While the City of Joburg MMC for human settlements, Mlungisi Mabaso has urged residents of the city to collect more than 3,000 uncollected and unissued title deeds, some applicants who have been on the list of RDP beneficiaries are dissatisfied with having to wait years before their applications are cleared.
Poppie Zulu, a resident of Dube Village in Soweto who applied for her Reconstruction Development Programme (RDP) house in 2012, says she is still awaiting the finalisation of her application.
“It has been a long wait and I have been checking the status of my application to no avail. I am still waiting for my C-form and will be going to the human settlement offices to check on my application as this has been a long wait for me,” she said.
The 58-year-old mother of two and grandmother of four, is forced to endure family squabbles between herself and her siblings while she awaits the finalisation of her application.
“My situation here at our family home is very bad as we have constant fights among one another to a point where we have protection orders. These fights are just about who has a right to occupy this home. All I want now is a place I can call my own,” she stated.
Gloria Tshabalala from Kliptown Valley, also in Soweto, has also decried the endless struggles to get her RDP house since she first registered in 2014.
“I am hoping this time around, I will be on the list of those who are earmarked for a title deed. It has been a long time since I applied. I will be visiting the human settlements offices in no time,” she stated.
On Tuesday, in a statement, Mabaso indicated that there more than 3,876 title deeds that cannot be issued due to various reasons. Some of the reasons are due to incomplete information given, change of contact details, as well as the failure of the deceased’s family members to submit a letter of authority.
The City of Joburg's housing department runs a Title Deeds Programme where it transfers ownership of formally Council owned houses or flats (in former townships such as Soweto, Ivory Park) to beneficiaries by giving a title deed over the property they have occupied for years. This programme also includes the issuing out of title deeds to post 1994 developments in the Government Subsidised Houses (RDP).
In October 2022, the city in its drive to empower its residents visited Drieziek, Orange Farm Region G, to hand out 370 title deeds to qualifying beneficiaries.
Mabaso says the challenges to issuing of title deeds is attributed to instances where houses are sometimes sold before they were transferred to rightful owners while others are mired in family disputes.
“We have had other homes having been wrongly registered while in other instances there are family disputes over the ownership of the property. As a result, we call on residents to come to our offices so that they may be assisted in obtaining their title deeds. Obtaining a title deed is one of the key priorities for the department, aimed at restoring people’s dignity,” said MMC Mabaso.
Mabaso indicated that most of the un-issued title deeds are concentrated in regions A, C, D and G of the City of Johannesburg with 1,500 of these being from the Sol Plaatjie, 665 from Vlakfontein Ext 1,3 and Proper, 400 from Ivory Park, 282 from Drieziek Ext 3 and 5,248 from Kanana, 200 from Devland, 190 from various parts of Soweto, as well as 175 from Zandspruit Ext 10, 145 from Kliptown and 71 from the Fleurhof areas.
Residents have been urged to visit the city’s human settlements offices on 222 Smit Street in Braamfontein.