For nine years residents have been squatting in homes in Elandspoort because the Tshwane metro refuses to transfer the houses onto their names. These residents have requested the Tshwane metro several times to transfer the houses onto their names so that they can pay their municipal accounts.
Residents Cathy van Rensburg and Marius van Staden have been squatting in the houses they are currently living. They have, however, requested the metro housing department to register the houses in their names.
“We have no electricity as it was cut because we cannot pay the accounts as the house is not on our name. All we want is for the houses to be on our name so that we can pay our municipal account like everyone else,” Van Staden said. He said that ever since he moved in nine years ago, they had no electricity.
According to the residents they had to renovate the houses to make it liveable as the houses were dumps when they moved in. “When I moved in here nine years ago, this place looked terrible. I changed and extended it to make it look better. I also asked the metro to help me to register the house in my name so that I would not have to move into a new RDP house,” Van Rensburg said.
What worries her is that she runs a feeding scheme and has more than 100 children coming to eat at her home every day.
Van Rensburg also pointed out that there were people who had been squatting in these houses, the same as she had, and they allegedly had the houses transferred onto their names.
Van Staden said he went to the housing department with his partner, Suzie Botha, and they were told that they had to pay the money the previous occupants still owe the metro. He said they just don’t have the money for that.
“This is really causing difficulties for us. We have a plug from our neighbour to run our fridges and we braai every day because we have no electricity. We are really struggling because I also have children,” he said.
The metro failed to respond at the time of going to print.
