“If we are being kicked out why are we not provided with alternative houses?” This is the question being asked by Nosakhele Mooi, a widow living in the provincial administration (PA) houses section in Joza.
“If we are being kicked out why are we not provided with alternative houses?” This is the question being asked by Nosakhele Mooi, a widow living in the provincial administration (PA) houses section in Joza.
The PA houses belong to the provincial Department of Roads and Transport and, subsequent to their husband's deaths, the department is kicking the widows out. Mooi, a mother of one, lives in the Kings Flats PA houses near Extension 6. Her husband, Mzwandile Mooi, died in August 2010, having worked for the department since 1984.
Mooi said after her husband had died, she received a notice of eviction from his employers. Nosakhumzi Ntshanga, who, soon after her husband died in 2006, received a letter from Richardt Van Rensburg Attorneys stating that she had one calendar month to leave the house, said, “Right now we are charged R1 500 rent every month. If they want us out [of the houses]they must build RDP houses for us."
"We don’t have houses and we are told that we don’t qualify for food parcels either, even though we are not working.”
But Ward 6 councillor Zonwabele Mantla said he had the problem in hand. “I have assisted five PA residents who came to me with this problem,” Mantla said. “Some of these people never came to me to ask for assistance, and I’m still waiting for them to come forward."
According to a letter Mantla wrote to the Department of Roads and Transport dated 8 April 2010, he asked for the evictions to be stopped on the grounds that the affected people had no alternative accommodation.
He was acting on behalf of NG Mgogo, NG Nogaga, J Witbooi, James Ponoshe and Nosakhumzi Ntshanga. Mantla said he would investigate whether the government would sell the houses to the present occupants, but also warned that because the houses had been recently renovated, it was unlikely they would be sold.
“I am pushing for those people to be in the first 10 of the list of people waiting for the RDP houses to be built in Extension 10,” said Mantla. Ntshanga, however, said this didn't solve their immediate problem.
“While we are waiting for the RDP houses we still pay rent and municipal rates,” Ntshanga said. Repeated attempts to reach the acting deputy director for the department of Roads and Transport were unsuccessful.
Xola Mali writes in his capacity as a citizen journalist for Grocott's Mail
