By Bheki Mbanjwa
Negligent housing inspectors and engineers who approved some of the defective low-cost houses, which are now costing the province millions of rands to repair, are also being investigated and could face disciplinary action.
Human Settlements MEC Maggie Govender said yesterday that investigations being conducted by the Special Investigations Unit would also focus on the role of the inspectors and engineers who approved the defective housing units.
"We are not looking at contractors as the only guilty party. We are also looking at the role of other professionals and inspectors in this. All of this forms part of the ongoing investigations."
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Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale has already described the scandal as a national shame.
"It is money that should have been spent on new houses," he told Alphendale residents in East London this month, where demolition started on 339 poorly constructed houses that have to be rebuilt.
KwaZulu-Natal has, so far, approved rectification of more than 9 000 houses in nine housing projects worth about R561-million.
The costs could be much higher because a further 31 200 houses have been identified as defective units in 48 housing projects across the province. It is estimated that 50 000 of these sub-standard houses need to be rebuilt nationwide.
These houses are, however, still being assessed to ascertain what type of rectification needs to be done on them. Earlier this month, Govender said this could push the cost of fixing and rebuilding to at least R1-billion.
If this figure is accurate, it would push the national cost to rebuild badly constructed houses provided under the government's housing programme from R1,3bn to close to R2bn.
Govender admitted that strengthening of her department's quality monitoring unit was needed to prevent the recurrence of blunders which has led to thousands of defective low-cost houses having to be repaired or rebuilt.
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