Bhisho is spending R360 million to fix nearly 20 000 broken homes in the province while the poor live in flimsy cardboard units and ghost towns emerge from the ruins of disastrous housing projects.

In some areas of the province communities have deserted formal housing settlements because homes were so poorly built they cannot be occupied any longer. The number of homes simply having to be repaired is almost equal to the total number of homes built in the 2006/2007 financial year.

The full report, with photographs, articles and videos is online at http://blogs.dispatch.co.za/brokenhomes/overview/