Joburg officials implicated in RDP house hijackings in Freedom Park

Residents are living in shacks and rented rooms despite having legal title deeds to houses they were allocated under the Reconstruction and Development Programme

- Aarti Bhana

Dozens of rightful homeowners in Freedom Park, in southern Johannesburg, have been left homeless — despite holding legal title deeds.

Their houses, part of a government-subsidised project, have allegedly been hijacked and illegally reallocated, often with the complicity of officials from the City of Johannesburg.

The Mail & Guardian has independently verified that the beneficiaries have valid title deeds and were allocated houses but are not occupying them. Many have been forced to live in shacks, rented rooms or even outside Freedom Park for their safety.

Simphiwe Ndlovu* applied for a house in 2004 and finally became a registered owner in 2022, but is still living in a shack with his wife and two children, in a friend’s backyard and across from one of the standout mansions in Freedom Park.

They have one bed, a TV unit, a mini fridge, a single couch and a sink. The corrugated iron sheets trap the heat in the stuffy shack, and Ndlovu dripped sweat while his wife was teary-eyed during an interview earlier this year.

"I went to the Eastern Cape and when I came back in 2022, I saw that my house was being occupied by other people," he said.

"When I complained to the housing department, the occupants — a man in his 20s, his girlfriend and their two children — said they would leave the house. I gave them three months. When I went back, they were still staying there, and the community supported them. They told me he is not going anywhere."

The occupants of his house received backing because other residents had procured their houses in a similarly fraudulent manner, Ndlovu alleged.

"They said the house belonged to their late uncle. But they didn’t have the papers. Someone from the housing department came with me to verify the uncle’s ID number, but couldn’t find anything, and [confirmed] that the house belongs to me."