Some families who were allocated flats in the Princess Plots development in Roodepoort found other people living there. Photos: Kimberly Mutandiro
Margaret Verland, 66, has lived at Princess informal settlement in Roodepoort, Johannesburg, since 1992. In 2018, she was overjoyed to be told she had been allocated a flat in the nearby Princess Plots housing project. But when she went to see her flat, someone else was living there. Her story is not unique.
The informal settlement has over 4,000 households. The housing project, just 500 metres away, was built between 2015 and 2018.
According to the subsidised housing database managed by the national Department of Human Settlements, Verland was allocated flat D22 in 2018. But she never received keys to her new home. And when she went there, she found it occupied by a man who said he was renting from the owner. He refused to move out.
Eight years later, she is still living in a small shack with her children and grandchildren.
“The sewage runs right in front of my shack, and we share toilets with many households. I just want to move into my flat because the government allocated it to me,” said Verland.
She suspects her flat was sold by a housing official from the area.
Margaret Verland is still living in a small shack with her family.
Fundiswa Duda and her husband, Bongani Duda, said they were on the first list of approved beneficiaries in 2015, though they never got a number. They made several trips to the offices of the City of Johannesburg housing department, but officials could not give them any answers. They believe that their allocated home, in Bongani’s name, was sold. They claimed an official has sold homes in the area for up to R15,000.
Fundiswa, a community representative, fears they may never qualify for another place, because according to the housing database, they already have one.
“Our area has sewage spills everywhere, and our homes get flooded during the rainy season. It breaks my heart to think that someone else is living in our home while we continue to live under such inhumane conditions,” she said.
She said that while the Princess Plots project was meant to be built in six phases, only one phase had been completed, leaving many people in her area stranded.
She said government officials, such as police officers and teachers, had been allocated flats, while qualifying beneficiaries had remained in the settlement.
Gladys Monnamme, 60, said she had visited flat D4 (the number allocated to her on the database) many times to try to persuade the occupant to leave. She said the occupant claimed to have paid for the flat. “I even asked to pay them back the money, but the person refused,” said Monnamme.
She has lost hope of ever moving into her home.
Gladys Monnamme says she has lost hope of ever moving into the flat she was allocated.
Previously, residents of Princess informal settlement joined a march organised by the Gauteng Housing Crisis Committee to the Gauteng premier’s office to demand houses. Residents from Car Centre, Thembelihle, Dobsonville, Durban Deep, Mountain City near Orange Farm and elsewhere in the city said they too had not received the houses allocated to them.
“Thirty years into our democracy, our parents are yet to get houses,” said Edwin Masina from the committee. “The government should prioritise applicants from 1996, pensioners and elderly persons living with disabilities. There should be transparency in the housing waiting list.”
The City of Johannesburg’s housing department acknowledged that some residents who applied for subsidised housing as far back as 1996 have not yet received homes. The city’s housing backlog currently stands at more than 300,000 households and the number is increasing, the department said.
City spokesperson Nthatisi Modingoane said the department took seriously claims that people had not received their houses. “The department takes such allegations very seriously and is committed to ensuring that they are handled with the appropriate urgency, diligence and due process,” said Modingoane.
Spokesperson for Gauteng human settlements Tahir Sema said where an allocated unit is occupied by a person other than the approved beneficiary, the matter is treated as unlawful occupation.
Sema said, “Each reported case is verified against the approved beneficiary list and the housing subsidy system, and confirmed cases are referred for the appropriate remedial and, where warranted, legal action.”
When GroundUp pointed out that the housing database shows that Verland, the Duda couple and Monnamme had been allocated housing, Sema said he could not share details of individual cases with GroundUp in line with the Protection of Personal Information Act.
Fundiswa Duda said the department had not contacted any of the three families.
Bongani and Fundiswa Duda believe the flat allocated to them was sold.
Sema said no official is authorised to sell a government-funded house, to solicit payment from a beneficiary, or to demand any form of compensation for an allocation. He urged any person with information regarding the sale of units, fraud or corruption to report it to the police or to the department’s anti-fraud and corruption hotline.
“The department further cautions the public against paying any individual who claims to be able to secure a government housing opportunity,” he said.
Sema said the units in Princess Plots had been allocated to 281 beneficiaries from a list of 933.
He said only phase one had been constructed to date, but planning for the next phase was underway.
Modingoane said the 40,000-home Southern Farms project currently underway would help reduce the housing backlog.
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