The GOOD Party has exposed human rights violations at Pickwick Transitional Housing in Cape Town, calling for urgent intervention to end illegal evictions, forced marriages, and lack of essential services for residents.
Image: Picture: Armand Hough Independent Newspapers
The GOOD party has raised serious concerns over the mismanagement and human rights violations at the Pickwick Transitional Housing project in Salt River, Cape Town.
The party, through City of Cape Town councillors Axolile Notywala and Roscoe Palm, has conducted multiple site visits revealing disturbing conditions at the facility, for which they have gathered substantial documentation to support their claims.
These visits have led to alarming discoveries of illegal evictions, arbitrary detentions, forced marriages, and a lack of basic services, all of which have been documented extensively. The GOOD party is now calling on the City to intervene and address these ongoing issues, which are a clear violation of the residents' rights.
According to Notywala and Palm, the situation at Pickwick is dire.
"Several couples have been married under duress to stay there," Jackson said, referring to the disturbing practice where residents are being forced into marriage to remain in the facility near their families.
This, they note, "echoes the darkest apartheid practices," referencing the forced marriages in the 1950s when people were evicted from Cato Manor and relocated to KwaMashu for housing.
The facility has also seen illegal evictions being carried out at the discretion of security guards and facility managers, a violation of the Prevention of Illegal Eviction (PIE) Act.
"Residents had been arbitrarily detained or locked out of their place of residence," Jackson said, highlighting the extent of the violations taking place.
The lack of basic services, such as social services and occupational therapy, has also been reported, with residents receiving only the "bare minimum of box-ticking exercises" instead of the support they were promised.
GOOD's media manager, Samantha Jackson, said that GOOD has filed a charge with the South African Police Services to investigate the unlawful obstruction of oversight by City of Cape Town councillors.
She expressed concern over the attempts by management company employees and security officers to block these councillors from carrying out their duties.
"Attempts by employees and security officers of the management company to block lawful oversight by City of Cape Town councillors is deeply troubling," Jackson said.
Pickwick Transitional Housing was initially established in 2018 as a temporary solution for residents displaced by the construction of Pine Road Social Housing. However, nearly seven years later, no progress has been made on the development, and the residents remain in limbo.
"Pickwick is a broken promise of the City of Cape Town laid bare for the entire country to see," Jackson said, emphasising the ongoing failure to deliver on housing commitments.
GOOD is calling for immediate intervention by the City, particularly from MMC for Human Settlements Carl Pophaim.
"MMC for Human Settlements Carl Pophaim must now intervene, collaborate, and authenticate," Jackson stressed, urging the City to take action to correct the abuses at the facility.
The future of the Pickwick project is critical in addressing the housing shortage in Cape Town, especially in well-located areas near the inner city. Without swift action from the City of Cape Town, Jackson warned, "the City is collapsing its promise to deliver housing by letting this project fall into ruin."
She added that residents are being forced to fend for themselves in the face of arbitrary abuse, with no clear timeline for when they will transition out of this temporary housing.
hope.ntanzi@iol.co.za
IOL Politics
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