80 Percent of RDP houses occupied illegally
Preliminary results of an investigation into the tenancy of RDP houses in Philippi’s Samora Machel suburb, which started a week ago, has found that only about 20 percent of those occupying RDP houses are the rightful beneficiaries.
About half of the over 4000 RDP houses built in the area have been surveyed so far, said Samora Machel ward councillor Monwabisi Mbaliswano on Tuesday.
Mbaliswano said 20 community members supported by the provincial Human Settlement Department, were going door-to-door and requesting the property title deeds.
The Samora Machel investigation, and a parallel investigation in Khayelitsha’s Mandela Park, was launched by the department three weeks ago after Development Forum executive committee members noted that many people who had been allocated RDP houses sold them before the national Human Settlement Department’s moratorium on the sale of state-subsidised houses by beneficiaries had lapsed.
Mbaliswano said according to preliminary results of the investigation in Samora Machel, residents who received RDP houses sometimes sold them due to poor building standards or to raise money for things such as burying relatives or relocating back to the Eastern Cape.
“We have found out that some of the beneficiaries had sold their houses and are now living in informal settlements and have re-registered in the housing department database,” he said.
Mbaliswano said most of the people who had bought RDP houses had no title deeds to prove it was their house, and only had affidavits from the police.
Zalisile Mbali, spokesperson for Human Settlement MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela, confirmed the investigations into RDP house tenancy were ongoing.
“Most of the people who were allocated houses seem to be going back to living in shacks while some are reported to be living in the Eastern Cape,” said Mbali.
However, he said he could not yet say what would happen to people who were illegally occupying RDP houses.
But Mbali dismissed Mbaliswano’s figure of 80 percent illegal tenancy, saying: “We don’t know where the figures come from because the survey is not yet done. We will table the results once they are ready”.
Keywords: - RDP houses, Human Settlement Department’s, Bonginkosi Madikizela, Zalisile Mbali, poor building standards, concrete homes, western Cape
Showing posts with label Western Cape. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Western Cape. Show all posts
RDP houses sold in contravention of Housing Act to be confiscated
RDP houses sold in contravention of Housing Act to be confiscated
RDP houses in the province transferred to beneficiaries less than eight years ago, which have been sold by their owners, will be confiscated and given to the needy, says Housing MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela.
Location specific audits have revealed that in some cases, as in George, up to 90 percent of RDP houses have been sold by beneficiaries, and a visit by former housing MEC Richard Dyantyi in 2008 revealed that up to 60 percent of RDP houses in Du Noon had been sold or let.
But Madikizela said the Housing Act stipulated that the RDP housing beneficiaries were not allowed to sell their houses within an eight year period, and his department was to audit the 101 000 housing subsidies granted since 2002.
“The houses that are returned to the Department in terms of the pre-emptive right clause (in the Housing Act) will be reallocated by municipalities to qualifying people in terms of the relevant criteria,” said Madikizela.
“We will find a way that government reclaim the houses (RDP) and give them to the needy.”
But he said the magnitude of the problem had to first be determined.
To this end his department was busy drafting terms of reference to appoint a service provider to analyse the status of all state-funded housing projects.
He said the survey to be conducted by an appointed service provider would also establish how many title deeds still needed to be transferred to beneficiaries and, where title deeds had not been handed over, what the reasons for the delay were.
“It is anticipated that this survey of our projects will be concluded by the end of the financial year (31 March 2011). However, once we have some preliminary data from this study we will already be in a position to start to plot a way forward in dealing with this matter.”
In Du Noon residents were scared to speak about the sales and ownership of RDP houses, saying they feared being killed if they spoke out about what exactly was happening.
Community leader Madlomo Ndamane said the sale of RDP houses was “a hot business” in the township.
“Its a big problem.”
She said beneficiaries sold their house, and then once they had spent their money, tried to reclaim it.
She also said there were people who were approved RDP house beneficiaries, but never occupied their house, suggesting that money could have exchanged hands and other people were given the houses instead.
Meanwhile, the City has admitted that it was battling to issue title deeds to approved RDP housing
beneficiaries in the metro.
Land acquisition specialist in the city’s housing directorate, Marlize Odendal said in many cases the occupants of RDP houses were not the official beneficiaries, which made it difficult for the city to issue title deeds.
“It’s a general problem (issuing of title deeds) and its country wide,” said Odendal
A senior city official in the housing directorate, who did not want to be named as he was not sure he was allowed to speak to the press, said the process of issuing title deeds in Du Noon was suspended last year as city-contracted workers received death threats from residents.
