unacceptable. Old people are forced to sit at the day hospital from 6am only to leave at 6pm because there are only two doctors on duty,” he said.

Agnus van Willingh said she had a problem with their new water system, which allowed for only five litres of water per family per day.

“Some families have five and six members. How can one family survive on just five litres of water a day? It is not right. We feel as though we are not treated as people,” said Van Willingh.