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The Democratic Alliance (DA) has learnt that the abandoned and incomplete housing project in Ga-Rankuwa Unit 10 in the City of Tshwane will be demolished and rebuilt.

This was revealed to me by the Gauteng Human Settlements MEC, Lebogang Maile in a written reply to my written questions tabled in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature.

According to the MEC, these incomplete houses were assessed by NHBRC and a consulting engineer. The report was compiled on 5 March 2018 which recommended that the structures on site be demolished and are rebuilt.

The amount of R34 170 591,36 which has been spent so far in building these houses will go down the drain. This is a waste of taxpayers’ money and we can no longer tolerate such abuse.

This housing project was initiated in May 2011 and was supposed to be completed on 30 June 2014 and the initial budget was R190 988 838,00.

These houses have been vandalised, the walls have been partially demolished, and the bricks have been stolen as well as the window frames and door frames. Some of these houses are without roofs, some consist of concrete slabs only.

This clearly indicates poor planning, poor project management and misappropriation of funds from the department as these houses were left incomplete for over eight years and were vulnerable to vandalism.

This is one of many unfinished housing projects that have been abandoned by this department.

Furthermore, the MEC said that there are contractual disputes and this matter is still before the court. However, the project is expected to resume before the end of the current financial year 2019/20 and a budget has been allocated for the project.

If this project is complete it will ease the housing backlog in the province which has reached over a million.

I will continue to put pressure on MEC Maile to ensure that this project resumes before the end of this current financial year and that is completed within the stipulated budget.

Issued by DA