A Musina woman is unable to move into her RDP house, because she claims it was illegally given to another person.

Shonisani Makhubele said that she had applied for the house at the Musina Municipality in 2008. The house was allocated to her and registered in her name. Since 2008, housing allocation in the Musina Municipality has been marred by allegations of corruption and fraud involving municipal officials who sell RDP houses to unsuspecting and desperate families for between R1 000 and R4 000.

The area has subsequently become flooded by illegal occupants at the expense of desperate beneficiaries. Limpopo Mirror has also learnt that some of the houses have been put up for rent. “Apparently, there are residents who have illegally occupied some of the RDP houses that were vacant, and the rightful owners need the illegal occupants to vacate the premises,” Makhubele said.

Makhubele stated that she had been approached by a woman who worked at the municipality to bring R1 700 after she had been given a key, but a day later she was told to bring back the key as the wrong key had apparently been issued to her. She reported the matter to the municipality in 2009 and called for a hearing with the woman who had phoned her. This, however, did not solve her problem.

Makhubele said that she would call the municipal offices to enquire about her house and would be told that it had not yet been built. Makhubele indicated that records showed that a house had already been allocated to her, and that the municipality was under the impression that she had occupied the house. "I then went out to search for the house, using the number allocated to me. I was shocked to discover that someone already occupied the house," she said. She said that efforts to have the municipality intervene drew a blank, and she was sent from pillar to post, without anyone assisting her. Makhubele, who works as a street vendor, says "I still cannot understand why I'm being made to suffer while my house exists."

Ms Eunice Mashaba, the person who is currently living in the disputed RDP house, told Limpopo Mirror that the municipality gave the house to her two years ago. “I don’t deny being in illegal ownership of this house, but my question is this: When we are taken out of these houses by the municipality, where are we going to be placed?” Asked if they had purchased the houses, Mashaba said that no money had changed hands. She claims that they were given the houses free of charge. “Some of the houses were dilapidated and we renovated them,” she said. She said that she did not have a problem leaving the house if she was not the legal owner, but she just wanted to be placed in a new home because she had been on the RDP waiting list for more than seven years.

The head of communications at the Musina Municipality, Mr Wilson Dzebu, said he could not respond immediately as the municipality was still investigating the allegation.