APF

Soweto Concerned Residents March to Premier Mathousand

Wednesday 26 November 2008 by Nic

The Soweto Concerned Residents (SCR)/ Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF) and the Workers International Vanguard will officially congratulate the newly elected Gauteng Premier Paul “Mathousand” Mashatile with a march over basic services on the 28th November 2008. The Soweto residents will gather at the Beyers Naude Library Gardens and march to the Premier’s office to hand over a memorandum of grievances.

The main concerns are not new to Mashatile as some pertain way back to when he was the MEC of Housing in the province. When Mbazima Shilowa jumped ship to COPE, he left many outstanding issues to Mathousand (big spender) to address. These are namely the lack of proper title deeds in Orlando East, Soweto, where many of the residents have leaseholds. The area is still regarded as a “farm” by the City of Johannesburg (COJ) and the residents want to know from the Honourable Premier when Orlando East will be proclaimed a township as it so evidently is. It is true that the area is part of the Department of Housing’s Top 20 Priority Townships but many residents still have the old apartheid 99-year leaseholds.

Another issue is the allocation of RDP houses in Soweto where the housing officials allocate housing in a corrupt, political manner. Many of the RDP houses have been sold to people who are not really poor but who are jumping the housing waiting list. The MEC of Housing Nomvula Mokonyane launched Operation Ziveze early this year to root out all the housing problems. But it is clear that this was a political game used by the ANC for their elections game. The residents want to know when the report on Operation Ziveze will be launched so that they can know their housing allocations.

The last but no less important issue that the residents are marching for is the Province’s silence on Mayor Amos Masondo’s appeal against the Johannesburg High Court judgement on 30 April 2008 that found prepaid water meters unlawful and instructed that the free basic water allocation be doubled. The residents are very concerned and want to hear what the Gauteng Province is saying about the waste of taxpayers’ money used to appeal the ruling that is so comprehensively in the applicants’ favour.

We call upon the Gauteng Premier to respond to our demands within fourteen working days.


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