Nompiliso Yekela. Picture: FILE

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.”  – By SABELO SKITI and SIYA BOYA

TOP RATE: Christa Botha, left, from Research in Motion presents Daily Dispatch graphic designer Rudi Louw – representing DispatchOnline – with the CNN African Journalist of the Year Award in the Digital Category. Picture: SUPPLIED

The Daily Dispatch online team beat more than 2000 of South Africa’s top media teams to win the CNN African Journalist of the Year Award in the Digital Category.
Entries poured in from 40 nations across the African continent. Only eight journalists were honoured.

Assistant news editor Thanduxolo Jika came second in the category for Best News Story for his investigation into the 2009 Somali killings in Buffalo City.

Dispatch graphic designer Rudi Louw accepted the award on behalf of DispatchOnline on Saturday evening at a ceremony held in Kampala, Uganda.

The prestigious title and the highest accolade for online journalism in Africa was awarded for DispatchOnline’s work on an investigation of BCM slumlords.

Dispatch editor Andrew Trench said: “This is the most prestigious award yet won by the Dispatch. For the online team to have prevailed over more than 2000 entries from across the continent shows that the Dispatch is not only able to compete with the best in South Africa but with the best in the world. It is heartening to see that stories from East London and the Eastern Cape can be appreciated so far away from home.”

Trench added: “Thanduxolo Jika’s ‘highly commended’ recognition is also a great honour for his work and for the Dispatch. I’m so proud of our team who have achieved these awards which are a first in the long history of the newspaper.”

In a statement to the media, judge and CNN bureau chief in South Africa, Kim Norgaard, said: “The Daily Dispatch reporter team did a thorough investigative report on slumlords and slum dwellings in King William’s Town. But it is the enriching of the story with creative tools from the Internet that earns them this award.

“For example, the viewer can take a tour of the slum house, can look at their own neighbourhood to see if there are slum houses on your street and can even report suspected slumlords. All of this enables the viewer to continue on a journey of discovery.”

Winners walked away with a cash prize, laptop, printer and a BlackBerry.

• M-Net will broadcast the “highlights programme” of the award ceremony throughout June. — By KATHRYN PARKES, kathrynp@dispatch.co.za

Michael Keyter. Picture: Theo Jeptha

A prominent East London businessman has been exposed as the owner of nine boarding homes in Southernwood.

Kenneth Keyter, who owns 10 other properties in West Bank, has been caught in the forefront of a three- month investigation by the Daily Dispatch into Buffalo City’s slumlords.

Two weeks ago the Dispatch exposed a government official from the Premier’s Office who owns seven slum homes in King William’s Town.

In the case of Keyter’s property the nine homes in Southernwood are being used as hostels and a licensed tavern, and subdivided into small rooms occupied by people desperate for a roof over their heads.

A deeds property search on Buffalo City Municipality’s value me website showed that all 19 properties are registered and belong to Kenneth Gilbert Keyter, father of a former teacher Michael Keyter.

Michael assists his father with the business as his father is elderly.

A visit to the nine properties in Southernwood yesterday revealed that almost all the houses were being used as unlawful boarding communes with the exception of one – 24 Nahoon View Road – which is used by a tenant to run a legal tavern called CJ’s Chocolate Tavern.

Right next door to the tavern – 22 Nahoon View Road – is another boarding commune owned by the Keyters.

The Dispatch was told the house was not a boarding house but as soon as enquiries were made for a place to stay, the tenants quickly made a room available to rent for R350 a month.

It turned out to be a small single outside room, with no lights and no windows. There was only one bathroom, shared by all those who live in the house.

When the Dispatch visited Kenneth Keyter at his home in Nahoon a few weeks ago, he said he had bought the properties many years ago as an investment after he stopped pineapple farming near Alexandria.

He said his son had since taken over the business. In a telephone interview with the Dispatch yesterday, Michael confirmed that his family owned the following houses in Southernwood:

• 66 St Peters Road;
• 70 St Peters Road;
• 4 Nahoon Road;
• 22 Nahoon View Road;
• 24 Nahoon View Road;
• 16 Usher Street;
• 97 St Georges Street;
• 4 Stanhope Street; and
• 17 De Villiers Street.

“De Villiers, Stanhope and 97 St Georges have all been sold to other people, but they have not done the necessary paper work to transfer the houses over to their names,” he said.

Keyter said his father had sold some of the properties years ago under the Alienation of Land Act of 1981, which states that land can be purchased on instalments and transferred to the new owner once payment is complete provided there was a written agreement between buyer and seller.

Keyter said it was not their responsibility to look after the houses because they did not belong to them although they were still legally registered under his father’s name.

