Mogale Council moves to sell RDP houses
"Understandably residents are up in arms and extremely concerned, as their future remains uncertain."
The Mogale City Local Municipality is in the process of disposing of municipality-owned church and residential stands within its boundaries.
Lesego Lekoto, a Mogale City Democratic Alliance (DA) Proportional Representative councillor, released a statement to the News stating that this matter was first brought before council in August 2017.
“Council heard that site inspections of vacant stands to be sold by the municipality had been conducted by the relevant ward councillors. In this council sitting, DA councillors strongly objected to the approval of the item as there was a moratorium in place prohibiting the disposal of land. The item was then referred back,” the statement by Lekoto reads. In September 2017, the item was brought back to council. The previously identified stands remained unchanged and due to the absence of a proper land disposal policy, the item was referred back once more.
“In February, the item came to council for the third time. While the DA rejected the item as the policy had not been approved by council, the ANC took the item to a vote and despite the DA’s objections, they voted in favour of the item and it was approved. Throughout all these proceedings, the municipality claimed that public participation and consultation had taken place and that the community was aware of the prospective land sale.”
The DA disputes this claim as the ‘open stands’ in Rietvallei Extension 5 are actually occupied Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) houses. The occupants are in possession of letters from the Gauteng Provincial Local Government and its Housing Department which authorise and give them the legal right to occupy the houses. The occupants claim that they were never informed or consulted about the sale of their houses.
“Understandably residents are up in arms and extremely concerned, as their future remains uncertain.”
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