SIYABONGA SITHOLE
Johannesburg - Following threats of evictions and enforcement by the Johannesburg Social Housing Company (Joshco) over failure to honour rental payments, Joshco chief executive Sello Mothotoana has promised to temporarily put evictions and enforcement orders against tenants on hold.
Mothotoana was speaking during a stakeholder engagement meeting held at Fleurhof Junction on Saturday.
Mothotoana, who is the acting chief executive, said due to issues of maintenance and massive unemployment rate, which has affected most of the tenants, it would be unjust to enforce evictions before Joshco had resolved some of the issues pointed out by residents across its social housing within the city.
"We are not going to resort to enforcement and evictions at the moment. We are inviting tenants to come forth and engage with us. Looking at the conditions here at Fleurhof Junction, it is clear that we need to find solutions to some of the issues raised before we continue with enforcement of eviction notices. I have seen the issues, and I do not blame tenants for being critical of Joshco. You have my undertaking to help solve some of these issues, but tenants must also come forth and speak to us, " he said.
Last month, residents of Roodepoort who belong to the city's social housing project in the area took to the streets and demonstrated against planned evictions and the city's rent-to-buy policy.
The residents also threatened to march to the mayor's office in Braamfontein to hand over a memorandum of demands, chief among them the issue of title deeds and planned evictions.
These planned evictions were also confirmed by MMC for housing Mlungisi Mabaso during a media briefing at a recent press briefing.
Mothotoana said, under the current conditions, residents should come forward and engage with the city on possible solutions and promised to attend to service delivery issues raised by tenants who decried lack of maintenance of their units, among other issues.
"Much as we have debt collectors, we are taking to the city, and we are inviting tenants and those affected to come to us, and we will give them a grace period. We are committed to building a relationship that we do not have with you as tenants," he said.
This is after leaders representing tenants argued that Joshco had failed to deliver structural and maintenance services to some of the units in Fleurhof for over a period of seven years.
Mothotoana said he had seen for himself some of the poor conditions of Fleurhof Junction and promised to dispatch a team of maintenance workers to begin working on some of the crippling problems faced by the tenants.
"I must say, when I came to this facility this morning, I had my own issues, but now I understand. We will be as early as Monday begin to fix some of the problems and issues of maintenance that would have been agreed upon by yourselves as being critical," he said.
Speaking on behalf of the affected residents, Daniel Mamabolo said Joshco had failed to maintain Fleurhof and other projects for over six years, adding that some of the projects were facing structural defects and sewage spillage as a result of years of neglect.
Mothotoana promised that these issues would be looked into with repair and maintenance set to resume this week, particularly at the Fleurhof Junction housing project.
The Star