Crackdown on RDP house fraud
The department of human settlements has announced plans to partner the department of home affairs in a campaign to clamp down on illegal and fraudulent acquisition of RDP houses.
Free State human settlements MEC Olly Mlamleli says this exercise is intended to verify that government-subsidised RDP houses are allocated to people who genuinely need them, and will also be identifying ineligible recipients.
It will begin on a date yet to be announced at as yet unnamed places.
Mlamleli noted that vulnerable people, especially senior citizens, are usually robbed of their houses by people who hoodwink them into selling them such houses.
“We are worried about community members who register for houses in different provinces, making it difficult for people who really need houses to acquire them,” she said.
“Some of these houses are not even occupied by the people who own them, meaning they are rented out for profit making while poor citizens have nowhere to stay.
“Partnering with home affairs will help us identify people who have already received houses elsewhere in the country.
“Also, it will prevent the practice of using dead people’s identity documents to apply for houses.
“We are going to tighten our system.
“We also have cases of elderly people who have been coerced into selling their houses.
“This is wrong and it must be stopped.”
Mlamleli also highlighted the challenges her department faces, of allocation of residential sites in QwaQwa.
“We face many challenges in QwaQwa because some areas are not controlled by the municipality but are owned by traditional leaders who sometimes do not comply with municipality requirements that prescribe that a site must have a toilet, water and electricity.”
However she pledged that that the problem will be remedied as traditional leaders fall under her department, which makes it easy to engage them on the issues.