Howell Road residents oppose evictions, refuse to pay rent
Dozens of residents from the Howell Road community in Durban's Sydenham area are protesting outside the Durban High Court against what they believe are 150 unlawful evictions.
Residents claim they're being forced to pay rent of up to R3000 for RDP housing.
They were served with a seven-day eviction notice on August 8 and were expected to vacate their homes by today.
Xolani Sikhakane spokesperson of the Howell road committee says residents are forced to pay rent to the Metro for RDP houses #KZN pic.twitter.com/NKtNOPto6t
— Jarryd Subroyen (@Jazz_Subs031) August 15, 2017
But they say they're not going anywhere. The Howell Road committee's Xolani Sikhakhane says they want to be part of discussions with stakeholders.
"We will never pay rent for housing that we believe are meant to be RDP houses. Already mentioning those criteria, we're saying let us discuss this issue. They promise us that they'll see us next week - at a stakeholder meeting - but it's not happening," he says.
The First Metro Housing Company manages the social housing on behalf of eThekwini.
Its website says the type of housing tenure at Howell Road is purely rental.
Residents from the Howell road community complain they were under the impression their RDP houses were rent free and rightfully theirs #KZN pic.twitter.com/36JvI1HuYb
— Jarryd Subroyen (@Jazz_Subs031) August 15, 2017