“There’s not much we can do about the situation because those houses don’t belong to us.

“They have owners who have taken them over, but some are still paying the instalments off,” he said.

• Buffalo City Municipality spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya said a plan to deal with slum homes would be discussed in a council meeting yesterday. However, the matter was never raised. – By GCINA NTSALUBA

Shacks at the back of houses in Valley Road are fairly common these days as they are rented out to tenants. Picture: Theo Jeptha

For people like Thembeka Velezweni, who is in her late 30s and unemployed, paying R900 a month for a single room in a boarding house she shares with her husband and daughter at Valley Road is taxing.

She and her family moved to Southernwood from Nxarhuni near Mdantsane in 2001 to look for a better life in the city – but those dreams have since been shattered.

Velezweni survives by doing part- time jobs. “My husband is the only one who works and we moved here to be closer to his work in the city,” she said.

Her case is not isolated; there are many in Southernwood like her and some have resorted to crime to survive. Ask NGO Youth for Christ, which has been burgled on four occasions.

Staff at the NGO – a few streets up from Southernwood’s notorious Nahoon View Road and Valley Road – said crime was uncontrollable.

“We have had four break-ins at our offices and we’ve also had cars being broken into right outside our gate during the day,” said one staff member, who wished to remain anonymous. He said one the biggest contributors to the escalating rowdiness and crime in Southernwood was alcohol abuse.

Another resident in Valley Road, who runs a children’s play-school and aftercare centre from her house, said after her property had been targeted by thieves a few times she installed an alarm system with panic buttons all over the house, and surveillance cameras to ensure the safety of the children.

Some of her children’s parents had been robbed outside her gate when they fetched their children in the afternoon, she added.

“It was during broad daylight; they ran into a nearby bush and vanished. We called the cops but they did not respond. We can’t take it any more. We have tried everything in our power to get this place cleaned up, but what can you do if even the police don’t come when you call them,” she asked.

East London police superintendent Mtati Tana denied allegations that the police failed to respond when called by residents. He said the Southernwood Community Police Forum was working closely with residents to root out crime in the area.

But residents like Nomelikhaya Oliphant, who rents a room at the back of Emlanjeni Tavern on Valley Road, below Nahoon View Road, scoffed at Tana’s claims, saying she had no idea that Southernwood was as bad as it was when she moved from Somerset East to live with her husband and child.

She thought she was moving into a clean and crime-free environment suitable to raise her four-year-old child.

When the Dispatch visited her last week, all she had in her dimly lit room was one bed and a few basic items of clothing and cutlery.

“We pay R550 for the rent but I don’t know how many other people live here in this property, because I keep to myself and I don’t go around looking for trouble,” said Oliphant, who is a stay-at- home mom.

Outside her dwelling, there were empty beer bottles strewn everywhere and people drinking outside on the pavement next to the tavern.

Next door to Oliphant’s home lives Khayalethu Sokuto, originally from Mzamomhle in Gonubie. He moved to Southernwood to be closer to work.

“I live here because this place is closer to where I work as a security guard and I share it with my girlfriend.

“We pay R500 for our room but the owner of the house is currently renovating so we’re hoping that we will get value for our money,” said Sokuto. — By GCINA  NTSALUBA

Nursing student Ayandiswa Zeyo, holding the pillow, with roommates Nwabisa Makhamba, left, and Vuyokazi Pati in the single room they share at 21 De Villiers Street. Picture: Sino Majangaza

Four student nurses living cheek by jowl in a Southernwood slum pay R600 each for a room barely big enough for two people.The three-bedroom house on De Villiers Street in Southernwood is used to accommodate 11 people, who all share one bathroom and toilet.

Even the lounge has been converted into a bedroom, complete with a bed and sleeper couch.

“Including us, there are 11 people and we all use the bathroom and toilet. It is quite difficult to live like this because you have to wake up very early to use the bathroom,” said Ayandiswa Zeyo from Uitenhage.

She is a student nurse at Lungile Nursing School in East London.

Zeyo shares a room with three other girls that she goes to school with. They each pay R600 each to cover the monthly rent of R2 400.

Her roommate, Vuyokazi Pati from Queenstown, said it was almost impossible to have visitors because there was not enough space in the room and they were not allowed to take their guests to the “lounge” because it was used as a sleeping room for two people.

Pati said the amount of money they paid did not justify the living conditions in the house.

“We are not allowed to have many visitors at the same time because it creates a problem for other tenants,” she said.

The lounge is separated by a curtain from the student nurses’ room, offering scant privacy for the young women.

