Defective old houses make way for new moladi homes

moladi homes replace old

HOUSING department workmen have demolished two defective 60-year-old government houses in Daleview, Despatch.

A third house still had to be flattened, officials said. The municipality has provided the owners with new RDP houses on the existing plots.

The action is part of a plan to replace old houses that are beyond repair with RDP houses.

Housing and land chairman Andile Mfunda said the municipality had to act quickly on houses that posed a danger to families.

He said there were other houses in Despatch that needed to be demolished.

The demolition project was separate from a government programme to rectify poorly built RDP houses.

Ward 52 councillor Zandisile Speelman said the demolished houses had serious structural defects.

“The owners are excited. They said the danger the houses posed to their children had been reported to the municipality several times.”

He said the house foundations had partially collapsed and been washed away and the side walls were not attached to the foundations.

“They were not fit for people to live in.”

The houses had been built in the early 1950s and had never been upgraded. Most of Daleview’s houses needed to be rectified, he said.

The owner of one of the demolished houses, Charles Hendricks, 46, said he had lived in the house for more than 20 years. The walls were cracked when he bought it, but he had fixed them.

“In time, the foundation started to crack and part of it collapsed. We lived in fear that the house might fall on us – it was even worse when the wind blew.”

He said he was happy the house had been demolished and proud of the new RDP house which was bigger and safer.

Siena Jack, 49, said they had to stuff newspaper in the wide cracks of the walls in their house to stop the wind and rain coming in. “I’m very excited about the new house.”
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