Cape Town - The provincial Department of Human Settlements says it has no plans to evict tenants of the De Waal Drive (Philip Kgosana) complex rental units as long as they continue to adhere to the conditions of the lease agreements.
The department was responding to fears of a group of elderly long-term residents of the property, owned by the provincial government, who had told the Cape Argus they were worried about being evicted.
The residents also said they wanted the department to give them the same deal as residents of Gatesville, who were recently allowed to buy their homes.
In 2021 Human Settlements MEC Tertuis Simmers told the provincial legislature the department had followed through with a decision to sell off 136 rental units it owned at Gatesville, even though the promise to sell them had been made by the ANC when they ran the province.
The residents showed the Cape Argus a copy of an October 1993 letter from what was then the Department of Housing and Works, approving the conversion of the buildings into a sectional title scheme to enable purchase by those who wished to buy their units..
OOne of the residents, Shanaaz Sadan, also questioned the department’s position on the issue of succession of tenancy. Sadan said some residents had been succeeded as tenants by their children but she had been prevented from doing so after her mother died and the tenancy was taken over by her stepfather.
The residents also complained about drug dealers causing insecurity.
On the question of whether the residents could buy their units, department spokesperson Nathan Adriaanse said the decision to sectionalise the units had been overturned by the then Provincial Housing Development Board and as such the rental complex would remain as part of the department’s provincial rental stock.
Adriaanse said this was “of critical importance for spatial and economic integration of communities”.
On the issue of tenant succession the department said it was only allowed in cases where one spouse died or, in the case of divorce, tenancy would then be transferred to the spouse remaining in the unit.
Regarding security fears, the department said it referred all received allegations of purported drug dealers at the complex to the police.