Protestors gathered in Marshalltown to highlight the plight and neglect of survivors from the 2023 tragedy.
Almost six months after a devastating fire, survivors say they have been left worse off. Now, the ‘Marshalltown Fire Justice Campaign’ (MFJC) has made a demand for adequate housing for the group.
The MFCJ organized a march to demand adequate housing for fire survivors. Photo: Kabir Jugram
Residents of the Denver settlement, just outside of the Johannesburg CBD, were led by the MFJC on April 26, 2024, as they approached the doorsteps of provincial power.
No one met the group at Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda’s office, but a representative, Puleng Chabane who is the deputy director of rapid responses accepted the memorandum of demands at Gauteng Premier, Panyaza Lesufi’s office.
The MFJC was initially established to give support to victims of the Usindiso building fire on August 31, 2023, that claimed 77 lives and displaced hundreds.
According to General Moyo, a co-ordinator of the MFJC, those displaced by the fire have been made to live in poorer conditions.
A Denver settlement resident holds up a sign which reads: “Eliminate housing backlogs with decent houses”. Photo: Kabir Jugram
Protestors marching through the streets of Marshalltown. Photo: Kabir Jugram
“[The shacks] can collapse at any time because there’s heavy underground mining activity, and when there’s flooding the people cannot sleep!… Those one-room shacks are built with cheap materials,” he said.
The lack of security and overcrowding in the settlement has also made women more vulnerable to Gender-Based Violence according to Moyo.
Siphiwe Ncobo, a street vendor originally from Newcastle, lost her husband and child in the fire and has since been relocated to Denver. Despite a monthly R1 500 rental, she said there is no water, electricity and cooking facilities.
“The black working class in particular get to bare the scapegoating, blaming and bashing of the elite that is incapable of resolving the many crises of their system!”
Mametlwe Sebei
Ncobo also claims she has seen up to seven people share a one-room shack. “It’s a squatter camp, not a hostel” she said.
Speaking to those gathered, Mametlwe Sebei, president of the General Industries Workers Union and co-ordinator for MFJC, accused the government of ‘constitutional delinquency’ for failing to provide fire victims with their constitutional right to adequate housing.
Sebei claims the government uses foreign nationals as scapegoats for a lack of resources, despite the numerous dilapidated buildings in Joburg CBD that could be repurposed for the displaced.
“The black working class in particular get to bare the scapegoating, blaming and bashing of the elite that is incapable of resolving the many crises of their system!” proclaimed Sebei.
In that sense, the march was more than a demand for adequate housing. It was a collective voice of frustration aimed at a government that continues to neglect its poor.
Despite that, spirits were high as the crowd marched through the streets of Joburg CBD. The young and elderly alike could be seen dancing and whistling in the blazing sun, giving meaning to their chant as they proclaimed: “long live the spirit of Usindiso, long live!”
Co-ordinators of the protest explain the purpose of the march. Video/YouTube: Kabir Jugram
FEATURED IMAGE: Protestors Dance as they prepare to march to the mayor’s office. Photo: Kabir Jugram
Johannesburg Social Housing Company’s student housing project aims to bridge the affordability gap but grapples with inner-city infrastructure and service delivery limitations
On the corner of Simmonds and Wolmarans streets, in the heart of the Johannesburg CBD, a cross-border bus station runs over with hundreds of packers and porters shouting offers to carry your luggage and show you the right bus, for the best price.
The chaotic business of trying to earn a living is nothing new to this part of town, but is a definite safety concern for Chris Mazibuko, the housing supervisor of the student accommodation building situated opposite this bus station.
“Some of these… street vendors, they harass my female students. You see those ones who are wrapping baggage, they start touching them. Luckily, we do have BadBoyz Security, they do respond on time, but they won’t see what is happening [all the time],” said Mazibuko.
This is Simmonds Street that runs in front of the entrance to Dakalo Student Court (on the left. The street is a busy hum drum of informal commerce, that students have to wade through to and from their residence. Photo: Morongoa Masebe.
