18

NEWS

THURSDAY AUGUST 23 2012

The Star

Clean-up shines fresh light on Joburg citys dark buildings

SCOTT SMITH
T IS no secret that Joburg has a huge number of abandoned and what are often referred to as dark buildings. Latest research suggests that there more than 1 000 such buildings providing shelter for an estimated 250 000 people, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF). The owners are often unknown, rates are left unpaid and the building almost inevitably falls into disrepair, while residents, some of who pay rent, others who dont, have no vested interest in the upkeep of their living environment. In many cases, rubbish is no longer removed by the municipality and residents merely throw their garbage out of their windows. The rubbish piles up, metres high, alongside the building, in some cases

Organisations and residents join to remove mountains of rubbish

only compounding the already unhygienic and overcrowded conditions. This was the case with Milton Court, Pritchard Street, just a stones throw away from the Johannesburg High Court. But miracles do happen and recently the residents cleaned , up the rubbish with organisations that try to hep them improve their living conditions. We are very happy with the results of the basic cleaning campaign with 15 of the large 12m2 skips of waste being used at final count, removing all kinds of waste, including human excrement and rotting food, said Simon Mayson, spokesman for Planact, a nongovernmental development organisation working mainly in the urban areas of Gauteng. Although Planact has being working with Milton Court only since May they teamed up , with the Inner City Resource Centre (ICRC) that has been working with residents of the building since 2006. This was necessary to help Planact tease out various intricacies of management in the buildings and the inner workings of rental, power structures, tensions and relationships, says Mayson. Shereza Sibanda, from ICRC, a non-profit organisation working in the field of human-

itarianism, advocacy and development, says they are also happy with the results of the clean-up and are committed to taking the next step, with the residents of Milton Court, to address other human rights issues that may be affecting them. Long-term resident and leader Alfred Mandindi, 47, acted as the real organising force among the residents and pushed them to get up and assist in the cleaning. Mandindi says: I am very happy that we have pulled together to clean this building ourselves. We are just waiting for the last skip to be removed from the street. Mandindi says they have already developed a plan to help keep the building clean by getting residents to pay for a couple of cleaners.

MESS ON HIGH: The rooftop of Milton Court was a pile of rubbish until the clean-up.

PICTURE: SCOTT SMITH

Residents asked to leave their paradise to make way for sport

RIO DE JANEIRO: For its residents, Rios Vila Autodromo shantytown is a quiet corner of drug-free paradise. For authorities, it is land where a highway leading to the 2016 Summer Games Olympic village will be built. City officials want the entire community moved to a nearby housing complex, but the 3 000 inhabitants of the slum, which lacks running water and schools, refuse to leave. Rio de Janeiro is going through growing pains as it prepares for the 2014 World Cup and the Summer Olympics in four years time. The authorities are cracking down on crime, upgrading boulevards, and cleaning up notorious shanty towns, known in Brazil as favelas. Officials eyes have long been focused on the Vila Autodromo favela, located on the Jacarepagua lagoon in the western Barra de Tijuca district. Pedro Paulo Franklin, a retired firefighter who lives with his wife, daughters and grand-daughters in Vila Autodromo, is not moving. The eviction is totally absurd. God gave us this little corner of paradise, the 71-year-old said, as he proudly showed his fig, coconut, acerola and papaya trees. We built it with our own hands, with much sweat, effort, dedication and love. Vila Autodromo residents say they have a right of possession, which entitles them to occupy the land on which they live. But for the past 20 years, city authorities have tried to evict them under various pretexts. I have no intention of leaving. I intend to resist in every possible way , because, by right, this land is ours and I have been living here for the past 17 years, said Altair Guimaraes, president of the Vila Autodromo residents association. I dont understand much because I cant read or write, said 70-year-old Antonia Henrique Macena. But we have been here for so many years. Why dont they leave us alone in our little corner? Where are they going to put us, for Christs sake? he asked. The Olympic village project is being developed by the British firm Aecom, which says it would leave the community intact, but authorities say residents need to be evicted to make way for the new highway . In an attempt to avoid eviction, the residents asked urban planners from two Rio universities last year to come up with an alternative. Guimaraes and other residents delivered the plan, which included paved streets, sanitation, a school and a nursery to Rio mayor Eduardo Paes , last Thursday . Rio authorities want the residents evicted because the community is located in an area of intense real estate appreciation, said Carlos Vainer, an urban planner at the Rio de Janeiro Federal University and one of the blueprint authors. The proposal is better than the brutal alternative of eviction and social segregation proposed by City Hall, Vainer said. Residents estimate their proposal would cost $7 million (R58m), half the cost of evicting and moving the community Vainer said there was no need . for the planned Transolimpica expressway to run through the favela. If one looks at the works project, one can see that the expressway is a straight line that makes a detour to cross the community to give a new , pretext for expulsion, he said. Paes, who is up for re-election in October, has vowed to act within the law and promised to study Vila Autodromos proposal. Asked about their plans, a City Hall spokesperson said they wanted to evict the residents because two thirds of the community is located in an environmental preservation area and because most residents dont have access to basic sanitation and live in precarious and unhealthy conditions. There will be no expulsion without an alternative solution, Paes told reporters last week. City Hall acquired land some 500m away from the site and will build low-cost housing. According to the mayor, Rio always has troublemakers, people who oppose projects thats why progress in the city has been stalled for so long. The World Cup and Olympics Peoples Committee, an activist network opposed to forced removals, claims that some 22 000 people in Rio, population six million, live in fear of losing their homes. Some 8 000 people have already been evicted to make way for construction related to the two mega sporting events, according to the groups figures. Vila Autodromo is a symbol but this is happening throughout the city said Renato Cosentino, an offi, cial with the activists. Sapa-AFP

I intend to resist in every possible way

REMOVALS: Residents of the Villa Autodromo favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, are refusing to leave their homes to make way for a road.