A young Richards Bay entrepreneur was so moved by the plight of scores of shack dwellers left homeless after a raging fire in an informal settlement at KwaMbonambi that he decided to do something about it.
Now Rajan Harinarain's idea for emergency housing for disaster victims is generating country-wide interest.
Impressed with Harinarain's "foldaway house" concept and final product, national Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has agreed to come to Richards Bay for the official launch of his patented structure.
Empangeni-born Harinarain, 32, has teamed up with the Zululand Chamber of Business Foundation, which will market the structures and provide the facilities for its mass manufacture at the chamber's Community Park in Alton.
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Each wood-and-steel housing unit is just 24cm high when folded, and can be erected by a handful of people in less than three minutes.
The basic, container-like dwelling, with two windows and a wooden door and weighing little more than 800kg, provides the basic requirements for emergency shelter and can be modified to include insulation and heat extractors.
Zululand Chamber of Business CEO Bongani Mqaise said the chamber would give Harinarain all the support it could in his quest to market the invention in South Africa and, probably, beyond the country's borders for use in disaster areas by organisations like the United Nations and the Red Cross.
It would also be suitable for temporary housing while permanent structures were put up to replace shacks in informal settlements and in urban inner-city renewal pro-jects, Mqaise said.
The modular structures could be joined to provide accommodation for large families displaced in times of crisis, and easily transported to disaster scenes by truck.
A prototype "foldaway house" was erected at the Zululand Expo showgrounds.
Mqaise said facilities were available at the Community Park to produce 1 000 structures a month.
The financial spin-offs for the chamber from the project would provide a welcome injection of capital to renovate ageing buildings and roads.
Harinarain said he was delighted with his association with the chamber, whose expertise and database of potential customers provided the ideal platform to market the product.
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This article was originally published on page 4 of The Mercury on October 03, 2006
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