17/04/2023
A letter to the Director of the Johannesburg Social Housing Company (JOSCHO) Mr Ronald Mutheiwana, the letter is a response to media reports by Inner City Resource Centre partners: The Social Housing Movement (SHM). A Protest Movement duly registered as NPO which seeks to advance the welfare & enforce the Socioeconomic rights, of Social Housing tenants resident in many of Social Housing Estates under JOSCHO’s Management.
SHM has noted with amazement the sudden, unexpected, astounding & very cheap Media PR stunts by JOSHCO, seemingly designed to control, direct and manipulate the Social Housing narrative in a public domain, to a particular direction & space where JOSHCO is viewed favorably, believable & sympathized with by the South African Public, while moving the attention away from their astonishing failures in managing these Social Housing Estates in a proper and statutorily compliant manner in terms of the broader Housing Legislative Framework(the Republic of the South African Constitution Act of 1996; National Housing Code(enshrined in section 4 of the Housing Act of 1997 as amended); Social Housing Act of 2008; Proclaimed Social Housing Regulations(in terms of section 19 of the Social Housing Act); Rental Housing Act of 1999, as amended; Rental Housing Regulations as amended; and Consumer Protection Act, of 2008).
These Media PR stunts, (23 March 2023 to 24 March 2023, Sowetan Newspaper & SABC’s SAFM radio station), saw JOSHCO spokesperson Nthabiseng Mphela on Sowetan Newspaper claiming that 2,152 tenants had already qualified and benefited from the settlement discount vouchers for the current financial year. JOSHCO also claimed to have tenant engagements with a focus on the affected tenants as part of its rent collection strategies.
Furthermore, Mr Ronald Mutheiwana, JOSHCO, through its spokesperson Nthabiseng Mphela, further made the following statements;
“if a tenant is in arrears of more than a month and the reported complaint does not threaten tenants’ health or structure e.g. geyser water is not hot the tenant is advised to go to JOSHCO to make Acknowledgement of Debt before that geyser can be attended to”;
“if a tenant is in a good Rental payment standing, JOSHCO daily maintenance has turnaround times of fixing reported complaints from within 12 hours and 7 days depending on the category of complaint”;
“COVID-19 lock down has led to job losses”; “The Majority of our tenants have experienced salary cuts or even worse retrenched and those who were self-employed closed shop as the results of the lock down”.
“Our infrastructure is ageing”
Moreover, JOSHCO, through its Chief Operations Officer(COO) Mr Themba Mathibe, made further assertions live on the SABC’s SAFM Radio stations’ Sunrise programme hosted by a highly experienced journalist, Mr Stephen Grootes.
When asked as to how long have people not being paying rent for, pre-COVID or Post-COVID.
Mr Mathibe replied; “Pre-COVID, JOSHCO had a huge historical Rental Debt of R120 Million of people not paying rent, then Post-COVID we saw the numbers going up to R250 Million, it is therefore that reason, why we as the new Executive Management, took upon ourselves to go to different Estates, & buildings under our management, to engage with tenants to try to understand why people are not paying rent because this has a ripple effect on service delivery”.
Mr Mathibe was asked whether JOSHCO’s rent is cheaper & how much it is being talked about here.
He replied; “Our rent is quite cheap and ranges from R500 to R5000 & if you look at the areas we are located in the Inner City Buildings, Lufhereng, Dobsonville & Turffontein, and so our rates & rent are quite cheap because we get subsidy grant when we build some [Social Housing] projects from the Social Housing Regulatory Authority where they actually give us about 70% of what is required to build a Capital project, so it is through that grant we are able to subsidise the tenants, and if you look at the market for example the Inner City, a Bachelor Flat is R1500 to R2000 per month, we charging half of that, yet you still have people who are not paying rent, but in some of other buildings, you find that the whole building everyone is paying rent. So it is just a select few properties where the rent is not being paid, and there a number or host of reasons why people don’t pay rent”.
