At least 71 stands have been sold illegally in Princess informal settlement, says Ward 71 committee member Macbeth Modisadife.
According to Modisadife and two other community activists Abel van Wyk and Phillip Maapola, the trouble started on 27 August when a public meeting was called in the settlement by Member of the Executive Committee (MEC) for Housing, Dan Bovu. At this meeting a steering committee for the housing development next to the settlement was elected, albeit illegally according to Modisadife. He says the committee is illegitimate because only a small section of the community voted and the committee is not recognised because the two councillors who share the settlement, Carl Mann and Gert Niemand, were not invited and therefore not present. (The settlement stretches over two wards – Mann’s Ward 85 and Niemand’s Ward 71.)
The day after the meeting Modisadife, Maapola and Van Wyk say they noticed a sudden influx of new squatters putting up shacks. On investigation they discovered that some or all of the steering committee members were selling stands allegedly for prices ranging between R1 000 and R2 500. The new settlers also were promised receipts that would guarantee them a house number at the new development. Now two months later no one has received the promised receipts and some purchasers still are waiting for stands. The upset new residents have turned to the Ward Committee for help who advised them to follow the legal route. On Monday 27 October Modisadife laid a charge of fraud on behalf of the community, and those who were scammed by the alleged opportunists also laid individual charges of fraud.
Modisadife says he finds it suspicious that the day after the charges were laid the Department of Housing suddenly acted and sent out officials who marked the new shacks to be demolished. The shack dwellers tried to stop them, saying they might destroy evidence if they destroy the shacks. Although it can not be proved, the men say rumours are rife in the settlement that officials from the Department of Housing might be in on the scam. During the record’s investigation one name, Kenny, kept on surfacing. It is alleged that he is at the helm of selling the stands. It also is alleged that he has sold a stand in the settlement to Pakistani nationals for R4 000, for them to put up a container that serves as a spaza shop. He allegedly also charges them monthly rent.
Mann says the community told him certain community leaders and members of the steering committee are involved in this practice.
“We do not recognise the steering committee because it was chosen unconstitutionally. The new settlers also must know that it is a myth that they will receive houses at the new development since those have been earmarked for the older residents of the settlement long ago,” say Mann. Mann confirmed that a man called Kenny is mentioned constantly.
According to Niemand this phenomenon is not uncommon across Johannesburg. He says often where there is a housing development people will try and jump on the bandwagon by moving into the informal settlement in the hope of also receiving a house. “Then opportunistic entrepreneurs see a gap to sell stands and make a quick illegal buck. It is sad and evidence of the fact that the Department of Housing – supposed to be in charge of these settlements – are not as in control as they would like to believe. There is a general disinterest on the part of Housing to act against these practices,” says Niemand.
The record could not reach Bovu for comment and is awaiting comment from the Department of Housing’s spokesperson Bubu Xuba.
