RDP housing gets early warning system

Shoddy workmanship on RDP houses has prompted the Department of Human Settlements to introduce an early- warning system to detect poor quality building work.

The system will also enable the department to ensure that contractors finish projects, said human settlements acting director-general Mziwonke Dlabantu.

He was briefing the National Assembly's human settlements committee on Friday about the department's strategic plan for the next five years.

Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale said last year that about 50 000 RDP houses would have to be demolished and rebuilt due to poor workmanship. The department would have to spend up to R1 billion rebuilding the houses, mostly in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.

Dlabantu said the department's early-warning system would be strengthened to ensure contractors did not short-change the government.

ANC MP Tshoganetso Gasebonwe said the government had experience of companies which failed to deliver quality houses. Poorly built houses that had to be demolished contributed to backlogs in housing delivery.

Speaking to the Cape Argus later, Dlabantu said the early- warning system was a vital tool that would help head office in Pretoria to monitor projects at local level.

Once problems were identified, officials would be sent to inspect sites, he said.

"We are improving the system that we have which gives information in each province with regard to projects... by municipalities.

"A project has got a tag name and a number. We then check how many payments, for example, would have been made in that project. The monitoring people can go and see if that project is active.

"That means there are people on the project. If they arrive and they don't find people, then they know there is a problem."

Badly built RDP houses sparked a public spat between Sexwale and his predecessor, Lindiwe Sisulu, now Minister of Defence and Military Veterans.

She accused him of blaming her for the shoddy structures.

Cape Argus

Posted at 09:18AM Mar 09, 2010 by Editor in Residential  |  Comments[2]