The owner of a RDP house, who has not lived there from the start, managed to evict the current occupant who has lived there for years.
The non-occupation of a state-subsidised RDP house does not automatically mean ownership reverts to provincial government if the original owner holds the title deed, the Mpumalanga High Court has ruled.
The ruling by Judge Frans Phahlamohlaka overturned a Balfour magistrate’s decision that denied an RDP house owner Pheello Moloi an eviction order against Puleng Mokoena, who occupied his house.
Moloi appealed the magistrate’s court ruling that dismissed his application, after the magistrate reasoned that his non-occupation had caused ownership of the house to revert to the provincial government.
The house occupier, Mokoena, reasoned that Moloi has lost his rights through non-occupation, and she maintained that in law, the property vested in the State.
