Ga-Rena Rental Village non-payment to cost city R11 million per year

Polokwane Municipality budgeted R11 million for the next two financial years to keep the Ga-Rena Rental Village in the city afloat.This is claimed in a media release issued by Polokwane municipal councillors Jacques Joubert and Roelof Lourens on behalf of the Democratic Alliance (DA).
“The Ga-Rena Rental Village is managed by Thabatshweu Housing Company, trading as Polokwane Housing Association (PHA) and the purpose of PHA is to develop and manage social housing and to promote housing delivery for a range of income groups. The objective of the entity was to be self-sustainable which, under the current management, it is totally incapable of doing,” the statement read.
According to the statement, PHA’s debtors has risen astronomically from R2 286 833 in July 2017 to R8 785 241 in April 2018. This stems mostly from non-payment of rentals and bridging of services in the Ga-Rena Rental Village where tenants keep the municipality at ransom by demanding ownership of the housing units although this was never the purpose of the project, the DA stated. “A joint portfolio sitting between the Finance and Local Economic Development and Housing portfolio committees took place during April but was postponed due to lack of enough information to reach conclusions and was not reconvened as yet.”
Matshidiso Mothapo, Communications and Marketing Manager of the municipality, confirmed that PHA has developed a strategy to address the payment backlogs and that it will be released in due course. Mothapo reserved comment regarding the meetings of the portfolio committees, saying that it was a confidential structure.

Story & photo: BARRY VILJOEN
>>barryv.observer@gmail.com