Family fight leaves elderly man homeless
Legal impasse over house owned by relative due to subsidy scheme
FOR 42 years his humble abode at 23 Mgolodela Crescent, KwaNobuhle, has been home. But after signing away the title deed to his house in exchange for a R15 000 government subsidy used to renovate his home, Zwelidumile Nxapi, 74, could soon find himself out on the streets.
He has already been ordered by the court to vacate the property, with the sheriff even carrying out an order to remove all his belongings.
The community in KwaNobuhle, however, intervened.
A few weeks ago, they broke the lock and moved Nxapi’s belongings back into the house while seeking assistance from the municipality for an alternative place to stay.
With more court action expected from title-deed holder Mandisa Dow, Nxapi is now pinning his hopes on getting a plot from the metro to erect a shack.
The fight over the house stems from a R15 000 subsidy offered nationwide by the government in 1996 to people willing to sell their homes to the state.
The houses were then transferred to others on the housing waiting list.
Nxapi took up the offer, hoping to use the money to renovate his house and then buy it back from Dow – whom he said is family – at a later stage.
The title deed was then transferred to Dow’s name in 1997 while Nxapi continued to live in the house with his family, even making alterations.
Nxapi claims he tried at one point, in 2001, to buy the title deed back when he received his pension payout from his former employer, but every attempt failed as Dow would allegedly not turn up at meetings.
In 2015, things became even worse when Dow decided she wanted to move into the house and that Nxapi and his family must find another place to stay.
“It was a surprise to us because when we made the deal, we sat down with the family. But now she goes to the lawyers,” Nxapi said.
Last month, when Nxapi and his two daughters were evicted from the house on the orders of the court, a neighbour, Phumeza Stokwe, said they could not bear to watch the family sleeping on the streets.
Stokwe said they knew the house was Dow’s, but they just wanted her to be considerate.
“Mr Nxapi is old and has suffered already. We ask her to give the ward councillor and Sanco time to find another alternative for the family.”
Dow, on the other hand, tells a different story. She claims that Nxapi defrauded her and the government.
She said Nxapi used to work with her mother and they shared the same clan name. “Nxapi borrowed my ID book. He never said what he was going to use it for and I gave it to him because I trusted him.”
Dow said that she had no knowledge of the transferred title deed until the Nxapi family asked her to help them with a water account.
“I got to the municipal office and found out I was the rates account holder of Nxapi’s house,” she said.
“I asked Nxapi about it. He told me what happened and I asked him to transfer back the title deed to his name, but he didn’t.”
Dow said she had been living with her mother, moved out in 2012, and had been renting ever since.
She said that she wanted a house of her own, but when she applied, the system showed she already had a house in her name.
“For the past six years I’ve tolerated rude landlords and I can’t get a house because I already have a property,” Dow said.
“Nxapi wronged me from the beginning and I want him and the family out of the house.”
One of Nxapi’s daughters, Ntombozuko, said they had lost their mother and a sister in October and January, respectively, and they could not bear to lose their home too. “What is happening is unbearable. “All we ask from Mandisa is patience and empathy. When we get another place to stay, we are willing to sell it to her or we will move out,” she said.
Ward 47 councillor Nontuthuzelo Sikweyiya has been trying to find a solution. “I wrote to the lawyers for an extension as the old man had nowhere else to go,” she said.
She said that everyone knew that by law the house belonged to Dow.
“We do not dispute that the house belongs to her but they had an agreement,” Sikweyiya said.
The law prohibits Nxapi from being given a house as he has already benefited from a state housing subsidy.
Eastern Cape human settlements department spokesman Lwandile Sicwetsha said their records showed Nxapi and his wife sold the house to Dow in 1997 and all parties involved signed under oath.
He said Dow would never qualify for another government subsidy as she was a registered home owner.
“We were trying to get his daughter an individual subsidy house in Section 11 and we are still busy with that process,” Sikeweyiya said.
South African National Civic Organisation Uitenhage Zone chairman Nceba Plaatjie said Nxapi’s case was not unique and that there were five similar cases in Ward 47.
“We wrote to legal aid for assistance but they told us there is nothing they could do because by law the house belongs to the relative,” Plaatjie said.
They had the material to erect a shack for Nxapi, but they required a piece of land from the municipality, he said.