While 44 families were celebrating their imminent return to District Six after receiving their keys from President Jacob Zuma recently, one of the original returnees was contemplating her eviction.
Mymoena Kreysler, 65, moved into one of the first 24 homes that Nelson Mandela handed over on February 11, 2004 in phase 1 of the redevelopment.
It was her father Ismail Petersen’s claim, but he died four months before the house was ready.
Moving back to the area from which she was forcibly removed as a teenager was a dream come true – until the house started cracking and springing leaks.
There is not one room in the three-bedroomed double-storey house that doesn’t have several cracks and the cornices are leaking.
“Every time the wind blows it feels like it will take the roof off.”
Kreysler, who works at the provincial Health Department, said she started off paying R500 a month towards the R60 000 that the units cost, but stopped some time ago when she saw the defects.
“These homes were clearly built by non-professionals to save money.”
She said she wrote to the District Six Redevelopment and Beneficiary Trust to ask them to address the faults and the fact that none of the 24 families had title deeds to their units, but all she got in return was an eviction order.
“The trust wasn’t prepared to engage with me when I asked questions. I was called a detractor.”
Kreysler said the trust was questioning her father’s claim.
She boycotted the recent “Second Homecoming” celebration held at the Moravian Church, which was attended by Zuma, Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform Gugile Nkwinti, Minister of Human Settlements Tokyo Sexwale, and Planning Minister Trevor Manuel.
Kreysler said the trust was supposed to be fighting for the poor but instead they had become “landlords collecting rent”.
District Six Beneficiary Trust executive member Nadeem Hendricks said he could not comment on Kreysler’s case, except to say there was a serious investigation of her claim.
“Our legal team is addressing the matter,” Hendricks said.
He said “two or three” families were not paying.
An investigation was being done of the cracks in the pilot project houses. He said they weren’t due to poor workmanship but were “settling cracks”.
“It is because of the nature of District Six. When the apartheid government threw down the buildings they left the rubble, which meant that the builders had to go down much deeper for the foundations.”
Hendricks said the issue was being investigated by engineers and the project manager. He would would check tomorrow to see how far they had got.
He added that the returning 44 families who received their keys at the ceremony should have moved in to their new homes by the middle of next month.
Also protesting at the ceremony was the District Six Advocacy Committee, which handed over a memorandum to the Office of the Presidency in 2009 calling for a full forensic audit, and full compliance with and enforcement of the Restitution of Land Rights Act of 1994.
Committee chairwoman Tania Kleinhans said the 44 houses in phase 2 were built on land belonging to two of their members, Faizel Essop and the Hendricks family.
They had asked for a moratorium on development until the issue was sorted out, but they had not received a response. - Sunday Argus
Mymoena Kreysler, 65, moved into one of the first 24 homes that Nelson Mandela handed over on February 11, 2004 in phase 1 of the redevelopment.
It was her father Ismail Petersen’s claim, but he died four months before the house was ready.
Moving back to the area from which she was forcibly removed as a teenager was a dream come true – until the house started cracking and springing leaks.
There is not one room in the three-bedroomed double-storey house that doesn’t have several cracks and the cornices are leaking.
“Every time the wind blows it feels like it will take the roof off.”
Kreysler, who works at the provincial Health Department, said she started off paying R500 a month towards the R60 000 that the units cost, but stopped some time ago when she saw the defects.
“These homes were clearly built by non-professionals to save money.”
She said she wrote to the District Six Redevelopment and Beneficiary Trust to ask them to address the faults and the fact that none of the 24 families had title deeds to their units, but all she got in return was an eviction order.
“The trust wasn’t prepared to engage with me when I asked questions. I was called a detractor.”
Kreysler said the trust was questioning her father’s claim.
She boycotted the recent “Second Homecoming” celebration held at the Moravian Church, which was attended by Zuma, Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform Gugile Nkwinti, Minister of Human Settlements Tokyo Sexwale, and Planning Minister Trevor Manuel.
Kreysler said the trust was supposed to be fighting for the poor but instead they had become “landlords collecting rent”.
District Six Beneficiary Trust executive member Nadeem Hendricks said he could not comment on Kreysler’s case, except to say there was a serious investigation of her claim.
“Our legal team is addressing the matter,” Hendricks said.
He said “two or three” families were not paying.
An investigation was being done of the cracks in the pilot project houses. He said they weren’t due to poor workmanship but were “settling cracks”.
“It is because of the nature of District Six. When the apartheid government threw down the buildings they left the rubble, which meant that the builders had to go down much deeper for the foundations.”
Hendricks said the issue was being investigated by engineers and the project manager. He would would check tomorrow to see how far they had got.
He added that the returning 44 families who received their keys at the ceremony should have moved in to their new homes by the middle of next month.
Also protesting at the ceremony was the District Six Advocacy Committee, which handed over a memorandum to the Office of the Presidency in 2009 calling for a full forensic audit, and full compliance with and enforcement of the Restitution of Land Rights Act of 1994.
Committee chairwoman Tania Kleinhans said the 44 houses in phase 2 were built on land belonging to two of their members, Faizel Essop and the Hendricks family.
They had asked for a moratorium on development until the issue was sorted out, but they had not received a response. - Sunday Argus
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