Central SA
Bloemfontein's Hillside View housing list: Officials allegedly colluding - VIDEO─── LUCKY NKUYANE 12:05 Wed, 26 Oct 2022
Suspected corrupt officials from the Free State Human Settlements Department are allegedly colluding with officials of the Bloemfontein-based Mangaung Metro Municipality to manipulate the Hillside View housing beneficiary list.
The officials are also said to have collected rent illegally from people who are not even beneficiaries. According to MEC Mxolisi Dukwana's spokesperson, Sello Dithebe, the department on Tuesday 25 October 2022, flanked by the police and other private security officers, carried out a sting operation last night to determine the authenticity of occupants in 15 houses that were carefully selected.
He says this sting operation was organised after strong indications of collusion between officials of the department and the metro. Dithebe says the area has 600 housing units in total and more verifications are expected to be carried out.
VIDEO: SABC News/Aphumelele Mdlalane
OFM News previously reported that Human Settlements minister, Mmamoloko Kubayi, on 27 - 28 September 2021 embarked on a visit to the Free State to assess housing delivery over the past few years. One of the areas Kubayi visited, was Hillside View, which is an Integrated Development Project, comprising social housing, fully subsidised, military veterans units, a Finance-linked Individual Subsidy Programme (FLISP), and fully bonded housing units. Some of the intended beneficiaries, who are former members of the ANC's Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA), accused the department of being left off the list whilst they continue to live in poor conditions. Others had raised concerns about the structure of the houses.
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“More verifications will follow and in the event of those occupants being found to have benefitted fraudulently, the law will take its course and the rightful beneficiaries will be allotted those houses. In one of the affected houses, the illegal occupant confessed that they were paying rent to someone who is part of the ring that manipulated the system to register fraudulent claims. In yet another, on the records of Human Settlements, the house in question is not supposed to be occupied because the initial application, on behalf of a particular supposed beneficiary, was revoked on account of them not meeting the criteria. Yet, when MEC Dukwana and his team arrived there, someone was living in that house - fully furnished,” Dithebe adds.
