BuaNews (Tshwane)
Bathandwa Mbola
19 May 2008
Pretoria — In an effort to curb illegal occupations, fraud and corruption in the allocation of new housing developments, a door-to-door campaign is to be conducted to verify the details of beneficiaries before handing out title deeds.
This was announced by Gauteng MEC for Housing, Nomvula Mokonyane, during the hand-over of 1 224 RDP houses and 643 title deeds in Olievenhoutbosch, near Centurion, on Sunday.
She urged the officials involved in the allocation of houses not to take bribes.
"Your involvement as an official in the selling of RDP houses illegally causes a number of South Africans to suffer," she said adding, that those people who were derailing the department's commitment to eradicate all the registered informal settlements would be dealt with.
Elated beneficiary Catherine Maredi, 54, who was relocated from the Choba informal settlement, said she never dreamt she would one day own a house.
"Today I have somewhere I can call home," Ms Maredi said.
The R2 billion Olievenhoutbosch housing initiative is a Breaking New Ground (BNG) project which seeks to integrate communities through Mixed Housing Development.
This mixed income housing development has already succeeded in eradicating of five informal settlements.
The MEC the elderly would take priority in the housing development, adding that projects such as this were about uniting people.
"When we say we build sustainable communities it is also important that we unite our people through such housing initiatives."
Once completed Olievenhoutbosch housing development will yield 5 426 houses.
They will be divided into three categories, namely bonded houses, rental stock, and RDP houses.
The development will also see 17 business sites, Ms Mokonyane said, wherein our people can work and create jobs.
About ten sites have been earmarked for churches, two sites for schools, six for crèches, one site community centre, one site Recreational & Sports Facility as well as 15 open spaces for parks.
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I do not pretend to know the answer, but I do know it is not the governments job to build houses unless it is in the form of hostel acommodation.