The Department of Human Settlements plans to abandon the rectification programme to fix poorly built houses and make contractors responsible for repair work.
Over the past three years, the department has spent R2-billion on repairing RDP, or State-subsidised, houses through a programme meant for the repairing homes built prior to establishing the National Home Builders Registration Council.
“It is my intention to scrap this programme and ensure that the onus is on every contractor to build properly or return to repair,” said Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu.
Earlier this month, Democratic Alliance Shadow Minister of Human Settlements Makashule Gana, estimated that 35,000 new housing units could have been built with the funds used to undertake the repairs.
“It is unacceptable that the department’s national rectification programme has spent billions on repairing poor workmanship,” he stated, undertaking to to establish how the tenders were awarded and what measures were in place to blacklist the responsible contractors nationally.
Sisulu said the department would finally begin building housing for military veterans, with construction of the first 5,000 houses to start in September.
By: Natasha Odendaal
Read the full article here: http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/human-settlements-takes-hard-line-stance-on-shoddy-housing-2014-08-15
