Stellenbosch Backyarders Demand Housing on Golf Course

Stellenbosch pensioner Ella Davids says she has been on the housing waiting list for 26 years.

Ella Davids has lived in Stellenbosch most of her life. She has spent 26 years on the housing waiting list. She currently lives in a Wendy house in the backyard of a home in Cloetesville, together with her 83-year-old father, her son, and extended family. In total, nine people call three adjoining Wendy houses home.

Davids relies on a pensioner’s grant. Her rental is R900 a month.

The roofs leak, the drains overflows, and smoke from a neighbouring informal settlement aggravates her father’s asthma.

“I’ve tried everything, but it’s not right to live like this,” she said, “I’m not a dog. I’m a human being. I want to live like a human being.”

Now Davids has taken her grievance to the municipality through the Stellenbosch Backyard Dwellers Forum. After a march through the town on Tuesday, the Forum and the People’s Movement for Change (PMC) presented a memorandum to the mayor’s office.

They demanded shorter waiting times for government housing, and measures to tackle the town’s housing backlog.

“For many residents, the housing waiting list has become a symbol of broken promises, where hope is replaced by frustration,” said Zandre Allen, PMC secretary-general. “Access to land and housing is not a privilege, it is a right.”

On Tuesday she joined other protesters in a march to the Mayor’s office to deliver a memorandum of demands.

The marchers, about two dozen people, reiterated a demand for houses to be built on Stellenbosch’s municipal golf course.

“We want that land where rich old toppies are playing golf while our people are suffering,” said Lawrence Seals, chairperson of the Stellenbosch Backyard Dwellers’ Forum.

Anthony Barnes, municipal director of planning and economic development, received the memorandum and thanked them for a peaceful protest. He noted their request for a response in seven days.

A mayoral spokesperson told GroundUp, “The contents of the memorandum are currently being studied and will be responded to in due course.”

Davids says if she gets a house, she will “jump for joy”.

“If I hold the key in my hand, that day I will never forget.”

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