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EC government must prioritise housing in Bedford

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Dear MyPE

The ANC government has kept the residents of Bedford hanging on the promise of housing opportunities for the past 23 years and will continue to keep its residents waiting due to the failure of the Department of Human Settlements and Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality to deal with challenges within the area.

This has in particular affected hundreds of residents of Goodwin Park and the informal settlement known as Sizakhele where they are forced to sleep as many as six in a room.

In May 2016, the Department of Human Settlements ordered many people in the Goodwin Park area to vacate their houses so that they could be rectified. No emergency housing was given with the result that due to the extreme shortage of accommodation, many families had to be split up to stay with family members while their houses were being repaired.

Some four years later nothing has been done about resolving this matter. Promises have been made but never kept and the people are suffering.

Raymond Mhlaba Municipality recently tabled written reports from Human Settlements stating that the rectification project and the building of houses in Goodwin Park and Wortelsdrift is currently underway. This is a blatant misrepresentation of the fact and many families are still without their original homes or any home for that matter. These empty houses have since been seriously vandalized and are now beyond repair.

I will now write to the DA EC Shadow MEC for Human Settlements, Sanele Magaqa MPL, to take this matter up in the provincial government and demand that the MEC for Human Settlements, Nonqkubela Peters, urgently prioritises the plight of these people.

The DA believes that every South African family should have access to adequate shelter and supports the interpretation of section 26 of the Constitution which requires that this right must be ‘progressively realised’. The state must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of this right.

Regards

Cecilia Auld Cllr
Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality

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