Africa-Press – South-Africa. Special Investigating Unit (SIU) officials have gone to the coastal town of Hermanus, in a bid to get to the bottom of allegations of maladministration and corruption among housing officials.
Overstrand mayor Annelie Rabie said the investigation would look into the affairs of the municipality’s housing division.
President Cyril Ramaphosa gave the SIU authorisation to probe the municipality’s housing division in December.
Rabie said in a statement:
The interviews were expected to conclude on Friday.
News24 previously reported that the SIU would focus on “the maladministration in respect of the approval, allocation or payment of housing subsidies and allocation of houses”.
The Land Party’s Gcobani Ndzongana said communities in the Hermanus area had raised concerns over housing allocation for many years, which culminated in violent protests in Zwelihle in 2018.
He said the complaints to the SIU centred around those selected as beneficiaries for housing developments in the area.
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Ndzongana alleged that with every housing development, certain politically connected individuals had received houses.
These homes were then rented out to people, so that the owner’s children could occupy them at a later stage, Ndzongana claimed.
“Don’t want any handouts from the government anymore, because when they give out houses, they give their own people houses first. True beneficiaries are not benefitting,” he said.
Another claim was that developments in the area tended to cater for the wealthy, leaving township residents with little chance of moving to better accommodation.
He added that a list compiled by the community had as many as 5 000 individuals awaiting homes.
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Rabie added that the irregularities were initially picked up during an internal audit investigation in 2019.
“It should be noted that the Overstrand Municipal Council requested the premier of the Western Cape in 2019 that a forensic audit be done after an internal audit investigation revealed irregularities within the Overstrand housing department,” said Rabie.
The investigation was expected to wrap up by the end of June. The findings would be made public, added Rabie.
The SIU had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.
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