Tomorrow, November 21, the Gauteng Housing Crisis Committee in Eldorado Park will be having a shutdown in the area where the members will be going door-to-door to assist residents who have applied for housing years ago. The committee members indicated that they are doing this shutdown to assist the vulnerable in the community.
Roberta Dippenaar shared that the Gauteng Housing Crisis Committee in Eldorado Park started two years ago. “We started because there was a protest in 2017 when Eldorado Park and surrounding areas shut the area down because of the housing issues. We were fed many promises, and nothing has been done for us.”
“Houses are being built everywhere but nothing for the residents of Eldorado Park. For 26-years not a single house has been for residents. You see more shacks coming up in people’s yards, you have different generations living in the same yard, about six to ten people are living in one shack at times. All we want is houses, and this is why we started the committee,” said Dippenaar.
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The committee members are proud to share that there have been a few achievements where families have been allocated and moved into the flats in Fleurhof. According to Dippenaar, they had six more residents moving into the flats yesterday.
Keith Durate explained: “We marched to the premier’s office on October 21 and we said in a memorandum that we want our deliveries now; we want mega-housing and rapid-land release which was introduced to us in 2017 after the protests, we are now in 2020 and nothing has been seen. We demanded a progress report to show what they are doing in the community. The fight for our land is our birthright. We align ourselves with the Put South African’s First movement so the struggle continues.”
Tomorrow committee will be visiting beneficiaries, those vulnerable individuals who cannot travel back and forth to go verify their information with The Department of Human Settlements.
“We just request from residents from Eldorado Park and surrounding areas to bring their housing documents so that we can assist them. When you act, you get results,” said Durate.
Reneè Louw added: “I am 45 years old and I have been working in this country since I turned 16-years-old, I’ve been paying tax for so many years, and I am still living in my mothers’ yard with my children. We do not have land; we do not have ownership and that means those who do not have wealth. People are being placed into houses or flats but were they in the queues back in 2001 when I applied for housing? We don’t know where these people come from. Some people are walking with us in this fight, I have seen people with applications dating back to 1995, there’s even one application from 1989. It’s time to stand together and push so that we can get results.”
The committee will start at the Spar in extension 2 in Eldorado Park at 10 am. For more information, you can contact Keith Durate on 071 555 4148.
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