FRUSTRATED BUYER DEMANDS MONEY

 MANZINI – “I want the Municipal Council of Manzini to reimburse me money worth the current value of plots at Mkhosi Township,” says Phindile Mashwama.

Mashwama was one of five people who appeared before the Zonke Magagula-led Commission of Enquiry on the Mkhosi Township Petition.  The commission started listening to submissions from members of the public who had registered and paid a commitment fee of securing plots at the township in the year 2000. The township, which is in the outskirts of Manzini along the corner of Magnolia and Southern Distributor Roads, had 60 people sign a petition and present it to Parliament, alleging injustice in the sale of the plots.

Mashwama is one of the people who alleged that they were treated unfairly by the municipality. She laid two options that she would take from the municipality which was to be fully compensated at the current cost of her plot.

Alternatively, Mashwama said she be allocated land under phase two of the project which was not yet allocated. She said: “I need to get the land as I showed an interest from the onset.”

Mashwama alleged that she had learnt of the sale of plots through an advertisement in this publication which invited the public who had never owned property.

Upon seeing this advert, Mashwama claimed that she showed an initiative and paid a commitment fee of E2 000 on her way to the airport as she was leaving the country for 15 months to study abroad.

The plot she was committing to was numbered 1919 and was about 800 metres squared. At the time, a square metre cost E40. While abroad, she claimed that she sent money to her children to pay for the plot; but they were turned back as they were informed that payments were not yet accepted.

In 2001, Mashwama alleged that she visited the municipality wherein a certain make Mkhabela engaged her on the issue and said progress was stalling.

“In 2013, I received a letter inviting me to a meeting in which we would be shown the plots; however, on the day of the meeting, we were informed that we could not see the plots as it was a forest,” she alleged.

According to Mashwama, in the same year, she alleged that they were informed that there had been a challenge as the size of the plots had been minimised.

She claimed that she was informed that if she agreed to the new size of the plot, which was numbered 156, she should sign a particular document.

The plot she was being allocated at the time, she purported, was 613 metres square.

Register

Out of desperation, Mashwama claimed, she signed the document as she resided at Lomahasha and commuting was cumbersome for her. In a subsequent meeting, purportedly in September 2013, she was supposedly informed that she had aged and should either register the plot under one of her children’s names and or give it away.

“I didn’t want to give it away and I relayed to them that they were not aware of my savings; so I’d use them to pay the desired amount.”

Later on, Mashwama alleged that she was informed that the township had been subdivided into phases and she was being listed in the second phase of the project.

She supposed that noting that her first-born child was in the final year of tertiary education, she consented to the offer as means to buy time while hopeful that when her child completed, she would get monetary assistance to pay-off and construct her house.

When questioned if she had been informed about the phases in the allocation of plots from the onset, Mashwama claimed that it had not been communicated.

She submitted that her understanding was that the phases that were being referred to by the municipality’s planning department meant that they would be allowed to construct their homesteads in intervals, with those in the first phase taking the lead.

Towards the end of June 2018, Mashwama claimed that she was informed that the prices of the plots now ranged at about E300 000 and they wanted her to be under phase one.

In response to this proposal, she purportedly requested that her name be retained under phase two. She said when this offer was extended to her, the municipality personnel relayed to her that she had to pay the E300 000 within seven days.

This, she claimed, resulted in her seeking others who she was aware had shown interest in procuring plots at Mkhosi Township whereupon they wrote a petition to Parliament.

In all these dealings with the municipality, Mashwama claimed that she had never been shown her plot or given a title deed.

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