Building companies will be forced to fix shoddy RDP houses in PE - minister

18 July 2016

Port Elizabeth – Shoddy RDP houses in the Nelson Mandela Metro will be fixed before the elections, Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has said.

The department would repair those houses it had built, while private sector construction companies would have to fix their defective homes, she said on the sidelines of an ANC Women’s League event in Nelson Mandela Bay on Sunday.

"Known contractors who built the shoddy houses, we will go get them and get them to fix the houses, even if we have to drag them by the scruff of their neck."

She said the party’s officials had been in the city to determine how the ANC could win the highly-contested Nelson Mandela Bay in next month’s local government elections.

One of the problems facing the party was misrepresentation of the ANC’s position about service delivery in the area, especially housing. The ANC had delivered phenomenally in Nelson Mandela Bay and would continue to do so, she said.

The problem was that housing delivery in the area had decreased because 50% of the budget was going towards fixing those dwellings that were falling apart.

The department would take responsibility for those houses it had built before 2002 and for those built by contractors who had gone out of business.

She said the same companies were responsible for building homes in the upmarket suburb of Summerstrand, which they did well.

"And when they are building for my people, they cut corners and the houses fall apart," she said.

"I will not accept that. Before elections, they must fix these houses. Even if they start by accepting responsibility for their shoddily-built houses and endeavour to fix them."

Those companies who were unable to meet the August 3 deadline would have to give undertakings of when they intended doing so.

"And if a company refuses, we take away their right to build. They can’t refuse. We can blacklist them from working in other provinces, and take away their right to build here, in Nelson Mandela Bay. They will no longer operate from PE," she said.

This article first appeared on News24, see here.