Comrade Editor

 Housing schemes are growing everyday amongst our people in South Africa but our people don’t want to learn from their mistakes as they go forward. People in the different communities know the scheme owners but no one wants to speak out or to name and shame the perpetrators who are rotting our society and government work.

In different municipalities we have those employees who take advantage of our under-educated people who depend on government for essential resources. In this regard our focus is on the housing sector. The employees who deal with title deeds are paid by corrupt people who want to own houses even though their names were never placed on the list for subsidies. These corrupt people also know that they will never qualify for a R.D.P. subsidised house. Thus they opt to pay corrupt officials for the manipulation of internal government documents.

The sub-focal area is the Sol Plaatje municipality where we have an employee who specialises in changing subsidies and title deeds or create duplicate title deeds for corrupt people who want to own houses in the municipal area for a corrupt fee or bribe. These perpetrators are all card carrying members of the majority party. They form business links  with those who have registered companies in order to front with. This pretence is created to show that they make money from the tendering process but actually they make money illegally from buying and selling people’s houses in the community every day.

Information given about the subsidies and title deeds tells us that no South African citizen was charged more than one Rand for the title deed and ownership of a house in the municipal area after 1994. This action was merely for the transferral of the government owned houses to the rightful possessors so that they could become the rightful owners of the property they have been living in since the days of apartheid.

This became a personal issue when I was a victim of the same crime.  When I was called in by a person who knew me I was told that she saw my house on her list of houses which were on sale. She added that she had to call someone who knew me first to verify my address. After she got confirmation she called me. I then acted immediately and knocked on the relevant doors. But I was told that the person I was looking for was not available. I then reported the matter to the seniors of the department and I then took legal steps to correct what was nearly done wrong by the person in question.

I was approached by a number of persons with the same problem as mine but the department seems to drag its feet in correcting the mistakes in this regard. The related scenarios are true reflections of the current issues and all of the persons who approached me are evicted from the properties they used to call home.

The existing corruption is deeply rooted in the local municipality and the employee who is changing the government documents is not alone in this activity because the work he is doing cannot be done by one person alone but by inter-linked offices that work with the relevant data.

In order for one to have a house registered in one’s name where the house is either sold or donated, a legal process should take place. This process is called conveyancing and it is the work of a registered attorney with the relevant qualification. A legal transferral fee is payable for the work done. After the process is done the Deeds office will then produce a new title deed in the name of the new owner. No other course of action can cut short  this legal process and if so then it is a contravention of the law.  Those found to have acted in contravention of the law must be punished accordingly.

 Shadey Adu.