48-year-old Miriam Dhladhla from Extension Eight Langaville says she was given a fake house plan by an employee of the Brakpan Town Council.
Miriam made this discovery while assisting a neighbour who approached her for assistance in applying for a house plan earlier this year.
When Miriam decided to build a house next to her RDP home in 2011, she went to the town council to get her house plan approved.
“When I arrived at the town council, an employee who identified himself as a building inspector assisted me with getting my house plan approved and even came to, ‘inspect’ the house during the building process,” explains Miriam.
After getting approval from the inspector, Miriam completed building the house and moved in with her family.
Miriam says she did not hesitate when a neighbour asked her to contact her house planner.
“I called the employee who assisted me and he came to my neighbour and even brought along the house planner who designed my plan,” adds Miriam.
The first sign for Miriam was when she went to apply on behalf of her neighbour this year.
“I realised she had included documents such as rate papers, permit and title deed, which I was never asked to include and I was issued with receipts after I paid, she continues”.
She decided to ask another employee to check her plan and that’s when she discovered it was not even in the system and a further probe revealed that the plan number provided to her was that of her RDP house.
Miriam adds that when she arrived in the manager’s office and explained her situation, she was informed that the employee who took her and her neighbour’s money with a promise of house plans, was not authorised in that position.
“They say he has run away from work because there are other similar cases against him,” says Miriam.
She has not been able to solve her issue, adding that she keeps going to the Brakpan Town Council as they had promised to rectify the problem but have not fulfilled that promise.
“I want to warn other people who want to apply for house plans to be careful, because I don’t know if this house plan will cause problems for me in future,” concludes Miriam.
* No comment was provided by the Ekurhuleni Metro at the time of going to print.
