Mystery of wrongly assigned RDP house
MBULELO Jonathan Tokota and his wife, Nunze, are looking for answers about his mother’s RDP house in Nemato which was given to somebody else for unknown reasons.
The couple told their story to Talk of the Town last Friday.
“My mom got an RDP house in 2000, but it was not given to her,” Tokota said. He explained that his mother’s name appeared on the beneficiary list with stand No3873 in Zama Zama Street, Mimosa.
“We checked the list when it came out and her name was there with a site number, but when the houses were released to the beneficiaries, she did not get hers,” he said.
Tokota did not rely only on the beneficiary list to claim that his mom was one of the beneficiaries. He provided TotT with a recent municipal bill for his mother, Noma Regina Tokota, for 3873 Zama Zama Street. He said his mother constantly receives such bills from the municipality for a house she does not have.
“Look, my mom receives monthly bills for water from the municipality and the physical address in those letters is the one that was under my mom’s name in the list of RDP recipients,” he said. “But how do you pay for a house that you are not living in?”
He said his mom is 78 years old and a pension recipient, and cannot pay the bill, considering she had never lived in the house.
Tokota got teary-eyed when he said the house is currently occupied by somebody else.
“We know the person who stays in the house, but we don’t know how he received it,” he said. “We have been talking with municipal officials and they always promise to solve this but they do nothing. We have been talking with them since 2000, but nothing has been done so far to solve this issue.”
Asked for comment, municipal spokesman Cecil Mbolekwa acknowledged that Noma Regina Tokota was approved for an RDP house during phase 2, but it was never built.
He further said there was an error during the building of phase 3 RDP houses which led to the confusion.
“It must be noted that NR Tokota was approved for an RDP house during phase 2 on erf 3873. The house was never built during phase 2. During phase 3, GJ Mgadi was approved for an RDP house on erf 3872, but the house was built on erf 3873 wrongfully,” Mbolekwa said.
He said the charges billed to Tokota’s mother would be written off. He did not explain why she was being billed for a house she did not have in the first place or how this situation had been allowed to continue for so long.
Tokota said the situation was exacerbated by the fact an RDP house had since been built on erf 3872, the plot assigned to GJ Mgadi, but that house was also not given to his mother, and Mgadi appeared to be occupying both houses.
Tokota said that they would appreciate any outside advice on this matter since the municipality seems not to have a solution. He can be contacted on 078-880-8911.