Johannesburg Social Housing Company’s (JOSHCOs) Student Accommodation Portfolio Manager, Andile Nkosi, told Wits Vuvuzela that Dakalo Student Court, opened doors in 2021, following a unanimous municipal council decision to contribute local government resources towards the student housing crisis.
Local municipalities in South Africa are governed by municipal councils that are voted in every five years. Councils make all the decisions regarding service delivery, policies and programmes run by the municipality.
JOSHCO took the decision to council, and in 2021 they “got blessing from the council” said Nkosi. JOSHCO is an entity of the City of Johannesburg (COJ) metropolitan municipality, mandated with providing quality, low-cost and centrally located rental housing to households with incomes between R3500 and R15000. Finding quality and affordable housing around business districts can have a positive effect on the economic trajectory of a city.
Similarly, finding reasonably priced and high-quality accommodation within proximity to an institution of higher learning can significantly bolster the academic performance of students who face challenges affording housing expenses.
A Student Housing Landscape report by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), revealed that during the #Feesmustfall movement, government funding directed toward the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) surged significantly, skyrocketing from R8.96 billion to R14.6 billion. While this marked a pivotal moment, offering more students an enhanced opportunity for learning, it also brought forth an unforeseen challenge.
The exponential increase in financial aid created a dual effect on the educational landscape. On one hand, it widened the access for students to pursue their education, but on the other, it led to a strain on purpose-built student accommodations (PBSA), both on and off campus. These accommodations found themselves struggling to accommodate the burgeoning number of students seeking residency.
The sharp rise in government funding, while a crucial support mechanism for students, inadvertently increased the pressure on existing infrastructure designed to house them. The accommodation facilities meant for students faced an unexpected surge in demand, rendering them inadequate in capacity to cope with the overwhelming influx of students.
The report underlines a pressing need for innovative strategies to address the escalating housing demand that accompanies amplified access to institutions of higher learning.
JOSHCO enters the market as local governments attempt to address this problem.
The report categorises PBSA in three ways: upper end student accommodation market, ranges between R5000 and R8000 (but can go as high as R14 000). They offer ensuite lofts or bachelor that have kitchenettes and space for a washing machine.
The second category is the mid-student market which ranges from R3000 to R4500 and can offer bachelor units or shared units with their own kitchenette, and communal bathrooms and laundry areas.
The third category is the ‘affordable’ student market, which can go as low as R500 a room. These offer a room, sometimes furnished with a desk, a wardrobe and a bed, along with communal bathrooms, a kitchen and a laundry area, that can be shared by several rooms.
Private accommodation developers have displayed a preference for creating student accommodations that cater to the mid-to-upper-end market, with a primary emphasis on proximity to universities. However, there is a consensus as reported by IFC among private and public developers that the greatest demand is within the affordable market. This means that the biggest factor contributing to the student housing crisis is that most students who desperately need accommodation, cannot afford it.
The ‘affordable’ market is made up of students primarily funded by the NSFAS. Unable to meet the high rental rates, many students have had to find cheaper alternatives. Cheaper alternatives in and around the city, come in the form of backyard dwellings, and other unregistered accommodations that do not offer security or safety.
This is where JOSHCO comes in, providing a relevant service to a market that otherwise would not be able to afford the advantage of staying within the Braamfontein education node. According to Nkosi, “99 per cent” of the students they currently house, are on NSFAS.
Nkosi said that “we saw a need, seeing young people, more especially from rural areas, being vulnerable in Johannesburg, not finding places, or getting expensive places which are not up to standard”.
JOSHCOs student accommodation provides single units for R4100, double-sharing units for R3700 and four-sharing units for R3500 All rooms are furnished with a bed, cupboard, study table, and a fridge, kitchen cupboard, stove, kettle and microwave. The accommodation also provides Wi-Fi, and a shuttle service for students to and from their respective institutions of higher learning.
“We are accredited by Wits and UJ, so what happens is that for instance if UJ or Wits, there are students who want accommodation, they will refer them to us, as an accredited facility” said Nkosi.
