Tenants at the Dobsonville Flats vowed it will not be business as usual at the Johannesburg Social Housing Company (Joshco) units.
The group said it would be embarking on a mass protest action until Joshco officials address them as its customers.
Tensions flared up again after tenants received what they said were letters last Tuesday, September 12, allegedly threatening to evict them over failure to honour rental payments.
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The letters demanded payments in 24 hours, however they disputed this citing that it was the social housing company which owed them instead.
They also cited issues regarding irregularities and inconsistencies in the rental statements, they said.
Speaking on behalf of affected tenants, Chris Rothman said,” We had been living here until we got statements saying we were owing, which came as a surprise.
We are willing to pay but the treatment from Joshco has been diabolical because now they are threatening us and when we enquire we dont get the right response.
“They were supposed to meet with us and we came to an agreement on payments where possible but that has yet to happen.”
According to the tenants, they were initially charged R2700 tariffs until recently after it emerged that they were ‘overcharged’ which resulted in the reduction.
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This, they said, prompted questions regarding how they owed large sums of money to Joshco and further wanted to know how the accumulated difference from previous years would be dealt with.
“These people were gloating here that they would pay our monies back but today they turn around and say we owe them. There are tenants who missed one payment but the amount they say we owe is 10000. We don’t understand where these monies they say we owe them come from. That is contributed by these abnormal statements which increase and decrease every month,” another tenant alleged.
They said it was not fair for Joshco to threaten to enforce evictions as many were heavily affected by Covid-19, adding that it is also unfair as the company can impose threats while it has failed to address service delivery since occupying the flats.
They instead questioned why the housing company did not use the difference to settle debt the company claimed they owed in rental arrears.
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A meeting which was expected to happen between the tenants and Joshco did not materialise.
Another tenant, Chris Nene added, “The COO said he would deploy a team to come here. We want to engage them and understand where the irregularities with the statements come from and make arrangements if it is true. But they are not coming to the party; instead they make allegations and respond when it suits them.”
Tensions between the two go back to 2021. Most recently, they hijacked the opening of Lufhereng Social Housing Project in May calling on the Minister of Human Settlements, Mmamoloko Kubayis urgent intervention over service delivery and issues of maintenance at the Joshco flats.
The social hosing company refuted claims of planned evictions citing that the letters were merely notice letters to encourage all tenants with overdue payments to make arrangements towards settling debts.
JOSHCO does not have planned evictions. The letters that were issued form part of the revenue and credit control rental collections process which is a standard process followed.
“The notice letters are always followed up by SMSs, inviting tenants to come forward and make payment arrangements for the overdue amounts,” Nthabiseng Mphela said.
In addition, Mphela refuted claims of overcharging tariffs, citing the initial city council approved tariffs were set based on the size and cost of maintaining the unit, adding that the reduction in tariffs was in response to an influx of complaints from tenants and economic climate of the country.
JOSHCO instituted credit notes for the applicable period and all tenants accounts were credited with the difference from what they were initially paying. The majority of the cases used the credited amounts to clear the rental arrears. So if a tenant owed money, the credited amount would be used to offset the amount owed.
