The Gauteng Department of Human Settlement (GDHS) has clarified claims of illegal occupation of RDP houses at Ext 22, Tsakane Project.
An approved RDP beneficiary Delisile Zanele Langa (53), alleged that people forcefully occupied houses at Tsakane illegally, leaving legitimate beneficiaries stranded.
Langa’s applied for her home in 1998, which has been approved at Ext 22, Tsakane. However, she still lives in a two-room at Khuthuza hostel in Thokoza with her four daughters aged 19, 17, 14 and 12 and her grandchild.
According to GDHS Head of Communication Tahir Sema, the illegal occupation of houses did not happen in Tsakane, but in Palm Ridge.
He said people occupied houses illegally from April 2021, however, the department has opened a case which is still in court for an application to evict those people.
The confusion follows after Langa’s oldest daughter received a call from a person whom she described as Grant from GDHS Alberton branch, who formed part of the delegation that visited the family last December.
She said Grant called in January to inform them about the illegal occupations, and further said that they do not know what to do or how they will assist the family.
Langa told Kathorus MAIL that she was promised to be allocated at Palm Ridge due to her condition and for the children’s sake because moving them to Tsakane would cause more expenses as they would have to travel to school every day.
Sema said Langa’s family and other beneficiaries will be allocated to their houses once the court grants the department an order to evict the illegal occupants.
He said this operation will be carried out through the security cluster including SAPS and EMPD.
“The beneficiaries can only move into their houses once the department has been granted a court order to evict illegal occupants, the process of repairing the damaged structures will resume so that rightful beneficiaries can occupy houses that are in good condition,” he said.
This left the family low spirited as they would have to wait for the matter to conclude in court as well as the repairs of the damaged structures.
“Our hopes are flushed down the drain, we do not even know how long this whole process will take to complete, it has been 24 years since I applied and I still have to wait,” said Langa.
Background story
Langa applied for her RDP house twice, in 1998 and 2004, she followed up on her application till 2018 when she became sick.
Her name was on the waiting list for 23 years, this was before the GDHS confirmed that her application has been approved late last year.
She said over the years it was easy for her to follow up on her application status because she could still walk independently, but that changed when she got sick and her condition worsened.
She shared that she had blood clots on her back which were affecting her spinal cord. She also broke her leg while trying to get on her bed before completely losing her ability to walk.
At the moment she crawls with her hands to navigate around the two-room hostel, skipping electrical wires while enduring severe pain in her broken right leg.
“When I want to move around the house I use my hands to crawl, I rely on my children to assist me but because of the pain. I prefer sitting in the same position the whole day.
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“I feel like I have become a burden to my children because they have to spend time ensuring that I have everything I would need even before going to school,” said Langa.
