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This week on Special Assignment

SABC 3 at 21h30 on March 16, 2004

Payback Time

Broadcast script

So desperate are people for somewhere to stay, that they have resorted to “house-jacking” in order to get a roof over their heads. Special Assignment has uncovered evidence of intimidation and bribery as the poor vie for accommodation. It seems someone else’s home is now fair game.

Ten years into democracy, South Africa is still facing the challenge of housing its poor. Since 1994 the Department of Housing has built about 1,5 million RDP houses. But the lack of accommodation persists. Many people say they have been waiting for shelter for a decade. They say not enough houses are being built…

In the South of Johannesburg the fight for council houses and flats has turned ugly. White tenants have been staying in these properties for years. They were built by the previous government for poor white families and single women with kids who could not find accommodation in the private sector. Now they claim they are being intimidated to move out of their houses by previously disadvantaged groups. They allege blacks and coloureds are illegally and forcibly taking over their flats and houses. Some have returned home after a weekend away to find another family has simply moved in. They say they’ve been told it is pay back time.

East of Johannesburg in Chris Hani Daveyton, residents are being elbowed aside as they wait to move into their RDP houses. They say they are being ripped off and that corruption is wide spread. They say they apply for subsidies, qualify for them, see the houses being built…then someone else moves in. So what is going on and who is to blame?

This Special Assignment investigation is directed by award-winning journalist Mpho Moagi and was filmed by Sam Msibi.

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