Johannesburg Mayor Mpho Phalatse has raised concerns over the rise in housing scams reported by citizens who have fallen victim to apparent scams as they desperately attempt to secure RDP houses.
The city said its Department of Human Settlement had been inundated with calls and walk-in inquiries from people who had lost their hard-earned money to scammers who promised to help them speed up the housing allocation process.
The platforms which have been used to scam people are WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and LinkedIn.
“These fraudsters have even registered cellphone numbers in the MMC’s name which they use to extort money from valuable Joburg residents seeking housing,” said Phalatse at a media briefing on Thursday.
“As we dig deeper into the matter, it is becoming clear that we are dealing with multiple syndicates who might be working closely with human settlement officials,” she added.
One employee at the Department of Human Settlement was arrested with two other unknown suspects last year in February in connection with housing scams, and MMC Mlungisi Mabaso believes more employees could be working with scammers.
“We are investigating to see if there are other employees from the Department of Human Settlement involved in this syndicate. There is something definitely wrong at Fleurhof and someone in the department knows what’s happening,” he said.
Mabaso Said Fleurhof is identified as a hotspot for housing scams in the city and had seen a series of land invasions, with scammers allegedly selling RDP houses for prices ranging from R3000 to R20 000, as well as an opportunity to jump the housing queue.
The city has a housing backlog of 460 000, Phalatse said. The backlog has become a lucrative playground for criminal syndicates targeting desperate residents and exposing the loopholes in the city’s human settlement department.
Source: News24, Times Live, Daily Maverick, Eyewitness News, Sowetan Live, image from Eyewitness News: Veronica Mokhoali