An Eastridge couple cannot wait to make their two-bedroom state-subsidised house more comfortable, now that they have their title deed.
Wheelchair-bound Mogamat Noor Isaacs, 49, and his wife, Shahieda, 48, moved into the house about 10 years ago, and since then they have built two extra bedrooms for their three children.
On Friday they received the title deeds to their house from the City of Cape Town.
The City also presented the title deeds to 19 other residents in the Phase 1 Housing Development in Eastridge, during a ceremony at the local community hall.
Mr Isaacs said they now had a sense of real home ownership.
“This is our asset, and now we can make it more beneficial for us.”
Ms Isaacs said they had had to cement the floors of the house and put in ramps to make it more wheelchair friendly.
They were dependent on her husband’s disability grant and would have to do their best to maintain and hold onto their home, she said.
Single parent Razaan Abrahams, 40, said her house was for her and her four children.
“I just don’t want to lose it,” she said.
Solomon Philander, councillor for Ward 79 and Wolfgat Sub-council chairman, told residents to step forward if they needed assistance with their municipal bills.
Residents with a combined monthly income of less than R4 500 could apply for a 100% rates rebate, he said.
Grant Twigg, mayoral committee member for urban management, said the title-deed recipients should make their assets work for them.
They could use it as a leverage at the bank to get a loan to extend their house or plough into a business.
“Empowering residents who were previously denied access to property ownership is one of the City’s key priority areas to bring about redress,” he said. “The handing over of title deeds allows homeowners to live in dignity in a home they can call theirs. It is an investment that will grow in value and that will become an asset for them and their loved ones.
“There is no greater pride than taking care of a house that you can call your own and turning it into a home.”
The hand-overs were a way of correcting the injustices of the past, he said.