The Alexandra Community Policing Forum has warned people who have acquired RDP houses fraudulently to hand them over or risk being arrested.
The warning is from the forum’s secretary, Benjamin Chisare after the forum and officials of the Johannesburg Development Agency recovered two houses in Extension 10 from foreign nationals who acquired the houses using fraudulent identity documents.
Chisare said the foreign nationals who will be charged with fraud or be deported, handed back the houses after the forum and police interrogation. The court will also check if the fraudulent IDs were used for other transactions which may warrant other sentencing.
Housing is a key challenge of government, especially in Alexandra where the renewal programme is struggling to provide for hundreds of people who have been on a waiting list and living in transit camps around the township for many years.
This was despite the availability of hundreds of completed houses, many of which are alleged to have been allocated to foreign nationals and people from other townships or towns by corrupt officials.
Chisare said the allegations of corrupt officials allocating houses to foreign nationals and other ineligible people for a fee or for rental was an open secret. He said it should be dealt with as the foreign nationals and others were also exploited, while rightful beneficiaries are left languishing in transit camps and shacks.
He said since 2011 the forum and the Johannesburg Development Agency recovered and reallocated 15 houses in extension 7, 8, 9 and 10 to rightful beneficiaries. “The recovery should also not be misconstrued as targeting foreign nationals, but as part of a clean up process as the renewal programme is meant only for eligible citizens. If foreign nationals are here legally, they are entitled to housing through the commercial market.”
Chisare stressed that they would recommend prosecution of corrupt officials.
Recently, the Department of Housing also conducted an audit to determine if rightful owners still occupied the houses. The results have not been publicised.
Details: Alexandra Community Police Forum; 011 321 7649
