City’s property auction plan sparks rent boycott threat

A SOUTH African National Civic Organisation (Sanco)-affiliated civic organisation in Hanover Park has threatened a rent boycott and the occupation of vacant municipal units, linking the planned action to the City of Cape Town’s decision to auction about 50 City-owned properties across the metro, including the Good Hope Centre.

- MURRAY SWART

THE Good Hope Centre is among about 50 City-owned properties set to go under the hammer on February 26 as part of Cape Town's latest land release auction.

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Gary Hartzenberg of the Hanover Park Civic Organisation said long-term municipal tenants believe they should have been granted ownership of their homes after decades of paying rent.

“We are of the impression that the City of Cape Town's rental housing stock is paid up because beneficiaries have paid rent for 50 years and more, and we believe the houses should have been transferred into their names a long time ago,” Hartzenberg said.

He said the organisation had resolved to embark on a rent boycott and to occupy what it described as “derelict” and barricaded units in the area.