The Inkatha Freedom Party calls for a widespread investigation into the allocation of RDP houses following the admission by an ANC Ward 4 councillor, Jethro Banda at Shaka’s Head near Ballito that he lives in an RDP house which was burnt down by angry community members.
“While we sympathise with Cllr Banda and his family, we want to know why he was allocated an RDP house as he can afford to buy or built his own house. We want to know how many councillors and government officials are staying in RDP houses while poor people in dire need of houses are staying in shacks and others have been waited for many years to get RDP houses. In addition, we want to know when these RDP houses were built including the one occupied by Cllr Banda and his family. This shows that there is corruption in the allocation of houses and this needs to be investigated urgently,” said IFP Leader in the KZN Legislature, Mr Blessed Gwala MPL.
“We have to remedy this situation as soon as possible together with the Human Settlements Department and the municipalities. We have to not only look at what went wrong in the procurement and provision of houses, but find a way forward to prevent the unfair allocation of houses from happening again,” continued Mr Gwala.
“Furthermore, the IFP demands that the KwaDukuza Mayor, Ricardo Mthembu must urgently respond with honest answers into the demands by the communities because he is the one who has the budget in the municipality. A ward councillor is being attacked due to the inept of the municipality to impartially provide services to the people. If people demand service delivery the mayor must respond by providing services to the people and not just lip service,” concluded Mr Gwala.
The IFP will pursue this matter in the KZN Legislature by submitting questions to the MEC of Human Settlements, Ravi Pillay to get answers as to how many councillors are staying in RDP houses and how he is going to address this matter.
