By Odwa Bafana Mkentane
The Hanover Park Civic Organisation has accused the City of Cape Town of unfairly barricading the home of a man who has lived there for more than 50 years.
The organisation says Brian Collins was locked out of the council-owned property after serving an 18-month prison sentence, leaving him without a place to live. The organisation is questioning the city’s housing policy, which it says unfairly penalises Collins for the time he spent in prison.
The Hanover Park Civic Organisation member Gary Hartzenberg says the matter has been taken to the Western Cape Rental Housing Tribunal.
“In its attached letter acknowledging Mr Collins’s complaint, the Tribunal states that, from the date a complaint is lodged until it has made a ruling, a landlord may not evict a tenant who continues to pay the rent due. When representatives of the Hanover Park Civic Organisation showed this letter to Ms Lulu during a meeting, she replied, “I have no time for this,” and stormed out of the boardroom,” said Hartzberg.
Hartzberg added that this is an unacceptable way for a public servant to treat a resident facing the loss of his home.
“City officials are paid with public money and have a duty to listen to residents, consider the documents placed before them and explain their decisions. They cannot dismiss a tribunal process because they do not want to engage with it,” he said.
The Civic Organisation is demanding the immediate removal of all barricades preventing Mr Collins from entering his home, written confirmation that the City will respect the Rental Housing Tribunal process and will not attempt to remove him before the matter is decided, a written explanation of the policy the City claims applies to Mr Collins and how it has been applied in his case, an investigation into Ms Lulu’s conduct and the institution of appropriate disciplinary action by her superiors in the City’s Human Settlements Department and an urgent meeting with the City to resolve the matter and protect Mr Collins from being left homeless.
Voice of the Cape has reached out to the City of Cape Town for a response and has received the following:
The City has been given only 40 minutes to investigate the matter and respond, and is unable to do so in such a short space of time. The City will look into the particulars
Photo: Hanover Park Gangwatch Group Facebook page
