Ekurhuleni housing company effects eviction court order against defaulting tenants

The Ekurhuleni Housing Company (EHCO), an entity of the City of Ekurhuleni, effected evictions of three tenants from municipal-owned housing units in compliance with an eviction court warrant granted by the magistrate’s court on November 24.

The court initially granted an order for the tenants to settle their arrears with EHCO in 2017, which they failed to comply with.

In October, EHCO, in an effort to recover the outstanding monies, returned for intervention. Although the warrant to execute the evictions was granted in October, it could not be affected due to Covid-19 regulations, which prevented evictions from being implemented.

However, with the country now being on lockdown level one, the court in September granted EHCO the go-ahead to carry out the evictions.

The company has been embroiled in a long-standing process to recover rental arrears from a total of 30 defaulting tenants.

The remaining 27 tenants have not yet been evicted because their matters are still before court.

The CEO of EHCO, Bongani Molefe, has emphasised that without the revenue generated from the rental of these units, the housing company is unable to maintain the City’s social housing stock.

Molefe explained that the rental arrear incurred by the company have now escalated to about R67-million.

EHCO clarified that the evictions are not politically driven, but they are a mere administrative process carried out by the EHCO in order to ensure a better quality of life for beneficiaries.

“What is unfolding now is part of the company’s normal credit control process to ensure the company remains afloat but at the same is able to maintain its infrastructure and properties to the benefit of the end-user,” Molefe explained.

The EHCO holds the City’s rental housing portfolio, which includes newly built stock and already existing properties.