THANDI SKADE
ANGRY residents of the Pennyville flats near Soweto continued their fight against evictions yesterday, blockading the busy Canada Road.
Traffic flow along the road was brought to a standstill for about 10 minutes after residents threw large concrete slabs on the road and completely blocked it off with yellow plastic road construction barricades.
They set alight barricades, forcing motorists travelling to and from Soweto to make abrupt U-turns.
The rowdy residents were quickly brought under control by Joburg metro police officers who fired several rubber bullets to disperse them. Once residents had fled, taxi drivers and motorists stepped in to assist JMPD officers in removing the obstacles from the road.
For the second day running, the residents took to the streets to demonstrate against the evictions, poor and hazardous living conditions, and double billing for electricity. On Monday, 10 tenants, alleged to be illegal occupants, were evicted.
Earlier this year, residents embarked on a rent boycott in protest against services not rendered, but it backfired when Absa, the owner of the flats, successfully obtained an eviction order against 50 residents.
In July, six people were evicted before lawyers for the residents applied to the Johannesburg High Court to appeal the eviction order, a matter that is still pending.
In terms of the Magistrate’s Court Act, all evictions must be suspended until the matter has been finalised, which residents said had been contravened.
Community leader Nkosinathi Matiase said residents’ committee members had received SMSes from property manager Dilacula warning evicted tenants to stay away or face arrest. “Already last night, they moved in new tenants to the empty flats,” he said.
Thirty-year-old Tana*, one of the 10 tenants evicted on Monday, was forced to move back to her parents’ home in Diepkloof to spend the night.
The seven-months pregnant mother-of-one said she had been at work on Monday when she received a frantic call from her neighbour informing her of the evictions.
“I was shaking and started panicking, I just wanted to get home,” she said.
She said she had paid her rent in full for two years until March this year, after a new letting and collection agent was appointed. While she admits she hasn’t always paid her rent in full over the past six months, she had always paid something towards it. “The least you can do is communicate with people instead of treating them like they’re criminals. I could have been like others who didn’t pay at all, but I try to do the right thing,” she said.
Tana’s future at the Pennyville flat complex looks uncertain, but she vows to continue fighting.
* Not her real name.