ANC voted down again

[beyers]

Hi. I dont know why you say these are prime areas. Wolmer (in Pretoria North next to the railway) and Elandspoort (in Pretoria West) are anything but prime land.

The people have been living there for decades. Its not simply about them not wanting to go to Soshanguve or Mabopane. It is wrong to uproot a whole community and take them away from their churches, schools and worst of all, their houses against their will. Forced evictions of hundreds of people is nothing other than what was done under apartheid.

None of the numerous poor "previously disadvantaged" people in Townships could afford the rental houses that were given to them - so don't treat these people differently. If exactly the same rules apply to these people, they will definitely qualify to take ownership of these tiny 2 bedroom houses, as happened across the country since 1994.

 

[diabolus]

Ok so i'm missing something here, who exactly OWN these houses in question?
That R350 p/m , is that RENT ? . If the people living in the houses do not OWN the houses then the OWNERS can do what they want surely? If the OWNER wants R1000 p/mnth and you only pay R350 p/mnth surely he has the right to "evict" you ? The matter of providing alternative housing is just a bonus then?

Of course, if the OWNER is "replacing" a white person for a black person, jsut for the sake of politics then it's RACIST, however if the black "disadvantage" person can actually pay R1000 p/mnth different story. Although the current resident should get first option if they can afford it too......

So who's the OWNER here?

 

[beyers]

The City Council owns these houses, and yes, the R350 p.m. is rent. It is part of a housing project where housing is rented to poor families at nominal rates. This happened across the country in numerous municipalities.

Since 1994 many municipalities decided to get rid of these houses (the maintenance cost is too high in most cases) and they were given to people who occupy the houses for a considerable time.

Specifically in Gauteng, the process of transferring ownership to tenants of these "sub-economic" houses is called the RETRO (Regularisation and Transfer) programme, and these transfers were done in many townships. For example in Laudium the "white blocks" were transferred to tenants who live there.

There is a report that floated around in the Council Housing Dept that specifically advised that the Wolmer and Elandspoort houses should be treated according to the RETRO project.

But now the ANC want to treat this community differently.

 

[Skeptik]

Perhaps it's revenge politics again. An attempt at making the white people feel like they are under an apartheid system, this time by black people.

 

[Pitbull]

I see 2 things wrong with this country now.

1. The ANC is under the impression that they will rule this country forever.
They now use reverse racism to try and give what they received. This causes an endless circle.

2. The Country will be run by another party again. Then The white people will just give back what they have been receiving. and so it will continue in one endless circle.

I personally think that this country should not try and fix the wrongs from the past by repeating it. Like in this case now. Build more houses in the area and move more of the Black people there from Shack that they are currently living in. That is fixing the wrongs of the past ! "Don't keep on scratching the scab u have co's it will never heal"

I personally hope this country can see it that way one day and just move on and pull to 1 commen goal. But you and I know it will never happen.

 

[Abe]

Whats wrong with that? The majority of people that live in Soshanguve are poor, so I these guys can't afford to the houses there then they must move. It is not like those houses are being given away, is it?

If you start taking away someones house and move them into a squatter camp and then give that house to someone else, that is madness. You are just ripping someones life to pieces to please someone else. If you are going to move someone, move them to another house.

We need to move away from this segragation based on colour. Its funny how White people say we are equal and should be treated as such, then something like this happens. People get relocated all the time and now just becuase they don't like where they are being offered housing, the council must now continue to make a loss on that land.

Do you know that they were being moved to a house in Soshanguve? If there were available houses, wouldn't they just move in the people who are looking for houses instead of making them wait, shifting someone else out of their house and then moving them into the house. People are always being moved and all of the time they complain. Most of the time, they complain about transport costs but you can be sure that if you take some people who are living in a squatter camp and move them to an area which consists of mud there would be hell to pay. I have no problem moving people if they should not be there, but at the very least, move them to accomodation which is the same or better, not worse.

 

[Chatmaster]

There is no doubt that this move is racially motivated imo. The fact that they are deliberately moving these white families to Shoshanguwe of all places, because they are white, makes it very obvious. However, paying R350/m for a house in a area where the property is worth more than they are paying might also seen as unfair. On the other hand looking at this from a different point of view it also makes no sense moving families from these houses to replace them with others because they are white. That is racist plain and simple.

I believe it is time the ANC relise that they are damaging SA with their racist views. There is no point in trying to fix problems in SA if the ruling party still advocates reverse racism, or rather call it racism (plain and simple). The ANC should move on, times for racism has passed and the majority of people in SA has also moved on. BEE, EE etc. is keeping racism alive in SA, and there is no more need for that in South Africa. Government are our employees and they should do as we say. Ministers and even Thabo are just employees and nothing more, acting like they are Kings and Queens are going to cost them dearly in the long run.

 

[Xarog]

Whats wrong with that? The majority of people that live in Soshanguve are poor, so I these guys can't afford to the houses there then they must move. It is not like those houses are being given away, is it?

We need to move away from this segragation based on colour. Its funny how White people say we are equal and should be treated as such, then something like this happens. People get relocated all the time and now just becuase they don't like where they are being offered housing, the council must now continue to make a loss on that land.

You're missing the point.

They want to transfer the existing houses to poor black families instead. It's not about revamping the land so that the govt can make more money from it.