Today I visited Block J Hostel in Mamelodi where people live in undignified and horrific conditions, because the City of Tshwane has given up on improving the lives of the people who live here. Desperate residents live without working toilets, without running water, with no electricity, and they walk across streams of raw sewerage that flows through this hostel.
My visit comes after receiving a request from the community to meet so that they can show me the deplorable living conditions they live in, in particular, the terrible state of sanitation facilities at the hostel.
Despite the City of Tshwane allocating millions of Rands to the upgrading of hostels, residents continue to live in squalor and the hostels remain without the promised upgrades. Broken promises from the City of Tshwane are told to me on a daily basis as I cross this City as Mayoral candidate.
Money for the upgrading of hostels has been available to the City of Tshwane, but the money has never reached Block J, Mamelodi.
Block J Hostel is a grim reminder of our apartheid past where thousands of migrant labourers were employed in mines in Johannesburg and were accommodated in hostels, and promised upgrades through 21 years of freedom have all been broken by the ANC.
Block J hostel residents have no electricity and erratic access to water. When their taps run dry, they are forced to walk to other hostel blocks to fetch water. A burst pipe in the hostel has also not been fixed for months despite residents raising the issue with the City of Tshwane on numerous occasions. This has resulted in thousands of litres of water, which could have been used for drinking and washing, being wasted on a daily basis because the City of Tshwane does not care. During the rainy season there is constant flooding in the hostel causing damage to furniture and residents not being able to sleep as they are forced to stand the whole night to avoid the flood water, as Tshwane continues to neglect any upgrades here.
I was shocked when I saw the hostel bathrooms, which are completely broken, with almost no working showers and toilets. Expecting residents to live in these circumstances is an assault on their human dignity and a violation of their basic constitutional rights.
While the City of Tshwane announced as far back as 2004 that it would embark on an extensive hostel redevelopment programme, there has been no improvements at Block J hostel, and many other hostels in Mamelodi because Tshwane does not care about these residents.
In 2009, Executive Mayor Kgosientso Ramakgopa’s predecessor (and aunt), Gwen Ramkgopa, announced that the City of Tshwane planned to get rid of the apartheid-era dormitory hostels in Mamelodi to make way for a R500 million integrated housing development that would house mixed income communities.
This resulted in the city trying to evict residents from Block J without a court order, which was found unlawful by the Gauteng High Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in 2011. The SCA judgment also questioned how residents were expected to live under the terrible conditions at the hostel.
Yet, little has changed four years later.
Executive Mayor Ramakgopa has made numerous empty promises, including stating in his 2011 budget speech that a portion of the R567 million budgeted for human settlements would be spent on the long overdue upgrading of hostels to make them suitable for human habitation, but none of that has reached Block J, Mamelodi.
More recently, the City of Tshwane 2014/2015 Integrated Development Plan stated that R 25 million was allocated to the upgrading of hostels in Mamelodi but Block J, Mamelodi has seen none of that benefit. Executive Mayor Ramakgopa must account to residents of Block J and other hostels in the area on how this money was spent.
The horrific conditions at Block J and other hostels in the area shows how the ANC leadership in the City of Tshwane doesn’t care about the basic needs and rights of residents. Instead, the ANC are only focused on creating a patronage network that benefits themselves, their family and friends rather than delivering to the people
The DA is committed to improving the lives of residents. Where we govern we have introduced Hostel Transformation Programmes where hundreds of millions of Rands has been allocated to transform hostels, either by converting existing buildings to construct family units or by demolishing the hostels completely and erecting new flats. This project is aimed at transforming the lives of thousands of hostel-dwelling residents, while eradicating the horrid legacy inherited from the apartheid regime.
The DA is committed to rolling out the same programme in Mamelodi when it takes over Tshwane in 2016.
It is clear that the ANC government in Tshwane has failed the residents of Block J and other hostels in Mamelodi.
The only way to put a stop the Executive Mayor Ramakgopa’s broken promises is to vote for change during next year’s local government election, and to vote the ANC out of Tshwane.
Together, with Tshwane residents we can stop the cancer of corruption, grow the economy, create jobs and ensure that all citizens have access to services and opportunities.
The DA is set on winning Tshwane in Election 2016, to deliver Freedom, Fairness and Opportunity for All.
Media enquiries:
Solly Msimanga
DA Mayoral Candidate for Tshwane
083 612 0492
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