By Sibongile Maputi
A new manager has been appointed to deal with housing challenges in Oudtshoorn following the resignation of the manager for human settlements, the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) delegation to the Oudtshoorn Municipality heard on Tuesday.
The Administrator of the Municipality, Mr Kim Chetty, told the delegation that Ms Shehaam Sims was from outside Oudtshoorn and possessed expertise in the housing issues.
Ms Sims's appointment follows the resignation of the former manager for human settlements whom residents had fingered in corrupt practices in the allocation of houses.
In its visit to the municipality last year, the NCOP heard of beneficiary list challenges, absence of title deeds, ownership by foreign nationals, younger people receiving houses first, house allocations to deceased recipients.
Ms Sims said the work of updating the list is at an advanced stage and that all new housing developments will be allocated according to the list.
"What we have done was to update the list based on the list that was provided by the province. The initial list had about 18 000 beneficiaries but that number has since gone down to about 13 000. In the process of cleaning the list it was discovered that a number of people were deceased, others were not supposed to be on the list, others had already been allocated subsidy," Ms Sims said.
The NCOP delegation, together with the provincial counterparts led by the Speaker of the Western Cape Legislature, Ms Sharna Fernandez, visited the Rose Valley housing project where about 410 houses have been constructed. It was revealed that Phase Two of the project - with a high school and a primary school - was advancing and would be completed possibly at the end of June.
The leader of the delegation and Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, Mr Raseriti Tau, said housing is a highly emotive issue and must be handled with care.