300 ‘hijacked’ govt houses uncovered in Ulundi
KZN Public Works MEC Martin Meyer says they've identified at least 300 houses belonging to the government that have been illegally occupied in Ulundi.
He told Newswatch on Tuesday that some of the occupiers are municipal officials.
”We own a couple of hundred houses in Ulundi that were inherited from the old Zululand government and are part of the legislative complex over there. Those houses have, over the years, become illegally occupied. So even though we pay the rates and electricity for those houses, the people who are living there are not paying rent.”
Meyer said his department is in the process of addressing the situation.
“We have the legal right to hand over properties to other spheres of government, including local governments like uMhlathuze in Richards Bay, where we have been asked to hand over some of these houses which are illegally occupied to the local municipality."
Meyer said they are also working to hand the houses back to the Ulundi Local Municipality so it can rent them out.
He said the department is currently conducting a full audit of all government buildings in the province to determine how many have been hijacked.
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