On Thursday, February 3, the Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Housing, Councillor Mlungisi Mabaso sent a City of Johannesburg media alert about a fake poster.
Mabaso said he wanted to warn members of the public to disregard a poster circulating on social media because it is fake.
The poster, with Mabaso’s face and the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) logo, claims that people who applied for RDP houses in 1996 will be allocated houses at the Housing Offices in Johannesburg this week.
According to Mabaso, no housing allocations are being done currently as stated on the poster. He said this was yet another scam aimed at frustrating both members of the public and the department.
Mabaso also urged residents not to pay anyone who promised to give them houses.
“The Department of Housing in the City of Johannesburg once again would like to caution the residents particularly those in need of housing, about a perpetuating illegal act by criminals who are claiming to represent CoJ. The criminals are asking for monies for allocations and prioritising them on the allocations list. Government allocations, particularly on RDPs, are not charged for, and people should not pay anything. Cases have been opened with police and we urge our residents who have been victims to open cases at their nearest police stations,” said Mabaso.
The Housing Department is planning to allocate houses to deserving beneficiaries in different regions of the City of Johannesburg and will communicate when it is ready to do so.
The Department has not issued any communication about housing allocations to be made this week, and any communication about housing matters will be on the official website or official pages of the Housing Department.
For more information, members of the community are advised to contact:
Thabile Mbhele
Deputy Director: Stakeholder and Communications
Office of the MMC Housing
083 463 2689
Or
Neo Goba
Deputy Director: Communications
City of Joburg Housing Department
083 632 4483
