Category Archives: Langa

Open Letter: ‘Langa housing projects a mess of corruption and mismanagement’

'Langa housing projects a mess of corruption and mismanagement'

To MEC for Human Settlements, Bonginkosi Madikiza
To Operations Manager of the N2 Gateway project for HDA, Bosco Khoza
To Cape Town Mayor, Patricia de Lille

Attached you will find a letter from the provincial executive of Abahlali baseMjondolo detailing some of our concerns and grievances. The situation in Langa is a ticking time-bomb. We hope that you will come meet with us as soon as possible to address them rather than pass the buck to someone else.

Forward with the struggle of the poor, forward!

Thembelani Maqwazima (AbM General Secretary) @ 0712604119

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West Cape News: Mayor called to intervene in housing corruption

This article was also published in The New Age.

http://westcapenews.com/?p=4652

Mayor called to intervene in housing corruption

by Francis Hweshe

Cape Town Mayor Patricia De Lille has been requested to intervene in the alleged ongoing corruption at the Temporary Relocation Area (TRA) in Langa.

Housing activists there have alleged that community leaders in Langa are illegally selling houses set aside for people from Joe Slovo informal settlement who are being moved to make way for new housing developments in the area.

The TRA dwellings are allegedly being sold for prices in the region of R2 500.

The allegations were raised after Thandeka Ngcelwa, an epilepsy sufferer who was officially allocated a TRA house, returned home on Friday 13 July to find the lock on her door replaced and all her belongings on the street.

Housing and anti-eviction organisation Abahlali baseMjondolo alleged that community leader Zukisani Sibunzi had moved someone else into Ngcelwa’s house, an allegation Sibunzi has denied.

Today Ngcelwa had still not got her house back and is staying at her brother’s house.

Abahlali baseMjondolo on Monday sent a letter to De Lille, requesting that she visit the Langa TRA where there was a “crisis of corruption and misallocation of government built shacks”.

“Rightful residents are being evicted (such as in the case of Thandeka Ngcelwane) and political party connected individuals are being allocated multiple shacks and RDP houses in the N2 Gateway project,” the organisation claimed.

The organisation has threatened to take “alternative action” if De Lille does not respond to the letter within seven days.

Abahlali baseMjondolo activist Cindy Ketani said the operations manager of the Housing Development Agency (HDA) implementing the housing project, Bosco Khoza, on Monday sent letters to people illegally occupying TRA houses notifying them they would be evicted in seven days.

But she says she suspects the HDA of protecting corrupt community leaders who continue to misallocate houses.

She said a woman had approached her recently to confess she had bought a house for R2 500 from community leaders but had not received it and had now been given her money back.

She was also concerned that people who were rightfully occupying TRA houses received letters notifying them of impending eviction.

Khoza could not be reached for comment.

De Lille’s spokesperson Solly Malatsi said the Mayor had received Abahlali baseMjondolo’s letter and would “apply her mind” before responding.

Asked if she would go out and meet with the people, he said that he would not want to pre-empt her response. – Francis Hweshe

Request for engagement by Mayor de Lille with Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape

Request for engagement by Mayor de Lille with Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape

Dear Executive Mayor Patricia de Lille,

Please see the attached letter from the provincial executive of Abahlali baseMjondolo. We request that you come visit Langa Temporary Relocation Area urgently to address the evictions and misallocation of housing in the area.

Sincerely,

On behalf of Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape:

Thembelani Maqwazimo (General Secretary) – 0712604119
Mbongeni Mkhaliphi (Chairperson) – 0769816945
Cindy Ketani (Abahlali baseLanga TRA) – 0760866690

West Cape News: Allegations of corruption at Langa Temporary Relocation Area

This story is also in The New Age.

http://westcapenews.com/?p=4599

Allegations of corruption at Langa Temporary Relocation Area

Barely three weeks since being allocated a temporary house in Langa, Thandeka Ngcelwane, 28, returned to her shack on Saturday evening to find someone else living in it.

The lock she had put on the door had been broken and her belongings were out on the street. The woman who had taken her place claimed to be the new owner and refused to move out.

Ngcelwane, who was a victim of the 2005 fire that displaced hundreds of people living in Langa’s Joe Slovo informal settlement at the time, said she had proof from the Housing Development Agency (HDA) that the shelter in the Langa Temporary Relocation Area (TRA) had been allocated to her and she had moved in on June 29.

She said she had been allocated the one-room wood structure as her shack in Joe Slovo had to be demolished to make way for a new housing development.

Her story has drawn sympathy from the Abahlali BaseMjondolo housing lobby group as she suffers from epilepsy and has frequent seizures.

She said she had approached the Langa Police in the hope of laying a charge of housebreaking and malicious damage to property but the officer on duty refused to open a case, saying it was a matter for community leaders to resolve.

“I suffer from high blood pressure and a headache…this is really affecting me,” she said, indicating that the HDA had on Monday promised her she would get her house back.

The Langa branch of Abahlali BaseMjondolo alleges that the TRA committee head Zukisani Sibunzi was the one responsible for placing someone else in Ngcelwane’s house.

In a statement, the lobby group also claimed that Ngcelwane’s case was not isolated and that “large numbers” of occupied TRA houses were being sold by community leaders to other people for about R3000 each.

It said that some “beautiful” women were even “subsidising” payment for the houses by providing sexual favours to the leaders.

When contacted by West Cape News today, Sibunzi denied any knowledge of Ngcelwane’s case.

However, when pressed, he promised that the she would get her house back by the end of the day following a community meeting.

“I promise she will get it back,” he said, adding that if there were corrupt people in the community, evidence should be produced and legal action taken.

“I have heard about the corruption in the media, I need proof,” he said, adding that cases of house invasions were common.

The new occupant of Ngcelwane’s house was not at home today and could not be reached for comment.

Langa station commander Cnl. Vuyisile Ncata said he was not at the station on Saturday when Ngcelwane was believed to have tried to open a case.

However, he said on the face of it a case should be opened and she could approach him in order to lay a charge. – Francis Hweshe

Thandeka, who suffers from epileptic seizures, illegally evicted from her home in Langa TRA by our corrupt committee

16 July 2012
Abahlali baseKwaLanga

Thandeka, who suffers from epileptic seizures, illegally evicted from her home in Langa TRA by our corrupt committee

This is the story of Thandeka Ngcelwane who, last week, was allocated No.59, a government built shack in Langa Temporary Relocation Area. However, while she was away from her new home for a few hours to visit her brother, the TRA committee headed by Zukisani Sibunzi broke the lock on her door and put someone else in the home. When she returned she found a lady in her home and her belongings removed – Thandeka had been illegally evicted from her home and, since her old shack in Joe Slovo was now demolished, she was left with nowhere else to go.

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