Mr Grootes asked whether JOSHCO can evict them, besides that is going to be a long process and JOSCHO kind of supposed to provide Social Housing therefore they should not be in the business of evict people.
Mr Mathibe replied; “True, we should not be in business of just evicting people but we should follow the processes in terms of the Rental Housing Act, and that is what JOSHCO has been doing, so before we can evict anyone, we insist on process of engagement, having meaningful engagement where we call upon people & say please come forward and tell us, those who are unemployed & lost their jobs so we can apply for SHRA Rent Relief Programme for them, and out of those people we have engagements in our different [Social Housing] Projects or Estates, only about 35% of those who submitted their different documents to prove they have lost their jobs or experienced salary deductions or they had retrenchments they went through. So we have a record that there are 284 tenants who applied for SHRA Rent Relief Programme, and for those other ones who are blatantly refusing to pay, we will have to follow the due processes & handover those accounts to Debt Collection companies, once the Debt Collection companies have exhausted their processes, then we will have to follow steps in the Rental Housing Act”.
To us as the Social Housing Movement, Mr Ronald Mutheiwana, these Media PR stunts by your organisation, also serves a purpose, of being seen to be “engaging meaningfully” with tenants due to intense pressure from the City of Johannesburg Council but without genuine desire to genuinely engage with tenants to ultimately resolve the long-running issues between JOSHCO & its tenants after at least a decade of neglect. Moreover, JOSHCO has always been prioritizing its rights & needs over the Welfare & Socioeconomic rights of its Tenants.
MEANINGFUL ENGAGEMENT PROCESSES
The notion of meaningful engagement, Mr Ronald Mutheiwana, is relevant to housing rights enforcement and has been referred to mainly in housing rights cases. It refers to mandatory consultation processes between the parties to a case, ordered by courts, in the course of enforcing housing rights as well as socio-economic rights in general. The meaningful engagement is important as participation is a fundamental, constitutional right in itself, an important aspect of democracy, and an important component of efforts to uplift and empower the poor in society. It is mandatory consultation processes between the parties to a case, ordered by courts, as in Olivia Road and Joe Slovo cases ordered by the Constitutional Court.
The constitutional basis for meaningful engagement is section 152(1), on the obligation to provide democratic and accountable government for local communities, provide services in sustainable manner and encourage involvement of communities and community organizations in matters of local government; section 7(2) on the obligations to respect, protect, promote and fulfil rights; the Preamble’s recognition of the need to improve the quality of life and free potential of people; section 26(2)’s reasonable measure obligation and the need to dignity and life.
Therefore, Mr Ronald Mutheiwana, a genuine Meaningful Engagement processes is a matter of Law as pronounced by the Apex Court in the land & must be accompanied the rules of engagement, to avoid unprincipled, unequal, unstructured, fruitless, perfunctory, normatively empty & in bad faith meaningless engagement processes.
For the engagement process to be truly & genuinely meaningful, it must strictly observe the following rules of engagement as pronounced by the Constitutional Court in both aforementioned cases in 2008 & 2009 respectively;
· The parties must act reasonably, in good faith, proactively, with honesty and equality of voice for all concerned, and understand and accommodate each other’s concerns;
· The process should be transparent and not be shrouded in secrecy—complete and accurate account of the process has to be provided(records of the previous meetings);
· The engagement process must be tailored to particular circumstances, be structured and consistent, be coherent and adequate;
· The engagement process should, preferably, be managed by careful and sensitive people in order to ensure meaningful participation by poor, vulnerable or illiterate people;
· Structures that are staffed by competent and sensitive council workers who are skilled in engagement must be put in place;
· Civil society organisations that support the people’s claims should preferably facilitate the engagement process in every possible way;
· Top down approach where individuals and communities are not involved as partners in the decision-making process itself should not be used in the engagement process.
Moreover, the Social Housing Act of 2008 recognizes the importance of meaningful engagement with tenants in social housing developments. The Act requires social housing institutions to involve tenants in decision-making processes that affect their living conditions.
