City of Ekurhuleni warns residents of RDP housing scam

Smooth-talking conman “Joe Mhlanga” (at least that is what he calls himself) gets right to the point: I can get you an RDP house for just a reasonable deposit.

Your budget is just R35,000? No problem.

Mhlanga said he worked at the department of human settlements but won’t say his position.

According to Mhlanga, an RDP house in Ekurhuleni was normally available for sale for R60,000 with a deposit to “register the necessary details”.

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“A lot of people received their RDP houses during the week. If you pay the deposit today, you can receive the house by next week with an approval letter,” he said.

I told him I did not want to be scammed but he assured me it was not an issue to acquire an RDP house.

He claimed the department had a process which included the houses sold through connections and others which had to be applied for.

“If you want to apply for one, the process will take very long. People have been waiting since 2003,” he said.

Mhlanga said once the payment and house were approved, I would get a message, which includes the area and stand number.

“All you have to do for now is send me your details and inform me once the deposit has been paid,” he said.

However, City of Ekurhuleni spokesperson Zweli Dlamini said this scam has been posted on the city’s website to warn people.

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“We are following certain leads but we could not divulge anything yet because we do not have anything concrete,” he said.

Dlamini said the most important thing people need to understand is that an RDP house was not for sale and the housing and serviced stands allocations were conducted through a community consultative process.

He said city officials and ward councillors visited rightful beneficiaries in their communities to inform them about the stages of allocations.

Gauteng department of human settlements spokesperson Tahir Sema said they would investigate the matter.