Rustenburg - Officials from the department of local government and human settlements in North West moved into Madibeng local municipality on Tuesday to conduct an audit on RDP beneficiary lists, the department said.
Departmental spokesman Ben Bole said MEC Collen Maine had decided to commission an audit following a peaceful service delivery march by the residents of Madibeng during which they complained that some of the RDP houses were occupied by unlawful beneficiaries.
On Monday morning, residents from Letlhabile, Damonsville, Maboloka and Oukasie staged a peaceful march to the municipality to raise their concerns.
Maine said the audit would identify the rightful beneficiaries of the houses and help root out any biased allocations. The audit, Maine added, would also include dealing with beneficiaries who had opted to rent out their houses as tuck shops or for any other purpose.
“It is only then that we would be able to decide on corrective measures which will ensure that we only have rightful owners in these houses,” Maine said in a statement on Tuesday.
Maine also issued a stern warning against councillors who illegally allocated RDP houses to their friends and relatives who were not necessarily on the beneficiary lists. He said all allegations of fraud, corruption and nepotism which the residents had levelled against the municipality would be thoroughly investigated.
Maine appealed to members of the community to come forward with information that would assist the investigations.
“As the provincial government, we are aware that there is an elite group of people who want to control the resources of Madibeng to the detriment of the residents, and we will not allow that to happen. Madibeng is not a playground,” Maine said.
The investigation team, said Bole, would remain in Madibeng indefinitely until the audit of the beneficiary lists were completed.
ANA