Absa holds off on auctioning military veteran's house

Minister of Human Settlements Lindiwe Sisulu has made good on her promise to halt the sale of a house of a military veteran who was struggling to make monthly repayments.

Absa confirmed that it had halted the auction of Raymond Cindi's home‚ who begged Sisulu for assistance at a military veterans housing dialogue held in Boksburg earlier this month.

“Absa can confirm that we have stayed the sale-in-execution of Mr Cindi’s home and we are currently in negotiations to reach a long-term solution‚” a spokesperson said.

• Veteran says he’ll lose his house, despite vow from minister he won’tA military veteran who had placed all hope of saving his home on Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu is disappointed. 

The bank could not provide any further information on the deal‚ stating only that it would hold talks with the Department of Military Veterans on how to help other veterans undergoing similar actions.

Cindi had earlier this month expressed his disappointment with Sisulu‚ who had promised to help him after his plea.

He told TimesLive he had scrambled to raise R47 000 to pay the bank to stave off the auctioning of his house after he had heard nothing from Sisulu’s office.

Cindi said he had been humiliated when he had to publicly ask Sisulu for help at the dialogue.

“Sit down Raymond‚ the house will be yours before you go to bed today‚” Sisulu had replied‚ filling the room with applause.

But when TimesLive told him on Monday of the agreement reached between the bank and Sisulu’s office‚ Cindi said he had yet to receive any news from the bank about the arrangement.

All he had was a letter from the Department of Military Veterans‚ dated May 9‚ 2017‚ which it had sent to the bank‚ arranging that they would pay R188 000 towards Cindi’s debt.

It read: “The Department of Military Veterans‚ in collaboration with the Department of Human Settlements‚ commits to request approval for a deviation from our policy from the Minister for the utilisation of the R188 000 joint subsidy amount as a down-payment towards the settlement of the bond mortgage.

“Any residual amount‚ thereafter‚ will be subjected to permissible options and timelines falling within the confines of Absa so as to reach a process of reaching the full and final settlement stage of the said bond agreement‚” read the letter.

Cindi said he had received the letter from the Department of Military Veterans on the day the auction was to have happened‚ but he had no confirmation that the bank had even agreed to the proposed arrangement.

“A letter which I received from the bank… doesn’t say we aren’t proceeding because the Department of Military Veterans has agreed to pay. It says that they acknowledge that I paid R47 000 although the money was not yet reflecting on their side.

Cindi appeared to be in doubt that his debt had been taken care of‚ saying he would go and seek a bank statement during the course of the week.