Blaauwberg sub-council chair Heather Brenner confirmed that city efforts to investigate “approved beneficiaries” of RDP houses in Du Noon had been continuously disrupted by people who did not want the project to move forward.
Brenner said of about 1000 RDP houses in Du Noon, half of them had been investigated and were occupied by official beneficiaries, but the remainder were unknown and under suspicion because residents there had threatened city contractors.
“It’s been a very frustrating exercise, true beneficiaries have been waiting for ten years to get their title deeds. They deserve them.”
Odendal said similar problems had been experienced in Gugulethu and Langa. — West Cape News
Keywords - RDP, illegal, confiscated, MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela, RDP houses, beneficiaries, Housing Act, human settlements, department, western cape, capetown
RDP houses in the province transferred to beneficiaries less than eight years ago, which have been sold by their owners, will be confiscated and given to the needy, says Housing MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela.
Location specific audits have revealed that in some cases, as in George, up to 90 percent of RDP houses have been sold by beneficiaries, and a visit by former housing MEC Richard Dyantyi in 2008 revealed that up to 60 percent of RDP houses in Du Noon had been sold or let.
But Madikizela said the Housing Act stipulated that the RDP housing beneficiaries were not allowed to sell their houses within an eight year period, and his department was to audit the 101 000 housing subsidies granted since 2002.
“The houses that are returned to the Department in terms of the pre-emptive right clause (in the Housing Act) will be reallocated by municipalities to qualifying people in terms of the relevant criteria,” said Madikizela.
“We will find a way that government reclaim the houses (RDP) and give them to the needy.”
But he said the magnitude of the problem had to first be determined.
To this end his department was busy drafting terms of reference to appoint a service provider to analyse the status of all state-funded housing projects.
He said the survey to be conducted by an appointed service provider would also establish how many title deeds still needed to be transferred to beneficiaries and, where title deeds had not been handed over, what the reasons for the delay were.
“It is anticipated that this survey of our projects will be concluded by the end of the financial year (31 March 2011). However, once we have some preliminary data from this study we will already be in a position to start to plot a way forward in dealing with this matter.”
In Du Noon residents were scared to speak about the sales and ownership of RDP houses, saying they feared being killed if they spoke out about what exactly was happening.
Community leader Madlomo Ndamane said the sale of RDP houses was “a hot business” in the township.
“Its a big problem.”
She said beneficiaries sold their house, and then once they had spent their money, tried to reclaim it.
She also said there were people who were approved RDP house beneficiaries, but never occupied their house, suggesting that money could have exchanged hands and other people were given the houses instead.
Meanwhile, the City has admitted that it was battling to issue title deeds to approved RDP housing
beneficiaries in the metro.
Land acquisition specialist in the city’s housing directorate, Marlize Odendal said in many cases the occupants of RDP houses were not the official beneficiaries, which made it difficult for the city to issue title deeds.
“It’s a general problem (issuing of title deeds) and its country wide,” said Odendal
A senior city official in the housing directorate, who did not want to be named as he was not sure he was allowed to speak to the press, said the process of issuing title deeds in Du Noon was suspended last year as city-contracted workers received death threats from residents.
Blaauwberg sub-council chair Heather Brenner confirmed that city efforts to investigate “approved beneficiaries” of RDP houses in Du Noon had been continuously disrupted by people who did not want the project to move forward.
Brenner said of about 1000 RDP houses in Du Noon, half of them had been investigated and were occupied by official beneficiaries, but the remainder were unknown and under suspicion because residents there had threatened city contractors.
“It’s been a very frustrating exercise, true beneficiaries have been waiting for ten years to get their title deeds. They deserve them.”
Odendal said similar problems had been experienced in Gugulethu and Langa. — West Cape News
Keywords - RDP, illegal, confiscated, MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela, RDP houses, beneficiaries, Housing Act, human settlements, department, western cape, capetown
Housing project hits dead end
News - Development: Housing project hits dead end
Launched amid much fanfare in 2007, the housing project to build middle-income houses in Joe Slovo in Langa has failed to deliver. Only 43 of the promised hundreds of houses have been completed, and even these stand empty months after their completion, with the criteria for acquiring a house having changed dramatically.The project, called the Joe Slovo Vision Village, saw a partnership between the government and First National Bank to build hundreds of homes as part of the government's N2 Gateway housing project.FNB invested more than R900-million in the N2 Gateway for the building of the bonded houses, some of which were to be built in Delft.
The Cape Argus has been unable to establish how much of the R900m has been spent as the national Department of Human Settlements has failed to respond to telephone calls and e-mailed questions.
