Marema sympathises with evicting accused
ALEXANDRA – Official ineptness, corruption trigger running evictions.
Those who are involved in the illegal allocation and occupation of RDP houses in Alex were warned that their corrupt activity is about to end.
This is according to councillor Adolph Marema, who urged for the perpetrators to be named, shamed, prosecuted and the houses reallocated to the rightful owners. Marema said this about a township reeling from decades of occasional protests against the wrongful allocation of the houses among many woes linked to poor service delivery.
Marema said some of the hundreds of houses constructed with government subsidies are ‘allegedly’ allocated to foreign nationals and undocumented people. “The involved occupants were not on the list, can’t provide documented and legal proof of ownership which leaves the residents and rightful owners seething against them and the corrupt government officials.”
This said as members of a group charged with the evictions are appearing at the Alexandra Magistrates’ Court.
While he blamed any violence during the evictions, Marema sympathised with the accused saying it was human nature to react if they felt the officials ignore their grievance and benefitted from the plight for many years. This he also said in reference to successive administrations of the Joburg City Council and provincial government which conducted inconclusive investigations on the matter. “Some of the houses were also resold by the illegal occupants to others before the end of the prescribed time, others have been developed into double-storey structures and others have many back rooms which the poor can’t afford to do.”
He called those involved, part of a cartel which should be prosecuted for benefitting at the expense of miserable and expectant rightful owners of the houses. Also, Marema claimed that a stash of dagga found by those conducting the eviction in one of the houses disappeared suspiciously during the eviction process, ending another possible piece of evidence of the illicit activities by members of the cartel.
Premier David Makhura and a delegation of MECs were recently exposed to the township’s housing problems – he committed to returning soon with some answers.
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