Quantifying the student housing demand in the CoJ
The IFC estimated the housing shortfall around the two major universities and the two TVET Colleges in the COJ area (Wits, UJ, Central Johannesburg College and Southwest Gauteng Tvet College) at 47 687.
For now, the effective demand is determined by calculating the total enrolment of students in the various institutions and subtracting it from the available PBSA supply, both public and private. Public PBSA refers to student housing on and around campuses offered by the institutions themselves. The figure did not consider smaller institutions that cannot be categorised as universities or TVET colleges but offer higher learning services (Rosebank College and Damelin in Braamfontein are prime examples).
Of course, not all enrolled students need accommodation. Some may stay at home, or with other relatives who reside near the institutions. So, although the figure is not one hundred percent accurate, it can still give us a general idea that the problem is evolving into the tens of thousands every year, while student housing is only growing in a few hundred beds at a time. It may in effect, be considered a housing backlog.
Providing social housing
JOSHCO’s student accommodation project does not stand independent and unaffected by the challenges that JOSHCO has faced in providing housing in the Johannesburg inner city.
Their integrated annual report and the section 79 oversight committee report for 2022, show that not only does the entity have a “housing backlog of 396 532 units” as a result of low revenue collection and high operating costs, JOSHCO recorded a budget deficit of R133.7 million.
Section 79 committees are elected for each government department, by the municipal council, to submit recommendations and reports on the department’s functions and services.
Mpumelelo Phakhathi, a researcher in the section 79 oversight committee for housing, said that the factors recorded in the oversight report, amongst others, may well have a bearing on JOSHCO’s capacity to reach its student housing target.
JOSHCO has committed itself “to develop a student accommodation precinct that offers a safer sound security and technologically enabled environment”, with a target of 10 000 beds in five years.
Information provided about JOSHCO’s projects and development (P&D) office claims that they remain on target. However, the numbers are not on their side. A five-year plan that was piloted in the 2021/2022 financial year, concludes in 2025/2026. Their currently completed student accommodation houses 183 beds, meaning that JOSHCO must provide 9816 beds in the next three years or risk missing its target.
The entity’s P&D office told Wits Vuvuzela that their pilot student accommodation cost R50.6 million to develop and that they have budgeted R3 billion, in pursuit of the targeted 10 000 beds.
However, the fact that JOSHCO has outsourced the management and maintenance of Dakalo House to Kwatloe Pro Power, a student facilities management company and that most of the building’s rental revenue is paid directly by Nsfas, creates mitigating factors against JOSHCOS student housing projects falling into the same pitfalls as their other projects.
The housing supervisor, Chris Mazibuko, is employed by Kwatloe Pro Power.
Although JOSHCO is yet to provide the safety and quantity that their plan potentials, Lungile Tebogo, who has been a tenant of Dakalo Student Court expressed to Wits Vuvuzela that the building is the cleanest and best maintained he has lived in around Johannesburg.
He moved to JOSHCO’s student accommodation after his room in a previous accommodation was flooded by a burst pipe.
When Wits Vuvuzela visited Dakalo Student Court, the security gate was open, the face recognition system was off, and you could barely see the next person’s face in the foyer in front of the stationery lifts. All due to a power cut.
Frequent unscheduled power cuts over two weeks, on the block where JOSHCO student accommodation sits, tarnish Tebogo’s praises of management. These power cuts, according to Tebogo are not part of the loadshedding schedule and can happen for up to 11 hours at a time.
“This is student housing, if this is what happens, what happens to our academic activities? That means a halt to them. Everything must come to a stop now”.
Mazibuko said that they have had to switch off the generator to save on the cost of diesel. This has affected water pressure and has also led to food wastage.
While bigger infrastructural failures like power cuts and loadshedding are beyond JOSHCOs control, they greatly compromise their idea of a “technologically enabled student precinct” in the Johannesburg CBD. The security and technological connectivity they promise fall apart when the reality of unmaintained inner-city infrastructure hits.
