By Luvuyo Mjekula
A Joza family is distraught after being told they will not get an RDP house because the site they have occupied for the past 35 years belongs to someone else.
Vuyani Bashe and his wife Ntomboxolo Busani were among the first people to set up structures on the piece of land in lower Mnandi near Phumlani in Joza in 1990. They were there when the informal settlement was formalised by the Makana Municipality in the 2000s.
The family was excited recently when a contractor moved into upper Mnandi and started erecting RDP houses. A Makana housing official then arrived and told Bashe to quickly demolish a portion of his shack to make way for the RDP structure, Bashe says.
However, he was shocked when the contractor responsible for the ongoing Makana Infill Housing Project in Makhanda told him they would not be building a house for him because his site does not appear on the layout map. Bashe was told the site belongs to his neighbour. “I’ve lived here since 1990 and now when it is time to build RDP houses I am left out.” He said it was strange that a Makana Housing Department official urged him to quickly demolish part of his shack to make way for an RDP house to be constructed.
When asked, the neighbour would neither confirm nor deny his ownership of Bashe’s property. Bashe says he cannot understand the claims that he does not own the site even though he receives municipal services including a flush toilet and water.
An official of Mmallale Business Enterprises, the Limpopo-based company contracted to construct 91 RDP houses as part of the Makana Infill Housing Project, confirms that Bashe’s site does not appear on the map. Jacob Monare attributed this to dubious demarcation of the land.
Both upper and lower Mnandi and other informal settlements in Xolani, Zolani, N Street, J Street and lower Mnandi were formalised by the local municipality. According to a Grocott’s Mail report in November 2010, an amount of R500 000 was approved in the 2007/8 financial year to carry out the process, which involved conducting an enviromental impact assessment and geo-technical reports as well as compiling a layout plan and taking aspects such as flood lines and contours into consideration. The report said some areas had been pegged for the surveyor to prepare a plan which would be sent to the Surveyor General for approval, who would then appoint erf numbers to the portions of land.
Monare said the person responsible for demarcating the areas made serious mistakes. He said the streets and houses in the area are not in order – some houses have encroached into the streets. He also said the measurement pins on the layout plan are incorrect.
To try and resolve the problem the contractor said he was encouraging councillors to get the municipality and/or the Department of Human Settlements to fix the street and housing planning in upper Mnandi so that Bashe can get a house and others do not face a similar dilemma.
He said Bashe and his family can still get a house, provided the town planning shortcomings are resolved. Bashe said as a voting citizen of South Africa, he deserves better treatment.
Makana Municipality did not respond to questions in time for publication.
