Soweto housing imbizo: Few answers for angry residents

Kubayi, along with her deputy Pam Tshwete and Gauteng Human Settlements MEC Lebogang Maile, engaged residents at the Elkah Cricket Stadium in Rockville on Thursday.

One by one community members registered their complaints and frustrations, with some saying they are still waiting to be allocated the RDP houses they had applied for as far back as 1996.

A 51-year-old mother of two, who earns less than R5000 a month, said she didn’t get the help she had hoped for.

She said there were not enough officials at the pop-up help desks to cater for the hundreds of residents seeking answers.

READ: Gauteng govt warns of fake RDP notices, land invasions

“There were about four or five people with laptops that could get into the system to check if our names appear on the database. Most of them were impatient and kept telling us the queue was too long for them to entertain our queries.”

After giving the officials her details, she found that she was no longer on the list of applicants for RDP homes.

“They told us they will call us or SMS us and tell us if we are in or what. So, this event is just stressful…after I gave them my ID number, they told me I’m not on the system, but I applied in 1996. How it is that I don’t appear on the system, I don’t know. Now I’ve also lost my forms which means I may have to start the process from scratch.”

Kubayi said most applicants are not aware that if at any point during the wait for housing allocation, they earn an income of more than R7000, or if they are registered as the owner of an RDP home while married they are removed from the database, even if they find themselves kicked out of the house after divorce.

BACKYARD DWELLERS NOT CATERED FOR

Themba Makhubela of the Bahlali-Badudi Housing Committee in Soweto said backyard dwellers have been pleading to be considered for housing assistance, but governed has not acted on this.

“If you check the majority of people who have C-forms from Soweto, the majority are backyard dwellers because they didn’t invade any land, so they are waiting patiently but now they are losing their patience.”

Kubayi admitted that this was a challenge that deserves their attention.

“We have money that we allocate for informal settlements, but we don’t have money specifically for backroom dwellers. We have an informal settlement upgrading grant that we give to local and provincial governments but we don’t have a grant to deal specifically with backyard dwellers. I’ve told the deputy minister let’s go back and see if we can ringfence some kind of money to support backyard dwellers.”

The minister also offered an update on the 2016 Southern Farm mixed-development housing projects which is expected to yield 35 000 housing units.

Meanwhile Kubayi’s provincial counterpart, MEC Maile, warned against syndicates that facilitate legal land occupation for a fee.

One resident told the government leaders that officials had been demanding bribes when they sought assistance from them.