MARABASTAD TOWNLANDS TENANTS PROTEST OVER LACK OF SERVICE DELIVERY

Tenants living at the Marabastad Townlands marched to the City of Tshwane Municipality headquarters Tshwane House to demand service delivery and a reduction of the high rent they are forced to pay every month, among many other issues.

The tenants say the minimum rent they pay is R5 800 a month and feel that this is too much as they don’t earn a lot of money from their jobs.

“The problem is there is no flat rate and we are billed in terms of the gross salary and not the net salary that we earn at our respective jobs,”said one of the marchers Florence Magalefa.

She said in terms of the law they must be billed according to the net salary because that is what they actually remain with after deductions like union fees, SARS tax and UIF have been made.

“We were told that these houses we low cost acccomodations, but we feel like we are paying for bond houses,” she said.

Magalefa said she has children who must be provided with necessities like school fees, transport money to school and food, and that she must also buy electricity and pay for water on top of all these expenses and at the end of the day she is left with nothing at all.

She also complained about the environment and dire living conditions at the Marabastad Townlands.

“The tall grasses have not been cut for a long time now, there are rats, there has not been hot water for 3 months now and we use cold water to bath and many of us tenants, including our children, are as a result suffering from flu at the moment,” she explained.

“Just imagine using cold water to take a bath during winter,” she complained.

She said they are also charged for DStv services that don’t operate at all.

It has also emerged that there is no security whatsoever at the Townlands and another thing is that tenants struggle with transport while trying to get to their workplaces, and are therefore demanding to be provided with buses that will take them to their different destinations.

Another debilitating issue is the lack of street lights.

“We have written numerous letters to the Mayor Nasiphi Moya and MMC for Human Settlements Aaron Maluleka also knows about our plight but he is playing duck and dive,” said Magalefa.

“We are giving the City of Tshwane seven working days to respond to our demands or else we will escalate this matter to President Cyril Ramaphosa himself by marching to the Union Buildings,” threatened Magalefa.

It has also emerged that those who complain about services are threatened with expulsion while those who miss out on paying rent get evicted without being offered alternative accommodation.

More than 200 of Townlands tenants gathered outside Tshwane House where Deputy Mayor Eugene Modise received and signed their memorandum.

Their march started at the Old Marabastad Depot before proceeding to Tshwane House.

Modise promised to look into their grievances and pointed out that the problem stems from the time the DA was in control of the City of Tshwane Municipality administration.

“Within seven days we will go to the Marabastad Townlands just to assess the situation but in the meantime we will send our maintenance team there to clean up the area,” he said.