Residents have accused politicians of fraudulently allocating empty flats to their friends and families.
A COMMUNITY meeting is planned for Thursday where representatives from Sol Plaatje Municipality and different political parties will engage on the issue of the illegal allocation and occupation of flats in Roodepan.
This follows outrage from Roodepan residents, who accused politicians of fraudulently allocating empty flats to their friends and families.
Engagements were held earlier this week, involving community representatives, SAPS members and different political parties, on the way forward to resolve the matter.
The residents expressed their dissatisfaction over the apparent lack of transparency by Sol Plaatje Municipality with regards to the allocation of the flats.
They threatened to take the law into their own hands by occupying the flats without consent.
The residents said that there was “no trace of the waiting list” and claimed that they had seen people related to local politicians moving in and out of flats.
They added that the vacant flats were left in a dilapidated state, while some of them have been turned into tuck shops.
An angry resident illegally occupied one of the empty flats on Friday last week. The matter was reported to the police. No arrests were made and it was agreed that no move will be made around the existing empty flats until the community meeting on Thursday
Municipal spokesperson Sello Matsie on Tuesday confirmed the challenges surrounding the illegal occupation of the flats.
He said that there was a tendency by tenants to “allocate” the flats to their extended family members when their contracts expired or when they moved out for various reasons.
“Immediately when they vacate the flat they want to rope in their extended family members. Which is not what the contract entails. That is also not fair on the people who are on the waiting list for housing,” Matsie said.
“We remind all that there is a procedure in place and when the contract ends there is no further provision for the flats to be allocated to other people without municipal consent.”