Another tenant, who did not want to be named, said she had been sleeping in the lounge for almost six months. She shared the space with her brother, who slept next to her on a couch. — By GCINA NTSALUBA

De Villiers Street, Southernwood. Picture: Theo Jeptha

De Villiers Street in Southernwood has a grand total of eight illegal boarding houses.

With up to four people living in a single room, these slumhomes are bursting at the seams with tenants who are willing to pay anything for a roof over their heads.

Longtime resident Barbara Till, who has lived in Southernwood for 20 years, said three of the properties had business rights, but the rest didn’t.

With no enforcement of bylaws or town planning regulations, owners run the establishments with regard for neither the surrounding residents nor their own tenants.

Till wrote a letter to Buffalo City Municipality’s Environmental Health Practitioner, Stephen Hugo, in April 2008, asking him to inspect the property next door to her, 5 De Villiers Street, as she suspected the owners were converting the property illegally into a hostel. She has received no response to date.

The number of boarding houses in De Villiers Street has exploded over the years, she said, with most of them accommodating students. “From the occupants of these houses we experience inconsiderate behaviour – noise, rubbish left on the street, unkempt pavements and gutters which become other people’s problems.”

Up the road from Till at number 17 lives Mandla Mabhensela, his wife and their two kids in tiny room for which they pay R280 a month. Both parents are unemployed and survive on part-time jobs.

They have no electricity or even a bathroom, and their only toilet does not flush.

When the Dispatch visited the family this week, we found a single bed in the room where all four family members sleep.

There was no sign of food or toys and their belongings were scattered on the floor.

“It’s not easy, but at least my children have a roof over their heads,” said Mabhensela, 28, who is from Dutywa.

At number 14 De Villiers Street is another boarding house that is home to about nine people who occupy small rooms that have been subdivided illegally to fit in as many people as possible.

Rooms in the backyard are home to another four people – dingy living conditions with no bathroom.

Bongiwe Ntabeni, 31, who occupies a single room in the house, said no one cared about the property, which even had an in-house caretaker.

“I’ve been (living) here since November 2008 and I can tell you that nobody cares about this house, not even the caretaker.

“Because if he did, there would be no broken windows and doors,” said Ntabeni, who comes from Centane near Butterworth.

Other properties being used as boarding hostels – many with tin shacks in the yard homing up to four with no bathroom – include numbers 8, 13, 18, 19 and 21 De Villiers Street. — By GCINA NTSALUBA

A tenant looks at another shack being built off Nahoon View Road in Southernwood. Picture: Theo Jeptha

Tertia Kirton lives close to Nahoon View Road and believes it should be renamed “Shebeen Road” – appropriate as it has become notorious for its taverns and watering holes.

Kirton, who lives in nearby De Villiers Street, said the pubs attract people who drink openly in public.

“Driving to work one morning, I saw a very young girl stumbling out of one of the shebeens at seven in the morning,” she said.

The Dispatch saw three taverns within 100m – two in Nahoon View Road, numbers 24 and 26, and another in St Georges Road.

Those in Nahoon View Road are former residential houses which a

re now operating as businesses – and legally, said the Eastern Cape Liquor Board.

Kirton said exposing young children – including her own sons – to this environment was unacceptable.

“Some of these girls have babies but they drink and smoke at shebeens, carrying them on their backs,” she said.

“What are they teaching their children and what kind of example are they setting?”

Kirton said she was also worried about drugs being peddled from some of the houses, which are occupied by drug lords and gang members.

The Dispatch entered properties and saw drugs in clear view, laid out on the beds of the dealers.

Problems borne of the chaos and unruly behaviour spill onto neighbouring properties owned by people like Joe Ndabeni, a pensioner.

Drinking and fighting in the street was a major bane that Ndabeni said he has had to put up with for many years.

“It’s inconsiderate behaviour: we can hear people talking from outside of the shebeen when we are trying to sleep at night,” he said.

“Every morning I have to pick up beer bottles outside my front gate because, if I don’t, they will break them all over the street.”

Ndabeni has lived in Southernwood for 14 years but has never experienced the kind of disorder currently eroding the social fibre of the neighbourhood.

“It’s never been perfect but it was much better than it is now,” he said.

The Eastern Cape Liquor Board (ECLB) marketing and communications manager, Sakhiwo Tetyana, said both taverns on Nahoon View Road had registered licenses to sell alcohol.

But he was unable to comment on the regulations governing their business hours, saying it depended on the municipality and residents of Southernwood.

“ECLB encourages residents who have complaints about a specific liquor trader to lay a formal complaint with the board to ensure that their complaints are dealt with within the law,” he said.

