Rodney Lentit, ID Western Cape Provincial Secretary, has called on Provincial Housing MEC Whitey Jacobs ‘to blacklist those individuals who have illegally sold, or leased their Government-subsidised housing, so that they do not receive homes from the government again.’

The MEC yesterday hand-delivered about a dozen letters to beneficiaries in Delft who have either sold, or let their Government-subsidised homes, notifying them of the removal of their houses from their ownership because of their abuse of the system, ‘an action by the MEC that the ID fully supports.

‘The selling and unauthorised renting out of these government-subsidised houses is criminal and immoral, especially given the massive backlog of housing in the Western Cape,’ Mr Lentit says.

‘While thousands of our people are waiting patiently for homes of their own, these individuals are using a Government project for their own enrichment. Many of them have been on the housing waiting list for 20 years, or longer.

‘Often these culprits move back into their informal or backyard dwellings once they have received a home, and sometimes they even put their names on the housing waiting list again,’ says Lentit.

‘We in the Independent Democrats have received many complaints and affidavits from people renting some of these homes, who are often forced to pay high rentals by these unscrupulous landlords and once we have compiled a full audit, we will hand it over to the MEC.

‘The ID calls on MEC Jacobs to consider implementing a proposal by municipalities where the ID is in government in the Western Cape that houses being rented out in this way are transferred to the tenant in cases where that tenant is on a waiting list and qualifies for a subsidy,’ Lentit says.

For media enquiries, please call Angus Flowers, ID Media Officer for the Western Cape, on 078 444 8509