The Herald 2/4/2008

Shack dwellers upset over delays in RDP housing completion

Katherine Wilkinson GARDEN ROUTE CORRESPONDENT

PROSPECTIVE RDP housing recipients in Mossel Bay remain extremely unhappy and anxious about the lack of building progress, even after a meeting was held on Monday night in an attempt to alleviate the situation.

Community members broke down their shacks in June and July last year as requested to make space for RDP houses. Families then constructed smaller, temporary, one-room shacks on the edges of the stands, to have somewhere to live while their RDP houses were being built.

Mossel Bay Ward 2 committee member Ernest Kanana said: “Not a single house has been completely finished since July last year and many houses are already cracked.”

He estimated there were about 100 houses and said the families for whom the houses were intended were still squashed into one- room shacks, which provided no privacy.

Thobeka Beyi, one of the housing recipients, said: “My new RDP house has two holes in the roof. Soon it will be winter and it will be raining, and there are old people here as well.”

Municipal housing, environment, sport and facilities head Johan van Zyl said: “We are also anxious and find ourselves in a predicament.”

He said Thubelisha Homes was an agency appointed by the government to assist municipalities with delivery of RDP houses and Thubelisha had, in turn, appointed Ujima Contractors to build the houses.

“The two companies are in a legal dispute, so now there is a stand-off. The council has assurance from Thubelisha that the project will continue and that houses will be completed, but not on time.”

He said the council was not party to Thubelisha‘s contract with Ujima Contractors.

Thubelisha Homes spokesman Xolani Tyilana said: “Thubelisha Homes was appointed by the Mossel Bay municipality to manage the building of RDP houses for the community of Elangeni. The houses were to be built on the same plots where people‘s shacks were. People were never asked to vacate their plots at any stage.

“Thubelisha appointed a contractor to build the houses. The contractor under-performed and Thubelisha had no choice but to terminate its services.

“We hope that by the end of this month the new contractor will be on site. We urge the people to stay where they lived before, and not to move anywhere else until advised by Thubelisha Homes, the Mossel Bay municipality or the new contractor.”

http://www.theherald.co.za/herald/news/n03_02042008.htm