Johannesburg Inner City Hope Is Where The Heart Is
Category Advice
Established in 2006, Friends of the Inner City envisions protecting the rights of the owners of sectional title-like properties. The Friends forum grew into an award eligible civic organisation, along with bagging the Halala Joburg Award for Caring Joburg.
Sectional title property is the basis of the forum, believes Moses ka Moyo, the chairperson. Sectional title owners are required to play a significant role and take cognizance of the fact that they have a responsibility towards the security of Joburg.
Owners and occupants are one and the same of sectional title properties also known as flats in the inner reaches of the city, including areas such as Berea, Yeoville, Braamfontein and Hillbrow, most of whom lived in Johannesburg since the 90s when original owners had moved out towards the suburbs.
The aim of the Friends of the Inner City is to encourage them to make payments for council services. Even then, these sectional title buildings can be susceptible to "building hijackings”. This means managing agents diverting money meant for payment of council services. Had there been an alternative, Moyo painfully explains, of paying straight to the City for council services then perhaps this “building hijacking” could be stopped.
Management: 'Friends' inner city Trying to find and locate the rightful owners is a herculean task as most properties have managing agents appointed by the building trustees. Hence these properties are not free and clear of any dispute. “Friends” is on a mission to prevent eviction of the residents of disputed properties. A case in point is tenants of Worcester Court located on Smith Street who was facing imminent eviction by these managing agents.
The Johannesburg High Court has stood by the residents as well by ruling against a private firm who were about to evict about 400 residents for not paying for services to them.
Over and above the menace of fixing service bills which was mentioned earlier that the forum deals with; it also bridges the gulf between residents and service provider by eliminating middlemen.
Inner city residents of some company buildings could very well buy electricity units from Eskom outlets or City Power but quite a few rental companies aggressively sell the units to the residents leaving very little option for the residents.
Moyo is of the opinion and indeed finds it worrying that quite a few sectional title owners had lost their flats to a mysterious investor introduced by administrators who buys people off the scheme.
The inevitable consequences of such a shady deal are that the owners of investment property are coerced into signing lease agreements at a time when it occurs to them that they have lost their properties.
Campaigns With 3000 volunteers, Friends of the Inner City, is dedicated to conducting community work through sectional title training for assisting owners in controlling their buildings by establishing body corporates.
Friends are also leading a campaign to clean-up the inner city of Johannesburg. One of its continuing cleaning projects has been Lorna Court that was burnt in May 2006 at the juncture of Twist Street and Wolmarans Street which face the upmarket bus terminal, Rea Vaya.
To begin with, the roof of Lorna Court needs to be repaired, he states. The residents who used to live there have also pitched in. Once a new roof is put in place, other repair work on the building would follow.
Author: IMAGINE Properties
