Issued by: KwaZulu-Natal Ministry of Housing
28 May 2002
The Mayor of the Mooi River Municipality, Councillor Mthethwa
The Departmental officials present;
The community of Bruntville and the greater Mooi River area.
Driving past the Mooi River toll gate from Durban has become a harrowing experience for me. This is due to the fact that, on my right hand side there stands government starter houses in various states of disrepair.
Upon enquiry, I was told that most of these houses did not have roofs, doors, windows, etc because of the high level of vandalism in the area. I was also informed that they were vandalised because the beneficiaries had not taken occupation of them and some of the beneficiaries could not be located. This situation is not acceptable. Not only are we seeing the waste of government resources but this situation means that our people in need of shelter are destitute even though the government has intervened and built them houses.
Today we are gathered here to specifically and consciously address this anomaly. We have come here to unveil a plan to deal with problems of unclaimed houses, of vandalised houses, of houses that are in disrepair and houses where there is shoddy workmanship.
Before we unveil this plan, it is important that we contextualise the circumstances and conditions that have led to this situation. This R24 million Townview Housing Project was approved in 1997. The developer absconded between 1998 and 1999 and we are told that he is in Australia. When the developer absconded, which he did after the Department had paid him R22 million, it meant that the work stopped. Of the 1423 houses that were to be built in this project, only 1232 houses were built meaning that 191 were not even begun. Not all of the 1232 houses were completed either.
This situation was, unfortunately, compounded by the fact that, during this period, most of the beneficiaries were retrenched when Mooi River Textiles closed down. Beneficiaries did not have a reason to take occupation of their houses when the company closed down. As a result, 180 houses are standing empty while 34 remain unclaimed.
For the record, we need to highlight that these problems are historical. We were not in office when this project was approved. We could also say that this is not our problem and shift the blame to the developer but the fact of the matter is that houses paid for by government are being vandalised and are standing empty. We therefore need to deal with this matter with the urgency it deserves, hence the plan being unveiled today.
The plan will focus on six main points:
From these six points, it is clear that the Municipality is going to play a major role in the success of the implementation of the plan. This is because of the emphasis that we attach on the good working relations between ourselves and municipalities. For effective housing delivery we need municipalities to be active partners.
This six-point Mooi River plan is just the beginning, a facet of a bigger plan to address the problem of vandalism and shoddy workmanship in starter housing projects. Because circumstances differ from project to project, other problematic projects will be dealt with after considering peculiarities within that project. Specific plans aimed at addressing similar problems in other projects are going to be implemented in other projects like the Harmony Heights and the Wiggins Road Housing projects in Durban.
We have also instituted a special that will look into all blocked projects with a view to unblocking them as well as ensure that projects are closed out. This is to ensure that no completed house stands unoccupied because of failure on our side to finish all the processes and to ensure that we spare vandalists no quarter.
Our inspectors and project monitors are going to visit all of our projects conducting structural audits and doing troubleshooting. We do not want other housing projects to reach this unacceptable stage. We also urge municipalities, our partners in housing delivery, to appraise our Department of similar problems in their areas so that proper action can be taken.
I want to urge our people to take charge of these projects, to be part and parcel of planning and the implementation processes involved so that we can address these problems before they become an embarrassment to all of us. We have tasked officials to conduct audits. It is up to our people to point out areas of concern to our officials and councillors so that they can be attended to.
In conclusion, I want to assure our people that we are going to deal with this developer and many others who may think that they can breach a contract and run away with our money. We are going to use all the might we have and all the policing resources at our disposal to get our own back. Nobody is going to run away with money meant to help our people.
I thank you.