RDP houses and residential stands divide eMbalenhle community

Several people claiming to have owned stands in the Greenfield section are accusing the Govan Mbeki Municipality (GMM) of stealing their stands and building RDP houses for other people.

Even the Ward 20 Clr Masabatha Khubheka said he tried to intervene, but municipal officials from the housing section ignored him. Khubheka said this issue divides the community and will lead to a fight among community members.

“So many community members alerted me about their problems. I have also discovered many occupants of the Greenfield RDP houses do not have title deeds.

“We have also found instances where a house is in one person’s name while the title deed for the stand belongs to someone else. I suspect corruption,” said Khubheka.

“I took those community members to the GMM housing section to find out what happened, but the officials did not give us clear answers. They merely told us all those with stand title deeds should register for RDP houses and be on the waiting list.”

Khubheka finds this explanation suspicious. He demands a list of the current occupants and who allocated them the RDP houses. According to Khubheka, officials refused.

“They just said they will fix the problem.”

Khubheka also said some occupants told him they are renting RDP houses from councillors who served during the previous term.

Emily Shabangu and her children fear they might lose their home because someone else claims to own the title deed to her stand. The Shabangu family have been given until June to vacate the stand with the RDP house in her name.

”I registered for an RDP house in 2017 and 2019. Municipal officials informed me at the time that my house was ready to be built and I had to sign papers.

“In 2020 I was told my house had still not been built because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but they later informed me the house was completed,” said Shabangu.

“Officials from the Department of Human Settlement then asked me to sign a letter stating I was happy to receive my house. How can the government build a house for me on someone else’s residential stand?” asked Shabangu.

The municipality communications department said GMM and the Human Settlements Department are attending to the problem affecting residents in Ext 10 and 16.

The problem apparently began in 1991 when the department and the municipality agreed to develop the land known as Greenfield. Some people were registered to be allocated to the residential stands in 2001.

According to the municipal communication team, when the process of registering all those who needed residential stands was completed people were registered for stands and title deeds. While developing this land, Sasol called it to a halt because of the mining taking place underground.

ALSO READ: Bethal-man verskyn weer in hof vir verkragting

GMM was also formalising Ext 16, known as Mandela at the time and apparently, some people who received title deeds in the Greenfield project were compensated with RDP houses in Ext 16.

Due to the slow process between GMM and the Department of Human Settlement, these title deeds were allegedly not deregistered.

According to GMM, some of the people who possess Greenfield title deeds have disappeared or died, thus there is still land available to accommodate residents who have title deeds but have never benefited from any land development projects.

All parties involved have been asked to remain calm and not forcefully remove people from RDP homes.

The municipality wants to resolve the issue by meeting with the complainants.