‘We want to live among our madams’
Sea Point domestic and low-income workers marched to a site which they want developed for affordable mixed-income housing.
|||Cape Town - Sea Point domestic and low-income workers, demanding affordable housing in the suburb, marched to Tafelberg Remedial High School on Thursday.
It was recently announced that the school was sold by the Western Cape government to the Phyllis Jowell day school for R135 million.
The workers, who are part of the Ndifuna Ukwazi Reclaim the City Land campaign, said they were unhappy with the sale and wanted the site to be used to build affordable mixed-income housing.
Last year the property, with three other provincially owned sites, was advertised for development by private sector investors in partnership with the provincial government.
It was proposed that a mixed-use development, which included the creation of 155 residential units, be built.
Nomthandazo Nokubeka, 43, said she needed her own place.
#reclaimthecity supporters arrive at Tafelberg, a vacant site primed for affordable housing in Sea Point. @ReclaimCT pic.twitter.com/edeJWDpJ33
— Ndifuna Ukwazi (@NdifunaUkwazi) March 3, 2016
Nokubeka used to live in Sea Point with her mother, who worked as a domestic worker.
When her mother stopped working because of illness and moved to Khayelitsha, Nokubeka took over from her and has been working in the area for more than three decades.
“I do not have a house of my own, I sleep in. I too would love to own my own house closer to where I work so I can spend more time with my child. The Khayelitsha house belongs to my mother. After working 30 years in this area cleaning peoples’ houses, what do I have to show for it?”
Nokubeka was one of more than 60 domestic workers at the march.
Magdeline de Bruin, 61, of De Doorns, is a cleaner and caregiver for an elderly woman who lives in Sea Point. De Bruins said she slept in, but had no privacy or a “proper bedroom”.
“I sleep in the front and the woman I work for sleeps in the bedroom. I only get to go home for a weekend once a month. I support this cause because I dream of owning a house here where my children can also get to visit me.”
Beauty Sisusa, a low-income worker who moved to Sea Point from East London at the age of 13, said it was about time there were some changes.
“We are tired of being good enough for cooking, cleaning and raising children for our madams, only to be kicked to the kerb when we get old. We want to live among our madams and be neighbours with them. We want to walk to work and our children to walk to school. The government should give blacks and coloureds justice.”
zodidi.dano@inl.co.za
Cape Argus