Pensioner wants her RDP house
"Officials told me that the house that was meant for me was already handed over to another beneficiary."
A Mamelodi pensioner has accused “corrupt metro officials” of selling her RDP house, but the Tshwane metro says the house in question was never meant for her.
“Officials told me that the house that was meant for me was already handed over to another beneficiary in Mamelodi East extension 5,” claimed Tiny Mahlangu (62).
Mahlangu said she applied for an RDP house back in 1999 because she and her three children were living in overcrowded conditions at her parents’ house along with her siblings.
Mahlangu, who is from section 12 in Mamelodi East, said applying for the house was supposed to be a “big break” for both her and her children.
“Finally, I would have some shelter for my children.”
However, according to Tshwane metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo, the belief Mahlangu had that the house in Mamelodi East ext. 4 was allocated to her was “unfortunately not true”.
“A person is awarded a subsidy,” said Mashigo.
“Upon availability of housing units, he or she will be allocated any units available on the day that he or she visits our offices or the site to be handed the house keys,” Mashigo said.
“There is no set house meant for any beneficiary. She may, however, advise us of the reason why she believes the site was or is hers.”
Mashigo said although Mahlangu was indeed registered in the national housing needs register back in 1999, her application failed in January 2020.
“A deed search on the system picked up that the first six digits of her identity document number are similar to two other beneficiaries who have benefited from the government’s subsidised housing programme.
“One beneficiary is in Mpumalanga at Hlalanikahle township and the other is in Pretoria at Mabopane extension U,” he said.
“As soon as the City’s human settlements department was notified of the complainant’s predicament, efforts were made to alert the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements for what is referred to as an override.
“Ms Mahlangu will thus be allowed to have her subsidy application processed still.
“The processing would have her name and identity document searched on other databases (which is a standard procedure) to verify whether she does qualify for a government-subsidised low-cost house.
“If she indeed qualifies and her subsidy gets approved, she will then be allocated a house as soon as we have housing units available, which currently we do not have.”
Mahlangu told Record she was “disappointed at how things turned out”.
“The government processed the RDP houses and handed the houses to their favourites or people who have money,” she claimed.
She said last year she went to check how far they were with her RDP house since people were already starting to get their own RDP houses.
Instead, Tshwane human settlements officials told her that her application had failed because she already had an RDP house in Witbank.
“I waited 20 years only to be told I have a house in Witbank – a place I have never been to,” she said.
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