Protesters without houses for more than 20 years
They said the Housing Department is giving preference to family and friends.
Protesters from the Activists for Service Delivery (ASD) civic movement took to the streets in the CBD this morning (January 23) to raise awareness about their housing crisis in Chief Albert Luthuli informal settlement.
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The picketers then waited in front of the Ekurhuleni Housing Department in Lakeview Crescent to speak to department officials to demand a date to move into their Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) houses.
They claim the department sent friends and families to live in the newly-built houses in the area on December 15 last year.
“We will wait here until we get what we want,” said Gugu Nxumalo.
She said her housing application had been approved in 1996.
“We are sick and tired of corruption,” said Puleng Ntoba.
She said she had also been promised a house in 1996.
Jane Thathane, the leader of the ASD, said the protesters are backyard dwellers whose applications were approved “years ago but because of corruption they can’t move into their houses.”
She also said it was never acceptable to vandalise but added that they did not care anymore and are going to fight.
“We have been to Germiston, Alberton, the legislature and the Department of Human Settlements twice,” she said.
“If we do not get a date today, we will go to those houses and live in them,” said Thathane.
“We are taking what is ours. We voted for this government, so we are taking what is ours,” she added.
She said new houses had been built and some of them were not finished, but they would live there anyway.
“We have grandmothers here who don’t have houses because their houses were sold,” said Thathane.
“We are not a political party; we are simply community members standing up for ourselves,” she concluded.
The Gauteng Housing Department was not available for comment at the time of going to print.
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