Three articles in the City Times – dating back nine months – highlighted the daily struggle of pensioners who were forced to walk up and down stairs as lifts were non-operational or unreliable at Deneys Conradie Residentia (three-storey building), in Western Extension, and Pauline Davis Court (three-storey building), in the Benoni CBD.
Lifts at Delhi Court (eight-storey flats in Actonville) and Karachi Court (seven-storey building in Actonville) were still out of order on Monday.
Delhi Court resident Reggie Pillai said the building’s lifts stopped working in the late 1980s.
In an article published in September, Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (EMM) spokesperson Themba Gadebe said: “While the tender awarding process is underway quotations are being called for, for the lifts to be repaired as and when required.”
The lifts at Deneys Conradie Residentia have remained out of order since then and the lift at Pauline Davis Court broke again, near the end of October.
Several of the younger residents at Pauline Davis Court explained how the elderly residents suffer without lifts.
“There’s a woman here who is in a wheelchair; she had to go down for something one day, so a man had to carry the wheelchair down while her husband carried her,” said the person, who did not want to be named.
The residents recalled how a man was stuck for more than an hour-and-a-half when the lift last broke.
An elderly tenant on the first floor is wheelchair-bound and said she hadn’t left her floor for the three weeks since the lift broke.
“We are really upset about it, the other day a friend tried to help me to get down the steps, but I couldn’t manage it,” said the woman, who did not want to be named.
“I have to get everyone to do my shopping for me and to do things for me.”
John-Vincent Douglas-Haw is a stroke survivor living at Pauline Davis Court.
His right hand and leg are non-functional, yet he was only recently moved into a flat on the ground floor.
Douglas-Haw lived on the third floor for a year and was often forced to climb the stairs.
He said he has approached his lawyer regarding the matter and will start a petition to have the lifts fixed.
Deneys Conradie Residentia resident Annatjie Pieters (74) almost broke down in tears as she described a year of pain and struggle.
She walks with a crutch and enlarged sole as she has no hip in her left leg and had a hip replacement in the other.
Pieters said she has to go out daily, to see a doctor, pick up medication and buy groceries, but is in constant pain while climbing the three flights of stairs to the ground floor.
She pays workers at Deneys Conradie Residentia between R5 and R20 every time she buys groceries, so that they will carry the goods up to her third floor flat.
“I still have the use of one leg, but how long will it last, because of these stairs?” asked Pieters, while emotion overcame her.
“Ekurhuleni has money for other things, but they don’t have money to care for the old people.
“My sister, who lives on the ground floor, has cancer; I have to climb these stairs to go and care for her every day.”
Pieters and Douglas-Haw were the only residents of 15 the City Times spoke to at both flat buildings, who were willing to be named in the article; the rest were afraid of victimisation by Ekurhuleni.
Ward 73’s Clr Samuel Ngobese could not confirm when the lifts were expected to be repaired.
EMM was approached for new comment, but none had been received at the time of publishing.
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