Pretoria –Human Settlements Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi has pleaded with community members who receive government subsidised houses to take good care of their properties and not sell them.
Kubayi made the remarks during her ongoing two-day tour of Mpumalanga, where she is visiting various human settlements projects and also officially handing over allocated houses to beneficiaries.
“Having visited other provinces to assess the state of human settlements, one of our biggest messages is that title deeds are not for sale and recipients are not supposed to pay a cent for these title deeds,” she said.
“We also urge people to report such instances of corruption by officials and further urge beneficiaries not to sell their homes upon receiving their title deeds.”
Kubayi, accompanied by the Mpumalanga MEC for human settlements, Speed Mashilo, on Monday led a delegation to different human settlements projects in the Nkangala District and the Steve Tshwete Local Municipalities where they handed over a housing project at Duvha Park – targeted to deliver 500 housing units.
The delegation led by Kubayi also engaged aggrieved community members at a new housing project in Ga-Naga over electricity connections and further undertook to ensure issues are dealt with urgently and to ensure that power is restored to the area.
The delegation, including the Acting Executive Mayor for Nkangala District Tiny Mthimunye, Executive Mayor for eMalahleni Linah Malatjie and Executive Mayor for Steve Tshwete Diphale Motsepe, also conducted in-loco inspections of ongoing projects in Siyanqoba, Newtown and Rondebosch.
During a technical briefing at the eMalahleni Local Municipality, Kubayi cautioned against delays in handing over title deeds to community members, citing about 2000 title deeds currently sitting with the municipality. She said the documentation must be handed over to the rightful beneficiaries within a week.
On Tuesday, Kubayi will lead a delegation to the City of Mbombela at Ehlanzeni District Municipality.
The Department of Human Settlements said this extensive tour of Mpumalanga is part of ongoing visits to provinces “to ensure government cohesiveness to unblock challenges and give dignity to people” through human settlements.
IOL