Private/corporate accommodation developers
The Johannesburg CBD is considered the academic node with the largest total number of PBSA beds, standing at 31 958. Followed by Pretoria and then by Cape Town. 5279 of these are public and 26 679 are private.
In Gauteng, five corporate developers share the supply of PBSA beds, namely South Point, Respublica, Feenstra Group, CitiQ and Gateway Student Accommodation.
These private suppliers have thus far been catering mainly to the higher-end and mid- student accommodation market.
Students who cannot afford housing, are not only finding alternative accommodation in backyard dwellings and unregistered accommodations which increases the chances of rental abuse and unmaintained, unconducive living conditions, but they also tend to have the added disadvantage of walking or commuting further to and from school.
The affordable alternative
JOSHCOs student housing objectives, as set out in the City of Johannesburg’s five-year Integrated Development Plan (IDP), on paper, take into consideration the need for student accommodation to provide safety to students.
They provide security guards who constantly monitor the security gate that lets people in and out, and they enjoy the presence of a Badboyz security guard on their street. They also have facial recognition software for registered tenants.
This does not somehow take them away from the bustling of the city around them. Perhaps one day the completed student precinct will create a bubble that keeps students separate from the vibration of a city that harbours the up and down movements of men and women desperate for opportunities.
The area is over-populated with self-employed porters, baggage handlers packers and street vendors who scramble and fight over customers throughout the day. The intersection has become notoriously chaotic. Not itself uncharacteristic of the Johannesburg CBD, but the chaos creates the potential for the safety of students to be compromised.
When some of the vendors “have lots of money they’ll start drinking around the building, and causing scenes,” said Mazibuko. Not to mention that the buses that move in and out the bus station opposite the building, make it a noisy place to study.
JOSHCO, as a social housing provider extending its services to a student market that cannot afford the current supply, is a story of success. However, the recent spate of burning buildings in the inner city brought much needed attention to the fact that any attempts to regenerate the inner city need to be amplified and scaled up as soon as possible.
FEATURED IMAGE: JOSHCO student shuttle waiting outside of Dakalo Student Court to ferry students to their respective institutions. Photo by Morongoa Masebe.
Corruption, inequality, mismanagement, and most importantly, the rapid growth of informal settlements—are all testament to the city’s flawed housing system.
On the fateful morning of August 31, 2023 the City of Johannesburg was jolted awake by a harrowing inferno that engulfed a building at 80 Albert Street, claiming the lives of nearly 80 people. This tragic incident spotlighted the alarming reality of numerous hijacked buildings scattered across Johannesburg. These buildings often house the poorest of the poor and are typically overcrowded, unregulated and unsafe.
Though much of the discourse centred on hijacked buildings, it illuminated a more pressing concern – Johannesburg’s staggering housing backlog. Currently, the city faces a backlog of roughly 400 000 homes. With the current rate of delivering sitting at approximately 3 500 housing units per year, it would take the city 100 000 years to address the backlog.
While these figures are staggering, they barely scratch the surface of the problem. In 2022, former member of the mayoral committee (MMC) for human settlements, Mlungisi Mabaso, revealed that the backlog exceeded half a million when factoring in informal settlements and hostels.
Four facts about the housing backlog in Johannesburg. Graphic: Terri-Ann Brouwers
Although South Africa’s Constitution guarantees the right to access adequate housing for all, prioritising, “those living in extreme conditions of poverty, homelessness or intolerable housing,” the country’s social housing system remains deeply flawed.
In a nation grappling with a staggering 32.6% unemployment rate, and where 18.3 million South Africans between the ages of 18-59 are living below the food poverty line, the social housing system mandates households to have a minimum income of R1 500 in order to qualify.
According to Stat SA’s General Household Survey (GHS) South Africa faces a severe dependence on social grants, with social grants constituting the second most significant source of income for households, accounting for 50.2%. Additionally, 20% of households suffer from food insecurity. These statistics raise a critical question: If millions of South Africans rely on social grants and live below the food poverty line, where are they expected to find the means to participate in social housing programmes?
