Khayelitsha families want asbestos roofing removed

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Families living in houses built in the 1990s in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, are demanding that the national department of human settlements remove the asbestos roofs and replace them with safer materials.

Last month about 150 residents of Makhaza, Khayelitsha, marched to parliament to insist that the department give them the title deeds to their homes and relaunch a project to replace their old asbestos roofs with zinc sheeting or tiles.

Some of the residents have been staying in houses which are not registered in their names for over three decades. Some, such as community leader Nolitha Nyoka, moved into empty houses intended for people evicted from nearby Mandela Park in the 1990s. 

When some of the families for whom the houses were intended rejected them, the buildings were quickly occupied by backyarders from Makhaza, with the help of ward councillors at the time.

“The houses are still registered in the names of the residents who rejected them. We never received title deeds,” said Nyoka. 

She said previous attempts to get title deeds had failed. But some of those who had rejected the houses were returning to claim them as they had not been able to get houses elsewhere because records show they already have houses.

On 5 April, Nyoka received an eviction order from the registered owner of the house. 

“I can’t vacate the house now because I have been staying in it for 21 years. I raised my kids in that house, renovated and extended it and fenced the yard.” 

The improvements had cost her about R100 000, she said.

Muneera Allie, spokesperson for the Western Cape department of infrastructure, said it and the City of Cape Town would “approach the national department of human settlements regarding a policy change” to resolve the title deeds problem.

“The key challenge is that the properties were transferred in the early 1990s and require the consent of those registered title deed holders to effect transfer to the current occupants,” she said. “In the absence of such consent, the matter requires either a court to sanction the transfer or a possible amendment to the Housing Act.”

Another bone of contention in the community is that many families in Makhaza live in houses roofed with old, damaged asbestos, said ANC ward councillor Lucky Mbiza.

The government had rolled out a project to replace the asbestos with tiles and zinc sheeting in 2018 but it stopped when Covid-19 regulations came into effect in 2020. 

“We want the government to restore the project,” he said.

Siyabulela Phezi said the house which he and his wife moved into in 1992 needed fixing. The asbestos roof was damaged and the rain came in and drenched his furniture, he said.

“I want the government to replace the old asbestos with zincs because I have no money to buy material to roof my house again,” said the pensioner.

Allie said the provincial department “did not have a specific project to remove asbestos in Makhaza”.

The department had introduced the Kuyasa Housing Retrofit Project in 2018 to fix 2 373 houses. 

“Repairs included the replacement of damaged zinc roofing structures, the installation of ceilings, doors and windows, and electrification,” she said.

More than 430 units had been repaired in the first phase of the project but then the project was put on hold, she said, as budgets were reallocated due to the pandemic.

Subsequently, the “department re-prioritised its budget allocation to the provisioning of basic services and the upgrading of informal settlements”, she said. The department would review the issue in terms of “its current funding availability” and “would need to engage with the national department of human settlements”.

Questions sent to Nozipho Zulu, head of communications at the national department of human settlements, had not been answered at the time of publication. 

This article was first published on GroundUp