By Gugu Mbonambi
Two houses built six years ago by Durban tycoon Shauwn Mpisane's construction company were demolished yesterday because they were unsafe - and residents of the Durban township of Lamontville have called for several more to be torn down and rebuilt.
The residents expressed their complaints as they watched the two houses built by Mpisane's Zikhulise Cleaning, Maintenance and Transport company being demolished.
Ward councillor Nolubabalo Mthembu said 298 homes had been inspected, and it was resolved that two houses should be demolished.
She said 30 other houses with serious structural defects, including cracked walls and roofs and broken doors and windows, would be renovated soon.
"We found the two houses were not in a suitable condition for people to live in. The foundations were cracking, the walls had cracks and water would seep through the roof and walls when it rained," she said.
Lamontville resident Nkosinathi Zulu, 38, said most of the houses, built in 2004, had needed to have cracks patched several times by Zikhulise.
Mthembu said Zikhulise had also been told to build new retaining walls at 14 houses in 2007, because walls were collapsing.
"I paid R3 000 for this house in 2005, when I moved in. But a year later the house started to crack," said Zulu.
"In 2007, Zikhulise came to fix the house, but now it is collapsing. I have reported this issue of shoddy houses to the presidential hotline, but no action has been taken."
Sipho Sibiya, a resident who helped demolish the houses yesterday, said Zikhulise's workmanship was so bad that one of the houses collapsed when five men, using their hands, exerted pressure on it.
"If it was up to me, all these houses would be demolished. I wonder how these houses passed a building inspection," he said.
Couglan Pather, head of housing in the eThekwini municipality, said the council could take legal action against any contractor who built substandard houses.
"In principle, we can still go after a contractor even if they built houses several years ago... We can recover our costs because houses are not supposed to collapse after six years," he said.
Earlier this year, The Mercury's investigations revealed that Zikhulise, which had a municipal contract to build 4 500 RDP homes in Umlazi, had done substandard work in a contract worth R300 million.
In 2008, Beeld newspaper reported that Mpisane had secured a R10,3m deal in 2004 to build houses in Lamontville.
The municipality reportedly coughed up R3.5m in January 2004 to fund the Lamontville project, while the balance of funding came from the Housing Department.
Contacted yesterday, Mpisane denied building houses in Lamontville, saying her company had not been in operation then.
"If you have something to say, send an e-mail," she said.
The Mercury e-mailed her questions on the matter and, when contacted an hour later, Mpisane said she was not at home and had not read the mail.
"When did you know about this story? I am not obliged to give you a comment. I could respond to you tomorrow or the next day, if I want," she said.
However, the 2004 Soros Economic Development Fund's annual report states that Zikhulise began in 2002 by renovating schools.
"But in March 2003, the company branched out into construction, building 117 housing units in KwaZulu-Natal," it reads.
"Not long after, Zikhulise received another construction contract worth $677 136 to build 307 subsidised low-income housing units."