When faced with a housing backlog of this magnitude, people are compelled to take matters into their own hands. This is precisely what numerous South Africans have done at various informal settlements across the city. Therefore, it is conceivable that the housing backlog is intricately connected to the emergence and rapid increase of informal settlements.
While the city lacks a formal definition for informal settlements, they operate under the following working definition: “An impoverished group of households who have illegally or without authority taken occupation of a parcel of land (with the land owned by the Council in the majority of cases) and who have created a shanty town of impoverished illegal residential structures built mostly from scrap material without provision made for essential services and which may or may not have a layout that is more or less formal in nature.”
In 2010, the city reported 180 informal settlements scattered throughout its various regions. Fast forward to 2023, and that number has surged to approximately 320 informal settlements citywide. This raises the question: What is being done to address the situation of those residing in these informal settlements?
The increase in informal settlements in Johannesburg over a 13 year period. Graphic: Terri-Ann Brouwers
Alexandra, Alex, Gomora
Situated across from Sandton, the wealthiest square mile in Africa, and separated only by the M1 freeway, lies the township of Alexandra also nicknamed Alex or Gomora. Upon observing this area, one is struck by the makeshift structures, known as shacks, and even more astonished by the high population density. Hundreds of thousands of people have been residing in this informal settlement for many years. They have turned to this option while waiting to be provided housing by the City of Johannesburg, with some having been on the waiting list for nearly 50 years.
Ward councillor Floyd Ngwenya represents ward 107 in Alexandra and states that the settlement is hugely overpopulated. “When we look at the books Alex was supposed to have at least 60 000 thousand people staying in Alex, but we are [almost] a million now,” said Ngwenya. It is estimated that Alex currently has roughly 700 000 residents. Alexandra is clearly in urgent need of social housing, but not much has been done to address this issue.
Mabaso told Wits Vuvuzela that, “The backlog in fact started in 1996, in fact prior to 1996 because there are people with B forms that have [still] not been allocated [homes].”
When questioned about when he applied for social housing, Modise Christopher Bosielo (55) an Alex resident and father of three said, “I don’t remember [exactly] when, but it’s about twenty years.”
To add insult to injury, Boiselo and his wife are both unemployed and, and in his words, ‘”struggling to make ends meet”. However, he is aware that besides the housing backlog, he and his wife do not qualify for the existing social housing programmes due to not meeting the financial requirements.
While residents wait to be formally housed, their current living conditions are deplorable.
“Living conditions, I can describe it as the most challenging and I think for obvious reasons,” says Mabaso. He continues “They do not have proper houses; they are living in temporal structures that get affected in whatever condition of the weather. If it’s heavy raining it gets flooded and if it’s too hot, then you can’t stay inside. Above that there are no proper basic services that are provided. I mean all the services, the provision is on [a] temporal basis, the electrification, water, you know there is not proper sanitation.”
A Missed Opportunity – Alexandra Renewal Project
Despite the grim situation, policies and programmes have been implemented over the years to address housing issues in Alexandra. One of the programmes implemented was the Alexandra Renewal Project (ARP). The ARP, initiated by the national government in 2001, and received a budget of R1.3 billion. Its purpose was to enhance the “physical, social, and economic environment of Alexandra.” A key goal was to augment housing and reduce population density in the area. The question is whether it has delivered on its intended promise, and the answer is no.
This resulted in what was termed the #TotalShutDownofAlex protests in August and July 2019. Residents of Alexandra mobilized in protest against the lack of service delivery in their community, specifically emphasizing the acute housing shortage. Subsequently, a collaborative investigation conducted by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and the Public Protector was undertaken to address the myriad issues raised by the protestors. A pivotal aspect of this investigation focused on scrutinizing the management of funds allocated to the ARP.
The investigative team gathered submissions from numerous Alexandra residents. Many of them contended that the total funds allocated for housing under ARP were unaccounted for by the relevant government authorities. Residents of Alexandra further asserted that despite substantial spending under ARP, the housing outcomes in their area were disproportionately inadequate.
