Latest chapter in East Bank housing saga is full of sunshine

A stand-off between Buffalo City Metro and 300 families illegally occupying RDP houses in the city’s East Bank is finally over.

The municipality has agreed to build temporary houses for the residents while they wait for the permanent RDP homes the city has promised them.

The 300 families say they were overlooked in the RDP allocation process.

Some of these families have been housed in a community hall for many months now.

They have clashed with law enforcement officers on more than one occasion when the city tried to evict them, resulting in houses in Vergenoeg and Fynbos being damaged last year.

Community leader Anton King said the illegally occupied houses would finally be allocated to their rightful beneficiaries while “we wait in those temporary structures”.

“The coloured people felt marginalised because BCM only integrate people into [formerly] coloured areas, while no integration is done in housing projects in [formerly] black communities.

“So that’s why we decided to take those houses, so that the municipality could explain to us their allocation processes.

“We are not racial about it, but if you do things like that you have to make sure that the people in the area where you are building these houses also get houses,” he said.

Municipal bosses previously denied that the houses were allocated along racial lines.

BCM Mayor Xola Pakati said the temporary houses would be erected in two weeks’ time.

“We removed those people and put them in a community hall but we are now going to build temporary residential areas for them as part of the transition to formal housing.

“We are in the process of clearing the site. The tender is out and we are finalising the procurement process of that service.

“By mid-June you will see those structures being erected,” Pakati said.

King said they were happy to finally put the housing debacle behind them.

“I signed all the papers and sent them back. Some of our people are staying in shacks, some are staying in garages but we are happy because we will now have a place that we can call home,” he said.

While Pakati could not confirm how many temporary houses would be built, King put the number at 1,000.

He called on the municipality to fix the broken communal taps and ablution facilities.

The housing list debacle is a province-wide phenomenon which has seen more than two residents claiming to be the rightful beneficiaries of the same house in a number of areas.

In some cases, residents have physically fought, and elderly people have been illegally evicted by younger people.

In her budget and policy speech last month, human settlements MEC Nonkqubela Pieters said beneficiaries would be given title deeds to RDP houses.

“...if you do things like that you have to make sure that the people in the area where you are building these houses also get houses Anton King Community leader