Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Govt intensifies efforts to curb selling of RDP houses

Western Cape Housing Minister, Whitey Jacobs, says government is intensifying its programme to deal with people who are selling or renting government houses in Delft in the Cape Peninsula. Jacobs was speaking at a handing over ceremony of two houses to beneficiaries in Delft. He says government is serious about moving people out of squalid informal settlements into decent houses.

Jacobs says they are sending a message to everyone who is selling the houses that the practice is unacceptable. He says they have started a campaign, sending letters to alleged perpetrators, requesting reasons why government should not withdraw their subsidies. According to Jacobs, those who bought or are renting the dwellings in question, have to be out by the end of the month.

Meanwhile, beneficiaries of new two-bedroom houses expressed gratitude after Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu handed over the keys. A former Joe Slovo resident, Zola Mjatya, says he's been waiting for a house for the past five years.

Sisulu, on the other hand, has appealed to Joe Slovo informal settlement residents in Langa on the Cape Flats to cooperate with authorities regarding their removal to Delft. Her statement comes as more than 1 000 residents are resisting their removal following a Cape High Court order to evict them from a tract of land earmarked for part of the N2 Gateway Housing Project.

Sisulu was speaking during the hand-over ceremony in Delft. She says Joe Slovo residents will have a better life if they cooperate with government.

- SABC

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