Land battle rages on as Winterveldt RDP houses remain empty
A total of 68 RDP houses have been standing unoccupied in Winterveldt since 2012.
The longstanding land expropriation saga is still prohibiting the allocation of 68 completed RDP houses in Winterveldt.
The saga involving the plot owners, the Tshwane metro and department of human settlements in Winterveldt, has been going on for more than five years while the houses stand empty.
A total of 68 houses costing R100 000 each, have been standing unoccupied at Winterveldt extension 3 since 2012 due to a protracted land expropriation issue.
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Spokesperson for the Gauteng department of housing, Keith Khoza said this week that the department was aware and attending to issues prohibiting allocation of the said houses.
“It should be noted that when the project commenced, the metro had expropriated land from the plot owners in order to cater for more beneficiaries in the area,” said Khoza.
“The department constructed the houses having been informed by the metro that the expropriation was concluded, only to discover later that there were unresolved issues regarding the expropriation hence problems with houses constructed in people’s plots.”
He said the 68 houses, though completed, still lacked connection to main water and sewer networks.
“A site inspection with the metro’s water and sanitation department was done in February this year and the report is still outstanding,” he said.
“We are awaiting the report that will recommend and advice on the way forward.”
He said 39 houses were built next to existing mud structures, but could not be allocated because the beneficiaries never applied for subsidies as they were not interested.
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“Subsidy administration was conducted and only 11 beneficiaries were approved,” he said.
“People that are not approved but residing next to these houses are refusing allocation of any other persons in these houses.”
Tshwane’s MMC for housing Mandla Nkomo said the problem was created by the previous ANC administration when it built houses on privately owned land.
Nkomo said Tshwane mayor, Solly Msimanga has now stepped in to help resolve the longstanding saga.
“We are still trying to solve the problem. But we are hopeful an agreement will be reached soon,” said Nkomo.
“The problem is the government expropriated the land in question without consulting the alleged land owners.”
“The houses were built, and after they were completed some people came through and claimed the land on which the houses were built belonged to them.”
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The alleged owners even went to court to prevent the municipality from allocating the houses to the beneficiaries.
“We cannot allow a situation where people continue to live in shacks while houses are standing empty,” he said.
The protracted debacle between the department and the alleged land owners started under the previous administration of then mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa.
Recent data showed there were over 2 200 families living in informal settlements in Winterveldt.
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