Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Zille’s views on N2 houses rejected
BEEN there, done that. We are not moving!
This was the unwavering response from some of the 22 families Premier Helen Zille accuses of impeding the N2 Gateway housing project in Langa.
This week, in her column for an online publication, Zille said the social housing project, on which work began in 2004, might have to be forfeited due to resistance from the 22 families residing in what is known as Section 32 of the informal settlement of Joe Slovo.
The families hit back, saying as the project expanded along the N2 and around them, some residents were relocated as many as four times.
In her column, Zille lists as challenges alleged underhand practices by some of the residents she claims either know they don’t qualify for social housing or have received housing. However, residents dismissed Zille’s views, saying she was unaware of the fundamental issues influencing their refusal to move.
The residents said there was a communication breakdown between them and the provincial human settlements department. The department’s officials had not shown up for consultations with the residents, they said.
Nonathi Dleza said she was relocated before and still did not have a house.
“My family and I moved because we wanted to make way for a development that we were promised would change our lives. We have not been approved (after requesting to be placed on the housing list) and we have visited the department to make inquiries.
“Other families noted our experience of moving around but still not getting a house, so they also fear moving,” Dleza said.
Sibongiseni Ndamase, who has lived in Joe Slovo since the mid-2000s, said Zille should have visited the residents instead of writing about them.
In her column, Zille refers to a N2 Gateway developer claiming R65 million in damages from the department.
Asked about damages, Rick Brosens, project manager at Sobambanisa Developers, said: “We are busy talking to the provincial government. I can’t elaborate on that. The project is costing us money,” he said.
He said while he understood residents’ grievances, the “stop-start incurs costs”.
Zille’s spokesperson, Michael Mpofu, did not respond to a request for comment.