SOME Soweto residents were not given their title deeds because someone was using the papers as a tool to control them, Joburg mayor Herman Mashaba believes.
He said the title deeds had been processed and he, therefore, couldn’t understand why they weren’t given to the beneficiaries.
Mashaba was speaking in Soweto yesterday where he had gone to present 70-year-old Annah Dikgale with a title deed to the house she had been occupying since as far back as 1963.
Dikgale, of Diepkloof, said she had been trying to get the document since 2007 but had given up.
Mashaba said about 2 000 titles deeds would be handed out in the coming weeks to ensure that many people like Dikgale became landowners.
“You can imagine, we are only 23 days in the office. That means we did no not create a miracle.
“That means someone was holding this important piece of paper on behalf of our people so that they can be controlled.”
Mashaba said that during the first week in the new administration, he spent four days in a workshop with members of the mayoral committee, the city manager and all heads of department.
He asked them to explain why the city had not been giving the titles deeds to people.
“I was promised by the head of department that the title deeds will be ready within 60 days.
“It took me by surprise a few days ago that they got 2 000 of them already. It shows there was some kind of stumbling block in terms of issuing the title deeds. They must have been ready, or almost ready. Why this delay?”
Head of the housing department Patrick Phophi said that before 1994, many black people had a right to occupy houses that the apartheid government built for them, but they were not allowed to own them.
After 1994, the government stated that people had been renting the houses for too long and should be given title deeds.
Phophi said many challenges emerged along the way, among them family disputes and incorrect addresses.
In Dikgale’s case, an address had been a problem.
While Mashaba believes that someone wanted to use them as a tool, Phophi said the old ANC administration had been in the process of giving the title deeds to the beneficiaries but was voted out of power before it could be completed.
“They were still waiting for the actual deeds,” he said.
A happy Dikgale said the title deed meant her children would have an inheritance.
“I used to be worried that when I die, people will come and take my children’s home,” she said.