On Monday, company executive Fungai Mudimu told the city's housing portfolio committee that the provincial housing department had agreed to pay the extra costs of repairs to houses in Manenberg, Philippi, Mitchells Plain and Gugulethu.
The costs had shot up from the initial R35-million to more than R90-million.
Sindiswa Mponze, who lives in Luyoloville, said many of her neighbours had refused to pay their rents of between R400 and R800 because of the shoddy construction.
| 'There has not been a single winter where rain has not seeped through the roof or the walls' |
"How can they demand rent from me when we have to deal with this every winter?" Mponze said as she pointed out several cracks in her living room.
Some residents of Luyoloville, tired of waiting for teams to fix their homes, have attempted repairs with varying degrees of success, most of them by filling cracks with plaster and painting over damp walls.
Rizaan Young, whose Heideveld home was being repaired by an independent contractor, said her first winter in the house seven years ago had shown up the shoddiness of the construction.
"Before the repairs, there were two holes in the living room floor and my windows could not be shut properly as they had become rusted."
Young said she was happy with the improvements to her house, which had included installing an insulated ceiling and waterproofing the inside and outer walls.
A foreman on the site said repairs included "lifting up" floors that were sagging and cracking.
Sagging ceilings were also being repaired. Waterjets were being used to strip off old paint before applying waterproof paint to walls.
"The main problem that tenants experienced was water penetration, especially during the winter," said the foreman. - Cape Times
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