Occupants get title deeds – after decades

MEC reminds beneficiaries of millions written off

EMOTIONAL Motherwell resident Rinkie Vena was thrilled to “finally be a free man” as he received the title deed for the house in which he has lived for the past 26 years.

Vena, 58, was one of 97 Motherwell and Uitenhage residents who received their title deeds from Eastern Cape Human Settlements MEC Helen Sauls-August yesterday.

They were among the 379 families who two years ago were on the verge of being evicted from their homes for defaulting on their loan payments.

The majority of the houses were built from a R20-million trust set up by the apartheid government in 1988, intended for people earning less than R1 500 a month.

People were required to pay a 5% site cost to qualify for a home deal. The homeowners then paid bond instalments of R350 a month to Khayalethu Financial Services.

The company later changed hands and is now known as Hlano Financial Services.

Sauls-August’s department squared up the loan amounts owed by the families – about R42-million – and the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality wrote off some of the rates and services accounts.

Hlano agreed to sell the properties to the government at a discounted price, thus settling the families’ debt.

The municipality has already written off more than R528 000 in rates and services charges for 132 properties. More write-offs are expected. At the Raymond Mhlaba Sports Centre yesterday, Sauls-August handed over 97 title deeds. The rest will be handed over once all the paperwork is in order and payments have been made.

“Today we are celebrating the title deeds being handed out to the families without ownership of their homes for over two decades.

“In 2014, we were inundated with complaints from the people in these properties,” she said.

“And in partnership with Hlano and the municipality, we came up with a vehicle that will restore your dignity with ownership of your house.

“To do this, the municipality had to write off millions of rands to be able to issue these title deeds.

“I hope these home-owners can understand the significance of what this municipality did under the leadership of the ANC.”

Sauls-August urged those who were employed to pay their municipal accounts.

She also used the opportunity for electioneering, saying those in the audience should “guard against those opportunists who would want to take our hardearned gains away from us”.

The Bay’s human settlements committee chairwoman, councillor Nomvuselelo Tontsi, said she had championed this issue since she started heading the department in June last year.

She said the families would be accommodated in the metro’s attention to the poor programme.

One of the residents who received a title deed yesterday, Konki Williams, 58, said: “I am very excited. I’ve been staying in my house since 1989. I never, ever thought I would get my title deed.”

Rosie Mankayi, 67, was overjoyed, saying she never thought it would happen that she received the title deed to her home.

Sanco provincial secretary Tony Duba said the ANC was fixing the mess created by the apartheid government.

Sanco was instrumental in fighting for the residents to get their title deeds.

“We are here because of the legacy of the past . . . What was started 26 years ago was not started by the ANC government. But 26 years later, the ANC has fixed the mess of the apartheid government,” Duba said.