Operation Dudula blames weak control systems for highjacked buildings

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Operation Dudula has placed the blame for highjacked buildings, houses and land on weak control systems in the office of the Master of the High Court and the Deeds Office in Johannesburg.

The lobby group turned political party marched to government institutions to hand over a memorandum of demands calling for an investigation into alleged fraudulent letters of authority which it says have rendered some South Africans homeless.

Operation Dudula alleges the institutions are complicit in aiding criminal syndicates seeking to acquire and sell family homes in townships, land and buildings in the inner city. Some of the victims whose homes were sold illegally joined the march to the Masters and Deeds office.

Nearly 100 people took to the streets of Johannesburg in the hope to get back their fraudulently sold homes. An elderly woman says she was violently removed from her home in October last year after living in it for over 20 years by unknown gunmen who claimed to be the new owners.

“The person who came to evict us from our home had no documents, but he used his gun to get us out of the house. He fired three bullets when we tried to speak to him. He said this was now his house. When we took the matter to court, the person whose name is now on the title deed claims to know nothing about the house.”

Others spoke of how they were disinherited of their parents’ homes. Another victim lost a parental home through an alleged issuing of a fraudulent title deed. And that the title deed now bears the name of an immigrant.

“The people who took over our home went and opened a protection order against us. On the day we were meant to go to court, my grandfather had a stroke and passed away while we were in the process of trying to resolve this issue. We suspect these people are Pakistani or Bangladeshi nationals, but they have the title deed to our home,”

Some have now turned to Operation Dudula for assistance. The party wants the institutions to correct the alleged fraud. They say their relentless investigations have resulted in an arrest.

“This person gets documents from outside and taking them inside when we got inside this office, we realise that even the master at the office itself were suspecting the actions of this guy on the day because of the document that we found with this guy. We realise that this is how they operate, they work with lawyers, they pretend to be messengers of lawyers, but they take stuff in here officially. We brought that person to the office of the manager confirmed that we know that this person has been doing this for some time,” says Isaac Lesole, Operation Dudula Secretary-General.

The Justice and Constitutional Development Department say officials relied on the honesty of the applicants. However, upon realising that there are those who are not afraid of making false statements under oath. The department has introduced an online system late last year.

“In the past we found out that there were letters of authority and executorship that we did not know about. So, parts of the system are to allow for integration example it will lead to us working like SARS. For example, when you file your e-filing, SARS knows what assets you have and this will ensure that we have an integrated system which is integrated with other departments like Home Affairs and the banks as well,” says Penny Roberts, Acting Chief Master: DOJ.

The department says the change of ownership can only be processed by a High Court.

But many of those affected say they do not have the funds to fight the matter in court or hire expensive lawyers to fight for them.