Olievenhoutbosch residents demand houses from Tshwane MMC

Olievenhoutbosch Backyard Dwellers (OBD) embarked on a peaceful march to the office of the MMC of the City of Tshwane housing and human settlements to hand in their memorandum of grievances on Wednesday.

OBD chairperson Muzi Sithebe said they have been engaging with the City of Tshwane metropolitan municipality about housing since 2012 but had not found a feasible solution.

Sithebe said the executive mayor of Tshwane, Solly Msimanga, had a public meeting with them last December at which he promised that the city would be allocating houses in Olievenhoutsbosch Ext 27 before the end of February 2017, but that did not happen.

They also stated that the city promised a list of beneficiaries would be displayed at the community centre but that also never happened.

The OBD also claim that 120 foreign nationals have been allocated houses in extension 27.

According to Sithebe, there are negotiations in process, but they are not part of them. Tshwane MMC for housing Mandla Nkomo said they did try to verify the beneficiaries.

“Our task team only found 40% of the beneficiaries before they were interrupted,” Nkomo said.

The OBD gave Nkomo seven days to respond to their grievances.

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