Beneficiaries of RDP houses in Du Noon are co-operating with the provincial housing department which has embarked on a fact-finding mission to establish which owners have sold their houses and returned to living in shacks.
Under the theme "Your house is your asset", the department launched the Housing Occupancy Survey on Sunday in which ownership of 500 houses is to be verified in the next two days.
According to a community leader, who declined to be named, the selling of houses was "shameful".
Du Noon had 2 500 RDP houses, most of which were believed to have been sold or rented out by the owners, he said.
Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi launched and spearheaded the project in the community on Sunday.
He was accompanied by a team of 32 officials.
Sixteen were service providers with mobile mapping gadgets that could cross-check the owner of the house against the department's database, while the other half were involved in door-to-door assessments.
Contrary to threats which some community members issued a week ago concerning the project, no incidents of violent behaviour were recorded during the door-to-door exercise.
Dyantyi would not say whether any action, legal or administrative, would be taken against those who had sold their houses, but said it appeared that some houses were sold when the owners died, and the proceeds had gone towards funeral costs.
He said findings of the survey, due next week, would influence the department's policy on providing public houses.
"We are not stopping with the 500 houses. It's the whole community," said Dyantyi.
He reiterated that issues of poverty and unemployment should not be used to justify the selling of houses which were assets and a form of empowerment.
Dyantyi's spokesperson, Vusi Tshose, said the findings of the survey would guide the department in its crackdown on those who had sold their houses across the province.
Close to a 100 houses were checked on Sunday.
Some community members provided documents proving they were the original owners, while others had sold or rented them out and lived with relatives or had retired to the Eastern Cape.
"The survey is OK but what if I lose this house," said Sandiso Mpofane, who had proof that he had bought the house but did not have the title deeds.
Mpofane said he bought the house for R8 000 eight years ago. - Cape Argus
Under the theme "Your house is your asset", the department launched the Housing Occupancy Survey on Sunday in which ownership of 500 houses is to be verified in the next two days.
According to a community leader, who declined to be named, the selling of houses was "shameful".
Du Noon had 2 500 RDP houses, most of which were believed to have been sold or rented out by the owners, he said.
Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi launched and spearheaded the project in the community on Sunday.
He was accompanied by a team of 32 officials.
Sixteen were service providers with mobile mapping gadgets that could cross-check the owner of the house against the department's database, while the other half were involved in door-to-door assessments.
Contrary to threats which some community members issued a week ago concerning the project, no incidents of violent behaviour were recorded during the door-to-door exercise.
Dyantyi would not say whether any action, legal or administrative, would be taken against those who had sold their houses, but said it appeared that some houses were sold when the owners died, and the proceeds had gone towards funeral costs.
He said findings of the survey, due next week, would influence the department's policy on providing public houses.
"We are not stopping with the 500 houses. It's the whole community," said Dyantyi.
He reiterated that issues of poverty and unemployment should not be used to justify the selling of houses which were assets and a form of empowerment.
Dyantyi's spokesperson, Vusi Tshose, said the findings of the survey would guide the department in its crackdown on those who had sold their houses across the province.
Close to a 100 houses were checked on Sunday.
Some community members provided documents proving they were the original owners, while others had sold or rented them out and lived with relatives or had retired to the Eastern Cape.
"The survey is OK but what if I lose this house," said Sandiso Mpofane, who had proof that he had bought the house but did not have the title deeds.
Mpofane said he bought the house for R8 000 eight years ago. - Cape Argus
No comments:
Post a Comment