Chairperson, Moses ka Moyo, with the Halala Award on display

Friends of the Inner City was established in 2006 with an aim of protecting the rights of owners of sectional title properties. The forum has evolved into an award-winning civil organisation, with the Halala Joburg Award for Caring Joburg under its belt. The awards are organised by the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA).

"Sectional title property forms the core of what the forum does," explains the chairperson, Moses ka Moyo.

Friends' in action in the inner city

"We want to encourage people to participate in the City's vision," Moyo explains. "We want them to play a role in providing a clean and safe inner city."

Sectional title properties in the inner city are generally flats owned by the occupants, most of whom have lived in Johannesburg for many years. They bought their flats mostly in the 1990s, when the original owners were moving out to the suburbs.

Friends of the Inner City "encourages them to pay for council services", Moyo points out. It organises meetings with owners, tenants, managing agents and various stakeholders to discuss, among other issues, levy documents and payment of general services. "We try to put everything in layman's terms ... we want them to understand what the City intends to do."

Sectional title buildings are prone to "building hijackings", which usually involves managing agents using shoddy tactics to divert money meant to be paying council services. Moyo is at pains to explain that residents do pay for their services, but part of the problem is that they are not able to pay directly to the City.

Management

While the managing agents are appointed by building trustees, at most properties the rightful owners are unknown. "The biggest problem is that everyone is in dispute of these buildings. We don't know who owns them."

The forum recently saved residents of Worcester Court on Smit Street from eviction. The Johannesburg High Court ruled against a private company that the approximately 400 residents "do not need to be evicted".

"The residents [of Worcester Court] will now be able to pay for services directly to the City of Johannesburg," Moyo says. "About 400 people would have been left homeless."

Other problems with which the forum deals include apparent fixing of service bills. It also aims to bridge the gap between residents and the service provider, the City. "If the people were able to get their electricity statements, for instance, directly from the City, that would be better."

Inner city residents in some company-owned buildings are also experiencing a growing trend whereby rental companies sell electricity units to them, and do not providing an option to buy power from City Power or Eskom outlets.

A worrying drift in the inner city, according to Moyo, is that a number of sectional title owners have lost their flats over the years. This happens when administrators "introduce a mysterious investor who then buys everyone off the scheme".

The consequences have been that owners are forced to sign lease agreements when it dawns on them that their properties are no longer in their hands. "People move in as tenants when they are being renovated by companies, and they become tenants not owners."

Campaigns

Friends of the Inner City, which has about 3 000 volunteers, is steeped in community work. The organisation conducts sectional title training to help owners establish body corporates to take control of their buildings.

It's also a leading voice in clean-up campaigns in the inner city. One of its assumed ongoing cleaning projects is Lorna Court on the corner of Twist and Wolmarans streets. The building, facing a state-of-the-art Rea Vaya bus terminal, burnt down in May 2006.

An incident in which one person burned to death and a baby dramatically fell into the hands of passer-by Michael Ndlovu, it left scores of people homeless.

Moyo says the forum is working with flat owners to revive Lorna Court. The roof is the biggest component that needs repair, he states. "We've started to clean it up, with residents that used to stay there ... Once we do the roofing we'll be able to move forward."

The forum is also registering a co-operative that will involve inner city "residents who have not benefited from government housing subsidies". The co-op already has 357 Region F residents who would be beneficiaries, and it is looking for a vacant building to buy.

"Whichever building we get, we will be able to create jobs."

A newspaper, to be called the Inner City Gazette, is also in the pipeline. A free community newspaper, it will focus on telling the stories of people living in Region F.

Plans to launch a radio station, to be named Inner City FM, are also advancing. "The station would give people a platform to speak," Moyo explains. "Most of the problems are created by lack of information, and the station would bridge that gap."

Already a full agenda, its work does not end there. Friends of the Inner City is also working to set up a foundation to get more inner city youth enrolled at the University of the Witwatersrand.

The JDA recognised the forum with the award as it "facilitates community co-operation, bringing communities together and making the inner city a better place to live through gradual build up and restoration of trust, creating mutually sustainable relationships between agents, tenants and building owners".