The project was this month taken over by the Johannesburg Development Agency which has promised to inject better management in the operations of this presidential initiative. The project has been fraught with accusations of impropriety, especially in the allocation of completed houses.
The audit could help the agency gain the community’s confidence on its commitment to ensure proper and transparent processes in the management of the project.
The allegations regard houses in Extension 9, which a source who declined to be identified said had been allocated to ineligible people instead of the intended beneficiaries, whose names have been on the project’s approved waiting list since 2011.
The source alleged that some of the illegal homeowners were non-citizens who couldn’t explain how they got them. The source also said that upon completion of the houses they were locked, but somehow the people gained access to them. “When asked, some of them produced forged Identity Documents to justify their occupation, and others were arrested but disappeared after being released on bail – only to reappear when the situation cooled down. Before disappearing, they rented the houses to others who paid them rent,” the source stated.
The chairperson of the residents’ committee Mike Malatjie said the housing department was conducting an investigation, and residents were co-operating as the only way for the rightful people to get their new homes.
“Some of them have been in transit camps for more than 10 years, yet non-citizens and others from Thembisa, Hillbrow and other areas are given accommodation they don’t deserve,” he said.
“Some of the illegal occupiers don’t even own the houses but pay rent, which is not remitted to council, and they are often evicted when they fail to pay,” he said.
The head of the department of housing in Region E, Simon Moloko, confirmed that an exercise was being conducted, but said it was a routine audit to determine housing ownership and ensure that eligible people were still the occupants. He declined to confirm if the exercise was prompted by the allegations, but said the results would inform appropriate action to ensure the houses where in the position of rightful people.
Details: Department of Housing, City of Joburg 011 582 1761.
