A family from Khutsong South has been struggling for almost 20 years due to a mistake by the municipality.

The owners of house no. 517, Ben Molefe and his wife Merriam, were moved into house no. 515 by the Merafong City Local Municipality in 1997. When Molefe
made further enquiries, he discovered that a title deed in his name had actually been issued for the house just around the corner, 517.

Since then the Molefes, assisted by the community activist Mzandile Maila, have been struggling with the municipality to get them into the house that actually belongs to them.

To make matters worse, the person who received the house belonging to the Molefes from housing officials did not actually occupy the premises but continued to rent it out.

The last tenants became aware of the Molefes’ struggle and handed them the keys to their house when they moved out earlier this year.

Now, however, the municipality insists that the Molefes pay the outstanding R128 000 racked up by the person who had been put in their house by the municipality.

“This is very frustrating because the municipality is just not assisting this family,” says Maila.

Because of the ongoing problems, the matter was brought in front of the Human Rights Commission on November 26. The Commission had previously helped to put pressure on the municipality for the family to get their house. The municipality did not respond to questions about the matter.