Leadership tries to intervene in community rental dispute
The Ekurhuleni metro has identified a transit site within the project to which the residents of the Van Dyk Park Mine Quarters will be moved when the housing project begins. The project is scheduled to commence during the 2019/2020 financial year with bulk service installation.
The community leaders of Van Dyk Park Mine Quarters organised a reconciliation public meeting on January 16.
The meeting followed an intense dispute between the landlords and tenants in the area.
The Advertiser reported in December last year that tenants felt that they were being excluded from benefiting from a planned housing project because they were not landlords.
The tenants claimed that since news surfaced about the new housing development, which is set to begin soon, they had been kept in the dark.
The tenants said there had been ongoing meetings held without their knowledge, but they were made aware that their landlords had been attending those meetings.
The rift between the two parties is compounded by a rental dispute which occurred over the years.
This came after the metro revealed that the mining houses were being occupied illegally by both the so-called landlords and tenants as those houses were owned by municipality.
The revelation sparked conflicts in the community, with some of the tenants stopping payment.
During the latest meeting, community leader Mandla Nkosi reminisced about the good days when they used to get along with each other.
“We were once united when we fought for electricity and other services. Things started to change when people heard about the upcoming housing development. All of us became selfish and that’s how we became divided. We were no longer looking out for one another, but rather it was everyone for himself,” Nkosi said.
Apologising to the community, Nkosi said as the leadership of the Van Dyk Park Mine Quarters they accept that somehow they had failed to fix things before the situation became worse.
“We took sides instead of instilling peace between landlords and tenants,” he said.
Nkosi urged residents to refrain from calling each other landlords or tenants, but rather to see themselves as a community.
Speaking on behalf of the tenants, Nolthando Zenane said they accepted the leadership’s apology, but they were disappointed that some of the landlords didn’t attend the public meeting.
“It would have been appropriate if they apologised to the tenants for taking their rent money, whereas they themselves weren’t owners. Some owners who don’t even live at the Mine Quarters are always available every month for rent collection, but when it’s public meetings they disappear,” Zenane said.
The meeting also provided residents with an opportunity to interact with the leadership.
Raising their concerns, tenants felt that the aim of the meeting wasn’t met because they needed their landlords to be present so that they could iron out their issues.
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