Thousands of RDP houses in the Eastern Cape are either illegally occupied or have been converted into spaza shops and taverns.
Some houses have also been occupied by civil servants and foreign nationals. MEC for human settlements, Helen Sauls-August, revealed this yesterday when outlining her department’s plan to deal with the problem.
Sauls-August also announced that her department had uncovered an operation where lawyers and estate agents were selling RDP houses illegally.
“There are reports of lawyers who are colluding to sell these houses either to the estate agent or within the eight-year preemptive clause which prohibits beneficiaries from selling their houses before offering them back to government.
“Such practice of the direct sale of a subsidy house before the lapse of the eight-year period is illegal,” Sauls-August said.
She said her department would be meeting next week with estate agent bodies and legal associations in an effort to curb the problem.
She further announced that her department would be holding public hearings into housing occupation issues from this month until March.
“The purpose is to probe, verify and collate information to establish the extent of the problem in the province to enable the department to take appropriate action towards addressing the problem which has left many beneficiaries homeless,” she said.
Pressed to say what action her department would take against perpetrators, Sauls-August said: “They will be evicted, but we will have to follow the law properly”. She said the hearings would focus on:
l Approved beneficiaries not occupying their houses;
l Houses converted into taverns, spaza shops and rented to foreign nationals;
l People who bought plots from beneficiaries approved for government housing subsidies; and
l Illegal allocations of houses by councillors and officials to other people not on the original, approved housing list.
Sauls-August also warned government officials occupying RDP houses to come forward before they were publicly exposed during the hearings.
The department would also be using the hearings to verify whether original beneficiaries approved had occupied their free homes.
The department has identified a number of hotspots, in Buffalo City Metro, such as Unit P outside Mdantsane, Tshabo, Reeston and Second Creek in Parkside. Hotspots in King Sabata Dalindyebo municipality include Zimbane, Maydernfarm and Waterfall.
Others include, Barkley East in Joe Gqabi District and KwaZakhele in the Nelson Mandela Metro. She said the department would also review and amend their beneficiary administration process.
“Some of these manipulations occur due to weak, incoherent beneficiary administration process. As a result we are finalising a new process which will be piloted in Joe Gqabi where there are problems that require attention.”
She called on people who had been denied their government housing subsidy because of erroneous allocations or manipulation to come forward. Last week, housing beneficiaries in Duncan Village (DV) and Reeston marched to East London City Hall demanding answers from Buffalo City Metro (BCM) mayor Zukiswa Ncitha.
They gave Ncitha seven days to reply. — mphumziz@dispatch.co.za
Bhisho clampdown on illegal occupiers
Some houses have also been occupied by civil servants and foreign nationals. MEC for human settlements, Helen Sauls-August, revealed this yesterday when outlining her department’s plan to deal with the problem.
Sauls-August also announced that her department had uncovered an operation where lawyers and estate agents were selling RDP houses illegally.
“There are reports of lawyers who are colluding to sell these houses either to the estate agent or within the eight-year preemptive clause which prohibits beneficiaries from selling their houses before offering them back to government.
“Such practice of the direct sale of a subsidy house before the lapse of the eight-year period is illegal,” Sauls-August said.
She said her department would be meeting next week with estate agent bodies and legal associations in an effort to curb the problem.
She further announced that her department would be holding public hearings into housing occupation issues from this month until March.
“The purpose is to probe, verify and collate information to establish the extent of the problem in the province to enable the department to take appropriate action towards addressing the problem which has left many beneficiaries homeless,” she said.
Pressed to say what action her department would take against perpetrators, Sauls-August said: “They will be evicted, but we will have to follow the law properly”. She said the hearings would focus on:
l Approved beneficiaries not occupying their houses;
l Houses converted into taverns, spaza shops and rented to foreign nationals;
l People who bought plots from beneficiaries approved for government housing subsidies; and
l Illegal allocations of houses by councillors and officials to other people not on the original, approved housing list.
Sauls-August also warned government officials occupying RDP houses to come forward before they were publicly exposed during the hearings.
The department would also be using the hearings to verify whether original beneficiaries approved had occupied their free homes.
The department has identified a number of hotspots, in Buffalo City Metro, such as Unit P outside Mdantsane, Tshabo, Reeston and Second Creek in Parkside. Hotspots in King Sabata Dalindyebo municipality include Zimbane, Maydernfarm and Waterfall.
Others include, Barkley East in Joe Gqabi District and KwaZakhele in the Nelson Mandela Metro. She said the department would also review and amend their beneficiary administration process.
“Some of these manipulations occur due to weak, incoherent beneficiary administration process. As a result we are finalising a new process which will be piloted in Joe Gqabi where there are problems that require attention.”
She called on people who had been denied their government housing subsidy because of erroneous allocations or manipulation to come forward. Last week, housing beneficiaries in Duncan Village (DV) and Reeston marched to East London City Hall demanding answers from Buffalo City Metro (BCM) mayor Zukiswa Ncitha.
They gave Ncitha seven days to reply. — mphumziz@dispatch.co.za
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