BuaNews (Tshwane)
Siboniso Ntuli
8 May 2008
Tongaat — The KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Local Government, Housing and Traditional Affairs Mike Mabuyakhulu has urged residents to report those who are making a business out of Government RDP houses.
Speaking at the first day of the KwaZulu-Natal Premier's Imbizo in Newtown Hall in Maidstone area on Wednesday, he urged communities to come forward and report those who are taking advantage of homeless people by offering them a RDP house to rent.
"Nobody has the right to use the RDP home to make money out of it. It is a criminal offence to have tenants in these houses.
"The law says the people who got these houses are those who are homeless and poor," said Mr Mabuyakhulu.
He also said those people who are making a business out of the RDP houses, shows that they do not need the houses.
"So the government must do something to make sure that those houses are handed over to the people that really deserve them," he said.
The department stated that the people who received these houses are not allowed to have tenants in them or sell them when they no longer need the houses to make a profit at the end.
"If the owner of the house is no longer in need of the house, he or she must come to the Provincial Department of Housing and explain to us why he no longer requires the house.
"If we are satisfied with the respond, we as the department have the right to buy back that house from the owner and give it to another homeless person.
"Nobody is allowed to sell a RDP home without informing the department with the aim of making a profit," said MEC Mabuyakhulu.
He said there was a huge backlog of housing in the province but they are doing everything they can to make sure that homeless people have a proper house and that the slums are eradicated in the province.
Since 1994, the KwaZulu-Natal province has built 500 000 houses for the poor people and the housing subsidy for a qualifying individual is R61 380.
The provincial Premier Sbu Ndebele, accompanied by members of the KwaZulu-Natal Executive Council, will visit the people Tongaat for the second day of Imbizo, where he will be addressing the people at Outspan Stadium.
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