Negligent housing inspectors and engineers who approved some of the defective low-cost houses, which are now costing the province millions of rands to repair, are also being investigated and could face disciplinary action.
Human Settlements MEC Maggie Govender said yesterday that investigations being conducted by the Special Investigations Unit would also focus on the role of the inspectors and engineers who approved the defective housing units.
"We are not looking at contractors as the only guilty party. We are also looking at the role of other professionals and inspectors in this. All of this forms part of the ongoing investigations."
Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale has already described the scandal as a national shame.
"It is money that should have been spent on new houses," he told Alphendale residents in East London this month, where demolition started on 339 poorly constructed houses that have to be rebuilt.
KwaZulu-Natal has, so far, approved rectification of more than 9 000 houses in nine housing projects worth about R561-million.
The costs could be much higher because a further 31 200 houses have been identified as defective units in 48 housing projects across the province.
Govender admitted that strengthening of her department's quality monitoring unit was needed to prevent the recurrence of blunders which has led to thousands of defective low-cost houses having to be repaired or rebuilt.
There have been cases where contractors have been slipshod because of poor monitoring.
"In one case in Newcastle, we found that a contractor had been mixing one bag of cement to 26 wheelbarrows of sand."
She said to curb similar occurrences, her department had appointed 13 project managers who were expected to start work soon. She, however, admitted that more resources were needed in the quality assurance department.
"Yes this is not enough, but it's what we can do with the available resources. As more money becomes available we will look at employing more people to strengthen capacity in this area. For now, we will have to use them more creatively," she said.
She said her department would also play a hands-on role in housing development in the province.
"We no longer want to leave the delivery of human settlements to municipalities, but we want to play a more active role in it," she said.
While the rectification process is expected to run into hundreds of millions of rands, Govender said the department would try to ensure that most of the funds did not come out of the public purse.
The department will first try to recoup the funds from the concerned contractors by forcing them to foot the bill or by getting them to do the rectification.
However, this is not possible in some cases.
For example, in the case of one contractor, Effingham Housing, which had been contracted to build houses in Durban's Quarry Heights, the department has had to foot the R80m bill to rectify the houses because the company has since been liquidated.
As part of ensuring quality standards are met, the department will also include in its contracts a punitive or penalty clause for contractors.
Contractors who do not meet the standards can also be suspended by the department because the current framework does not allow for contractors to be blacklisted.
- Daily News
Human Settlements MEC Maggie Govender said yesterday that investigations being conducted by the Special Investigations Unit would also focus on the role of the inspectors and engineers who approved the defective housing units.
"We are not looking at contractors as the only guilty party. We are also looking at the role of other professionals and inspectors in this. All of this forms part of the ongoing investigations."
Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale has already described the scandal as a national shame.
"It is money that should have been spent on new houses," he told Alphendale residents in East London this month, where demolition started on 339 poorly constructed houses that have to be rebuilt.
KwaZulu-Natal has, so far, approved rectification of more than 9 000 houses in nine housing projects worth about R561-million.
The costs could be much higher because a further 31 200 houses have been identified as defective units in 48 housing projects across the province.
It is estimated that 50,000 of these sub-standard houses need to be rebuilt nationwide.
These houses are, however, still being assessed to ascertain what type of rectification needs to be done on them. Earlier this month, Govender said this could push the cost of fixing and rebuilding to at least R1-billion.
If this figure is accurate, it would push the national cost to rebuild badly constructed houses provided under the government's housing programme from R1,3bn to close to R2bn.
There have been cases where contractors have been slipshod because of poor monitoring.
"In one case in Newcastle, we found that a contractor had been mixing one bag of cement to 26 wheelbarrows of sand."
She said to curb similar occurrences, her department had appointed 13 project managers who were expected to start work soon. She, however, admitted that more resources were needed in the quality assurance department.
"Yes this is not enough, but it's what we can do with the available resources. As more money becomes available we will look at employing more people to strengthen capacity in this area. For now, we will have to use them more creatively," she said.
She said her department would also play a hands-on role in housing development in the province.
"We no longer want to leave the delivery of human settlements to municipalities, but we want to play a more active role in it," she said.
While the rectification process is expected to run into hundreds of millions of rands, Govender said the department would try to ensure that most of the funds did not come out of the public purse.
The department will first try to recoup the funds from the concerned contractors by forcing them to foot the bill or by getting them to do the rectification.
However, this is not possible in some cases.
For example, in the case of one contractor, Effingham Housing, which had been contracted to build houses in Durban's Quarry Heights, the department has had to foot the R80m bill to rectify the houses because the company has since been liquidated.
As part of ensuring quality standards are met, the department will also include in its contracts a punitive or penalty clause for contractors.
Contractors who do not meet the standards can also be suspended by the department because the current framework does not allow for contractors to be blacklisted.
- Daily News
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