SACP condemns eviction of people from their homes

Members of the South African Communist Party (SACP) from the Skenjana Roji district were picketing in front of the East London magistrate’s court on Friday afternoon. The aim was to submit a memorandum of demands to the magistrate in charge of evictions and civil cases.

Siyabonga Mdodi, the provincial spokesperson of the SACP, said they’ve had enough of seeing banks manipulating the working class. “We are tired of seeing poor and unemployed people being evicted from their homes by banks due to the fact that they cannot afford the home loans anymore,” said Mdodi.

“Most of the people who face these evictions are people who have paid the greater amount of the home loan only to be thrown out at the last minute, since they are not working anymore.”

The SACP condemned reckless lending as another way that banks use to trap people into long-term loans. “You can’t lend a person earning R3,000 a month a loan of R12,000 and say that you will deduct R4,000 a month. That simply means that person will not be able to survive,” explained Mdodi.

Bulelwa Wolani says she is a victim of eviction after a house she bought in Scenery Park was taken away from her by the bank when she lost her job at a law firm in East London.

“I bought a four-roomed house using a bank loan in 2009. The agreement for repayment was 10 years. I lost my job last year having paid eight years of the agreement. However, I was kicked out and the bank refused to listen to reason. I had to start from scratch with my two kids, said Wolani.

Mdodi outlined that among their concerns was the removal of people from their rightful RDP houses, especially from the newly built New Life location close to East London.

“Officials from the Housing Department work with individuals for their financial gain and evict people from their houses. We have also noticed the plight of women and children, whereby a greater percentage of those cases just disappear within the courts. As the SACP we will not tolerate that. We commit ourselves in saying this is a start of rolling mass action to transform the financial sector,” he enthused.

“We demand government to end the eviction of RDP housing beneficiaries by the banks working with some corrupt government officials.”

The memorandum from the SACP was received by senior magistrate Frans Roosen who will pass the document onto other relevant people within the department. The SACP gave the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development up to 14 days to respond to their demands, failing which they will take counter action.