Numerous residents of the Heideveld area, who qualified for housing, are set to occupy completed units this April. While the project alleviates the problem of housing in the Province, residents from the Heideveld community are questioning the transparency of the housing process, as well as the quality of the constructed houses.

 Spokesperson for the Heideveld Action Committee, Pastor Isaacs De Jongh, explained that the City of Cape Town has for six years delayed the project directed toward improving the housing shortage in the area of Heideveld.

He further noted that while certain residents will be given access to their homes next week, residents are requesting transparency in the process.

The local subcontractors’, De Jough asserts, with the exception of one individual who manages the security, were not included in the process.

“Just because the councillor is friends with the manager of the security, he received the contract. When we raise our voice they send the law enforcement,” De Jongh stated.

Mayor Patricia De Lille, he affirmed, was invited to attend meetings on “more than ten” occasions.

“I have emails that serve as proof that the mayor was invited but never came. Now that the City houses are almost done and she is campaigning for the DA she wants to come,” De Jough stated.

De Jongh described the constructed houses as not having air vents or gutters and are enclosed with zinc plated roofing. He further noted that residents were forced to protest in an attempt to have the zinc roofing replaced with tiled roofing.

In November 2015, numerous issues relating to the construction of the housing were cited, including issues relating to the bricks used for construction; 140mm blocks were used, as opposed to the appropriate 190mm blocks.

Ward councillor Anthony Moses, De Jough asserted, accepts media praise for the development, which he notes should instead be attested to the protesting of residents.

“For coloured people, there is no political solution. We have marched for the construction of speed bumps, for the removal of inadequate rent office staff, for vibracrete, and for solar panels.”

“In Langa on the N2, they have solar panels, because their councillor is standing with them – our councillor does not sit at the same table with many of our people and that’s why they are keeping the people in poverty – the DA appears to be working on the old-Apartheid system,” De Jough asserted.

De Jough further explained that the people of Heideveld have called for the assistance of councillors of neighbouring areas.

“There is no transparency where the City shows us that people have been on the list since 1981 – show us, so that people can be at ease,” De Jough concluded.

VOC (Thakira Desai)