A submission presented by the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA) to the investigation team underscored the numerous gaps during the audit of the ARP. The AGSA noted inadequate project planning and a lack of proper documentation for project assessment. Moreover, the individual projects within the ARP were not efficiently executed and supervised. Due to a lack of documentation submitted by ARP, AGSA could also not verify if the funds allocated to the ARP were exclusively used for the project.
Further submissions were made by the Group Forensic Investigation Services of the city of Johannesburg and they highlighted the following:
(a) Evidence of criminality, conflicts of interest on the part of certain service providers
(b) That the ARP management was marked by procurement fraud, post facto approvals, irregular awards, advance payments, unauthorised expenditure, fruitless and wasteful expenditure of up to R40 million;
(c) Projects not optimally managed thereby leading to poor work quality, late delivery of projects, project overruns;
(d) Tender and contractual disputes where contractors defaulted, filed for insolvency, contract terminated and court challenges, etc.
“Because it’s allocating such a lot of budget to housing, housing is also the most vulnerable to corruption”.
Marie Huchzermeyer
A Sector Vulnerable to Corruption
Wits Vuvuzela spoke to Marie Huchzermeyer who is an associate professor at the Wits School of Architecture and Planning and has done extensive research on informal settlements within the City of Johannesburg. Huchzermeyer says, “In the housing sector there’s long been a discussion about the RDP housing system not being fair and not being a good way of government spending its money, although it must also be recognised that at least the government is doing something, it does have a housing programme, it is rolling and it is allocating budget to it, but because it’s allocating such a lot of budget to housing, housing is also the most vulnerable to corruption.”
She also says that detecting corruption in this sector is challenging. “There are so many housing projects that are incomplete, where contractors have disappeared, and whether its corruption or whether its poor project management, budgets not being properly planned for and allocated, the capacity to actually deliver housing seems to be very fragile at the moment,” says Huchzermeyer.
The level of corruption is not lost on the residents of Alex and other informal settlements. “They know that the allocation processes are so fraud that when a housing project gets built politicians somehow interfere in the allocation of units and the people that were supposed to benefit from them don’t,” says Huchzermeyer.
“With corruption, it’s a reality, we cannot run away from it, and I think that’s the conundrum that the sector is facing,” says former human settlement MMC Mabaso.
He continues “I can tell you; you have a cartel in the construction [industry] that is operating, taking charge of the budget, and not delivering the good and the quality work that is expected. So, people are interested in the sector because you know you get rich quicker when you are a developer and that’s where their area of interest is actually at.” He says that it is the main challenge that is hindering the performance of the department.
What is the City doing?
While there appears to be significant mismanagement in the city’s housing sector, specifically Alex, the key question is what actions the city is taking to address this issue and whether those actions are enough.
Speaking on actions taken by the city Councillor Floyd told Wits Vuvuzela: “Currently the city of Johannesburg has implemented a project called UISP which is [the] Upgrading of Informal Settlement Programmes. That programme aims to identify informal settlements around Johannesburg and try and formalise those settlements within the spaces they are currently in. My ward with the informal settlements that we have, we have consultation meetings with residents of those informal settlements to say [ask] what is the best way you [the residents] think the government can assist you.”
A graphic detailing what a UISP is and the four phases of a UISP. Graphic: Terri-Ann Brouwers
Mabaso’s sentiments are that the city has not done enough. “The city has not done enough to address the housing backlog and the informal settlements; we have not done enough,” he says.
Mabaso says while grants are in place to address informal settlements they are not being used correctly. “If you look at the performance of the city now, I can tell you they are not spending the grants [on] the programmes they should be spending them [on].”
He also highlights the alarming fact that construction has not commenced on recent housing projects that were implemented. He explains that this is due to the city’s capital budget being allocated to projects that were started years ago.