As well as the shebeens on Nahoon View Road, there are dozens of boarding slums that have shacks in their backyards.

Two of these houses, 16 and 18, belong to Thelma Shupinyaneng, a property developer from King William’s Town.

When the Dispatch contacted her yesterday, Shupinyaneng said she bought the houses last year.

They looked the same then as they did now, she insisted.

She said she bought one “from a white man called Stanford and when I took over I told those people (her tenants) that I am going to demolish those shacks and renovate the house but they begged me not to because they don’t have anywhere else to go.

“I know that it is illegal and not healthy for them because it’s dirty and there are drugs which children are being exposed to,” she said.

Shupinyaneng said she intended fixing her houses as soon as she had enough money. – By GCINA NTSALUBA

Kholiswa Sofece, who works as a daycare nanny, with her daughter Vathiswa holding one of the babies she takes care of. Picture: Theo Jeptha

Southernwood is one tough neighbourhood these days. Just ask Kholiswa Sofece, who is single-handedly raising a 14-year-old girl alongside drug dens and shebeens.

Sofece said there were far too many taverns, drug lords and addicts in the suburb.

The single mom said young lives were being destroyed, with many youths choosing a life of crime to maintain their destructive habits.

“After they (the thugs) rob or stab people on the street they run into our yard and hide in the dark because there is no electricity,” said Sofece, who works as a daycare nanny.

“And when the police come, they wake us up and ask us questions, making it seem like we are the ones that rob people.”

An image of what Southernwood’s houses once looked like. Picture: Supplied

She has even seen one of her neighbours being held up at gunpoint by a group of criminals who stole a TV set and DVD player.

“It was in broad daylight and they came in and took out a gun and started packing the TV and DVD in a bag and drove off.”

Sofece pays R720 a month for her tiny outside room, which is basically a shack built in the backyard of a house in Nahoon View Road.

Rent for such rooms ranges from R400 a month for a one-person shack in the backyard to R720 a month for a dwelling big enough for two people or more.

Sofece’s daughter, Vathiswa, who goes to school at John Bisseker High School, said she had also witnessed crimes happening in their street in the five years they have lived in Southernwood.

Some of the shacks that are built behind the houses in Nahoon View Road in Southernwood. Picture: Theo Jeptha

She said street muggings and stabbing incidents have become so commonplace that they don’t even flinch anymore.

“I have seen a lot of muggings on the street, especially on weekends just outside my house. This makes me scared of going out of the house, even to go to school, because you might get robbed or, even worse, raped,” said Vathiswa.

She said there was nothing more frightening than hearing criminals fleeing outside their shack in the middle of the night as police gave chase after another robbery.

“You can’t sleep peacefully because it might be our door that gets kicked down next,” said Vathiswa.

“I hate living here. It was much better and safer when we lived in Quigney (where her mother used to work until the business she worked at closed down).” — By GCINA NTSALUBA

The existence of makeshift homes like these built on the back of the houses in Nahoon View Road in Southernwood has surprised BCM officials – although they work only minutes away from the area. Picture: Theo Jeptha

Tin shacks and wooden hovels are taking over the fine old homes of Southernwood, once an upmarket suburb of East London but now an urban squatter camp.

All over the suburb the signs of decay are evident – none more shocking than the proliferation of shanties in backyards and open spaces.

Dispatch staff spent months immersed in the shabby neighbourhoods in and around Southernwood and found the most outrageous neglect of Buffalo City Municipality’s town planning regulations.

And like last week’s slumlords exposé in King William’s Town, there is evidence that city officials ignore pleas from residents to enforce municipal by-laws.

On February 8, 2008, residents appealed to the municipality’s building inspector, Lloyd van Zyl, to stop conversions at 8 De Villiers Street where they suspected student accommodation was being developed illegally.

More than a year later a petition was sent by the same group of concerned residents to ward councillor Robbie Muzzel, imploring him to prompt some action from authorities. This time they referred to six properties in De Villiers Street which were turning into illegal boarding houses.

Similar complaints emerged at a Daily Dispatch community dialogue in Southernwood earlier this year, where residents pleaded for the Dispatch to investigate the state of housing in their neighbourhoods.

In the last two months our investigation found:

• A street in Southernwood dubbed Shebeen Road because of the number of illegal taverns in it;

• Drug dens, which the Dispatch encountered first-hand;

• Illegally sub-divided homes boasting rows of shacks on individual properties;

• Broken bottles and discarded refuse on pavements and in streets;

and

• Uncontrolled human sprawl with dozens of people occupying some properties.

Because of the absence of law and order, knife fights and general crime have become a way of life for locals, said residents. They also told of enduring public drunkenness, loud music and parties in the streets.

