90-year-old woman signs transfer for her house

GEORGE NEWS - A 90-year-old woman, Martiena "Meisie" Pietersen, last week officially became the owner of the house she has been living in for 70 years. Pietersen signed the transfer documents for the historic house in Pacaltsdorp on Thursday 28 October.

George Mayor Leon van Wyk paid a visit to Aunt Meisie to help her complete the paperwork for the house.

She is one of six households signing transfers for houses known as the Urban's properties, which the former Pacaltsdorp Municipality had bought for the purposes of subdivision and sale to inhabitants many years ago. The transfer never took place and the George Municipality inherited the properties when the local authorities amalgamated in 1995.

Van Wyk said the Urban's houses were estimated to be about 100 years old and the municipality had hoped that it could make some repairs to the homes before transfer.

"George Municipality had pursued options to fund repairs via government grants because Council did not have the finances to make such repairs itself, but there were no grants applicable to these types of housing," he said.

"George Municipality did not want to delay transfer of ownership any longer, especially since most inhabitants are elderly and the municipality wanted to ensure the rights of the current beneficiaries as well as their legal heirs.

"Officials of the Provincial Department of Human Settlements have confirmed the houses are structurally safe and liveable, but the municipality will continue to assist the new owners to obtain funding through other government or organisation programmes."

Aunt Meisie said she was grateful that she would finally own the house she had lived in all her life. "Thank you to everyone at the municipality who has helped to make this happen after so many years."

George Municipality Executive Mayor Leon van Wyk help Aunt Meisie with the paperwork for the transfer of her house after living there for 70 years.