The Eastern Cape housing department will take over all projects where contractors have failed to meet quality standards, it said on Saturday.
”The shoddy workmanship, slow delivery rate and administration blunders by contractors affecting the delivery of houses will not be tolerated,” said department spokesperson Lwandile Sicwetsha in a
statement.
The department had so far taken over 60 of 140 ”blocked” housing projects and was considering assuming responsibility for all projects in the province.
”The department is considering available options within legal and policy parameters to assume overall responsibility for housing projects in the province.”
Sicwetsha said this was aimed at improving delivery.
Sicwetsha said contractors would now be paid only once the houses had been inspected and had met all requirements. Contractors running behind schedule had been asked to submit turnaround plans and would work during the December holidays.
Others could see their projects handed to better-performing contractors.
Seventy-five unemployed graduates had been appointed to work with project managers as site supervisors throughout the province.
The province’s housing department intended completing 15 000 houses by March next year. It was confident it would exceed this target and spend a R1,2-billion conditional grant. – Sapa