Pages

20090711

Condemned ANC-houses need extra R2billion to rebuild

 

Not getting it right the first time around: the ANC regime says it built 2,5-million houses for the poor after 1994: declared unsafe. these tiny shacks now must all be rebuilt in a hell of a hurry…

GovHousesSoJerryBuiltSANowMustSpendR2bToFixThemJuly112009 July 11 2009 – The Sowetan newspaper reports that the ANC-regime is quietly spending R2-billion extra to fix several million shabbily-built, condemned government houses it built between 1994 and 2006, when a new building-standard was adopted. And this time around, the ANC can’t blame apartheid for their housing policies either: Zinhle Mapumulo of Sowetan newspaper reports that the regime is being forced to destroy their own sub-standard RDP-houses which were built since 1994 because these were declared unsafe for human habitation. The rush is now on to replace these with four-roomed houses on larger sites costing at least four times as much. Millions of people will be  affected by the hasty rebuilding project. The ANC claimed in its manifesto that it has built 2,5-million RDP-houses since 1994. These now condemned, tiny shacks occupy an average 18 square-metre sites and cost up to R15,000 to build. The new four-roomed houses cost up to R58,000 each to build and occupy average 38 square-metre sites. This is a classical case study of the importance of getting it right the first time around…


‘We poor do not deserve such small houses’

Mapumulo writes that over the last 3-and-a-half years, ‘the government has been quietly demolishing and rebuilding matchbox houses that were built under the first years under ANC-rule.’ 

These houses, referred to as RDP (reconstruction and development programme) dwellings, were so shabbily-built that many collapse during the slightest storms.

To date, more than R500 million has been spent on this national project, and projections are that the total cost will be in excess of R2 billion. The plan is to spend on average R190-million a year on better quality and bigger 4-roomed family homes. And hopefully, all sub-standard matchbox houses will then be wiped off, reports Sowetan.

  • The current standard one-roomed and two-roomed structures – built between 1994 and 1996 – have been officially condemned for being of poor quality and sub-standard. They are being replaced by proper 4-roomed houses, writes Mapumulo.

ANC condemned housing must be replaced The project started in 2006 after the National Home Builders Registration Council released new specifications for low-cost houses. Kaba Kabagambe, the deputy director-general of the Human Settlements Department, confirmed that the project was already underway in most provinces.

“Government is rectifying the mistakes made prior to the introduction of the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) in 1997,’ he was quoted as saying to the Sowetan.

Johan Minnie, the department’s chief director for information management, confirmed this statement, saying: “In 2005 the department received reports that certain housing projects undertaken since 1995 have severe problems. Some related to incomplete and structurally compromised units, and others were vandalised due to a variety of reasons including community dissatisfaction with either the housing process followed or the quality of the units. At that time, the national housing programme did not exist in terms of which provinces could approve funds to rectify the defects. A new programme was therefore developed and instituted after approval by the minister.”

7,400 unsafe RDP-houses being replaced in 2009:

An estimated 7,400 condemned units would be demolished and rebuilt this year alone. This of course would also require finding alternative housing for those families now living in them. Minnie admitted the project would “affect the current housing backlog”- but that ‘the government had no option because some of the houses were so badly constructed they were deemed unsafe for human habitation and therefore had to be demolished. “

ANC claim: 2,6-million houses built since 1994

  • In its election manifesto, the ANC declared that 2,6 million houses had been built for the poor since 1994. It is not clear how many of these have been condemned and will be rebuilt, Sowetan reported. However up to and including 2006, all the government houses were constructed in the same way which has now been condemned.
  • http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1031679

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.