Maynard Street tenants live in fear of eviction

They don’t want to move to RDP houses in Pelican Park

TWELVE families in councilowned houses in historic Maynard Street in lower Gardens are living in fear their homes will be sold from under them, and that they’ll be moved to “matchbox-sized houses in Pelican Park, where as soon as you enter the front door you are immediately out the back”.

In a situation reminiscent of the South Road drama, which saw the city try to evict 26 families to make way for a MyCiTi trunk route connecting Khayelitsha to Wynberg, the affected Maynard Street residents said they learnt about the city’s plan from a “proposed disposal” notice of their rented homes in newspapers late last year.

Several attempts to be allowed to buy the houses, in which some had lived for decades, had proved fruitless.

“Why does the city want to take already integrated people out of their communities and move them to places which are not familiar to them?” one resident complained.

In June, 88 tenants of the De Waal Drive flats, which are owned by the provincial government, were also given letters to sign agreeing to adhere to new rental agreements or accept an offer to move to RDP homes in Pelican Park if they could not afford the rentals.

At the time, Human Settlements spokesman Zalisile Mbali confirmed 10 of the 88 tenants had had to move.

Maynard Street is home to more than 30 families, including 12 on one side of the road which are council-owned. The rest are privately owned.

The tenants said this week they had contacted the city immediately when they learnt from the press their homes were on the city’s disposal list in November.

“We immediately contacted the city but nobody could give us a straight answer,” they said.

Two weeks later they received letters informing them the city was considering disposing of their properties.

The tenants have since engaged with their neighbours, who have signed a petition supporting the tenants’ call to be allowed to buy their homes.

Approached for comment, the city’s deputy mayor and mayoral committee member for finance Ian Neilson confirmed the city “has no further need to own these properties”.

He refuted claims the tenants wouldn’t be allowed to buy their homes, saying no final decision had been made in this regard.

“The city is currently considering the responses that have been received to determine how the process should proceed further.”

Neilson said the city had originally bought the houses for a road-widening scheme, which had been abandoned.

Jerome Izaaks, spokesman for the tenants, called for a transparent public participation process with a view to their getting the chance to buy their homes.

“I have attempted to purchase my home twice from the city and both times I was denied the opportunity. There seems to be a genuine attempt to marginalise the poor and drive them out of the city centre.”

The tenants complained the city had done nothing to maintain the homes, in spite of leases signed in 2001 that said they “should not make any alterations to the homes without prior written consent of (the city)”.

Tenant Janin van Niekerk said the homes were now “falling apart”, and the tenants were being forced to do their own repairs.

Sitting on an old couch which used to belong to her parents, Van Niekerk, who is in her fifties, recalled how she used to “watch television from under this couch with my mother sitting on it”.

Van Niekerk said she had lived in Maynard Street for decades and the street is very special because “it remains authentic with the original look and feel”.

“Gentrification makes us feel so unwelcome in our own city. We feel unwelcome in our own homes because we don’t have security of tenure.”

Jenny Terblanche, who is one of the oldest women living in Maynard Street, reminisced about the “lovely times” she had had on the street with her family and neighbours.

She said the community was a close-knit one. “We look out for one another.”

The mother of four said all her children grew up in the house and attended local schools.

Erica Petersen, who has been looking after her 83-yearold aunt Annie Potgieter in Maynard Street for the past four years, recalled how her aunt had been evicted from her home 13 years ago.

“She lived in a block of flats the city owned for over 33 years, and because the city needed the flats for some or other development she was kicked out.

“She was given three months’ notice with no alternative accommodation or anything. That was when she moved to this house and she has been happy here since.

“Where is she supposed to go at her age? How can she be kicked out at this old age? It really is not fair,” Petersen said.

The residents said they had had no response from the city on their request to buy their homes, but were willing to give the city the time needed to engage with them to ensure an amicable agreement was reached.

asanda.sokanyile@inl.co.za

PICTURES: YAZEED KAMALDIEN MR FIX-IT: Calvyn Gilfellan, chief executive at the Castle of Good Hope in central Cape Town, on top of the castle’s newly renovated roof. The national Public Works Department has budgeted R84m to fix the building.

‘NOT KEPT UP’: Janin van Niekerk at No 37 Maynard Street, who has lived in the street for decades, said the city had not maintained the houses.

PICTURES: MICHAEL WALKER TIME OUT: Number 7 Maynard Street. The tenants of 12 cityowned properties in Maynard Street in Gardens face eviction by the city.