The City of Cape Town has warned the public about ongoing housing scams and urges residents to remember that they do not need to pay for a housing opportunity, to be placed on its Housing Needs Register and for property transfer services.
Beneficiaries who are asked to pay in these instances are being scammed by individuals or ‘shack-farming’ syndicates.
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“If you are asked to pay to register on the City’s Housing Needs Register, to pay for a government housing Breaking New Ground (BNG) opportunity or a plot of City-owned land, or to pay for property transfer services to any individual except a conveyancer, you are being scammed,” said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlements, Malusi Booi, yesterday. “These types of cases often affect the most desperate residents. If you think that you might have been the victim of a housing scam, please report it to the South African Police Service for investigation.”
“We have recently been made aware of a number of these cases across the metro and we encourage our residents and beneficiaries to also contact the City should they suspect this to be the case.”
“Qualifying beneficiaries are registered on the Housing Needs Register at no cost to them. The Register, which is protected, updated and audited, is necessary to prevent queue-jumping. This is especially important given the very acute need for housing opportunities across the metro.”
In September, the Department of Human Settlements issued a warning to the public to also be aware of people posing as officials of the Department of Human Settlements after a woman paid R 2000 for a housing approval letter into the bank of the scammer on Facebook.
In the statement the department wrote that the fraudster usually preys on vulnerable residents with empty promises of facilitating approvals for housing, keys, and title deeds.
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Picture: City of Cape Town
