Social activist Nomvula Rampedi says homeowners are wrongfully losing their homes every month in Thokoza.
|||Homeowners are wrongfully losing their homes every month in Thokoza. This is according to social activist Nomvula Rampedi, who has been working to help people get their homes back after they were evicted. Rampedi said she dealt with at least four such cases a month in Thokoza.
Nomthandazo Linda, 63, is one person she is trying to help. Linda had been living in her four-roomed house on Mabuya Street since 1983. In 2007, 24 years later, she was evicted from the home after a woman claimed the house belonged to her family.
Linda returned to her house after she presented her title deed as proof of ownership.
In October last year Linda was out of town, after she went to see her mother and when she returned, the house was occupied by other people.
“I returned to find my belongings out on the street. When I asked them what was going on they said they bought the house, but I still have the title deed to it,” she said.
Linda has since been living at her brother’s house a few streets away. The house has been extended and it no longer looks like the home Linda lived in seven months ago.
“I walk past there sometimes and I feel helpless,” said Linda.
She said she had acquired the house in 1983 after being on a waiting list. The house had been vacant for a year until the municipality gave it to her.
“Like most of the houses in the township, vacant houses were not sold but given to people needing them. She had to pay the outstanding rent of the previous owners and that is how the municipality got its money back,” said Rampedi.
However, Rebecca Asiya, 66, the woman who evicted Linda, said she had every right to kick her out of the house.
“It’s not her house so she can’t claim it. The house belonged to my late sister who had a permit (title deed) for the house,” she said.
Asiya has a letter of authority which gave her control of her sister’s house after she died in 1980. Asiya said after her sister died she had asked her uncle to take care of the house. She said that after he died the house remained empty. Asiya said she returned to the house to fix it, only to find Linda living there.
Asiya said they got the sheriff of the court to evict Linda as the house was rightfully hers.
“How does she get the title deed if she does not own the house?” asked Asiya.
She said the root of the problem was with employees at the housing department who sold title deeds.
Asiya sold the house to the current occupants. “We sold the house and I am now using that money to raise my sister’s grandchild,” she said.
The new owner, Isaac Sithole, said he had been waiting for two years for the house. “Linda had no right to the house because it belonged to (Asiya’s) sister and her family,” he said.
Rampedi said a lot of people with similar problems need help. “We are in need of community leaders who actually know the law and can help the residents,” she said.
Gauteng Local Government and Housing spokesman, Motsamai Motlhaolwa, said a title deed was a legal document used to prove ownership over an immovable property. The title deed is registered at the Deeds Registry Office. The deed confirms ownership of a property and once you have it, you acquire a real right over the property.
“An owner of a land or house which is occupied unlawfully has got the right to bring an eviction application in court seeking relief of evicting such an unlawful occupier. The only authoritative proof you have of ownership of property is the title deed itself,” he said.
He said if a person felt they had been unlawfully evicted they would have to approach the court for relief seeking the setting aside of the eviction order.
mpiletso.motumi@inl.co.za
The Star Africa