Since the revelation of a housing project being in the pipeline for residents of Van Dyk Park Mine Quarters, the community has since been divided.
The Advertiser previously reported that the residents of the quarters recently submitted a petition to the Germiston Council Chambers seeking clarity about an alleged housing development set to take place in the area.
Metro spokesperson Themba Gadebe said: “Residents will soon be relocated to an identified temporary area to allow housing development to proceed. The project is budgeted to commence during the 2019/2020 financial year with bulk service installation.
“The community is targeted to benefit from this project, which is subject to the outcome of beneficiary administration assessment,” Gadebe said.
Gadebe added that residents do not have title deeds because they are not the legal owners of the properties.
Now, about 120 families who identified themselves as tenants from the area are appealing to the metro to recognise them as well when it issues houses.
According to the tenants, they feel they are being sidelined from benefiting from the housing project because they are tenants and not landlords.
They further highlighted that in one yard there are about eight to 10 families living there.
One of the tenants, Thabisile Hlatswayo, claim that since news about the new housing development surfaced they have been kept in the dark.
“We know there have been ongoing meetings held in our area without our knowledge, but we are aware that our landlords have been attending those meeting,” Hlatswayo said.
Another tenant, Clementine Nhlapo, said they too deserve to benefit from the housing project because they have been living in that area for many years.
“We have been living in these houses for many years when there was no electricity nor other service, same as our landlords. If our landlords are going to benefit from the housing development, then we too must benefit because none of us have title deeds to the houses,” Nhlapo said.
The community was excited that there will be a new housing development in their area, but all they ask is for is equality between the tenants and landlords.
No comment yet from the metro.
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