Residents of Farramere Gardens are tired of waiting to receive their title deeds promised to them over eight years ago.
The Ekurhuleni metro said it will only issue the title deeds once the split sewerage line project is complete.
The City Times reported in September 2014 that the metro invited residents to register for the Regularisation and Transfer of Houses Programme, which was launched in 2012.
The programme aims to impose occupancy of the council-owned houses in Farrarmere Gardens.
According to one of the beneficiaries, Yolandi Jonker, the split pipeline project is being used to delay the process to hand over the title deeds.
She claimed contractors hired by the metro have “done more harm than good” and highlighted the following:
• In 2014 a contractor was brought in to fix the sewerage pipes in Farramere Gardens to help residents secure their title deeds. The contractors installed pipes which were too shallow and manholes were not up to standard. An inspector was called in to investigate and the contract was stopped.
• A new contractor was appointed in 2018 to fix the mistakes made by the previous contractor, and they called this phase one of the split sewer project. The contactor only completed the top part of Farramere Gardens and the contract ended due to a lack of funds.
• Phase two started in 2020.
According to residents, a contractor was supposed to split the sewerage lines of the semi-detached houses to enable residents to obtain title deeds.
“We were informed that the new water and sewerage pipes are being done for further developments. To our knowledge, only four houses were supposed to be separated because they still had twin pipes.
“So much money is spent on contractors while houses aren’t being maintained by the human settlement department – some houses are falling apart,” Jonker said.
The metro’s spokesperson, Zweli Dlamini, said the split sewerage line project by the Water and Sanitation Department is in no way meant to delay the handing over of title deeds.
“The project started in the 2018/19 financial year and went into the 2020/21 financial year and cost the metro over R4-million.
“This project has been implemented in phases – phase one was completed in August 2018 and phase two is scheduled for completion on April 30.
“The current contractor is doing a good job and the community is given a chance to identify a snag list and submit it as remedial work to the contractor before they leave the site.
“The pandemic has caused many work stoppages, aggravated by the stoppages caused by the recent heavy rainfalls and a lot of underlying rock that was found in the area,” said Dlamini.
Regarding the lack of maintenance at the council-owned houses, he explained that maintenance issues should be reported and a technical team will be dispatched to attend to any problems.
“During the currency of the lease, the metro shall, at its expense, maintain the structural integrity of all main walls and roofs.
It shall be the duty of the tenants to bring the defects to the attention of the metro,” Dlamini concluded.
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