Upon entering Alex, one is confronted with a panoramic view of the entire area—a sea of tin roofs stacked densely, making it challenging to distinguish one makeshift home from another. However, the most striking aspect of this vista is what lies just beyond the expanse of tin: the skyscrapers of Sandton, the wealthiest square mile in Africa. If inequality could be captured in an image, this would be it. Photo: Terri-Ann Brouwers
As you approach, the chaos becomes simultaneously clearer and more intricate. Narrow streets and exposed electrical wiring weave a web over the entire informal settlement. Photo: Terri-Ann Brouwers
One of the more striking sights is a double-story structure within the informal settlement. Some residents in this area have begun building with bricks, so encountering double-story homes or structures with multiple units is not uncommon. Photo: Terri-Ann Brouwers
One of the most worrisome aspects is that numerous makeshift homes are positioned right on the banks of the Jukskei River. The damp ground poses a clear hazard, yet many people have sought refuge in this precarious proximity to the stream. Photo: Terri-Ann Brouwers
A multitude of DStv satellite dishes dot the landscape of the informal settlement, serving as a poignant testament to how people have established their homes here—some for over 30 to 40 years. Photo: Terri-Ann Brouwers
Children can be observed playing amid the rubble and even atop the shacks—this is their everyday reality. Photo: Terri-Ann Brouwers
“There are no construction of houses in the mega project that we are currently implementing so, every expenditure that is on our capital budget now is for the work that started [a] long time ago, so there are no new developments that are taking place. I know there is one that will be launched that we started three years ago, so the city has not really done enough.”
Over the years, various policies and programs have been implemented, whether they have been successful or not, to address the city’s housing needs. Changes have certainly taken place; however, Huchzermeyer says, “What hasn’t changed is the need for people to resort to informal settlements.”
FEATURED IMAGE: Seated on a bench, three friends gaze out over the landscape they call home—Alexandra. Photo: Terri-Ann Brouwers
Wits LGBTQ+ students have proposed accommodations exclusively catering to them, to foster inclusion and safety for the queer community
The Wits University management, consisting of the dean of students, the director of campus housing, and the Board of Residence (BOR) is weighing the feasibility of a queer only residence. This was done following a ‘queer-safe house proposal’ by two transgender students.
The students, Samora Mbambi and Jordan Lee Green, first approached Tish White, programme coordinator at the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Advocacy Projects after encountering difficulties at their respective accommodations.
Mbambi, a transgender woman, came to Wits in her first year in 2020, having already fully transitioned, she was assigned to a men’s only residence, to share a room with two male students.
“Not only did it make me uncomfortable, but it also equally made them uncomfortable, because they would always mabe phuma [when they would leave the room] to go to the kitchen, other boys would laugh at them” explained Mbambi.
Mbambi and Green were initially told by management that a queer safe house would exclude students based on their sexual orientation.
However, White escalated the matter to the dean of student affairs, Jerome September, who took it up to the director of Campus Housing and Residence Life (CHRL) Basil Mugwena. Last month, the pair, together with the students and the BOR met to deliberate on the viability of the proposal.
As part of their proposal, the students conducted a survey through Activate – a queer student society at Wits – asking their peers if they would apply to live in a queer only residence. The survey received a resounding response, with 95.8% of the people surveyed answering yes to the question.
Survey conducted by Samora Mbambi and Jordan Lee Green through Activate student society. The results show resounding support for the queer residence by queer survey participants.
Anele Zulu* said that the bi-gendered system that Wits uses to assign students to residences should be revisited. “It has been triggering me with dysphoria, as I am forced to share a room and unit with men while I’m a woman and in my transitioning phase.”
In August 2018, the institution removed gender prefixes from communication to students to promote inclusion of transgender students. In the statement Wits said, “the University recognizes that it is invalidating and distressing for a person who, for an example, was assigned female at birth but identifies as male to be constantly addressed by a non-affirming title in University correspondence and systems.” However, based on these students’ concerns, more can be done.
Green emphasized: “we know that they strive for inclusion and equality. We would simply like to push this a little further”.