Unveiling the project in June 2007, then Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said the project would build 3 000 bonded houses as part of phase two of the N2 Gateway project, to benefit households with a joint income of between R3 500 and R7 500. Unit prices would range from R150 000 to R250 000.
FNB's Jan van der Walt explained that the bank had agreed in 2007 to develop and build approximately 550 housing units in the affordable range in support of the government's "Breaking New Ground" policy.But by today, only 30 prospective buyers have been approved by the bank. And the criteria that applicants have to meet to be considered as prospective buyers require a household income of no less than R6 500 (depending on the type of the unit), permanent employment, and an acceptable credit record.The prices of the housing units have also gone up, starting at R' 000, increasing in value and size up to R594 000.
Van der Walt said the initiative was to be integrated into and form part of the larger development known as Joe Slovo, the latter being one of the land development areas comprising the N2 Gateway project.But the community of Joe Slovo protested against the idea of such integration and staged mass action, which saw the vandalisation of construction and equipment in the first phase, at a cost of R2,2m.This was followed by a high court action, in which Sisulu was granted an interdict restraining the community from further destruction, or interfering with the development.Van der Walt said notwithstanding the court ruling, a decision was made to limit the development, and FNB would only proceed with the first phase, comprising 43 units."This necessitated a redesign of the development and, together with further delays that were experienced, led to a further indirect cost implication. "In total, an amount of approximately R22m has been expended on this development to date."One of the reasons for continuing the downscaled project was to allow FNB the opportunity to recover at least some of its wasted costs and expenditure, by developing units at prices which were inevitably more than the original affordability levels," he said. The 43 housing units had been completed with two types of tenure offered - sectional title and full ownership.Van der Walt said prospective buyers had been identified and provisionally approved to purchase and take transfer of the units, but transfer could not take place at this stage. This could happen only after all the relevant statutory approvals had been obtained.The land on which the development was built was also still owned by the City of Cape Town, and needed to be transferred to FNB or to the bank's nominees. This process was also under way.
Launched amid much fanfare in 2007, the housing project to build middle-income houses in Joe Slovo in Langa has failed to deliver. Only 43 of the promised hundreds of houses have been completed, and even these stand empty months after their completion, with the criteria for acquiring a house having changed dramatically.The project, called the Joe Slovo Vision Village, saw a partnership between the government and First National Bank to build hundreds of homes as part of the government's N2 Gateway housing project.FNB invested more than R900-million in the N2 Gateway for the building of the bonded houses, some of which were to be built in Delft.
The Cape Argus has been unable to establish how much of the R900m has been spent as the national Department of Human Settlements has failed to respond to telephone calls and e-mailed questions.
Unveiling the project in June 2007, then Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said the project would build 3 000 bonded houses as part of phase two of the N2 Gateway project, to benefit households with a joint income of between R3 500 and R7 500. Unit prices would range from R150 000 to R250 000.
FNB's Jan van der Walt explained that the bank had agreed in 2007 to develop and build approximately 550 housing units in the affordable range in support of the government's "Breaking New Ground" policy.But by today, only 30 prospective buyers have been approved by the bank. And the criteria that applicants have to meet to be considered as prospective buyers require a household income of no less than R6 500 (depending on the type of the unit), permanent employment, and an acceptable credit record.The prices of the housing units have also gone up, starting at R' 000, increasing in value and size up to R594 000.
Van der Walt said the initiative was to be integrated into and form part of the larger development known as Joe Slovo, the latter being one of the land development areas comprising the N2 Gateway project.But the community of Joe Slovo protested against the idea of such integration and staged mass action, which saw the vandalisation of construction and equipment in the first phase, at a cost of R2,2m.This was followed by a high court action, in which Sisulu was granted an interdict restraining the community from further destruction, or interfering with the development.Van der Walt said notwithstanding the court ruling, a decision was made to limit the development, and FNB would only proceed with the first phase, comprising 43 units."This necessitated a redesign of the development and, together with further delays that were experienced, led to a further indirect cost implication. "In total, an amount of approximately R22m has been expended on this development to date."One of the reasons for continuing the downscaled project was to allow FNB the opportunity to recover at least some of its wasted costs and expenditure, by developing units at prices which were inevitably more than the original affordability levels," he said. The 43 housing units had been completed with two types of tenure offered - sectional title and full ownership.Van der Walt said prospective buyers had been identified and provisionally approved to purchase and take transfer of the units, but transfer could not take place at this stage. This could happen only after all the relevant statutory approvals had been obtained.The land on which the development was built was also still owned by the City of Cape Town, and needed to be transferred to FNB or to the bank's nominees. This process was also under way.
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