The first residents of the Refentse Low Cost Housing Project in Rietfontein have move into eight homes at the site even though the contractors are still at work completing the houses and no water or sanitation infrastructure have been installed.
According to some of the residents they were informed by the community officer of the Local Municipality of Madibeng that they could move into their houses and they told Kormorant that the municipality assisted them to move there last Saturday.
The residents said that they were the first ones to receive houses at the low cost housing project and that they had been waiting for their homes since they put their names on the beneficiary list in 2000. According to what they understood they were the first to receive houses because of the age of the beneficiary and that the position on the original list was not used to determine this.
Mostly, the residents expressed their joy at being able to move into their houses but during a tour of the two bedroom houses they indicated that although installed, the toilets are not working yet and there are no water taps or basins in the houses.
A portable toilet was placed in the area of the eight occupied houses and the residents indicated that they get water from taps which are situated approximately 100m away.
According to the residents the contractors are still working on site and indicated that they would clear the veld between the houses during this week. The tall, dry grass holds a danger of fire as the residents still make fires outside the houses to cook on.
Asked whether they needed to pay any money to be able to move in, the residents said no. This followed rumours that residents of the informal settlement were told that they could pay R30 and receive an ANC membership card which would allow them to move into the houses before the election last week.
Mr. Patrick Morathi, communication and marketing coordinator for the Local Municipality of Madibeng said in response to enquiries that although the project has not been handed over to the municipality by the contractors there are eight families occupying houses on the site.
He said that all the services have not been installed at the project yet and that the project will continue after a forensic audit by the Department of Local Government and Housing and the NHBRC.
Morathi said in all 50 houses were inspected and minor problems were found.
“The basis for allocation was to allocate houses to the most needy people but obviously there were categories identified and prioritised. We must indicate that we have 461 approved beneficiaries for the project of 167 houses. This was the result of having initially targeted 1000 and scaled down to 500 and finally 167 after objections and the Environmental Impact Assessment process,” Morathi said.
He confirmed that transport was arranged to help the families move because some of the families were relocated from Kommandonek.
Morathi said that more families will not be moved to Refentse in the near future.
“We have installed five mobile toilets for the current occupants and will extend the service as and when the need arises. As for water, we are currently providing water tankers and will extend such a service on the basis of need,” Morathi explained.
He denied that the residents were asked to pay R30 for an ANC membership card.
He said that although some people have been approved as beneficiaries the prioritisation was designed in terms of need. “Our first priority was the elderly, followed by child headed households as a result of parents passing away, then the rest will follow.
We are currently engaging developers around the Dam to accommodate low cost housing projects in their respective developments to accommodate the rest of the approved beneficiaries,” Mortahi said.
Kormorant - Hartbeespoort,South Africa
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