Housing beneficiaries notch up another court victory
The KZN Department of Human Settlements has 60 days to compile a list of those beneficiaries who never received houses.
Those allegedly swindled out of RDP houses believe they have taken another step in a hard-fought battle, following a High Court judgement.
Judge Kuzwayo ruled in the Pietermaritzburg High Court shortly before Christmas, that the KZN Department of Human Settlements had 60 days in which to compile a list of those housing beneficiaries who never received houses, and to ensure those who illegally obtained houses were moved out.
The plan of action must meet the approval of the applicants of the court order, i.e. the Endumeni Civic Association (ECA) and 13 individual applicants – one of which has since passed away.
A previous court ruling ascertained that up to 60 RDP houses in the recently built housing project, adjacent to the Dundee Airfield, had been incorrectly allocated. The ECA has been fighting to have the houses reallocated since 2016. It was alleged the allocation of houses had cheated legal applicants out of their right to housing.
The latest court ruling came after the Endumeni Municipality failed to implement a previous court ruling in 2018, which ordered Endumeni Municipality to compile a list of rightful housing beneficiaries and draw up an action plan to ensure justice for those who did not receive houses, even though their application was previously approved by a Housing Steering Committee.
Mzwakhe Sithebe of the ECA said ‘cronies and connections of certain officials and the politically connected had been given RDP houses at the expense of deserving applicants’. He hailed Judge Kuzwayo’s latest ruling as a ‘great victory for our Constitutional democracy’.
RELATED STORY: Relief for those cheated out of RDP houses
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