Frail and sickly Nobandla Nqoro of Nyanga had not even moved into her new Breaking New Ground (BNG) home, when the tug of war between her granddaughter and the Ward 37 councillor Luyanda Nyingwa began.
Ms Nqoro was in hospital at the time of the hand-over and because they would not give the keys to her granddaughter, Amanda Makeleni, Ms Makeleni is concerned that her grandmother will not receive her house.
While she claimed Mr Nyingwa had told her that the house would not be handed over, the ward councillor has assured her that
she has no need to worry because Ms Nqoro is one of the beneficiaries of the R90 million housing project on Sibeni Street, Mau Mau.
They will not, however, hand over the keys to anyone but the beneficiary.
Ms Makeleni said she planned to move into the house, one of 432 state-subsidised BNG homes in
the area, with her grandmother, but after officials refused to give her the keys, Nyanga residents joined her at a picket on site on Monday.
They also complained that there was a lack of transparency about who the beneficiaries were.
Clearing up the confusion around the matter, Mr Nyingwa said Ms Nqoro was indeed a beneficiary but had not been at
the handover to personally receive her keys – and the Department
of Human Settlements does
not allow other people to accept them on behalf of the beneficiaries.
“They are not telling the truth. The problem is that when the
first six houses were handed
out, she was not there. I told them to bring her wherever she is to receive her house. I am sure she would be happy to see her house too.”
He said it is not in his power to tell people what is going to happen with housing allocation but the City’s prerogative.