At this week’s Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements we learnt that it could cost up to R300 000 to restore just one RDP house. This is three times the cost of building one from scratch.
The presentation revealed that in the Northern Cape, R6 929 000 was spent on the restoration of just 32 houses. This amounts to R216 000 per house.
In the Free State, the Department spent almost R80 million on the restoration of just 264 houses in that province. This amounts to R302 250 per house.
R334 million was spent in the Eastern Cape fixing 3123 houses at R107 000 per house, that is just over the estimated cost of building a new one.
Considering the average cost of building a decent RDP house from scratch is an estimated R100 000, it is highly unlikely that such large amounts of money went to the actual restoration of these houses.
It would have been cheaper to demolish the house and build a new, durable one.
This exorbitant amount of taxpayer’s money being spent needs to be accounted for by Minister of Human Settlements, Lindiwe Sisulu.
In light of the new information I will be submitting parliamentary questions to ascertain:
- The contractors responsible for the original shoddy workmanship;
- The exact nature of the repairs that cost more than it did to build the house; and
- What systems were put in place to monitor the quality of house being built?
- The Department has spent over R2 billion in the last 3 years to rectify poorly built houses. Due to over-charging, it now seems that far less houses were fixed than would otherwise have been possible with this money.
In any event, the need to repair so many houses across the country points to a tender process that is highly irregular.
The Minister would do well to focus her efforts on ensuring that the process of awarding such contracts is objective, transparent and free from, what we suspect, is undue political influence.
Issued by DA