Windows at Constitution Court, Lavender Hill, are falling apart.
Cape Town - Residents living in council flats in Constitution Court, Lavender Hill, have claimed that opening their windows is a safety risk as the frames are broken and falling off, leading to the windows falling out.
The latest incident of a window collapsing was on Saturday morning, when Charmaine Josephs, 62, opened it for fresh air.
“It is not just my windows, but almost everyone is dealing with the same issue,” she said. “The window frames are falling off which causes the windows to fall out.
“I opened my window and the frames fell off. If there had been children playing at the bottom of the stairs those stones and steel would’ve fallen on them.
“We pay rent and complain but all you get is reference numbers and nobody ever pitches,” Josephs said.
“We can’t even wash our windows any more, or open them, out of fear it will fall and someone might get hurt.
“We are getting closer to winter now, it rains in because we don’t even have gutters on the roofs and there are people with babies. Where is our rent money going? Something needs to be done.”
Josephs said this had been an issue for years but nothing had been done.
“Maintenance is being done at other council flats, but it seems they forgot about us.
“We also have a guy who collects rubbish from other areas for scrap and dumps it by us. It causes flies but my complaints have fallen on deaf ears as well.
“I asked for more rubbish bins but never did we receive even one, we are about 48 people using about four rubbish bins. I have been living here for 37 years.
“A guy from the third floor almost fell through the window when he opened it.
“Winter is coming and we are going to have the same issue.”
Human Settlements Mayco member Carl Pophaim said the City was aware of the issue and the repairs would be completed in due course.
“Because of the huge demand for repairs at our rental units, we focus on critical, emergency work across the metro with health and safety considerations as the most important priorities.
“The City uses rental income for maintenance and due to the amount of work which needs to be completed, the City has to be cautious about what it prioritises to fix.
“The majority of service requests unfortunately involve the vandalism of units.”
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