Several residents of Kayamandi, an informal settlement just outside Stellenbosch, gathered at the Stellenbosch Town Hall to demand better housing last month.
Didi Nkowasi (34), who has lived in Kayamandi since 1999, explained she pays R650 a month for her home, a backyard wendy house, but is struggling to pay as she is currently unemployed.
“We just want to inform the municipality that we are tired of renting. We don’t have work. We are unemployed and we don’t have a place to stay.”
Other residents explained how their homes are flooded during winter time when it rains heavily in Kayamandi and they have few resources to repair the damage.
Several residents of Kayamandi march down Plein Street after handing over a memorandum asking for better housing from the Stellenbosch Municipality. PHOTO: Lauren Dold.
The residents in attendance gathered in song to demand that the municipality provide them with land or better; permanent housing.
After leaving the Town Hall, protesters brought traffic to a halt as they made their way down Plein Street.
“I want a place for a house,” said Jackson Nyembe (28), one of the protesters from Kayamandi.
“We need a space, land, to live on. The municipality must know of our problems, we need to live somewhere.”
Nyembe says he has been living in Kayamandi for most of his life, with his parents and two siblings. His older sister is married, but has recently moved back in with their parents, and her two small children.
The demonstrators mostly live in backyard wendy houses in Kayamandi and struggle to pay their monthly rent. PHOTO: Lauren Dold
“There is no space,” says Nyembe. Unemployed, he has been unsuccessful finding somewhere else to live.
Police personnel at the scene were unwilling to comment about the event.
At the time the article was published, the Stellenbosch Municipality was yet to comment despite several attempts made by MatieMedia.
– Lauren Dold and Arleen Stone