Mamelodi Hostel Residents March, asking the City of Tshwane to address their Concern
Mamelodi Hostel Residents March, asking the City of Tshwane to address their Concerns
Mamelodi hostel residents will yet again take their issues to the street, asking the City of Tshwane to take them seriously. The residents of the hostel are at loggerheads with the City over the same issue of housing that they have been fighting since year 2000. It is 16 years later and all the City has done is break promise after promise.
The City of Tshwane is not only uncaring but also unscrupulous, the residents have moved from court to court, fighting for their basic right to housing. All the City has managed to do, is to ignore the pleas of those they intend to serve.
Even when meeting with the residents, the City has shown very little remorse towards the current inhumane living conditions of the residents of the hostel. One may think that, in a democratic country such as ours, the right to housing, is one that will be held with the highest regard, especially for residents that are still subject to conditions and structures that were built by the Apartheid regime to separate men from their families.
Some Municipalities have managed to achieve over the years, turning hostels into lovely family spaces accommodating families and those in need of housing in urban areas, then real question is, why the City of Tshwane is failing so much to do the same in Mamelodi Hostel. All they have managed to do is refurbish only 98 units and allocate them to people that were never residents of the hostel, leaving the long standing members of the hostel destitute. This is where the dispute with the residents began, and the residents are still in the dark as to how the City of Tshwane just allowed this to happen.
After a very long battle with the City of Tshwane, the City finally investigated the allocation of the 98 units. IT IS THIS VERY INVESTIGATION THAT IS DRIVING THE RESIDENTS TO MARCH TOMMOROW. The City had promised the residents that it will present and publisise the final report of the investigation by the 20th of November 2015. To this day, the city has not fulfilled this promise.
As this is a long standing matter, the residents simply want the following:
· The final report to be presented to them and publicized immediately
· The timeframes in the implementations presented in the report to be fast tracked and adhered to.
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) who represent the affected residents has been involved in assisting the residents in negotiations with the City of Tshwane, we have time and again expressed concern over the actions of the municipality. If the City of Tshwane fails to take this matter seriously and resolve it, LHR has been instructed to take the matter to court.
The march is scheduled for tomorrow, (16 April 2016), 09h00am, from Mamelodi Hostel Block G to the Local Municipal office, tomorrow.
For more details on the March contact one of the residents: Daniel Sello 060 695 6063
For more background details on the Case contact Louise du Plessis on 082 346 0744
