"By law, as councillors, we should report to our wards every quarter, four times a year on plans and projects in a formal meeting," said Ward 6 Councillor Zonwabele Mantla while informing his ward on Wednesday evening at the Indoor Sports centre in Extension 6.
"By law, as councillors, we should report to our wards every quarter, four times a year on plans and projects in a formal meeting," said Ward 6 Councillor Zonwabele Mantla while informing his ward on Wednesday evening at the Indoor Sports centre in Extension 6.
Mantla said that Makana has received funding from the Cacadu District municipality. “As soon as consultants are appointed by the Makana Municipality, work will proceed,” said Mantla. “The municipality is in a stage of approval at this stage and are still waiting for developers in order to proceed with building of a new shopping complex at the old Rhini technical centre. Next year, Public works will appoint a construction company to build a police station in Extension 6," added Mantla.
According to Mantla, the pit latrine toilets in Extension 6 often fill and cause problems when it rains. They will now be collected by the municipality officials two times a week. “Two full days are dedicated to Ward 6, Tuesdays and Wednesdays and presently we have started,” added Mantla.
Present at the meeting was Zolile Makile, a representative for the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) to inform the people about the services that are offered by his organisation. Makile explained the conditions and also who can qualify for social grants. “We are implementing Government's law and SASSA provides eight social grants some of which include, disability, old age, a Child Dependency Grant (CDG) and foster care,” said Makile. He added that it is the two departments, SASSA and Social Development who dispense food parcels.
“These parcels are a temporal social relief for a person or family affected by natural disasters. For example if their house caught fire or in the case of the death of a person who used to take care of a house hold,” added Makile. According to Makile, males above the age of 60, now qualify for an old-age grant, they no longer have to wait until the age of 65.
Dumisani Zono from the Makana Housing Department could not make it to the meeting, but in a later interview, identified the criteria for an RDP house: a green bar coded South African Identity document, applicants must be unemployed and have a spouse, if they are living with a spouse and not married then they should make an affidavit at the police station, if an applicant is married, they must produce their marriage certificate and must not earn more that R3 500 monthly.
Zono stressed that if you are on a waiting list, it does not necessarily mean that you have a house that is going to be built for you; it means that you are amongst the people that have been captured on data as someone in need of a house. It is not guaranteed that one automatically qualifies for an RDP house. “It is a housing policy that one should not put their RDP house on sale within eight years of owning it, it is against the law. People should not sign happy letters if they are not happy with the quality of their RDP house,” added Zono.