The queer-safe house team told Wits Vuvuzela that the mixed residence option is “integrated on paper”, but because of people’s attitudes and biases, there is still a long way to go to ensure that some queer students in res feel safe.
The name with * was changed to protect the student’s identity.
FEATURED IMAGE: Samora Mbambi, one part of the queer safe house proposal team. Photo by Morongoa Masebe.
Affected students in a meeting with acting Dean of Students Lamese Abrahams discussing amongst other things, the plan to accommodate students preparing for exams. Photo: Michelle Gumede
by Masego Panyane and Michelle Gumede
HUNDREDS of Wits students will be temporarily accommodated for free after being left homeless on campus over the festive season, squatting in libraries and computer labs to prepare for their supplementary and deferred examinations.
This comes after the entire end-of-year examination timetable was reshuffled due to the #FeesMustFall protests that rocked the country late last year. Supplementary and deferred exam dates were pushed back to early January and many students stayed on campus to prepare. But many were left without accommodation as residences closed on December 1.
In protest against their lack of accommodation, many of the affected students with the Wits Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and Wits Fees Must Fall (FMF) staged a sit-in at the Senate House concourse, also known as Solomon House.
On Monday January 4, several Student Representative Council (SRC) members met with representatives from the All Res Council, the university administration and Wits EFF to agree that students writing deferred and supplementary exams would be accommodated on campus.
SRC projects, media and campaigns officer Mzwanele Ntshwanti said the SRC left for holidays on December 23. When the SRC arrived on campus in early January, they received and processed a list of the homeless compiled by a few students who had been staying in the library, concourse and computer labs. Ntshwanti said the SRC were already prepared that there might be a situation where a bulk of students would come from all over the country to write their exams. However, he said preparations stalled over how much it would cost the university.
“Conversations were started, they were just never concluded because the university was like ‘It’s gonna be costly and they were not willing to take the cost’,” Ntshwanti said.
This week’s agreement allows for 500 students, 300 male and 200 female, to be accommodated at Men’s Res and Jubilee respectively. Ntshwanti estimates the accommodation will cost the SRC R181 per night per student.
University officials could not be reached for comment by Wits Vuvuzela as of the time of posting this article.
Vuyani Pambo of Wits EFF said his organisation spent their holidays staging a sit in at Mens res, studying and consulting with students on possible solutions regarding the academic year ahead. Pambo says during their interaction with students it became more apparent that many students were on campus studying and doing vacation work to save up for their fees while being without accommodation.
On December 28, the Wits EFF staged a “let in” at Mens Res, where they opened up the residence for all homeless student which lead to conflict with campus control.
Pambo said they occupied Men’s Res only after attempting, unsuccessfully, to negotiate for accommodation for the homeless students with the university.
Although campus control was called to the Men’s Res, the students were never removed from the res and students are now coming in to sign up for accommodation since the agreement was publicised on social media by both the SRC and Wits EFF.
The procedure is that students have to go to cluster head Doreen Musemwa at Jubilee residence the day before their allocated exam date where their status for a deferred or supplementary exam is verified. Students must then go to the SRC offices to fill out forms and then they can then move into res. Students can stay at res until the day after their exam and will receive breakfast daily at the main dining hall for the duration of their stay.
Third-year mining student, Albert Sefadi* said that learning about the agreement on Facebook, he drove to Johannesburg from Mahikeng to sign up for the accommodation before his exam date. However, he says when he got to Jubilee on Tuesday he found that Musemwa was not around and he had to sleep in his car.
Sefadi was later assisted by the SRC on Wednesday and had completed all his paperwork, ready to move into his room by 10am.
There are some students who are distrustful of the arrangement. Rendani Dumah* a final-year education student and Wits FMF member decided to not take the offered accommodation.
“I don’t want to have the SRC telling people that they did stuff for me when they didn’t do anything,” said Dumah.
As of Friday, the occupation of Senate House has continued despite the dean of students sent the FMF group a letter demanding they leave the concourse.
*Affected students requested that Wits Vuvuzela change their names.
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