‘Title deeds challenge remains and applicants must come forward’

Sir
With reference to the article in last week’s edition regarding the handing over of title deeds and related housing matters which were overseen by the Honourable Premier and the Honourable MEC for Human Settlements and Public Works.
Thanks to the Courier for highlighting the inputs, which I made on behalf of the community of Glencoe during the early morning, closed-door briefing which I attended at the invitation of the Honourable Mayor and Honourable Speaker and was granted at least five minutes to make a submission to the leadership of our Provincial Government.
In a nutshell, I notified the MEC of the frustration of the people of Glenridge area and by extension Peacevale, Forestdale, and other areas, who have been waiting for years for title deeds.
I made further submission about the desperate need for what is known as RDP houses for the Glenridge area.
I explained the administrative and legal challenges as well as the challenges with the supply of bulk water supply which the previous council experienced when building these houses.
Both the Premier and the MEC took a great deal of interest in the issues, which I raised. Later that morning community representatives, Bafana Vilakazi, Lyod Kgotshan and Pumlani Ntombela handed the MEC a preliminary list of names of people who indicated interest in obtaining a house.
The list was compiled at a recent community meeting which was convened at the Town Hall. It is an unofficial list and was just presented as an indicator to assure the government that there are a lot of people who are in need of houses.
Senior officials of the Department and the municipality are presently packaging a proposal which will be presented to the MEC soon.
A site to build these houses has been identified.
The MEC is expected to visit Glencoe soon and will present the balance of the title deeds to the residents of the 49 and 20 scheme houses.
AA residents who have not yet filled the forms are requested to do so not later than Friday.
The same applies to Peacevale, Forestdale and other areas.
The MEC will also make further information available about RDP houses when he visits Glencoe soon.
Until then, I hope to see more prospective voters, who did not update their voter registration details in the last two rounds of voter registration, go to the IEC offices in Dundee and update their details together with their addresses.
The voter registration will remain open for maybe just another week until the IEC announces that they are officially closing the date.
Pravesh Bisram