Fynbos housing list fury boils over
Disgruntled Fynbos residents, who invaded a housing project and illegally occupied 50 RDP houses under construction on Thursday, say they’re going nowhere.
Spokesman Gerald Plaatjies said they have repeatedly asked the municipality about what they believe are manipulations to the RDP housing list.
“We engaged with the municipality on the allocation of these houses. Only 11 have been allocated to coloured families in a predominantly coloured area hence that made us unhappy.”
Several residents claimed to have been on the waiting list for years. Plaatjies said most of the illegal occupants paid R1 000 to Lipha Sogcwayi, a community liaison officer in the project. Sogcwayi denies it: “I really do not know what to say because they know I did not take any money from anyone. They must come with the police and get their money from me then.”
Plaatjies said: “Lipha said we must pay the money and promised to give us our documents after two months. We also called a meeting with the councillor [Ayanda Mapisa] on Monday but she refused to come to us because we are coloured people. She said during her term as councillor no coloured people will receive a house.”
Mapisa denied that the housing list was racially motivated and that she discriminated against coloured people. “The people who have illegally occupied the houses were living in backyard shacks with their families.” She said the illegal occupants had vandalised 38 houses on Sunday and a case was opened with police on Tuesday. “They broke doors and windows and made fires from the ceilings. We went to the police so they could accompany me to tell those people those houses do not belong to them. I got no help from the police. They said they did not have the manpower to remove those people. We had several meetings with them. We gave them a chance to investigate the people on the list and they found nothing because on that list are people who were living in shacks in the informal settlement in Section A (of Fynbos) and the housing list does have coloured people.”
Only 11 have been given to coloured families in a mostly coloured area