Johannesburg - The South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) has accused the City of Johannesburg of failing to deliver RDP houses because of rampant corruption at the Johannesburg Social Housing Company (Joshco) and the Human Settlements department.
During a media briefing held on Tuesday in Johannesburg, the union said it had raised issues of corruption at the municipality’s Human Settlements department since 2016.
The union said the municipality had failed to deliver hundreds of houses because there were problems with building projects. Samwu said the corruption at Joshco was so bad that in some instances, money had left the City’s purse but there was no evidence of construction for social housing.
Samwu provincial secretary Mpho Tladinyane said there were a number of problems with the building of houses in the City of Johannesburg. He said in some instances, some developments could not be occupied because the structures were not safe for human occupation. In other instances, he said, the municipality had paid for a large number of RDP houses, yet only a small number of them had been delivered. He also said Samwu estimated that the City of Johannesburg had lost more than R1 billion to corruption in the Human Settlements department.
"There are projects that are not registered with the NHBRC, and prices at some developments were inflated. There are units that are not occupied today. We find that there is a common denominator in all these cases of corruption," Tladinyane said.
Samwu said Johannesburg residents should be upset because municipal officials were colluding with some companies to destroy their hopes of receiving social housing.
"There is a direct relationship between service delivery and corruption. The people who do not have houses, we should take them to these officials so they can tell them where their houses went," he said.
Tladinyane said in most instances, a number of corrupt senior officials were involved in ripping the city off and not delivering the houses that were supposed to be delivered. He said because of the political instability in the municipal council, officials were taking advantage of the chaos.
"These things started in 2016. We have engaged with the City a number of times, which is why we have put them on terms to say if you do not do this, we will unleash the power in us," Tladimyane said, adding that the changing of mayors and mayoral councils was affecting residents in different municipalities in Gauteng. He said workers would often bear the brunt of changes in political heads in various departments.
"Whatever happens in municipalities has an impact on us as employees and as residents. But the problem is that when different politicians come in, they want their own people in Johannesburg; we have 130; in Tshwane we have the same problem," he said.
The Star had contacted the City of Johannesburg for comment.
The Star