Protest Against Housing Corruption
UPM media
Dear Editor
The Unemployed People's Movement has been campaigning against housing and corruption in general in the Makana Municipality.
In 2013 Extension 10 RDP houses were built in our city. This development has been marred by corruption and patronage. The recent ex Executive Mayor, Cllr Zamuxolo Peter publicly acknowledges that indeed the housing list was manipulated. Since then we have not moved an inch.
We attained the list of approved beneficiaries from the office Human Settlement in Port Elizabeth. More than 60% of the approved beneficiaries, many of those beneficiaries being women, have not been allocated the houses. They visit our offices almost every day, some going through domestic violence and abuse.
We have been campaigning for women's rights and firmly believe that women should be prioritized.
One of the most significant problems facing women who have experienced domestic and intimate partner violence is a dependency on the very person who abuses them. Women often have nowhere to go, but have children to look after, to house, and to feed. Perhaps one of the most immediate ways in which we can address this dependency, which serves to keep women in abusive relationships and situations, is to assign RDP houses to women who experience domestic and intimate partner violence. Ensuring that these women have an alternative option, provides women with the freedom to actually be able to choose whether to stay in the situation in which they find themselves or leave. Women need their own home where men will not have a final decision and say. Autonomy is the basis for freedom and dignity.
It is an indictment on our municipality that women continue to be compromised at the altar of corruption and patronage.