PROPERTY OWNER WANTS INTEREST FOR INFLATED PLOT

MANZINI – A prospective property owner at Mkhosi Township wants to be compensated with interest for paying an ‘inflated’ price for her plot.

Phumelele Dlamini submitted to the Zonke Magagula-led Commission of Enquiry on the Mkhosi Township Petition. 

The chairman of the commission, who is also a senior attorney, heard the allegations with the commission’s member William Ndlela and the Secretary, Nhlanhla Nkonyane. Also present were representatives of the Manzini Municipal Council. 

This, Dlamini claimed, had to happen due to the provisional price that was availed to her for a plot which was valued at E33 160 measuring 547 square metres.

Expectation

“I need interest on my E193 000 as I did not expect it would be with them (municipality) for two years. The interest should be accrued by the difference between E193 000 and the E33 160 which was the initial price of my plot,” Dlamini said.

The prospective property owner submitted that she was disappointed that the price was increased despite that the plot size had been minimised to 547 square metres while the initial plot had been 829 square metres.

She purported that when she paid the hiked price for the plot, it was still for the old measurements. Dlamini relayed to the commission that her partaking in its proceedings followed signing of a petition wherein some of the people she endorsed it with were complaining that they were not afforded title deeds.

However, her title deed was offered to her after she travelled to Mbabane and enquired about it. After her enquiry, Dlamini alleged that she paid about E13 000 for transfer costs.

She further submitted to the commission that the municipality needed to avail signage that would identify plots as she had visited hers only to find that there were no markings identifying it.

Submission

Meanwhile, for a year, a prospective property owner at Mkhosi Township has been battling to get a title deed. Margaret Mahlobo made this submission before the commission. 

She claimed that despite the hike in her plot price, she used her pension to pay the price which was around E230 000.

“I took my pension money and paid something around E230 000. This is despite that the initial plot cost me about E40 000,” she submitted.

Mahlobo, when making her submissions to the commission, requested that she should be pardoned as it had been a long time since the project started. 

This was when commissioner Ndlela had sought her to state the details of her initial plot. The details he sought were the size of the plot, its price and its number.

This was after Mahlobo had claimed that in the early years of the project, she had paid a deposit before being informed to suspend payments as some issues were being addressed.

Following her submission that she had paid for the plot, the chairman sought to establish if she had physically seen her plot. In response, Mahlobo claimed that she had been shown the plot.

Informed

However, she purported that for a year, her title deed was still not with her as the Manzini Municipal Council informed her to collect her title deed at a law firm in Mbabane.

“It’s been a year since I paid. I paid everything including transfer costs. I came once to the municipality to lodge a complaint and they informed me that maybe they were still processing (the title deed),” she submitted.

Her complaint, she submitted, was that she had been shocked that a plot that had been cheap had its price increased drastically. Mahlobo claimed that because she did not know whether her deposit would be refunded if she stopped paying, she proceeded to pay with her pension.

She pleaded with the commission that if possible, could it review the pricing of the second offer as prospective property owners never had a platform to engage the municipality when the pricing changed.

“We had an agreement which was altered without consultation,” she submitted.

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