Section 9 of the Act specifically states that social housing institutions must “encourage the participation of tenants in the management and decision-making processes of the institution.” This includes the right of tenants to form a tenants committee to represent their interests and engage with the social housing institution.
Historical Context of engagements at JOSHCO’s Social Housing Estates
Mr Mutheiwana, from 2012, Pre-SHM time, we as Tenants, organised ourselves into tenant committees(albeit unrecognised by the landlord) in several Social Housing Estates, under JOSCHO’s management with the aim of raising issues ranging from growing unemployment amongst tenants to service delivery(tenant’s rights & responsibilities, repairs & maintenance, gardening services, cleaning services and security), with the landlord through reporting & requesting meangful public engagement meetings, however those overtures were ignored while tenants were evicted without meangful engagements, first.
The tenant committees in their respective Social Housing Estates persistently attempted to persuade JOSHCO to have public engagement meetings with tenants, sending emails requesting to engage & reporting issues yet were simply ignored. Where tenants were replied to via email agreeing to engage, often the meetings were postponed indefinitely at the 11th hour without any apologies or reason given.
Between 2016 and 2020, the Residents of the City of Johannesburg, witnessed JOSHCO intensifying evictions against tenants while refusing to engage with them, to understand why there was the growing inability to meet their rental obligations, amongst many issues tenants have. Combination of JOSHCO’s obstinate reluctance to engage on all issues affecting tenants, country’s deteriorated economy with a massive unemployment, & the worsening of the tenants’ living conditions deliberately allowed by your entity, has led to tenants committees from several Social Housing Estates, disgusted by JOSHCO’s neglect with impunity, to come together in 2021, to form an NPO named the Social Housing Movement which will advance the welfare & enforce Socioeconomic rights of Tenants unapologetically; a perfect storm for JOSHCO to deal with.
In the interval of 2017 & 2022, tenants of Fleurhof-based qJunction & Riverside, City Deep, Dobsonville, Orlando Ekhaya, & Roodepoort Tshedzani Social Housing Estates, disgusted with your organisation’s lack of interest in the meaningful engagement with them, Mr Ronald Mutheiwana, expressed their displeasure in varied ways; Shutdown in Fleurhof, Shutdown in City Deep, Protests in Orlando Ekhaya, Dobsonville exposed JOSHCO on JOZI FM & Soweto TV, & Roodepoort Uprising which exposed JOSHCO to unpleasant Media publicity.
The 3rd of March 2022 Public Engagement in Dobsonville Estate, Mr Ronald Mutheiwana, was forced on JOSHCO by Tenants through their committee after taking their issues, which JOSHCO has been avoiding, to local media houses; JOZI FM & Soweto TV. This led to the then MMC for Human Settlements in the City of Johannesburg, Cllr Mlungisi Mabaso, along with senior JOSCHO Managers(including Mr Themba Mathibe, the then Acting Chief Operations Officer) visiting Dobsonville, astonished when he discovered how poorly managed the property was.
Other issues raised were; Repairs & Maintenance, Cleaning services, Gardening services, Security, Electricity, SHRA Rent Relief, & growing unemployment amongst tenants. Commitments were made by JOSHCO that all issues raised would be attended to.
The 13th of August 2022 Public Engagement Meeting in Tshedzani, Roodepoort, was also forced on JOSHCO, through the 11 August 2022 Uprising & a Protest march to deliver a Memorandum of Demands to highlight the issues affecting tenants;
Status of pensioners living Social Housing Estate yet struggling to pay rent, High unemployment amongst tenants & lack of SMME opportunities, Gardening services, harassment by JOSHCO office staff, repairs & maintenance, & the now litigious matters. Again JOSHCO, made commitments to resolve all issues raised(excluding the now litigious matters) through the then Acting Chief Executive Officer, Mr Sello Mothotoana.
