Houses standing empty due to their owners getting new low-cost homes are becoming a headache for residents of a part of Khutsong.
Residents of Khutsong Extension 3 complain that several houses have been empty for years after their owners moved into their low-cost houses at the residential development next to Welverdiend about five years ago.
“No one knows what to do with these houses. Some people have started breaking them down and taking the bricks, while tsotsis are living in others,” says one of the concerned residents and a member of the Last Hope of Ext 3 Community Forum, Mr Chucku Kerileng.
He showed the Herald the remains of one of these problematic houses along Extension 3’s main tarred road.
Although the yard has been cordoned off, criminals can still get in and hide in the long grass and bushes.
Meanwhile, sewage often streams from the yard next door. It was also left empty after the previous owners relocated.
The residents complain that litterbugs use some of these deserted yards as dumpsters.
“In other areas, the municipality has made a plan on what to do with such houses, but not here,” Kerileng says.
Residents speculate that, with municipal permission, they could allocate the houses to homeless people or start community vegetable gardens in the empty yards.
No one wants to do this before an official go-ahead, as there is a possibility that the original owners may come back and take back their yards if they can benefit from the improvements.
The Herald took the issues to the Merafong City Local Municipality on Monday but received no response by printing time.
