Low cost housing - RDP homes demolished

Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements welcomes demolishing of RDP houses

Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements has recommended that all government subsidy-houses should comply with the Human Settlements Breaking New Ground’s (BNG) principles and policy which states that all houses built must have access to water, adequate sanitation and electricity as these form the basic rights of all citizens.
BNG also states that Human Settlements must be closer to all social and economic amenities. This is one of the recommendations found in the Committee’s report on its oversight visit to housing projects in the Eastern Cape.
During the oversight visit, the committee observed that there was totally not compliance with the BNG policy in some areas and people were living under life-threatening conditions.
“When the committee assessed the quality of these houses, it was found that the walls were full of defects of which some would be beyond repairs. People living in those houses reported that they feared that the houses might fall at any time,” said the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements, Ms Nomhle Dambuza.
The Committee also fully support the decision taken by the Minister to demolish some of the houses. This decision must be understood in a context that previous Parliaments took a decision that as a result of poor quality, an audit should be conducted in all houses built post 1994 to 2004.
Thereafter houses found with structural defects be rectified and those with defects beyond repairs should be demolished and reconstructed to safeguard the lives of the people. In addition to the oversight visit, the committee has also learnt that the architecture of some houses does not take into account the privacy and the dignity of the people.
House design should take into account the current needs and restoration of people’s dignity and integrity, and if this is done at the planning stage, efficiencies should be increased and costs reduced, the Committee has recommended. Although the rectification programme is up and running, it has been noticed that the houses claimed to have been fixed require further work.
Despite these challenges mentioned above, says the committee, there were genuine problems facing the Province such as lack of suitable located land for human settlement development; lack of intergovernmental co-ordination and lack of capacity in emerging contractors. Spiralling costs of building material were also found to have a negative impact on the projects.
Another challenge identified in some municipalities, such as the Cacadu District Municipality, was that the area is too dry and water is so scarce thus impacting negatively on the service delivery. The current departmental budget does not cater for the provision of bulk water infrastructure. The committee believes that the next medium term expenditure budget will be able to accommodate such provisions.
The committee appreciates the commitment and enthusiasm shown by the provincial Human Settlements MEC in trying to fix these problems.