People who invaded about 800 houses in Wiggins near Cato Manor in 1993 were overjoyed on Sunday when KwaZulu-Natal housing and local government MEC Mike Mabuyakhulu told them they could keep the houses for R4 600 each. The houses are estimated to have a market value of more than R70 000.
The eThekwini municipality and department of housing on Sunday handed over title deeds for the houses to the invaders.
The housing department has also allocated R9,7-million for the municipality to rehabilitate the houses which were incomplete at the time.
The three-bedroom homes had been set aside by the then house of delegates for people on a beneficiary list.
However, before the houses could be completed and handed over to their rightful owners, people from Chesterville invaded and occupied them.
Some of the invaders were homeless and took over incomplete houses while other invaders, who were already homeowners, simply exploited the situation.
After a long dispute between the housing authorities and the occupants it was decided to develop another 800 homes in Bonella for the original beneficiaries.
Some invaders have since sold the houses for up to R100 000 while others have moved out and are letting them.
The majority of people living in the houses have never paid municipal rates, water or electricity and some houses have illegal connections. However, the city and housing department do not plan to prosecute offenders or recover the lost rates and services revenue.
"Public funds were used to initiate the construction of this project. In addition, public funds were used to settle arrear rates payments ... we have just committed further funds for the repairs and replacements," said Mabuyakhulu.
He said the housing department and municipality could have evicted all the illegal occupants of the Masxha housing project, as the development is now known, but had opted to legalise the situation because of the socio-economic situation in the Wiggins area.
"We are prepared to assist all occupants to attain the status of legal beneficiary to the units they are occupying," he said.
The houses were marked down to R35 000, but the government is subsidising each unit to the tune of R32 000 in line with the Discount Benefit Scheme.
The occupants will now only have to pay R4 600 in transfer costs to become legal home owners.
Mabuyakhulu said all occupants should immediately co-operate with the municipality, register and begin paying service charges.
Thembisile Ntuli, 37, who received her title deed on Sunday, said she was overjoyed. She was one of the first people to occupy the houses in 1993, and said she could not believe she would only pay R4 600 to keep the house.
Delphinah Zulu, 70, was happy that she could keep the house she had occupied for 12 years for only R4 600. She had fled KwaMashu because of violence, and had moved into the Wiggins house which was incomplete and without electricity.
She said the municipality had since connected electricity and she had made a few improvements to the house, but she still needed ceilings and cracks filled.
Because the municipality and housing department have agreed to bear the costs of repairs and replacements, Zulu can expect to have all her renovations done free.
Mabuyakhulu said the approach they had adopted did not endorse the invasion of properties.
However, Democratic Alliance eThekwini spokesperson John Steenhuisen said it seemed the municipality was making grand announcements as the local government elections approached.
"First it was the massive (R10-billion) housing project (in Phoenix East) which has no basis, and now it's the arrears write-offs," he said.
"It seems this move is motivated by the pending election rather than rational arguments and agreements."
Residents of Bayview, Wentworth, Sydenham Heights, Umlazi and KwaMashu have been locked in a long battle with the municipality to get their arrears written off.
However, in several cases the debts have increased. Bayview Flat Residents' Association chairperson Brandon Pillay said a precedent needed to be set.
"In Bayview people have been asking for arrears to be written off so, while I applaud the community of Wiggins for standing up against social injustice, similar things should happen for other communities," he said.
The Wiggins episode could be a sign of hope for other poor communities asking for arrears write-offs.