The building of District Six houses, as part of the government’s restitution programme, has come to a halt after the contract of the construction company, Fikile Construction, was terminated. This was a result of the company’s failure to comply with its legal obligations.
The 108 housing units, Phase 3 of the programme, were expected to be completed next month. The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform will verify the existing work done by Fikile Construction, followed by
the drafting of new tender documents.
This emerged at the provincial Standing Committee on Human Settlements. Chief restitution adviser of the Land Claims Commission Benjamin Mars said that to date
2 760 claims had been lodged, 139 housing units were allocated, 1 062 claimants were still waiting for allocation and 110 claims had been dismissed. Mars said 1 449 claimants had opted for financial compensation, whereas 1 201 opted for redevelopment.
The total budget for District Six was approved at R333.35 million and the remaining funding was just over
R153. 1m This includes the cost to finalise Phase 3.
District Six Working Committee director Zaghrah Nordien told the Cape Times yesterday that halting the project was “unfair, especially when the information was not conveyed to the committee”.
“The claimants are losing hope of ever getting justice. Many of them have died waiting. How long must people wait? Government must speed this process up. People were excited when the contractor was appointed, and now this. They don’t come to us and explain. I am feeling disgusted,” said Nordien.
The department’s director, Jimmy Freysen, said that at the time Fikile was appointed, there were guarantees that everything was fine.
“They have five other large contracts with government, which drained their resources. The other projects were standing still due to financial constraints.
“We did not think they were cash-strapped, we thought they were a Durban company trying to find their feet in Cape Town. We were aware they were struggling, but we tried to support them to finish the project. The consequences of termination of a big contract like this are dire.”
Committee chairperson Matlhodi Maseko said: “One thing I don’t understand as chair is why would you appoint a construction company from Durban while you have the local companies around here that you can monitor?
“Before you move away, check if you do have service providers locally so it becomes simple for you to monitor.”
The next meeting is scheduled for August.