Backyard tenants in Mandela Park settlement demanding answers why their housing applications ended up on a dump site last year, might need to reapply for state-subsidised housing, says chief director of national Human Settlements department, Phillip Chauke.
According to Chauke, his office is still investigating why about 100 state housing applications were found dumped in Makhaya, Khayelitsha, in October last year.
The application forms were found by a group of children who were playing on a dump site. They recognised some of the ID copies and took them to adults.
A resident, Thandi Vanga, said among the applications the children found was one belonging to her son.
“I asked them where they got the forms. I went there myself. I found lots of state application forms, on most of them I recognised the names. I took them to my house, my son’s application form was also there,” she said.
According to Vanga the application forms were submitted in 2005 and people were promised they would receive houses.
She said residents reported the matter to Chauke last year, but there had been no report back as to why the forms were dumped and were not processed.
“People need answers, so they can re-apply if the forms were never submitted.”
Vanga said Chauke took some of the application forms and promised to make copies but he never returned.
A backyard tenant who did not want to identify herself, said people got the forms from the Mandela Park backyarders leaders Foki Goboza and Masixole Ntanyane, who promised them houses.
She said Goboza and Ntanyane promised to negotiate with the former MEC for human settlements, Richard Dyantyi, to build houses for the backyarders.
“No one knows how the forms ended up at a dump site. Since 2005 we have been waiting to have our houses, not knowing that the forms were never submitted,” she said.
It’s alleged that Ntanyane’s sister was busy cleaning the house when she discovered the forms and decided to throw them away.
Chauke said it was obvious that people were being taken for a ride. “The matter is still under investigation but people might need to go through the process again and be on a proper waiting list, as it appears that someone was fooling these people. They had copies of original forms, with the city of Cape Town stamp.”
The city’s mayoral committee member for human settlements, councillor Tandeka Gqada, said the vacant residential sites in Mandela Park were owned by the former South African Housing Development Trust.
She said they were subsequently sold to the Khayelitsha Community Development Trust.
This was a People’s Housing Process (PHP) project funded by the provincial government. But the project, which commenced in 2005 was blocked due to allegations of mismanagement of funds by the Khayelitsha Community Development Trust.
According to Gqada the majority of the beneficiaries were from Site C, as well as some backyard dwellers from Mandela Park.
“The Mandela Park backyarders, mobilised by the Anti-Eviction Coalition (led by community-leader Ntanyana, among others), were opposed to the allocation arrangements.
“The Anti-Eviction Coalition then gave the Mandela Park backyarders housing subsidy forms to complete. They negotiated with the former provincial minister of human settlements, Richard Dyantyi, for access to these sites. The sites were never formally allocated to them, although they started mobilising communities.
“It is important to note that the city was not involved at all in this process or the negotiations. The forms are public documents,” she said.
Gqada said residents had a meeting with Ntanyana and he stated in discussions that he had kept the aforementioned subsidy forms in his house ever since they were signed.
“It now appears that his relative, who was cleaning his house, mistakenly disposed of the forms without his knowledge.”
– WCN
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