Impoverished Afrikaners denied housing rights in Wolmer, Pretoria North

 

Vote of no-confidence by impoverished Wolmer residents forces out Democratic Alliance and African National Congress councillors

The Freedom Front Plus issued a press release on August 4 2009 describing a small revolt in the suburb of Wolmer, an impoverished suburb in Pretoria on July 27 2009 during which the Democratic Alliance and African National Congress councillors received votes of no confidence and were forced to leave a community meeting.

The issue of the meeting centered around the housing problems of the impoverished white residents. The Freedom Front Plus statement noted that ‘the ANC city councillors do not have any problem with writing off the bad debt of black residents or to transfer rental houses to them. When the poor white residents of Wolmer asked for the same treatment, there were all kinds of objections from the city council.”

Picture: Dr. Conrad Beyers, speaking here, stands next to pastor Lourens Taljaard who was appointed the new chairman of the Wolmer Residents’ Association.  Walmer resident and 'iron lady' Mrs. Jenny Jacobs drove the issue home - forcing the DA- and ANC-councillors to leave the meeting altogether.
The residents also adopted a vote of no confidence in the ANC and DA councillors - and asked that the Freedom Front Plus’ city councillors should handle their case from now on.

The Wolmer community in Pretoria North, also asked the FF Plus to from now on become ‘the standard bearer for the community’s rights with regards to the transferring of property rights of their homes, as well as managing donations.”

The Wolmer community’s initiative was lead by residents themselves, under the firebrand-leadership of Mrs. Jenny Jacobs, as well as by community leader Pastor Lourens Taljaard, a prominent person in the community.

At a mass meeting of the Wolmer community on Monday 27 July, a motion of no confidence was accepted against the current resident’s committee – which according to the residents, ‘had been hijacked by the ANC and the DA”. A new residents’ committee was voted in with Pastor Taljaard as the chairman. The motion was accepted despite a huge effort by the DA to interfere in the meeting’s harmony.

Said Freedom Front Plus spokesman Dr Conrad Beyers: “The community is frustrated with the ANC and DA who have for more than 5 years been making promises with regards to the transferring of their municipal rental homes without any progress being made. There are also numerous complaints from the community that donations such as food, clothes and blankets which were previously handled by the previous committee, did not reach the community. For these purposes a new welfare committee was established.”

Mr. Jaco Mulder, FF Plus leader in Gauteng, Dr. Conrad Beyers and Dr. Rentia Landman, both FF Plus councillors as well as Mr. Vorster Gauche, the local FF Plus branch chairperson, all represented the FF Plus at the meeting.

Moratorium on forced evictions of Afrikaner residents demanded:

Picture: Solidarity trade union movement ‘s Helping Hand charity has been helping impoverished Afrikaners build small shacks in the Wolmer suburb, where impoverished Afrikaners have been housed for the past fifty years by municipal housing authorities. Now they are facing forced evictions from the the ANC-town council.

Moratorium on forced evictions of poor Afrikaners demanded:

Although the Wolmer meeting on July 29 wasn’t organised as ‘a FF Plus meeting” , the FF Plus was requested unanimously by the hundreds of residents present there, to demand that the city council places a moratorium on the threatened evictions of the impoverished white residents in Wolmer until the promised transfers have been completed. The FF Plus was also requested to possibly fight this issue on behalf of the community in the Equality Court and other courts if the transfer of ownership is not completed within the current financial year.

“Many residents in the poor white community in Wolmer have received threatening letters from the Tshwane Metro Council in which it is stated that they will be evicted from municipal rental homes as a result of overdue debts. In the past 6 years the overdue debt of thousands of poor black families in Townships of Gauteng were written off and ownership of municipal rental homes were transferred to residents as part of the so-called Retro project.
The Wolmer community say they are entitled to the same advantages as the communities in black townships,” said Beyers.

Long-time Afrikaner residents constantly threatened with forced evictions:

Since 2007, the Wolmer community has been harassed, with the impoverished white residents constantly being threatened with eviction from their city council rental homes. The municipal rental houses are mainly occupied by poor white families. In June 2007 the ANC threatened to evict these people from their homes and to transfer these houses to “previously disadvantaged” (i.e. black) people – although the Afrikaner residents all were very poor and had no other alternative housing to flee to.

• Discrimination against poor Afrikaners only because they are white:
• Public opposition, lead by the FF Plus, ensued which forced the ANC to let go of the plan. Since 2007 the FF Plus has been involved in a struggle to convince the Metro Council to transfer ownership of the Wolmer homes to these long-time Afrikaner residents. The FF Plus’ argument has consistently been that such transfers of municipal and state housing on a large scale have been done in poor communities and townships, but that this poor community is being discriminated against on the grounds of race. In the Townships the transfers were done after overdue debt had been written off.

In May 2009, the mayoress of the Pretoria Metro Council, Dr. Gwen Ramakgopa, announced that “the transfer of ownership of municipal homes, including Pretoria North, will be finalized.”

• The FF Plus welcomed the announcement with the precondition that the transfers have to be finalized by the end of the current financial year. However, ever since the Mayor’s announcement, the Wolmer area’s Afrikaans-speaking community is still in the dark about the future of their homes – and now have started receiving threatening letters about evictions.

The community is concerned that the Metro Council wants to evict them from their homes and that the houses will be given to new “pro-ANC” residents. http://www.vryheidsfrontplus.co.za

Solidarity Trade Union’s Helping Hand Charity ‘s help to empoverished Afrikaner communities in SA:

• http://helpendehand.co.za/nuusbriewe/hh13.htm#7