The Presidency has rejected media reports that President Jacob Zuma was behind the plan to hand over a house allocated to a RDP beneficiary to the family of the late Ontlametse Phalatse.
The president met with the progeria suffer on her 18th birthday and promised to fulfill her wish and build a house for her family. Ontlametse died shortly thereafter.
Last week, local media reported that Velaphi Nkosi, who had been waiting for 19 years for a house of her own, received a letter from the Gauteng Human Settlements department informing her that her RDP house was being allocated to the Phalatse family at the request of the Presidency.
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According to a statement from the Presidency, the process to build Ontlametse's mother a house at the family plot in Hebron, north of Pretoria, is underway and house plans have been submitted to the municipality for approval.
Once the Madibeng Local Municipality approved the plans, the building of the house will commence, the statement said.
"The Presidency received information a few months ago that a certain house in Mamelodi was being taken away from the rightful beneficiary to be given to the Ontlametse family. The Presidency intervened and stopped the handover ceremony and directed that the said house be given to the rightful beneficiary. This information was given to City Press but the newspaper decided to omit it and published a one-side incorrect story."
IOL