The Unemployed People’s Movement (UPM) led a march of about 80 people to Extension 10 to demand answers to questions over the allocation of houses and a response to allegations of houses that have been sold to civil servants.
The Unemployed People’s Movement (UPM) led a march of about 80 people to Extension 10 to demand answers to questions over the allocation of houses and a response to allegations of houses that have been sold to civil servants.
People who claim to have been approved to benefit from phase one of the Mayfield housing project in Extension 10 were in tears as they told UPM leaders and the media of their encounters with councillors and members of the municipal housing department in Joza.
Many of the residents claim that last minute changes were made to the list, that their names were removed and their houses given away or sold to other people whose names did not appear.
The marchers, who were escorted by a single police van, walked past a number of houses in the area and took names of occupants and the numbers of those houses that have allegedly been illegally occupied.
The UPM accused a number of former and present Makana Municipality officials and councillors of being involved in either selling or allocating houses to people illegally.
The details of people allegedly involved in this alleged illegal activity were later named in a UPM statement posted on Ayanda Kota's facebook page yesterday.
In the statement, Kota said they have agreed as the community to write an open letter to Kosalin Naicker, HOD of the Department of Human Settlements.
He added that they have also agreed to write a open letter to the Human Rights Commission as well as getting legal advice from the LRC.
Today (Friday) they plan to meet other stakeholders such as the Grahamstown Residents Association (GRA), the Makana Coalition and the Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM).
Kota said the current councillors need to be fired. “They have brought shame to this municipality and have collapsed this municipality. Some of them have no shame, they still want to lead us,” he said.
In the statement Kota says a ward committee member confirmed that she was given an RDP house by a councillor despite the fact that she was not on the final list of approved beneficiaries.
“She also told us that there are many ward committee members who were not on the list but given houses.”
He added that one councillor, said to be a DA member, who is leasing a house to a tenant who is a school teacher. “One councillor is also selling an RDP house [and]one sub contractor sold an RDP house to two people, they each paid him R30 000,” Kota said in the statement.
The GRA in a brief statement on the matter confirmed that they attended the march by the UPM. "It was to view the allegations about misappropriation of housing. We will stand together with all members of our community who have been wronged, and seek appropriate action where it is necessary,” read the statement.
74-year-old Fezeka Nzondo said she was informed that she was on the list and her application for a house was approved.
“I never got the house and don’t even know what happened. I will die without a house now and I have given up. I have now lost hope of owning a house in my life,” said the crying Nzondo.
Meanwhile, another person who also registered for the Extension 10 houses, Joseph Hlatshwayo, said he was also informed that he had been approved.
But later that was changed and he was told that he would get a house after the local municipality elections.
Nokuzola Monica Jacob said she registered for a house and received a letter asking her to go to Tantyi Hall to sign ownership documents for a house in Extension 10.
“I went there and they asked me to bring evidence that I receive an old age pension and a birth certificate of a family child. I brought them those documents and I was told to go and take my Extension 10 RDP house keys at the housing department in Joza. I went there but was informed that I owned a house so I won't get the house.
“They told me that the house would be given to somebody else and that was the end of the story,” said Jacob.
