Prospective beneficiaries at Sannieshof in the North West are calling on government to assist them to receive their houses. They say they have submitted applications for housing seven years ago.
Motlalepule Mosime is a despondent 60-year-old mother who says she has lost all hope after waiting seven years for a government sponsored low-cost house.
“We applied for a house in 2014 and we have been waiting for a house since then. How we live now breaks my heart. You can see for yourself that we can’t go anywhere after the rain. Is this really life? We heard that our houses are in Ottosdal but we haven’t seen our house but they say it appears on their list. I am close to giving up,” says Mosime.
North West officials say, there are 33 000 prospective beneficiaries who applied for houses and their applications have been approved but they are yet to receive their houses.
“Remember housing is a function of the provincial government. So provincial government we just give them land then they bring the services and the administration is done by the municipality. So we have realized that during the administration of papers of applications there was a serious problem where people were not given their houses. So as the new mayor I am saying my office is open. We are ready to sort out that problem with the provincial local government Cogta,” says Ntombizodwa Mahlangu, Mayor of the Tswaing Local Municipality.
“This is part of the process of verification. What is in the data base that we have in terms of beneficiaries because obviously it will tell who and where as against what is happening on the ground. You find a situation where possibly whoever is occupying that house in Ottosdal does need an RDP house also but all those resolution of whatever the challenges are there must also be clubbed together. With consequences management because it then means something and somebody was not doing what is due to her or him,” says Lenah Miga, MEC for Human Settlements.
The department says it is busy with a tracing exercise to locate beneficiaries who have not received their houses yet.
