EFF march to Huurkor Rental Agency’s head office

“Away with Huurkor, away,” a group of Economic Freedom Fighters’ (EFF) members chanted as they marched to Huurkor rental agency’s head office in Sunnyside, Pretoria, to hand over a memorandum of demands yesterday.

Police formed a human chain in front of the Huurkor head office in Pretoria after the EFF took to the streets to hand over a memorandum of demands. Owen Nxumalo from the EFF described Huurkor as a racist, arrogant, anarchist and stupid institution.

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“They are undermining our people. We are in Sunnyside and here some of our people are paying stupid and arrogant amounts of money to them,” he said. Nxumalo said Huurkor was so arrogant that they closed their doors for the day because they knew the EFF was on the way. The EFF members first tried to engage with one of the directors of Huurkor. A disagreement broke out and they accused him of racism when he allegedly said that they closed the office out of concern about looting. The EFF gave the director five minutes to come out or face the consequences and to withdraw his comment about looting. EFF ward 81 secretary general Bianca Nkosi said one of the main issues was meters.

“They are using private meter companies, which means we pay more,” she said. Nkosi said they were also unhappy about the pay rate of the company’s general workers. She called on Huurkor to pay them according to the quality of their work. “Not below minimum wage,” she said. Nkosi said private metering companies and systems must be removed and replaced with meters from the City of Tshwane. She added that there should be a flat rate charged for water as in the past.

“We demand all flats owned by Huurkor be renovated once a year and local companies should be appointed to do the work, not old retired madalas related to the big position holders of Huurkor,” she said. Nkosi said Huurkor had 14 Marizka Coetzer The impact of the strike by City of Tshwane (COT) workers affiliated to the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) is far from over. COT and Samwu are still wrestling over salary increases behind closed doors with the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, while the community continues to live in a dirty city.

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“I’m tired of the city”

Local estate agent Quentin Meyer started the #onssalself movement in Pretoria North last year to clean up the area. He said the illegal dumping had started City still stinks as effects of strike linger again at the Daan de Wet refuse site in Pretoria North. Meyer approached one of the people illegally dumping in the area who simply told him that the municipality was failing them. “Where must we dump,” he asked Meyer. Meyer said the refuse site has been a mess for four months. “I’m tired of the city. Daan de Wet has been a mess for months, Now people are starting to litter again. Do I blame them? Streets are a mess, water leaks, power constantly off, parks dirty.

What are we paying for,” he asked. A resident, Hannie van Zyl, said the smell at the dumping site was overwhelming. “If anyone says the city is doing something, I don’t see it. There is no attempt by the city to clean here,” she said. Bernie Cloete said the garden refuse site was overflowing. “It attracts flies. The rubbish is everywhere,” he said. Cloete said it has to stop.

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“The strike is over. Why is it not being removed? They said the strike was over, so what is the excuse?” he asked. Cloete added that there seemed to be no urgency to fix the illegal dumping or the overflow of refuse sites. “This is a health hazard for the area,” he said. A municipal worker, who agreed to speak anonymously, said the city was lying about the strike. The worker added that the mayor had security 24/7 while bus drivers had to risk their lives to go to work. “The mayor and the city manager do not care about any of its workers. Our safety means nothing.”

City manager responds

Tshwane city manager Johann Mettler said: “We have a city that doesn’t look good. It’s my job to make sure the new team get on the bus rapidly so we can do what is most obvious – clean the city,” he said. Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink said the priority remained to get the city out of financial trouble. “After this unprotected strike, the city is not in the best condition,” he added. days to respond to the demands and should they fail to comply, the EFF would mobilise all its tenants to withhold rent. “We will go from flat to flat and tell them – don’t pay.

If you don’t respond, my man, you won’t receive anything, nothing, zero,” she said. Huurkor director Daniel Muller said they managed flats on behalf of owners so the agency could not meet all of the demands.

“If the owners of the property do not give us permission to renovate, we can’t,” he said. Muller said water was being metered individually because it was so expensive. He said the blocks belonged to different owners who employed their own workers. “We pay them on behalf of the owners,” he said. Muller said he understood some of the complaints but the owners were responsible.

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