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Friends of the Inner City takes a holistic
approach to building a sustainable community - it works with residents and the
City and has a newspaper and radio station in sight.
LIVING in Hillbrow and other inner city
areas does not have to be a raw deal, a strong belief that inspires Friends of
the Inner City Forum.
Chairperson, Moses ka Moyo, with the Halala Award on display
Friends of the Inner City was established
in 2006 with an aim of protecting the rights of owners of sectional title
properties. The forum has evolved into an award-winning civil organisation, with
the Halala Joburg Award for Caring Joburg under its belt. The awards are
organised by the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA).
"Sectional title property forms the core of
what the forum does," explains the chairperson, Moses ka Moyo.
It believes that sectional title owners
should play a meaningful role in the revival of the "city of gold", and it
encourages the owners to recognise their responsibilities towards the wellbeing
of Joburg.
"We want to encourage people to participate
in the City's vision," Moyo explains. "We want them to play a role in providing
a clean and safe inner city."
Sectional title properties in the inner
city are generally flats owned by the occupants, most of whom have lived in Johannesburg for many
years. They bought their flats mostly in the 1990s, when the original owners
were moving out to the suburbs.
Friends of the Inner City "encourages them
to pay for council services", Moyo points out. It organises meetings with
owners, tenants, managing agents and various stakeholders to discuss, among
other issues, levy documents and payment of general services. "We try to put
everything in layman's terms ... we want them to understand what the City intends
to do."
Sectional title buildings are prone to
"building hijackings", which usually involves managing agents using shoddy
tactics to divert money meant to be paying council services. Moyo is at pains
to explain that residents do pay for their services, but part of the problem is
that they are not able to pay directly to the City.
Management
'Friends' in action in the inner city
While the managing agents are appointed by building trustees, at most
properties the rightful owners are unknown. "The biggest problem is that
everyone is in dispute of these buildings. We don't know who owns them."
The forum recently saved residents of Worcester Court on Smit Street from
eviction. The Johannesburg High Court ruled against a private company that the
approximately 400 residents "do not need to be evicted".
"The residents [of Worcester Court] will now be able to pay
for services directly to the City of Johannesburg,"
Moyo says. "About 400 people would have been left homeless."
Other problems with which the forum deals
include apparent fixing of service bills. It also aims to bridge the gap
between residents and the service provider, the City. "If the people were able
to get their electricity statements, for instance, directly from the City, that
would be better."
Inner city residents in some company-owned
buildings are also experiencing a growing trend whereby rental companies sell
electricity units to them, and do not providing an option to buy power from
City Power or Eskom outlets.
A worrying drift in the inner city,
according to Moyo, is that a number of sectional title owners have lost their
flats over the years. This happens when administrators "introduce a mysterious
investor who then buys everyone off the scheme".
The consequences have been that owners are
forced to sign lease agreements when it dawns on them that their properties are
no longer in their hands. "People move in as tenants when they are being
renovated by companies, and they become tenants not owners."
Campaigns
Friends of the Inner City, which has about 3 000 volunteers, is steeped in
community work. The organisation conducts sectional title training to help
owners establish body corporates to take control of their buildings.
It's also a leading voice in clean-up
campaigns in the inner city. One of its assumed ongoing cleaning projects is Lorna Court on the
corner of Twist and Wolmarans streets. The building, facing a state-of-the-art
Rea Vaya bus terminal, burnt down in May 2006.
An incident in which one person burned to
death and a baby dramatically fell into the hands of passer-by Michael Ndlovu,
it left scores of people homeless.
Moyo says the forum is working with flat
owners to revive Lorna Court.
The roof is the biggest component that needs repair, he states. "We've started
to clean it up, with residents that used to stay there ... Once we do the roofing
we'll be able to move forward."
The forum is also registering a
co-operative that will involve inner city "residents who have not benefited
from government housing subsidies". The co-op already has 357 Region F
residents who would be beneficiaries, and it is looking for a vacant building
to buy.
"Whichever building we get, we will be able
to create jobs."
A newspaper, to be called the Inner City
Gazette, is also in the pipeline. A free community newspaper, it will focus on
telling the stories of people living in Region F.
Plans to launch a radio station, to be
named Inner City FM, are also advancing. "The station would give people a
platform to speak," Moyo explains. "Most of the problems are created by lack of
information, and the station would bridge that gap."
Already a full agenda, its work does not
end there. Friends of the Inner City is also working to set up a foundation to
get more inner city youth enrolled at the University of the Witwatersrand.
The JDA recognised the forum with the award
as it "facilitates community co-operation, bringing communities together and
making the inner city a better place to live through gradual build up and
restoration of trust, creating mutually sustainable relationships between
agents, tenants and building owners".
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