ISSUES of housing and accommodation is one Wentworth’s most persistent social problems. From over-crowding, inadequate housing, questionable evictions and the placement of residents in the dilapidated flats are of the many problems.
The Wentworth Organisation of Women (WOW) works tirelessly to escalate housing issues in the community to council, with very little resources. WOW advisor, Denise Davies shared that in an effort to address this matter, WOW has partnered with Lungelo Lethu Human Rights Foundation to fight cases of wrongful evictions and the selling of properties for a fraction of their market worth as a result of the foreclosure process, through a class action lawsuit. The foundation strives to challenge the judiciary and fight for basic human rights as enshrined in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. In doing so, they launched a class action suit against South African banks at the Johannesburg High Court in 2018 and are still at it.
“We are challenging the banking SA for evictions carried out from 1994 to date. We are also challenging the value of the housing tribunal which is an institution we see as a toothless dog supporting the landlords more than the people,” read a statement from Lungelo Lethu Human Rights Foundation.
According to the foundation, it is estimated that upwards of 100 000 people have lost their homes since the Constitution came into effect in 1994 in violation of Constitutional protections against arbitrary deprivation of property, as well as protections to life and dignity.
“The purpose of this case is to restore to people their rights, property and dignity after 25 years of systematic abuse by the mortgage banks and state institutions. The evidence before the High Court details how the banks have abused the court processes to have people evicted from their homes, for arrears of amounts that were frequently trivial. The evidence is incontrovertible. The result of these abusive practices is that families were left homeless and destitute. The banks have claimed they resort to sales in execution as a last resort, but our evidence shows this is not the case. Foreclosure is often used as a first resort, which is against the law and the Constitution,” said founder of Lungelo Lethu Human Rights Foundation, King Sibiya.
The foundation also claimed that some of the applicants in the case were evicted from their homes after the banks claimed they had fallen into arrears on their mortgage bond repayments.
Denise met King shortly after losing her home when she was under debt review a few years ago. “The miscarriage of justice and the failure of the state to provide an adequate housing plan for its communities in our country are of great concern. We find that there are many families who have been illegally evicted and have lost their homes where they owed little amounts such as R1 and we have proof of this. Some of properties have been sold for as little as R100 following the sale in execution process. This is the purpose for this lawsuit and we’re calling on families, especially those in our communities of Merebank, Wentworth and surrounding areas, who have been victims of unlawful evictions to become a part of this class action lawsuit. This would cost them just under R2000 as opposed to paying exorbitant amounts if they filed a case independently. We have a well esteemed advocate who is fighting this matter in the Johannesburg High Court. Everyone deserves the right to a home and the law must take run its course in ensuring this,” said Denise.
The WOW Centre is situated at 221 Austerville Drive and can be contacted on 063-977-0217.
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