Nigel Families Waiting 30 Years for Promised RDP Homes

Roos Lesshope, 73, in Alra Park Extension 2, says she is tired of living in a shack since 1992, and having to deal with a leaking roof and having to go and fetch water from outside. Her home stands in between completed RDP houses.

• When RDP homes were built for shack dwellers in Alra Park Extension 1, a number of people were skipped. They still live in shacks on serviced plots between completed houses.
• While they have waited decades for houses, many of them pay municipal rates and taxes and some have title deeds.
• The Gauteng Department of Human Settlements says it is the City of Ekurhuleni’s project, and the City says it is the province’s project.

Rossie Roos and her husband were among the first people to erect shacks in Alra Park Extension 1 in Nigel in 1992. By the late 1990s, the settlement was formalised and residents were provided with electricity, water and toilets.

Later, RDP houses were built. But to Roos’s surprise the government built houses for her neighbours and skipped her shack.

She received a title deed and was told her house would be built later. Three decades have passed. Her husband has died. She still lives in a shack.

“I have lost hope,” she says.

Hers is one of about 100 shacks standing between completed RDP houses.

A similar situation exists in Alra Park Extension 2, says community representative Hugh van Greenen. He says people still living in shacks receive monthly bills for municipal rates and taxes. When residents visit the housing office, the system reflects that their houses have been built, he says.

Sheila Arnolds received her title deed two years ago. She has to place buckets inside, even on her bed because her shack leaks. When she asked when her house would be built, the local office referred her to the Alberton Housing Office. Their system reflected that she had received her house. She says she told them she still lives in a shack. They refused to believe her, she says.

Residents say ahead of the elections they are promised their houses will be built. Roos and others told GroundUp they will no longer bother to vote.

Tahir Sema, spokesperson for the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements, said, “The project in question is being implemented by the City of Ekurhuleni.”

But City of Ekurhuleni spokesperson Zweli Dlamini said the municipality only implemented RDP housing for Alra Park Extension 3. He said extensions 1 and 2 were implemented and funded by the department. He referred our queries to the province.

We are still awaiting the province’s response to this.

Dlamini said that the municipality provided electricity, water and sewerage, and that this needed to be paid for, even when a resident does not have a title deed.

Francina Durbar 63, has made the most of her shack but says she feels out of place sitting in between RDP houses. “It’s not easy to live in a shack. We want a real house,” she says.

Sheila Arnolds received her title deed two years ago. She says when she inquired about when her house would be built, the local office referred her to the Alberton Housing Office, who told her she had received a house.

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