A pensioner’s dreams of owning her first house were dashed when she was promised an RDP house only to find out that it had been occupied by someone else.
A pensioner’s dreams of owning her first house were dashed when she was promised an RDP house only to find out that it had been occupied by someone else.
Tina Alkaster (78) received a letter late last year from the office of the Technical and Infrastructural Services Director, Dabula Njilo, informing that her that her “low cost RDP house in Eluxolweni Housing Project is about to be completed soon.”
The letter further read that when the house is completed Alkaster will be able to officially occupy it and she should start monitoring it with immediate effect until it is complete.
Her granddaughter, Doreen said, “The house was fine and still in the process of being completed when I went to check up on it last year.
The next time I went, I saw curtains in the windows,” she said. She enquired from one of the builders on site about the location of her grandmother’s plot, assuming she had the wrong house.
She gave him the house number on the letter Tina had received and he confirmed that the occupied house was indeed theirs.
He advised her to call the police to address this illegal occupation, but according to Doreen the street committee advised her not to as they would follow up the matter.
Councillor Xolani Smakuhle was informed of this and attempted to find out what had happened through meetings with Community Development workers and the ward and area committee members as well as contacting the municipal housing section.
A lack of assistance led him to contact the provincial department of Human Settlements and the matter is currently being investigated by the anti-corruption unit within the department.
Doreen says: “She has been waiting for a house for a long time. She is very hurt about this, all her things are still in boxes as she was ready to move into her new house.”
She added hat Tina stays with seven other family members in a small corrugated iron house. “The house is not good for an old person, especially when it rains as the rainwater comes into the house.
The municipality comes with promises but they do not fufill them, I’m angry about this, and I don’t have the power to take those people out of that house.”
As a first time owner of a house and being elderly, Simakuhle believes it is “unlawful and elderly abuse” that she was promised a house and then taken from her.
“Every qualifying person must have shelter,” he said. Provincial department of Human Settlements Spokesperson, Lwandile Sicwetsha said that this matter is currently under investigation by the anti-corruption unit with the department.
“The investigations will determine the rightful owner of the RDP house and the department will interact with Makana Municipality as this matter deals with allocation,” he said.
