Makana Municipality has confirmed to Grocott’s Mail that they have launched a full investigation into allegations of corruption in the allocation of a house in the newly built Mayfield housing project in Extension 10.
Makana Municipality has confirmed to Grocott’s Mail that they have launched a full investigation into allegations of corruption in the allocation of a house in the newly built Mayfield housing project in Extension 10.
Municipal spokesperson Yoliswa Ramokolo said Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Fikile Xasa wrote on 18 May to Executive Mayor Nomhle Gaga advising her about a serious allegation he had received pertaining to an RDP house in Extension 10.
Xasa requested a response from the municipality within 14 days from the date of his letter.
“The municipality duly instructed its attorneys, Smith and Tabata to investigate that allegation and to advise it of its findings so that the municipality can in turn respond to the MEC,” Ramokolo said.
Ramokolo said the lawyers started their investigation on Wednesday and concluded it on the same day.
“So the municipality awaits their findings and report. In the meantime, Smith and Tabata also requested, on behalf of the municipality, extension of the 14 days stipulated period, which the MEC has granted,” she said.
Last week Grocott’s Mail reported that flaws in the allocation process of RDP houses in the Mayfield housing project in Extension 10 had turned residents of the new development against one another.
Grocott’s Mail attempted to find answers for two women who have documents that clearly state they should be living in their houses in Extension 10 yet are not.
Nontinam Sylvia Sitani claimed that Nompumelelo Magopeni was occupying a house in Extension 10 that
belong to her.
However, Magopeni denied the allegation saying she had been given the house lawfully by Ward 7 councillor Malibongwe Khubalo.
Magopeni said Khubalo together with a street committee member visited her while she was staying in a house that she was renting in Hlalani.
“The street committee member was the first one who came to me and said myself and a woman who was my neighbour who was also renting a house, were chosen as beneficiaries of houses in Extension 10,” she said.
Magopeni said the street committee told her that ward councillors were given the task of choosing RDP beneficiaries in their wards. Magopeni and her neighbour were apparently among those chosen by Khubalo in that ward as beneficiaries.
Magopeni further said that Khubalo had approached her personally to inform her that she had been approved for a house in Extension 10.
“Then he (Khubalo) said I should go to Uphahla (The Extension 10 Phase 1 construction company) and fetch my house keys.
“I went to Uphahla and there were lots of people who were also fetching their keys.
“I was given keys of that house I’m currently living in. This my third year in that house and it was in January 2014 when I got into the house," said Magopeni.
When Grocott's Mail asked her whether she applied for a house in Extension 10, Magopeni said she had, and that it was not the first time she had applied for a house in Grahamstown.
She said she had applied in Extension 9 and Vukani. In both projects she says she was not approved and this was the first time that she got a house.
At the moment she said she does not have a title deed for the house because no one in Extension 10 has. Magopeni says she left the yellow sticker that is usually given to house beneficiaries in Hlalani.
"The yellow sticker was stuck on the door of the house that I was renting in Hlalani. The document with the Extension 10 house site number was given to me later," she said.
Magopeni said she was in the first group that received houses in Extension 10. She admits that there was a woman who claimed that the house she currently stays in belongs to her, even when Uphahla Construction was still there in Mayfield at that time.
"We went there to Uphahla and it was discovered that my name was indeed appearing on the list of beneficiaries. The woman gave out a wrong number that was not of the house.
"Keys were given out to beneficiaries at Uphahla and that is where everything happened," said Magopeni.
Meanwhile Joyce Mhimhi Joja, of Hlalani, faces a similar problem.
Responding to questions about the women's problem, Ramokolo said Sitani and Joja will receive their RDP houses in Phase 2 of the Extension 10 housing project.
Despite Magopeni's claims that she was approved to get a house, Ramokolo said Magopeni doesn't appear on their records.
"We have no record of her even completing a housing subsidy form, let alone being approved for a house," she said.
Khubalo reaffirmed that Magopeni's name does appear on the list and that he had given her name to the housing department.
"She was allocated a house and I have a list of people who were approved," he said.
Khubalo supplied names he sent to the housing department at the same time as Magopeni's.
Ramokolo said their housing department was not aware on any irregularities regarding the allocation of houses in Mayfield, adding that no correspondence had been received by them from the Unemployed People's Movement regarding such alleged irregularities.
anele@grocotts.co.za
