Housing registration tangle at Mobeni

THE crisis surrounding the Mobeni Heights Joe Slovo housing project, where RDP houses were invaded, was caused by the registration of people for homes in places where they did not live.

Outgoing councillor Brandon Pillay described this as the most difficult project they had to deal with.

“If person X is registered to a site but not living on it, then you have person Y who has lived on the site for many years and moved to allow a project to go through (when work started on site).

“When the project is complete, they are under the impression that the house belongs to them.

“It is for this reason that I had said nobody should be allocated a home until this matter is resolved,” said Pillay.

“This is a technicality or complexity that could have been avoided if people were not registered for stands they did not live at.”

People were registered by eThekwini Housing in the mid2000s. Years later the houses were built in phases.

The recently built ones were completed last December. However, the houses were not handed over to their awaiting owners until March this year.

Noma Kwekwana, who said she organised for those who lost out on the houses despite being the rightfully registered owners, said some houses in Mobeni Heights were invaded before their official handing over.

“We heard rumours that there were people who planned to invade the houses at midnight.

“We called the councillor and the police to prevent that. Nothing happened and they invaded.

“When the councillor came in the morning to hand them over, attempts to remove those who had invaded failed.”

Nancy Tshona, 40, a mother of three, said they had exhausted all avenues asking for assistance but received none.

“It is sad because we registered when those who now occupy them did not want to register. We also waited for a very long time, but we still do not have these houses,” she said.

Tshona said her youngest child, now 15, was only a year old when she applied for the house.

Kwekwana said currently there were seven people who lost out on the invaded houses. They included an elderly woman and a disabled man.