News: Mandela Park residents given title deeds
By Francis Hweshe
The Western Cape Housing Department has launched a title deeds campaign in a bid to finally have people take rightful ownership of their houses. The campaign kicked off in Mandela Park in Khayelitsha on Sunday with an initial 200 people in the community to benefit.
Six beneficiaries received their deeds from Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi, with the rest expected to be issued by the ward councillor Rhyder Mkutswana. The programme will be introduced across the province.
The department said it had chosen to begin with this community because some beneficiaries, who had been relocated from Site C in Khayelitsha, Langa and Gugulethu, had been "struggling to move into their rightful houses as a result of challenges posed by title deeds".
"Through the issuing of title deeds, the beneficiaries will have the right to claim housing ownership," said the department.
One of the recipients, Alfred Sanda, 64, however, scoffed at the initiative, saying there was no need to receive a piece of paper when his house was continuously flooded due to poorly built houses. He blamed housing agent Thubelisha for the state of the house.
But Dyantyi reminded beneficiaries that they should take charge of their houses and should refrain from calling him "to fix a broken door". He also repeated his call for beneficiaries to stop selling their government houses.
Mkutswana said he was happy with the launch as some people had waited for nearly 10 years without title deeds. In response to Sanda's allegations, Thubelisha provincial operations manager, Malobongwe Dyiki, who was present at the launch, said beneficiaries were invading houses before they were finished.
He said in Mandela Park more than 800 houses were incomplete.
This article was originally published on page 4 of The Cape Argus on July 07, 2008
