Residents of Stillwater, near Riverton in the Northern Cape, are living in unsafe conditions as the walls of their homes continue to crack. They claim their RDP houses which were built in 2014 started falling apart as soon as the contractor completed his work.
The provincial department of Cooperative Governance says it is investigating the matter.
Joseph Mabokgole maintains he has no choice but to live in his RDP house which can collapse at any time. The walls are badly cracked that one can see the outside from inside the house.
He says living here is a gamble with his life. “We are always afraid because we don’t know when the houses will collapse. There is nothing we can do. We are just pleading for help,” says Mabokgole.
Some residents have tried to patch the cracks but this is proving futile. They accuse the contractor of poor workmanship.
“They were building at 10 pm using cell phone torch. That is why these houses are in such a state,” says resident Shadrack Moilwa.
Residents say they have been complaining for years to no avail.
“As a department, we are going to be coming in through the National Housing Builders Regulatory Council, to make sure that now they do a forensic audit on the level of the work done on those houses and then from there, through forensic report assessment, they will advise the department, in consultation with the local municipality and the district to resolve the matter,” explains Head of Department, Cooperative Governance in the Northern Cape, Bafedile Lenkoe.
Eastern Cape RDP homes to be rebuilt, April 2021:
In April last year, Human Settlements in the Eastern Cape set aside R100 million to rebuild poorly constructed houses.
Many residents in the province complained about poor workmanship on their RDP houses. This initiative will see over a thousand houses in the province being refurbished or re-built within the current financial year.
