Almost 200 tenants at Thembelihle Village, a low-cost housing project in the Pretoria CBD, were left stranded on the streets after they were forcibly evicted from their homes by security guards on Monday.
They shared their heartbreaking experiences of how they were abruptly forced out of their homes and left to endure a cold and rainy Monday night on the streets.
They said the dramatic eviction occurred after they were repeatedly accused of defaulting on staggering unpaid utility bills and rentals.
Shein Ngobeni, a distraught tenant, stood amid his waterlogged furniture and belongings, recounting the ordeal.
"It is ironic that we were evicted over unpaid utility bills, yet we've been living without basic services like water and electricity," he said.
He described Monday night as unbearable as many people had to sleep outside in the rain. “Now, our belongings are ruined, and we are under immense stress trying to find new accommodation," he said.
Ngobeni said tenants were caught off guard and that the eviction was chaotic.
“They just showed up and threw us out. Our belongings were tossed onto the street, and in the chaos, many of our valuables, including TVs, were stolen. The eviction team was reckless, breaking our doors and mixing up our belongings,” he said.
He said he is currently unemployed, leaving him with no financial means to secure alternative accommodation.
Lorato Matlhabine, a resident of the complex since 2018, said: "We were unfairly evicted due to the failure of our former service provider to settle our electricity bills with the City of Tshwane."
She said residents had been paying their utility bills to the service provider every month, but the company failed to forward the payments to the City of Tshwane.
“This resulted in frequent electricity disconnections, despite residents fulfilling their payment obligations,” she said.
In her case, Matlhabine was expected to pay a substantial R12 000, allegedly due to "other interests" on her account.
A tenant, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the eviction was a result of unpaid rent, adding that the situation was more complex.
"We were being charged excessive amounts for utilities, with our bills skyrocketing from R2 300 to R6 000 in a single month," the tenant said.
He said the lack of transparency in the billing process, combined with the absence of essential services like electricity and water, led to a collective decision among tenants to withhold rent payments.
Daniel Thole, speaking on behalf of Yeast City Housing NPC, the management company of Thembelihle Village, explained that the company had been forced into business rescue due to the significant non-payment of rent by tenants.
He said the city's Department of Human Settlements undertook a thorough tenant audit and an affordability assessment at the complex to ensure that this social housing is allocated to those who qualify.
“This process revealed a significant number of tenants who are not eligible for social housing, with some households earning up to R32 000 in joint income while continuing to occupy these units. Social housing has been designed as transitional housing for households earning within a prescribed scale, which is currently between R3 500 and R22 000 per month,” he said.
Thole said the findings were based on court documents and affordability assessment records, which included individuals in professional fields such as teaching, nursing, government service, and business ownership.
“As a result of these findings, the court granted eviction notices to tenants who do not meet the requirements for social housing.”
He said several tenants have failed to make payments since 2019, resulting in financial strain on utilities, services, and rentals with arrears currently totalling close to R60 million.
Other reasons for eviction included refusals by some households to provide income verification during the affordability assessment and illegal subletting by the main tenant.