A newspaper report that half of the low- cost houses already built by order of the government are substandard seems to have been inaccurate. Charlene Smith reports
Every three minutes and 10 seconds a new Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP)house is erected in Gauteng – and the government has enacted tough legislation to ensure that each of those houses, and any others built in the commercial sector, carry a five-year warranty.
Since 1994, 959 415 housing subsidies have been approved, 25% (284 184) in Gauteng, and more than half of these have been built – which is why Minister of Housing Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele is on the warpath after the Sunday Times reported that half of all housing units built by her department were substandard.
Mthembi-Mahanyele has reported the newspaper to the press ombudsman. Judge Willem Heath’s special investigating unit denied that it told the paper it intended probing ”all 990 000 applications for housing subsidies in Gauteng as fraud is suspected in as many as one out of every 10 applications”. The applications mentioned were far more than those approved nationally.
Mbulelo Musi, representative for the Gauteng Department of Housing, said that despite MEC for Housing Dan Mofokeng writing to the Heath unit on February 4, welcoming their investigation into housing and allegations of corruption in the province, and urging an early investigation to assuage public fears, nothing further had been heard from the unit.
Musi said, ”We are saying to Judge Willem Heath to investigate the department. We have still not received the terms of reference for their investigation. The auditor general investigated 27 irregularities and corruption allegations in the department, of which 10 had forensic tests – he found no proof of corruption in the department.”
But according to a nationwide Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) poll, housing tops the list of South Africans’ complaints, along with poor service at police stations.
Michael O’Sullivan, chief researcher at the HSRC, said the survey, which tested perceptions of service delivery, found that ”the general perception is that since 1994 affordable housing quality has not met expectations”.
These perceptions relate to two things: African National Congress 1994 election promises around housing built up expectations that the government found impossible to meet; and high bank interest rates have continued to push housing affordability out of the reach of most.
”At the very least people expected township standard housing, but RDP houses are smaller,” said O’Sullivan.
Musi admitted there had been problems in housing delivery: ”Some lawyers have been unscrupulous and that has been referred to the Law Society. There are members of the public who claim to assist people and cheat people. They exaggerate the amount of subsidy – it should be R15 000 but they say up to R30 000 or more.
”There was one syndicate that was involved in fraudulent guarantees. There was an attempt to make false copies of our letterhead and get bank loans and be seen as guarantors. We exposed it in January and since then have had more than 120 people inform us that they have been ripped off – paying amounts of between R200 to R1 700 a month … old ladies, pensioners who have been paying R200 a month, half their pension, since 1997.”
Musi said that since 1994 Gauteng had also installed water, sanitation and electricity on 162 770 stands, and has established 650 000 stands. ”We not only have inspectors examining houses for quality construction, but communities assess houses before they are built, and during construction many have architects and builders living in them – they know if there are problems, and if a community complains, everything stops.”
Gege Kekana, representative for the Ministry of Housing, said that last year legislation was passed after extensive investigations by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, that mandated minimum standards for the construction of houses.
However, MECs have the discretion to increase the size of houses, or in areas where there is dolomite or difficult topography and houses have to be reinforced, the 30m2 minimum can be reduced to 27m2, and subsidies can be bolstered by a further 15%.
Ian Robinson of the Building Industries Federation said: ”We currently have a problem in each of the different provinces. They have their own standards of what is acceptable within the R15 000 subsidy. Mpumalanga says build a big slab, don’t worry about walls, give four columns and a roof. In KwaZulu-Natal they want a properly built house, but it is small.”
He said he believed the different standards in provinces caused confusion and dissatisfaction among consumers and others. He called for uniformity in standards, and a new approach to tendering. ”A lot of new entrants into the contracting market lack experience and skills.”
He suggested they be encouraged to link with existing contractors for skills upgrading or that tender processes more carefully evaluate the experience and track record of those applying for contracts.