KNYSNA NEWS - Residents of Love Corner in White Location, Knysna, claim that people whose houses were destroyed in the 2017 Knysna Fires were removed from a housing beneficiary list and replaced with people who were not affected. 

The victims are also up in arms over the fact that the Love Corner project is still not finalised while residents of the nearby Newrest informal settlement, who also lost their homes during the fires, were recently handed keys to their completed homes.

A member of the Love Corner Fire Victims Committee, Nombulelo Hlininika, explained that the committee worked with the municipality to compile a list of beneficiaries in 2017, which was approved by the provincial government in 2019, but that some names on the list now differ from the original list. 

"The municipality did not use the list that was approved by Province and instead added people who never had houses in Love Corner, removing about seven people from the list," she said.

Hlininika said those whose names were allegedly removed, submitted affidavits disputing the list to the municipality three weeks ago and they are still waiting for the municipality's response.

Another committee member, Phumeza Nduneni, said they fought for years to have their houses built. "People who are on the list never had site numbers as I was the one who allocated the numbers before the fire. I don't know where some of these people who were added got their numbers from," she said.

A third committee member, Zukiswa Makisi, said people who were supposed to benefit from the project are now left with nothing. "Also, we are told to pay R350 to connect to electricity - where will we get that money?" she asked, explaining that she is unemployed.

These committee members also wanted to know from the municipality why the Love Corner project is still not finalised whereas the Newrest houses have already been handed over to beneficiaries. 

"We don't know what is delaying the process, but we want the lists to be corrected before the houses are finished and handed out," she said.

Municipal spokesperson Christopher Bezuidenhoudt said the allegations pertaining to the Love Corner beneficiary list has only now come to the municipality's attention. "We are looking into those disputes," he said.

Bezuidenhoudt explained that the R350 is a standard electricity fee that has to be paid by the beneficiaries of the allocated houses.

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