Cracks in slum queen’s empire

Buffalo City Municipality has finally moved to start dismantling the empire of a notorious slum queen in just under a year after the Dispatch exposed her activities.

Nompiliso Yekela gained notoriety last November when an undercover investigation revealed how she was buying up homes in King William’s Town and filling them with mostly poor and desperate tenants. After the Dispatch infiltrated the lucrative side-business of Yekela, who works in the human resources department of the Office of the Premier, there was little reaction from the municipality.

But on Tuesday council voted in favour of overturning the rezoning status of one of her properties, making it illegal for it to operate as a residence. It also approved a recommendation by the city’s legal services department that legal action be taken to ensure Yekela ceased the operation of what they called “residential rooms”. This was after it was found she was not complying with conditions set down by law. It is not clear when the city will move to shut down this residence .

Contacted for comment yesterday, Yekela said: “ You can continue doing what you’re doing. I have nothing to say to the Dispatch.” BCM councillors were also livid that only one house belonging to Yekela had been targeted for closure. “There was a report on the woman in the Dispatch, thus I would have expected that council would bring a report which would talk about all the houses she owns and operates in King William’s Town,” ANC councillor Luntu Bobo said.

Annette Rademeyer, who is a councillor from the area, said she expected Yekela’s empire to crumble soon. “This particular problem has been ongoing for at least the last five years. I have personally been involved in this with various neighbours complaining … This person owns a lot of other properties that I’ve also had complaints about, and they have also been reported to the legal department and I’m assuming it’s in the legal process,” she added.

After breaking the story on conditions at Yekela’s six residences, the Dispatch won the CNN African Journalist Awards for its online depiction of the investigation. Part of the investigation also covered slums in Southernwood, but the city has yet to consider taking action in the East London suburb. The residence the city wishes to close down in Pottinger Street, King William’s Town, is the same in which former Dispatch reporter Gcina Ntsaluba lived during his investigation. He exposed squalid conditions in the residences and told how the streets of the small town were being turned into ghettos with people living up to 20 a house.

Though news of the impending closure was celebrated by neighbour Cindy Howes, it brought misery to the tenants. “At some point she had 22 people living in that house, so I am glad. I have been fighting with Mrs Yekela for years and I am happy that we’ve made some progress. I hope the same will happen with all her other properties,” said Howes.

But one of the tenants, Ngesisa Sotondoshe, a 20-year-old student from Ngqamakhwe, said: “I don’t know what I am going to do. Accommodation is very scarce here and the few places that are available are too expensive for us to afford as students.”

Source: Daily Dispatch