Along with a housing backlog estimated to be between 460 000 to 480 000 houses, the City of Joburg can be battling with housing scams.
Joburg Mayor Mpho Phalatse stated yesterday there was an amazing concern with the doable involvement of officials from the division of human settlements within the scams.
“It is becoming clear we are dealing with multiple syndicates, who might be working closely with human settlement officials,” she stated Phalatse inspired victims to open instances of fraud at their native police station.
She urged residents to be vigilant and to scrutinise all info referring to housing, and that communications on housing might solely come from the division’s web site or official social media channels.
“We are extremely concerned but the Group Forensics Investigation Services (GFIS) is on top of these investigations,” she stated.
According to Phalatse, this was not solely occurring within the housing division however was additionally picked up in public security.
“We have had dismissals of some JMPD [Joburg Metro Police Department] officials. We are rooting out all the lands of criminality within the City of Joburg.”
Phalatse stated criminals have been solely outsmarting the system as a result of there have been accomplices on the within.
“This is why we are serious about capacitating the GFIS and our acting head is filling director positions which were vacant. This is to ensure we are really cleaning and rooting out corruption in every corner of the city,” she stated.
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While Phalatse careworn the appliance for Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) homes and their allocation was freed from cost to qualifying residents, the difficulty of housing backlogs nonetheless stood.
She stated town relied on funding from the nationwide and provincial departments to roll out housing tasks.
“We do what we can with what we get,” she stated. The multiparty authorities can be upgrading 10 casual settlements within the present monetary 12 months and had additional recognized one other 20.
“We need to find the money to do those as well,” Phalatse stated.
“There are varied tasks we’re rolling out with the few assets whereas we take a look at less expensive options and how one can appeal to funding from the National Treasury.
“We are even looking at private-public partnerships as potential solutions because we want to see our economy grow, see people in jobs and for people to build their own houses.”
Asked in regards to the variety of individuals in misery being scammed, performing group head of the GFIS Lizzie Ramogale stated they have been nonetheless gathering info as there have been a variety of syndicates which have been working.
It is known scammers promote flats and RDP homes for as little as R15 000 to R25 000 and cost round R2 500 to leap the housing beneficiaries queue.
“We do not exactly know how many they are as the matter is still under investigation. Once we establish with the police then we will be able to identify,” Ramogale stated.
“At the moment, it is only two we have identified, but it could be more. We do not really know who they are, perhaps it’s South African citizens or foreign nationals, we are yet to confirm.”
Ramogale added this introduced extreme affect on the housing checklist as a result of it induced mismanagement. She stated a number of the individuals positioned on the checklist had fraudulent identification paperwork.
“On the list we have reserved, some of their ages ranged between 18 and 30. It cannot be unless they are beneficiaries. It does not make sense,” she stated.
Joburg MMC for human settlements Mlungisi Mabaso stated the division recognised the severity of the housing backlog and acknowledged individuals died ready for homes. He stated town would maintain a housing indaba to find out options for constructing houses as a result of “brick and mortar housing takes too long”.
Mabaso added an official concerned within the scams was arrested final 12 months and the division was nonetheless investigating to see if different staff have been concerned.
“There’s something wrong. Someone in the department knows what’s happening,” he stated.
– lungas@citizen.co.za