The 3rd of September 2022 Public Engagement Meeting in Fleurhof Junction Phase 4&5, was forced on JOSHCO by the Fleurhof Residents Committee, representing the tenants of both Fleurhof-based Junction & Riverside Social Housing Estates after a typical 11th postponement by JOSHCO in July 2022.
Matters raised; Repairs & Maintenance, Cleaning services, Gardening services, Security, Electricity infrastructure, SHRA Rent Relief, growing unemployment amongst tenants, & lack of equality of voice in the Engagement processes. CEO Mr Mothotoana made commitments that after having seen how poorly built & maintained the buildings were, amongst other commitments he made.
Moreover, Mr Ronald Mutheiwana, CEO Mr Mothotoana was invited to a maintenance inspection at both Junction & Riverside on 8th of September 2022 to see for himself how terrible the buildings conditions were. Mothotoana said he had seen for himself some of the poor conditions of Fleurhof Junction and promised to dispatch a team of maintenance workers to begin working on some of the crippling problems faced by the tenants. “I must say, when I came to this facility this morning, I had my own issues, but now I understand. We will be as early as Monday begin to fix some of the problems and issues of maintenance that would have been agreed upon by yourselves as being critical," he said.
He reaffirmed commitment he made on the 3rd of September 2022 that every tenant must receive repairs & maintenance services regardless of his/her rental payment standing
Mr Mothotoana was reminded of the rules of engagement & the discussion documents(containing the most prevalent issues & possible solutions) to be used as basis on which to engage, emailed to him & to the COO Mr Themba Mathibe by the Social Housing Movement on the 9th of August 2022, for JOSHCO’s perusal. The revised versions of the Rules of Engagement & the Discussion Document were emailed to the two aforementioned Executive Directors on 13th of September 2022, after the SHM took a Resolution which saw the removal of the disputatious issues such as “Title-Deeds” & “Evictions” from the two aforementioned Documents, & effectively off the agenda, to allow the Engagement processes to take place, as the two aforesaid issues are now litigious matters.
The 10th of December 2022 Public Engagement Meeting in Fleurhof Riverside Estate, forced on JOSHCO by the Fleurhof Residents Committee representing the Fleurhof-based Junction and Riverside Social Housing Estates. As with other Social Housing Projects/Estates issues raised were following; High unemployment rate amongst Tenants, Repairs & Maintenance, SHRA Rent Relief Fund, Security Matters, unprofessional conduct by some JOSHCO staff, lack of equality of voice in the Engagement processes, WIFI Installation, & General Service Delivery. As it is the practice with JOSHCO, the assurances & commitments were made to the tenants that all issues raised will be attended to. CEO Mr Mothotoana was in attendance, along with other senior JOSCHO Managers.
In summary, Mr Ronald Mutheiwana, it clear to Tenants that after so many Engagement Meetings with so many assurances & commitments made your organisation, none of those assurances & commitments were ever followed through, which indicates that JOSHCO is merely engaging for the sake of being seen to be “engaging” with tenants with no genuine desire to resolve the matters raised during the Engagement meetings throughout the year 2022 to date. Good illustration of that are the following behaviours;
· Failure to honour the assurance & commitments made to tenants in throughout the year 2022;
· Subsequent lack of equality of voice in the Engagement processes;
· Consistent failure to provide the requested complete & accurate transcripts of the previous Engagement Meetings;
· Engaging perfunctorily & in bad faith disguised as good faith throughout the Engagement processes; and
· Top-down decision-making approach as opposed to ensuring meaningful participation of tenants in decision-making processes.
These aforementioned behaviours, Mr Ronald Mutheiwana, are indicative of your organisation’s failure to comply with the previously-mentioned Rules of Engagement as laid down by the Constitutional Court, The Rules of Engagement as drafted by the SHM, & the Discussion Document, as well as violations of Section 15 of the Social Housing Act, and provisions of the South African Constitution on the meaningful engagement. Therefore these Engagement meetings are not the true reflection of what is really happening, however what is a true reflection of these Engagements is conduct of JOSHCO throughout.
