No money to pay R3 000 housing bribes, now they invade land

SOME Lamontville residents who believe they are entitled to land have started to clear areas where they intend to build shacks. Right: Moving around and talking about where they’re going to live. Zanele Zulu African News Agency(ANA)

SOME Lamontville residents who believe they are entitled to land have started to clear areas where they intend to build shacks. Right: Moving around and talking about where they’re going to live. Zanele Zulu African News Agency(ANA)

Published Feb 17, 2019

Share

Durban - Unable to pay a bribe to get a house, Jabu Gumede turned to land invasion so she could provide shelter for her family.

On Saturday, Gumede, 50, was among 40 people who cleared bushes on vacant land in Lamontville to build a tin house for her and her children. She currently lives in a two-bedroom shack in an informal settlement on outskirts of Havenside, Chatsworth, south of Durban.

“This is the only thing I can do after years of living in a shack and dire poverty with my two children, my deceased brother’s three children and my six grandchildren,” she said.

Gumede said she was tired of sharing a two-bedroom shack with 11 people when she was promised a home 16 years ago.

“My family moved to Lamontville in 1960 before I was born, so we found it shocking that we had to pay R3000 in 2003 when we were told that RDP houses were going to be built for us.

“RDP houses are free, so when we were asked to pay, we knew that it was a bribe. My family refused to pay that amount because that is fraud. Why should we pay for a house that is free?”

She alleged their previous councillor had given their RDP homes to people they had never seen.

Gumede and her neighbours from ward 69 woke up in the early hours to build their new homes. They carried picks, shovels, sheets of iron and cement and made their way to the vacant land.

Zama Dlamini said she was tired of sitting at home hoping that change would come.

“I knew change will never come when a colleague of mine, who is originally from Richards Bay, said that she bought an RDP home in Lamontville for R3000, the same houses that were promised to us years ago, “ she said.

Dlamini said that by building these informal settlements she hoped that the municipality would acknowledge their plight and eventually build them homes.

Ward 69 councillor Ganas Govender said the community should not blame him as it is not the councillor’s mandate to build houses.

“Government is responsible for building houses, we as councillors are just agents that oversea building projects,” he said.

Ganas said that he became councillor for ward 69 in 2016 and, therefore, inherited “a mess” from the previous councillor.

“The community has come to me to express their grievances. I told them that should there be a new housing project, correct protocol will be adhered to and people will get their homes, if they are eligible”, he said

Municipal spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela repeated that RDP houses were free and no one was expected to pay.

“The city will not tolerate land invasion. We urge the Lamontville community to be patient and work with us, because we cannot provide houses for everyone immediately,” he said.

Sunday Tribune

Related Topics: