Hazel Friedman
‘GOD has blessed us,” says single mother Mavis
A year ago she was about to be dumped on the pavements. Today she and 434 tenants from seven buildings in the highrise slum of Hillbrow are home-owners through a unique scheme that could solve the inner city housing problem.
Called the Seven Buildings Project (SBP), the scheme entitles tenants to a R5-million subsidy through the National Housing Forum. This will help them buy the buildings and assist in reviving an inner city slum which many call “the lost city”.
Somdanyana’s new home is in Branksome Towers, which sits in the porn-pawn area of Joubert Park.
Somdanyana, who has three children, makes R500 — in a good month — from selling hot meals on the streets, 12 hours a day. But this home is the start of a new life. “It has been a struggle on many fronts — a struggle for a home and my dignity as a woman and mother.”
We are sitting in her bedroom because the other room serves as a transit-stop for homeless friends and their baggage. The interior of her modest flat contrasts starkly with the dereliction and decay outside. Cloths prevent the wind from penetrating broken windows, cushions cover the well-worn couch and bright posters camouflage cracked and peeling walls.
Born in the Eastern Cape, Somdanyana came to Johannesburg in 1983. In 1987 she settled in Argyle Court, which was soon to become the nucleus of the SBP under the helm of resident and Actstop member, Pressage Nkosi.
With the breakdown of the Group Areas Act in the late 1980s, the racial demography of areas like Hillbrow and Joubert Park underwent a radical transformation. Fearful of the “grey gevaar”, banks redlined the area and greedy companies operating under sectional title took over the buildings, forcing tenants to pay exorbitant rentals and encouraging ideal conditions for the creation of an urban slum.
Buildings were overcrowded, maintenance broke down and crime flourished, while the city council sat back and watched Hillbrow become an open wound in a blighted urban landscape.
“Finally we took action by organising a rent boycott,” says Nkosi, “which forced David Gorfil — who owns the seven buildings — to attend to our grievances.”
By 1991, Gorfil, who had been running the buildings at a loss from huge water and effluent accounts, wanted to shut the buildings. But he agreed to grant the tenants time to develop an alternative.
Although the tenants had resumed paying rent, they did not have leases and were therefore illegally occupying the buildings. Ironically, while they still had a roof over their heads, they were not considered poor enough for a housing subsidy. Yet they were not rich enough for bank loans.
But tenacity has finally triumphed. In January transfer of ownership will take place into a company owned by the SBP. Although the tenants will not be owners in the conventional sense — they will continue to pay rent — as sectional title shareholders their interests will be represented by a company director from each of the seven buildings. The SBP has arranged for affordable rentals to be paid in proportion to tenant income, of which a percentage will be allocated for building refurbishment.
As a member of the building’s management committee, Somdanyana, along with other women tenants, is responsible for cleaning the building, while male residents are in charge of maintenance, rent collection and security. Nkosi says there is no safer place to park a car in Johannesburg than outside the SBP buildings.
“Maybe other homeless communities will now be encouraged by our success and assert their rights to decent housing and a clean neighbourhood. The city council won’t do it for us, even our old comrades in the struggle who are living the good life can’t help. We have to do it ourselves.”