North West Department of Local Government and Human Settlements to deal with illegal occupation of low cost houses in Coligny
Bokone Bophirima MEC for Local Government and Human Settlements has promised the formulation of a strategy that will assist in avoiding illegal occupation of completed low cost houses by wrongful people.
This comes at a time when another illegal occupation was recorded at Coligny under Ditsobotla municipality in the newly built low cost houses. MEC Collen Maine who was accompanied by MEC for Public Safety and Transport Management Gaoagwe Oageng Molapisi met with leaders of local residents at Ditsobotla municipal office recently to get to the bottom of the allegations.
Residents in the area took to the streets in the protest action alleging that there are people in the area who have illegally occupied the low cost houses. MEC Maine ordered the investigation and the decisive conclusion to the illegal occupation concerns. He also appealed to those with the evidence to come forward.
“A permanent solution to avoid illegal occupation of the completed low cost houses in the province must be formulated. We are not going to allow any illegal occupation and the sporadic cases that erupt in different municipalities must be stopped. Beneficiaries are not going to be denied the opportunity to occupy their houses. We are going to do door to door and compare lists and those who have occupied the houses illegally will be removed” said MEC Maine.
Residents also wanted clarity from the department with regard to the 107 hectares of land which was purchased through Housing Development Agency (HDA) and got transferred to the municipality. The land was purchased by the department on behalf of the municipality and it is expected to yield more than 1500 housing units in the area after professional work has been done which include feasibility studies.
Mr. Vuyisile Mokoma speaking on behalf of the community said “We remain satisfied in the manner in which department has responded to our issues, this laid to rest lot of speculation which had misled us for quite some time; we are prepared to work with government to ensure that what we had agreed upon it got implemented expeditiously”.
In his response MEC Collen Maine said: “The land was purchased for you the residents of Coligny for the housing project and it does not belong to anyone in the municipality or any political leader. The project is meant to alleviate your housing needs and it was not bought through any questionable means” said Maine.
Enquiries:
Ben Bole
Spokesperson
Tel: (018) 388 4824
Cell: (071) 566 1399
Fax: (018) 391 0328
Email: MSBole@nwpg.gov.za