Adrienne Till, who lives in De Villiers Street, said weekends were the worst. “We just want peace and quiet here but we never get it,” said Till.

Tenants pay up to R720 for a small shack, more for slum homes. A 21-year-old from Mdantsane who dropped out of school after having a baby now lives with her boyfriend in a tiny bedroom in a house on De Villiers Street for which they pay R900 a month. The only visible items in their room are a single bed, a prima stove and clothing hanging on the wall.

The house has subdivided rooms and a filthy bathroom which tenants don’t even bother to use any more.

Owner of the house Dave Vallabh said there was not much he could do to stop his tenants from bringing in squatters because he wasn’t always around.

“I told the guys not to bring other people into their rooms because they are only meant for one person,” he said. “I explained that the more people that live there, then more service will be required to fix the house, which costs me a lot.”

Down the road is the notorious Nahoon View Road.

Corrugated iron shacks accommodating an ever-growing number of people desperate for accommodation have been erected at just about every second or third house.

There is no electricity in some of them and people use candles for light. There are also no toilets in some of the houses so people urinate outside on the grass.

BCM, however, appears unaware of the scale of the problem.

Spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya said: “Like any of our ratepayers in all our suburbs and townships, Southernwood residents deserve to be living in conditions that are safe and healthy in a sustainable environment. Hence, it is disturbing to be confronted with such allegations.

“I have made the relevant directorates aware of this, and I am awaiting a comprehensive report.” – By GCINA NTSALUBA

Dispatch reporter Gcina Ntsaluba, far right, shares a joke with tenants from 6 Pottinger Street, from left to right, Bongani Qwele, Sanele Solwandle and Sithabile Ncwaba. Picture: Theo Jeptha

After running a series of  articles this week in the  print  and online versions  of the Daily Dispatch  about a  government official who was exposed for  running a  property empire  of illegal slums around  King William’s  Town, the  Dispatch can now reveal  how the  investigation was  put together.

Nompiliso Yekela, a clerk  in the Premier’s Office,  emerged as a slum queen.
We discovered that she  pretends to be a street  hawker  as a front for her  empire – seven houses, six  of which  have been converted into boarding slums  that are  crammed full of  people paying high rent  for small  rooms.
She makes over R80 000 a  month packing dozens of   people into her suburban  properties, breaking local  by-laws – and in the process destroying the fabric  of entire  neighbourhoods.
Dispatch reporter Gcina  Ntsaluba tracked her  down and  spent a month  in a house owned and  managed by  Yekela.
This is his personal account of the investigation   process.

As a reporter, it was quite challenging doing this story  because it  was an undercover operation.

The story required that I go  undercover and be  physically  based in one of her properties by  pretending  I needed accommodation for a month.

This was the best way I could  tell the story because it’s  not just  about the overcrowded houses but  it’s about the  people living in them  as well.

It took me about a week to  locate Yekela. I asked her if  she  had any rooms available during  September.

She said “Yes” and we agreed to  meet in town, outside  Jet Mart  clothing store, the following week  after office  hours.

When I got there, Yekela was  sitting on a chair by the  entrance  selling sweets and cigarettes pretending to be  a hawker.

But this was just a front, as I  discovered later, for her  other  business, the property empire  that’s worth more  than R6 million.

I paid Yekela R1 200 for rent and  gave her a deposit of  R600 which  she returned after I moved out.

The money was deposited into  her company, called  God’s Creation Investment, of which she is  the sole  director.

The house that I lived in at 6  Pottinger Street has 11  rooms that  are occupied by about 20 people.

I stayed in an outside room  which had nothing, literally,  not  even a light bulb for me to read by  at night.

I made myself comfortable and  bought a small mattress  and a  duvet to keep me warm at night.

Within days I started making  friends with the four guys  who  lived in a single room next to  mine.

They knew everybody in the  house and through them I  gained  access to the other people.

It turned out to be quite a mix of  people.

Some were college students,  government workers and  unemployed women who live with their  husbands and  children. I think this is what got to me the  most – watching small  babies being brought up under these dreadful  conditions and being exposed  to so many things.

What’s worse is that their parents seemed to have given  up hope  of building a better and more  respectable life.

Undoubtedly, the experience of  living in a slum was  highly valuable for my story and for me  personally as  well, because it gave  me the opportunity to experience   what it’s like not to have a shower,  a proper kitchen, a  fridge, privacy  in the bathroom … so many other  things  that I take for granted.

In conclusion, I would like to say  that Yekela is not the  only slumlord around Buffalo City, there are  many just  like her who have not  been exposed. —  By GCINA NTSALUBA