Time to sort out shambles

YESTERDAY we reported that the Eastern Cape government will build 2 523 less RDP houses this financial year when compared to the previous years.

This means the department of human settlements will build 8 567 RDP houses this financial year – down from 11 090.

This is because the national Department of Human Settlements has slashed its development grant to the province by 15%, something that makes it difficult for Bhisho to deliver the same number of houses as the previous financial year. And because of several factors, which include inflation, building an RDP house now costs R155 000, an increase of R35 000 from 2015 when one house cost R120 000. This was inevitable.

But dropping the quantity of housing units does not help the province in addressing its 400 000 housing backlog. And because the ANC government has since 1994 pride itself of building houses for the poor as it tries to improve the living conditions of South Africans, those still waiting for their promised RDP houses will find it difficult to understand the move to build fewer houses.

Election season is almost upon us and we will likely see several service delivery protests throughout the Eastern Cape and at the centre of most, the key demand will likely be residents wanting to be built houses for.

But understandably so, government cannot and should not be expected to build RDP houses for everyone at the same time. But using shoddy contractors who build substandard houses that need to be rectified soon after is not helping matters either.

This is a waste of taxpayers’ money and means money that could be used to build more houses is spent on fixing structural defects. Contractors that deliver substandard houses should be blacklisted.

Councillors and officials have also been accused of selling RDP houses while hundreds if not thousands of houses are still unoccupied despite being finished. This leads to vandalism and illegal occupation of the houses which results into criminal activities.

Despite all of this, government will likely continue building houses for the foreseeable future, so municipalities should get their act together and sort out the mess that is the housing beneficiary lists.

For years there have been complaints of corruption and officials allegedly manipulating lists so that their relatives and cronies would frog jump others and be at the top of the list.

Housing beneficiary lists are in shambles. Where applicable, law-enforcement agencies should be roped in and those found guilty of illegally selling the houses, severely punished. But in order for the vicious circle of poverty to end, which results in residents depending on social grants for a living, there needs to be a drastic shift in how we do things.

Instead of creating a welfare state, more money should be invested in our education system. With an educated nation, we will be able to be innovative and create much-needed jobs. Until then, let’s hope President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Thuma Mina campaign, which is aimed at improving service delivery, will bear fruits.