Cope in the Vhembe District is accusing the Makhado Municipality's Ward 20 councillor, Cllr Vincent Mahladise,  of being biased in the allocation of RDP houses in Vleifontein.

The regional chairperson of Cope, Mr Geoffrey Tshibvumo, says that only members of the ruling party benefit from the allocation of RDP houses. "We are concerned that a ward councillor from the ruling party continues to distribute RDP houses in a partisan manner," he says.

Tshibvumo says that only those "who drink and braai with the councillor are the ones who get the houses".

He states that the Freedom Charter says that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, irrespective of political affiliation. "It is a disgrace that RDP houses are only allocated to those close to the ward councillor," he adds.

He continues by stressing that ward councillors should refrain from using municipal resources such as houses, jobs and tenders to secure support within their party. The municipality has recently allocated RDP houses to 60 beneficiaries in the area. The construction of the RDP houses in question has not yet commenced.

Cllr Mahladise has dismissed the allegations. He says that all the necessary procedures have been followed. "All beneficiaries deserve to get houses. There are procedures that we follow before allocating houses to residents. We can not build houses that are supposed to be built at Vleifointein, at the nearby Ha-Munzhedzi village as Cope insists," said Mahladise.

He adds that it would be wrong to take houses from deserving beneficiaries to Ha-Munzhedzi. "The residents of Ha-Munzhedzi must just wait for the second batch of allocations and they will get their houses," he continues.

Asked where at Vleifontein the houses were to be built, Mahladise said that there were stands that had already been allocated to beneficiaries. "We are just waiting for the project to start," he said.