Residents occupying a building belonging to the Ekurhuleni West College say they will only move out once proper legal protocols have been followed.
Their refusal has delayed the college’s plans to convert the 27-unit Villa Bianca property in Germiston into student accommodation.
The long standoff between the college and the residents escalated on Friday when security guards claiming to be working for the college invaded some of the units, broke doors and windows and took furniture and dumped it in the yard, and demanded residents leave.
The residents said their problems with the college started when the rent was increased from R1,800 to R4,000 a month, which resulted in many of them not paying rent for more than a year.
In an attempt to force payment, the college switched off their water supply for almost a week, forcing the residents to go to court to have it restored.
Before the forced removals of their furniture last week, the college issued residents with a notice to vacate the property by July 23. The notice was ignored.
According to the agency managing the property, some tenants owe as much as R60,000.
Princess Nxumalo, 23, has been living on the property since she was six. She said the college started the process to have them evicted in March.
“They demanded that we leave and gave us eviction notices that indicated that we should leave in 24 hours, which wasn’t ideal because it’s not enough time to evict people,” Nxumalo said. “They should at least have given us a month’s notice.”
She said the security guards gave them two options on Friday – vacate or get hurt while the furniture was being removed.
“They wouldn’t listen to anything that they were being told by residents. They said they were paid to remove us and that we had plenty of time to leave.
“The police came to de-escalate the situation, and they even told them that they needed a court order to evict us. They then returned with papers that the police said were invalid and did not prove anything,” Nxumalo said.
The police came to de-escalate the situation, and they even told them that they needed a court order to evict us. They then returned with papers that the police said were invalid and did not prove anything,
— Princess Nxumalo
Another resident, Leeroy Khumalo, 23, said residents tried to open a case of malicious damage to property. “But the police said the college would return to fix the damage they had made, which they haven’t,” he said yesterday.
Mawer and Delport, an agency managing the property on behalf of the college, said the tenants were notified in advance to leave the premises. .
Davern Tippets from the agency said: “They have all been sent eviction notices because they’ve all been behind on their rent. We have sent eviction notices as per the lease agreements 30 days in advance. That was over 90 days ago. Others owe for almost a year. They were supposed to pay R3,800 in rent, and they couldn’t, and the building owner has chosen this route because there is no revenue coming in.”
Sowetan contacted the college and the police for comment but had not received responses by the time of publication.
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