A group of backyard dwellers in Du Noon are furious to discover they’ve been conned for years by the owners of the RDP houses in whose backyards they were led to believe they were staying. After paying R200 a month, some of them since 2008, to their crooked landlords, they recently discovered that their shacks were not in the RDP backyards, but on land belonging to Transnet.The RDP owners had illegally extended their backyards onto Transnet land and then rented it out.
The backyarders discovered the situation after officials from the city’s Anti Land Invasion Unit visited the Siyahlala informal settlement in Du Noon earlier this month.
On the edge of Siyahlala, bordering the railway line, is a row of ten RDP houses. Five of the owners had extended their backyards onto Transnet property and rented out their ‘backyards’ to squatters.
When they were told what the situation was, the backyarders were outraged and refused to pay any more rent.
In retaliation, one of the crooked ‘landlords’ demolished Fundiswa’s Hlakalashe’s shack on Wednesday last week.
Community leader Sandile Mpawu said residents called the police, who ordered the landlord to rebuild Hlakalashe’s shack.
Hlakalashe, an unemployed mother of two children aged seven and 13, who is studying to be a nurse, has since opened a case of malicious damage to property against her former \landlord.
Although her shack is illegally occupying Transnet land, Hlakalashe said she was very happy to discover she should not have to pay backyard rent.
And now she also wants all the rent she ever paid given back to her.
“I want my money back since when I started paying rent,” said Hlakalashe.
The SA National Civic Organisation (Sanco) Du Noon branch has told the other backyarders whose shacks are on Transnet land to also stop paying rent.
Behind the RDP house where Hlakashe stays are eight shacks, three of which are on Transnet Freight Railway line land.
Mpawu said five RDP owners on the row of houses were cheating backyarders this way.
Andres Leoto, 29, a husband who shares his one-roomed shack with his two young children and wife, is one of them.
Leoto said he had been paying R200 per month rent to the RDP house owner since 2008.
He said he had already paid his November rent but would not be paying for December, as Sanco had instructed.
Chair of the Du Noon Community Policing Forum (CPF), Andile Peter confirmed that backyarders on Transnet land had been advised to stop paying rent.
He said the RDP house owners were profiting from vulnerable people. However, he was unable to say exactly how many people had been exploited other than to say “there are a lot”.
Head of the City’s Anti Land Invasion Unit, Stephen Hayward, said there were home owners in other townships who were also renting out land that did not belong to them.
Hayward said the problem was “quiet extensive”.
“It’s a city wide problem,” he said.
– West Cape News
The backyarders discovered the situation after officials from the city’s Anti Land Invasion Unit visited the Siyahlala informal settlement in Du Noon earlier this month.
On the edge of Siyahlala, bordering the railway line, is a row of ten RDP houses. Five of the owners had extended their backyards onto Transnet property and rented out their ‘backyards’ to squatters.
When they were told what the situation was, the backyarders were outraged and refused to pay any more rent.
In retaliation, one of the crooked ‘landlords’ demolished Fundiswa’s Hlakalashe’s shack on Wednesday last week.
Community leader Sandile Mpawu said residents called the police, who ordered the landlord to rebuild Hlakalashe’s shack.
Hlakalashe, an unemployed mother of two children aged seven and 13, who is studying to be a nurse, has since opened a case of malicious damage to property against her former \landlord.
Although her shack is illegally occupying Transnet land, Hlakalashe said she was very happy to discover she should not have to pay backyard rent.
And now she also wants all the rent she ever paid given back to her.
“I want my money back since when I started paying rent,” said Hlakalashe.
The SA National Civic Organisation (Sanco) Du Noon branch has told the other backyarders whose shacks are on Transnet land to also stop paying rent.
Behind the RDP house where Hlakashe stays are eight shacks, three of which are on Transnet Freight Railway line land.
Mpawu said five RDP owners on the row of houses were cheating backyarders this way.
Andres Leoto, 29, a husband who shares his one-roomed shack with his two young children and wife, is one of them.
Leoto said he had been paying R200 per month rent to the RDP house owner since 2008.
He said he had already paid his November rent but would not be paying for December, as Sanco had instructed.
Chair of the Du Noon Community Policing Forum (CPF), Andile Peter confirmed that backyarders on Transnet land had been advised to stop paying rent.
He said the RDP house owners were profiting from vulnerable people. However, he was unable to say exactly how many people had been exploited other than to say “there are a lot”.
Head of the City’s Anti Land Invasion Unit, Stephen Hayward, said there were home owners in other townships who were also renting out land that did not belong to them.
Hayward said the problem was “quiet extensive”.
“It’s a city wide problem,” he said.
– West Cape News
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