Between the N2 highway and the government’s flagship Gateway housing project, a double-storey shack stands all by itself. Last year Nosandiso Dyonase, who runs a shop from this house, stared down building contractors, government officials, policemen and even bulldozers when they cleared the land around her of shacks and families. A defiant Dyonase and her goats were the only ones left standing.
‘Black people are scared of bulldozers because of what the previous government used to do. This government also came with bulldozers and I told them not to touch my shop. I have rights now. I have a lawyer and this is my home and my livelihood and I refuse to be moved to an electricity-less temporary home in Delft, which is far away from Cape Town,†Dyonase said.
‘I told those housing people: Bring your bulldozers — I’m not scared. I built this house and this business with my own hands. I live here and I don’t support this government any more. I only support my family and it’s my right to live here because 12 years ago, when I moved here from Langa, I cleared the bushes off this land myself,†she said.
Government’s biggest and most ambitious housing project, the N2 Gateway, is facing a fresh wave of controversy after Dyonase and about 500 other families appointed their own legal representative to oppose what they call government’s ‘forced removals†of thousands of squatter families to make way for the project.
‘When the apartheid government was destroyed, we thought we will now be free of forced removals. But four years ago, Joe Slovo residents were forcibly removed from here — by the ANC government. Just like the apartheid guys, they arrived with bulldozers and threatened us and at the same time making all kinds of promises. They said if we move to their temporary houses in Delft, they’ll build houses for us here in Joe Slovo. It was all bullshit,†explains Lumumba Ngamntwini, a resident of the Joe Slovo informal settlement.
‘There’s no such thing as a squatter getting a house here. They changed the name of our home from Joe Slovo to N2 Gateway and the places they’re building are for rich people who can afford bank bonds and rent. We’re unemployed and can’t afford to pay for the houses they’re building on the foundations of our homes,†Ngamntwini said.
His is one of an estimated 2 500 squatter families who are refusing to move off a piece of land adjacent to the N2 Gateway development, saying that they will ‘fight a war†against plans to move them to temporary houses in Delft, rather than move away from land they have occupied since 1992.
This week Thubelisha Homes, project managers of the Gateway project, confirmed that construction of phases two and three of this massive 22 000-unit development cannot proceed unless residents and their shacks are moved. The project is already more than a year behind schedule.
National Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu had promised it would be completed nine months ago, but to date only 705 units in phase one have been completed, and phases two and three have not even been started.
Phase two will be built by First National Bank and will consist of houses bought on mortgage, for people earning above R3 500 per month, while phase three will be houses given free to people who either have no income or earn less than R1 500 per month. They will, however, each require a once-off payment of R2 479.
‘The people [of Joe Slovo] will have to relocate and we have to find a way to remove them — they have no other choice. We can’t allow a group of people to be the stumbling block to this development,†said Xhanti Sigcawu, general manager of Thubelisha Homes.
He says the Joe Slovo settlement is built on provincial land and the provincial Housing Minister, Richard Dyanti, should either take the legal route to remove the families still living there ‘or find another solutionâ€.
Dyanti does not rule out forcible removals or a legal battle, but says this will happen ‘only once we’ve tried everything elseâ€. He says he would prefer to find an amicable solution because ‘government shouldn’t fight with its own peopleâ€.
‘The Joe Slovo community don’t want to obstruct development,†says Bernard Gutman, the legal representative appointed by the residents. ‘They want better homes and lives for themselves and their families and they want to see the betterment of their community. But they will not be moved to Delft where they will live in inadequate houses with no electricity, with inadequate sanitation, inadequate schools for their children, far away from their places of work and with inadequate health care. This will not happen. We are happy to talk and resolve this issue with government.
‘During our last conversation early this year it was decided that Thubelisha Homes’s attorneys will make contact and we will sit down and talk. It has not yet happened. The residents of Joe Slovo are waiting for an acceptable alternative proposal from government,†says Gutman.
‘We can’t afford to buy bond-houses,†says Joe Slovo resident Mzwanele Zulu. ‘Only FNB bank is going to benefit from building those houses. We’re not moving so that somebody else can come and make money where we’re living now.â€
Who’s to blame for what?
Last week the Mail & Guardian reported that tenants of N2 Gateway phase-one flats had filed complaints with the Rental Tribunal Office, claiming the units were substandard and unsafe.
A day after the article appeared, Thubelisha Homes contacted the residents and the tribunal and promised to rectify all complaints by April 22.
Sobambisana, the project’s largest building consortium, will have to resolve all construction complaints — at its own cost — before Thubelisha will pay it in full.
Mark Julie, a director of Sobambisana, reacted angrily this week, accusing the M&G of sensationalism: ‘Unless you reveal the name of the engineer who told you that some of the building work on this project was substandard, we’re not taking these issues seriously,†he said.
The N2 Gateway pilot housing project has been contentious from the outset. Apart from the R135-million budget overrun on the project, Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu kicked the DA-led Cape Town city council off the project last year. The ANC and the DA have accused each other of obstructing progress on the project ever since.
In the latest salvo of accusations, Thubelisha Homes says the Cape Town city council has refused to sign the land availability agreement, which has caused a year-long delay in the project.
‘If the DA did not take over [in the city], this project would have been much closer to completion,†said Manye Moroka, CEO of Thubelisha Homes.
But the city council denies that it has delayed construction and accuses Thubelisha of failing to provide the city with a budget for the bulk infrastructure the city has to provide.
‘The city has to pay for roads, sewerage, pipes, electricity, but we can’t budget because Thubelisha is not providing us with a budget, although we’ve asked them repeatedly,†said Robert McDonald, spokesman for mayor Helen Zille.
Zille announced Cape Town’s draft budget for 2007/2008 this week, but no mention was made of how much the completion of the N2 Gateway project will cost. The Auditor General is currently examining the results of a forensic audit of the project, commissioned by the Cape Town municipality.
A senior councillor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the forensic audit uncovered various instances of ‘unauthorised payments made to contractors of the N2 Gateway projectâ€. The Auditor General is expected to release his report soon. — Pearlie Joubert