Badly constructed poor quality RDP homes
SEVERAL top politicians and businessmen in Nelson Mandela Bay have been implicated in building hundreds of shoddy, low-cost homes in the 1990s that will now have to be demolished and rebuilt at a cost of millions.
Among them are businessman and top city Cope member Mkhuseli Jack, former ANC council chief whip Mike Nzotoyi’s wife, Karen, and Eastern Cape Nafcoc construction sector president Welcome Gawu.
While Jack and Nzotoyi denied building any sub-standard houses, Gawu openly admitted to building shoddy RDP houses in Motherwell, Soweto-on-Sea, Veeplaas and Zinyoka (Govan Mbeki).
Gawu, owner of Old Man Construction, says that many sub-contractors at that time were forced to build poor quality homes because they only received R15000 a house.
“Out of that money, about half had to pay for services and land, while the other half was used for building material,” he said. “We mixed a lot of building sand with little cement in order to complete the houses.”
While government earlier this month vowed to blacklist unscrupulous contractors, Gawu said he was surprised the government wanted to punish them now as “they knew about the problem at the time the houses were built and did nothing about it”.
“It would have cost more than R20000 to build one house in those days, but, because they pressured us to build houses so that they would gain votes, we tried to deliver.”
Gawu told The Herald that some of the contractors who had built shoddy RDP houses in the region had not been qualified and it had been easy to get a building contract in those days as no background checks were made.
Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale said earlier this month his department would have to put aside R800-million for the reconstruction of badly built, free low-cost houses in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu Natal.
About 60 housing projects – a total of almost 20000 homes – in all the municipalities and districts in the province are now under the rectification programme in the Eastern Cape.
In Nelson Mandela Bay, the government will spent more than R33-million rebuilding and repairing 1852 houses. These include RDP homes in Mathew Goniwe township, Soweto-on-Sea, Veeplaas, Motherwell and Walmer.
“These are houses that either have no roofs or were built incorrectly and pose a danger to the beneficiaries,” said Housing Department spokesman Lwandile Sicwetsha.
People whose houses needed to be demolished or rectified would be allocated temporary structures.
Stocks and Stocks sub-contracted Ilinge Development Service – chaired by Jack – to build RDP houses in Mathew Goniwe township in 1999.
When The Herald team inspected houses there, some were falling apart and residents say their homes leak during wet weather.
One beneficiary, Zola Msisi, said the contractor did not finish building the toilet, while the bricks at the front door of the house were loose.
“I’m scared that one day this house will fall while I’m inside,” he said. He had tried to patch up some of the cracks but they kept developing as the bricks were loose.
Jack said his company had hired professionals to build the houses 10 years ago.
“I’ve never been in those houses myself. We built them 10 years ago and, if they are not properly maintained, they will fall apart,” he said.
Jack said his company received a certificate of completion and no one had complained about the condition of the houses when they were built.
Abafazi Contractors, owned by former ANC city council chief whip Mike Nzotoyi’s wife, Karen, built houses in Langa in Uitenhage and Wesley Estate in Motherwell.
She said the company was the first to build RDP houses in Walmer, and was still building low-cost houses in Nelson Mandela Bay.
A team from The Herald visited some of the first RDP houses built in Walmer township. Many had no ceilings, others bore cracks and residents said most of them leaked.
Karen Nzotoyi refused to discuss the issue when asked for comment.
Several residents told how their badly constructed homes quickly deteriorated.
Govan Mbeki resident Khonzile Thweyi said his house had collapsed 10 years after it was built.
“A few years after it was built in 1996, the house kept cracking and the windows fell down without anyone putting pressure on them.
“I patched some of the holes, but three years ago when I was closing the door, my house fell down, damaging all my furniture.”
He now lives in a shack nearby.
When a Herald team visited Govan Mbeki this week, almost all the houses had huge holes in the walls and no windows.
Resident Twayile Masumpa’s house has developed huge cracks and he has had to use wood to try and cover them.
The home is less than 15 years old, but half of it is now a shack, with only a few bricks left to show that it was once a brick-and-mortar house.
“It was not built according to standard,” Masumpa said.
“Even inspectors did not come to monitor if everything was right. A year after it was built, my house starting falling brick by brick.”
Another Govan Mbeki resident, Toby Tolo, said his uncle had to move out after his RDP house became too dangerous to live in.
“The house kept falling apart. Even when he tried to fix it, it kept on falling,” Tolo said.
“He was scared that one day the house would fall down and hurt him and his family, so he moved out.”
Municipal spokesman Luncedo Njezula said the current municipality had not built any of the houses that had to be demolished.
He said most of the houses that needed rectification had been built under contract by the previous interim city administration before the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality came into existence.
Since its formulation, housing officials had a responsibility to monitor certain phases in the construction of homes and “no councillor is involved in the procurement processes of the municipality”, said Njezula.
The official said that any builder that was not performing according to prescribed standards was not awarded new contracts by the municipality. In addition, no builder was re-issued work once they had been removed from a job, Njezula said.
Keywords - shoddy, low-cost homes, RDP housing, Mkhuseli Jack, Mike Nzotoyi, Karen Nzotoyi, Motherwell, Gawu, Old Man Construction, reconstruction , waste, tax payer, Lwandile Sicwetsha, Abafazi Contractors, Njezula
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