Members of the Vukuzenzele Crisis Committee in Alexandra on Tuesday occupied a construction site in the northern Johannesburg township to protest against a lack of service delivery and housing.
The protesters congregated at the site in Alexandra extension seven, hoping to get a response from provincial minister of housing Nomvula Mokonyane.
The committee’s chairperson, Frieda Dlamini, told the Mail & Guardian Online that people are desperate for houses. ”We live in shacks and the shacks are burning. We also want houses like everybody else,” she said.
She said that the committee’s main complaint is that the area’s councillors don’t deliver and that the housing department doesn’t pay attention to residents.
”We sent a memorandum to provincial housing minister Nomvula Mokonyane on August 15, and we still haven’t received a response. When we try to contact her office, she’s always unavailable,” said Dlamini.
The department’s chief operating officer, Mongezi Mnyani, told the M&G Online that the Vukuzenzele Crisis Committee has no information on the procedures of housing in Alexandra.
”This group is not informed about the protocols and procedures of housing in Alexandra; we discussed these procedures with the Alexandra Development Forum [ADF], which is the legitimate structure that we communicate with in terms of such issues,” he said.
Mnyani added that the committee’s concerns should be taken up with the ADF. ”We have arranged to meet with Vukuzenzele and some of Alexandra’s ward councillors tomorrow [Wednesday] and give them all the relevant information and give them understanding of the procedures,” he said.
Vukuzenzele’s Dlamini said that residents’ frustration doesn’t only stem from the fact that they lack sufficient housing, but also from the alleged unfair allocation of houses. ”We need more houses because the houses that are available are given to people who don’t deserve them. People who bribe councillors get them,” she said.
Another official at the provincial department of housing, who did not want to be named, said that the department has urged people to produce evidence of the alleged briberies. ”If these people can prove that this is indeed happening, then obviously the guilty parties will be punished,” said the official, adding that Tuesday’s protests in Alexandra were hampering construction.
”The irony is that these people are objecting to the lack of service delivery and their protest is delaying the process of service delivery, because they have invaded the construction site and nothing can go on while they are still there,” the official said.