Housing horrors at N2 Gateway
Even the poster child for the project has packed her bags
A DECADE ago, Cynthia Bokwe was the face of the government’s loudly trumpeted solution to the housing crisis.
Amid a blaze of publicity, she was handed the key to the first home in the flagship N2 Gateway Project in Cape Town, in 2006. The first phase of the development, a joint initiative between the national, provincial and local governments, was meant to provide affordable rental housing for 705 poor families.
Bokwe sang the government’s praises in her two-bedroom home at Joe Slovo Park — but today she is singing a different tune.
Derelict infrastructure, raw sewage oozing from burst pipes, cracked walls, filth and leaking roofs now characterise the complex.
Bokwe shelled out rent of R720 a month before she and other residents stopped paying in protest against the defective infrastructure.
“The condition of the houses was unsatisfactory from the beginning,” said Bokwe, 66, this week. “It wasn’t what we were promised.
“At the time I was crazy about moving out of a one-room house into a bigger space. LOW-INCOME LETDOWN: Residents are refusing to pay rent for their shoddy homes
“But the houses are damp all the time and people have difficulty breathing at night. Our furniture also got damaged and the geysers hardly worked. We were short-changed here.”
In 2009, Bokwe moved out, into an RDP home nearby.
Resident Mvuyisi Shasha said the situation was still grim. He moved out of his bedroom into the open-plan kitchen and lounge because water dripping from burst pipes in the flat above him damaged his bed and wardrobe. “All the bath water and sewage from the flat upstairs ends up in my room,” said Shasha.
“It has been years since this problem started. I have just come back from the doctor, I have chest pains and cough terribly at night.
“I had to send my son away; he can’t live in this mess.”
Shasha’s neighbour Lihle Dikeni described the complex as a disaster waiting to happen.
He pointed to the shaky walls lining the staircase, saying he feared that they might fall on children.
“This place is a hazard,” said Dikeni.
“It looks like whoever got the tender tried by all means to minimise the costs.
“Everyone here is willing to pay, but we want these defects to be fixed first.”
In January 2011, the former human settlements minister, Tokyo Sexwale, told the parliamentary portfolio committee that his department needed to rebuild about 50 000 low-cost houses.
He said R1.3-billion, about 10% of his department’s budget, would be used to rectify problems caused by shoddy work. WET: Nancy Tshemese’s ceiling is collapsing
The Housing Development Agency, which was appointed by the Western Cape human settlements department to manage the complex on behalf of the City of Cape Town, acknowledged “the state of affairs regarding the flats”.
The agency was given the job of dealing with the rent boycott, and spokesman Zingaphi Matanzima said that “having made headway, [our] mandate ceased at the end of February 2013 and the project was handed back to the city”.
In December last year, city authorities distributed letters at the complex urging residents to enter into lease agreements with the city.
“In terms of the agreement you will have certain rights in so far as maintenance of property is concerned,” the council letters said.
Benedicta van Minnen, the mayoral committee member responsible for housing, said the city council had tried, unsuccessfully, to “formalise” occupancy of the flats.
“In December 2015, the city had no alternative but to take the necessary action to compel the residents to enter into lease agreements with the city,” Van Minnen said.
“Only 118 residents responded to the request and signed lease agreements, which means that the city can now attend to repairs and maintenance requests from these tenants.”
Van Minnen said that if residents did not heed the final warning to sign leases, the city would evict them.
Ndivhuwo Mabaya, spokesman for Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, urged the city to throw out nonpayers. “The city should evict them. No one can stay and not pay rent,” Mabaya said.
The bath water and sewage from the flat upstairs ends up in my room