Carlo Petersen
REFURBISHMENT work on council-owned flats in Manenberg is set to continue this week after construction was halted due to ongoing gang violence.
Good Hope Construction (GHC) – which took over the project from Filcon Projects in June last year – initially stopped working in January.
The City’s Community Residential Unit Refurbishment project has faced many complications, including alleged corruption related to gang activities, financial issues and gang violence.
GHC chief executive Raziek Rajah said refurbishments at Dina and Eva Courts had again been halted because of gang violence two weeks ago. Forty-eight Manenberg families have been living in shipping containers since August last year.
The City initially told the residents that it would take six weeks for their flats to be refurbished.
Martha Bowman, 35, who has been living in Manenberg all her life, said residents had become disgruntled.
“It’s ridiculous. People are now starting to get sick here. It’s going to be another winter in these containers and we want to move back to our homes. The construction just never happens,” Bowman said.
Mayco member for human settlements Benedicta van Minnen said the project should be completed in August.
The project to upgrade 43 500 city rental units on the Cape Flats started in 2009, but has since faced many complications.
In December allegations surfaced that gangsters were being hired as construction workers and that another subcontractor employed by the City, identified as Haw & Inglis (H&I), had contracted a security firm allegedly run by a gang boss.
Van Minnen said: “When the City became aware that H&I was using a construction company as a security provider rather than an accredited security company, registered with the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSIRA), we requested that our implementing agent, Aecom, remedy the breach.
“PSIRA is a security industry requirement. This was brought to the attention of H&I and they remedied the matter by terminating the services of this company and employed a PSIRA-accredited security company in its place.”
H&I manager Jacques de Ridder has refused to comment. Rajah said GHC management had decided to proceed with the project this week. “We will go back to work again on Monday morning. Work will proceed at Eva Court. Some of the workers have been targeted by gangsters because of their gang affiliations and they will stay at home,” Rajah said.
Van Minnen said: “Any gang affiliations that may be associated are coincidental since no specific process is undertaken to check for persons with criminal records or gang affiliations, and neither is there such a condition in terms of Expanded Public Works Programme requirements.”