Housing lists are being manipulated and corrupted inside Buffalo City Metro, claim residents of East Bank informal settlement in the Vergenoeg area.
The latest phase will see 790 homes built, but community leaders say, every time there is a new round of construction, a new batch of strangers appear on the housing beneficiary lists.
Makanda said they knew of 459 people in the community, who registered on the housing list in November, but a new list released by BCM suddenly contained 562 home-seekers, including many new names of people unknown to the community.
“We were surprised to see 103 more people registered for housing without knowledge of the leadership. We want these 103 people removed from the list or the municipality must tell us when these people were registered. This is corruption,” Makanda said.
BCM spokesman, Sibusiso Cindi said the current phase of the project will see 790 houses being built for the community.
Cindi said: “We are not aware about unknown people who will receive houses in this area. If there are allegations of such people, we will not hesitate to investigate those allegations and if they are proven to be true, the metro will remove those people from the beneficiary list”.
According to residents, a quarter of the people staying in RDP houses built between 2002 and 2003, were not from the area, but had mysteriously managed to get houses.
“How did they get these houses? We would love BCM to investigate,” Makanda said. Makanda said people in the community, who were supposed to get houses in the 2002-03 round, were struggling simply to make it onto the list.
Mary and Thembisa Ntshoko have lived in a shack for 25 years. Mary said: “We are now giving up hope of getting houses. We’ve been registering our names in the hope of getting a house.”
Makanda said: “Such people should be prioritised. Also, people like me have been denied a house because they claim I am getting UIF. Such cases should be investigated. “I am not working, I don’t have an income but my proof to them is not helping”.
At a community meeting earlier this week at the East Bank settlement, young people complained about not being on the housing list. Namhla Faku, 28, said 87 young people were “deliberately” omitted from the list. “We want answers about why young people were not put on that list to benefit. The municipality must answer,” Faku said.
Cindi said BCM never turned away young people. “The fact is there are so many senior citizens, disabled people and people who have been staying in shacks for many years, that we believe that they must be the priority, but we never turned away young people,” Cindi said .
He said a certain percentage of young people have been accommodated in the project.
Vergenoeg’s despair over housing
Housing lists are being manipulated and corrupted inside Buffalo City Metro, claim residents of East Bank informal settlement in the Vergenoeg area.
The latest phase will see 790 homes built, but community leaders say, every time there is a new round of construction, a new batch of strangers appear on the housing beneficiary lists.
Makanda said they knew of 459 people in the community, who registered on the housing list in November, but a new list released by BCM suddenly contained 562 home-seekers, including many new names of people unknown to the community.
“We were surprised to see 103 more people registered for housing without knowledge of the leadership. We want these 103 people removed from the list or the municipality must tell us when these people were registered. This is corruption,” Makanda said.
BCM spokesman, Sibusiso Cindi said the current phase of the project will see 790 houses being built for the community.
Cindi said: “We are not aware about unknown people who will receive houses in this area. If there are allegations of such people, we will not hesitate to investigate those allegations and if they are proven to be true, the metro will remove those people from the beneficiary list”.
According to residents, a quarter of the people staying in RDP houses built between 2002 and 2003, were not from the area, but had mysteriously managed to get houses.
“How did they get these houses? We would love BCM to investigate,” Makanda said. Makanda said people in the community, who were supposed to get houses in the 2002-03 round, were struggling simply to make it onto the list.
Mary and Thembisa Ntshoko have lived in a shack for 25 years. Mary said: “We are now giving up hope of getting houses. We’ve been registering our names in the hope of getting a house.”
Makanda said: “Such people should be prioritised. Also, people like me have been denied a house because they claim I am getting UIF. Such cases should be investigated. “I am not working, I don’t have an income but my proof to them is not helping”.
At a community meeting earlier this week at the East Bank settlement, young people complained about not being on the housing list. Namhla Faku, 28, said 87 young people were “deliberately” omitted from the list. “We want answers about why young people were not put on that list to benefit. The municipality must answer,” Faku said.
Cindi said BCM never turned away young people. “The fact is there are so many senior citizens, disabled people and people who have been staying in shacks for many years, that we believe that they must be the priority, but we never turned away young people,” Cindi said .
He said a certain percentage of young people have been accommodated in the project.
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