Residents outraged as houses are handed over in Ratanda
The allocation of RDP houses has left members of the community confused and frustrated.
She has been a resident of Ratanta since 1984. She first applied for an RDP house in 2000, but to this day Rozelineh Tsotetsi has not received the house government had promised her.
“I’m currently renting a house in Extension 5 and was hoping that government would live up to the promise they made to the people,” a disappointed Tsotetsi said while the Department of Human Settlements handed over houses in Extension 8 during December.
What bothered the 39-year-old was that she witnessed how people who only applied for housing in 2010 somehow managed to jump the queue. She claimed that in many instances those who received houses were renting them out to illegal immigrants and that people who stay as far away as Balfour and Standerton were getting houses in Ratanda.
“The entire process is a mess. They said we would be notified via SMS, that didn’t happen. Then they said the names of the people who were going to get houses would be posted on boards at the community centre, that didn’t happen either.”
Frustrated with the situation, she approached Democratic Alliance councillor Thulani Nyembe for help.
Nyembe tried to get information from the officials who were in charge of handing over the keys, but he was asked to leave the premises.
They also refused to be interviewed by HERAUT.
“Most of the houses here aren’t even ready to be handed over,” said Nyembe.
“There has been a great deal of confusion and we would like some answers from the Department of Human Settlements.”
Tsotetsiwas not the only complainant on the day. Many other hopefuls were turned away.
Mogomotsi Mogodiri, spokesman of Gauteng MEC for Human Settlements Paul Mashatile, said that this is unacceptable for anyone to jump the queue and that government would reprimand any official who does not follow the correct procedure.
“It is a principle of government to provide housing to everyone and we would like to get the names of those individuals who are believed to have skipped the queue,” Mogodiri told HERAUT.
He said that all complaints should be directed to the office Sam Mahatlane who is head of stakeholder management in the Department of Corporative Governance Traditional Affairs and Human Settlements so that he could launch an investigation and take the necessary steps to rectify the situation.
Residents who feel they have been overlooked, or individuals who would like to file an official complaint can phone his office on 011 355 401.
