Tshwane non-profit social housing company in business rescue
Yeast City Housing is fighting for survival with debt of over R130-million
Thembelihle residential complex in the City of Tshwane where Yeast City Housing offers low-cost residential accommodation. The company says its financial woes began with a rent boycott in the block during the Covid pandemic. Photo: Warren Mabona
- Tshwane non-profit social housing company Yeast City Housing has been placed under business rescue.
- The company has debt of R130-million and its financial problems are blamed on a rent boycott during Covid.
- The company has a number of buildings with vulnerable tenants and low-income households.
- There are fears that its buildings will be sold and the social housing units lost in Tshwane.
A Tshwane non-profit social housing company has been placed under business rescue after struggling to service a debt of over R130-million, including interest.
Yeast City Housing rents out low-cost residential apartments and houses in a number of its buildings in the inner city.
Chairperson of its board Stephan De Beer said creditors include the National Housing Finance Corporation (NHFC) and the Gauteng Partnership Fund.
“We don’t want any units to be lost. Business rescue practitioners are on the ground trying to save the company and the housing units. Everything is at risk at the moment. But I hope the company will be saved,” said De Beer.
He said the financial difficulties started during the Covid pandemic in 2020, with a rent boycott by tenants at its Thembelihle residential complex. The company started civil proceedings, but its legal action failed.
“We spent over R2-million in legal fees. We had to do something because people stopped paying the rent. We are talking about people who have good jobs and nice cars.
“The result was that the City of Tshwane disconnected electricity supply to the complex. The courts also failed us because we did not get even one eviction order.”
“We are trying to line up investors. We want to protect the social housing units,” said De Beer.
If its buildings are sold, they should go to another social housing company, he said, which might also absorb the nearly 60 people Yeast employs.
“I’m hopeful the company will be saved,” says business rescue practitioner Sello Mkhondo, from Engaged Business Turnaround, which took control in May at the invitation of the board.
Yeast City Housing has 11 blocks of flats and houses. The company’s site has flats for R1,500 per month for people who earn R5,000 a month or less, and R1,800 rentals for people who earn up to R6,000 per month.
Yeast City Housing was established in 1999 by the Tshwane Leadership Foundation, according to Lance Thomas, acting co-CEO of the foundation. He said the foundation built a number of properties and handed ownerships over to Yeast City Housing in a trust.
Properties include Gilead House, which cares for more than 60 homeless and vulnerable people who have chronic illnesses.
Thomas said the foundation was particularly worried about losing its buildings and Gilead House.
“The first option for us will be to buy back our buildings but that will be a long process. We are exploring other options. We are hopeful that the company will be saved,” he said.
Thomas also blamed the rent boycott.
Tenants we spoke to at Thembelihle said they were not living there in 2020 and were unaware of the business rescue process.
“I am shocked to hear that the company has financial problems. I really enjoy staying here and I wish its financial situation can improve,” said a tenant.
Ndifuna Ukwazi’s Nick Budlender describes Yeast City Housing in glowing terms. He said it has a spectrum of housing catering for people with various incomes who can progressively move up the housing ladder when their circumstances improve.
He said if the buildings are sold, “this will place huge numbers of extremely vulnerable tenants in a very precarious position and would pretty much kill off Yeast entirely”.
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Letters
Dear Editor
It is very strange that the NPO Yeast has fallen on hard times. These are seasoned business directors, some of whom are religious leaders. I find it odd that none of the directors can save it as a collective, yet in the same breath, they say they could buy some of the properties back. David Beattie owns Chorus Letting, a successful property company in Cape Town and Johannesburg.
These NGOs, NPOs, and NPCs need to be investigated. Did they not complete the compulsory yearly audits required for an NPO? Where do these people get their money from? I smell a rat. Blaming it on COVID – these people receive funding. What salaries do the directors get?
Really now… not everyone is stupid or ignorant.
Dear Editor
The challenges that we are currently facing are as follows:
- We have been without electricity and water since July 2022 (basic needs).
- Ill-treatment from Yeast City Housing and the business rescue practitioner.
- Appointing a business rescue practitioner without engaging with tenants on the plan.
Firstly, when we entered or signed the lease agreement between Yeast City Housing (YCH) and ourselves as tenants, we were told that water and electricity were prepaid. To our surprise, there were no prepaid meters in our units.
Yeast City Housing signed an agreement with the VOLTANO Metering Company, which is a third-party agent. We are in a social housing institution, yet we were billed at commercial rates, where water and electricity were almost equal to the rental amount. We then approached the YCH office, requesting them to install prepaid meters. Memorandums and petitions were also sent to YCH and City of Tshwane. We exhausted all remedies, but YCH was ignorant and chose to open false cases against tenants at the Central Police Station.
In terms of our constitution, our human rights were violated (PIE Act and Section 25 of the Constitution). Most tenants will be unlawfully evicted. SHRA, as the regulatory authority, kept quiet. We have suffered all this abuse without the regulatory authority’s intervention, and we are residents of the City of Tshwane.
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