The North West Human Settlement Department has 76 unfinished housing projects, some dating back 10 years.
The provincial department says the unfinished projects comprise 8 746 houses in various areas dotted across the province.
However, the department says it has set aside R52-million for the 2023/24 financial year to complete the houses.
Ventersdorp
The Ventersdorp area in the JB Marks Local Municipality in the Dr Kenneth Kaunda District is one of the areas with a number of incomplete housing projects.
Some of these are found in Ventersdorp’s Toevlugs and Tshing areas.
The low-cost housing project began years ago but contractors abandoned it and left incomplete houses.
Beneficiaries say they need government’s intervention.
One person says, “We have used corrugated irons on window frames because the contractors was (were) delaying but still, they are not assisting us with anything because the contractors will come and lie to us instead of finishing the project.”
Another adds: “Currently I am renting. So, the money that I am paying with, I could have used it to pay installment if my house was completed. So automatically I have to save for the house but I do not know how long it is going to take to be completed.”
Government intervention
The Bray area in the Kagisano Molopo Local Municipality is another abandoned housing project.
The project to build a thousand units started in 2013 but only half of it was completed.
Some of the houses are now without window frames, roofing and doors, in some instances, just a foundation.
Human Settlements MEC Nono Maloyi says they will employ new contractors to complete the dwellings.
“On the issue of houses, we are also intervening because you might know that for the past ten years or so, some of the housing units were not completed in the North West province and so on. So we are intervening and we are intervening decisively.”
The Standing Committee on Cooperative Governance and Human Settlement in the province says the process of hiring new contractors will just waste taxpayers’ money.
Committee chairperson, Aaron Motswana, insists that consequence management is required in dealing with contractors.
“What the department supposed to do is to blacklist, not only blacklist but publish names of these contractors in our local newspapers, the national newspapers to ensure that the nation gets to know about these particular companies…And companies then are, for instance, forced not to engage themselves in illegal acts and corruption because then they know that their names will be published publicly and it will dissuade them from engaging in activities that will ensure that projects.”
In his budget speech, MEC Maloyi promised to build over 5 000 houses in the 2023-2024 financial year.
More details in the video below:
