The ANC government has proudly spoken about how, in the past 16 years, it has delivered more than two million homes to indigent people around the country. And it proudly reassures its voters – who would vote for it anyway and don’t need any reassurances – that it is getting on top of the housing problem.
Paddy Hartdegen writes a regular column for Property24.com
Then, after research lasting more than a year, the Department of Human Settlements turns around and tells the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee that it needs R58-billion to fix the houses that have already been built.
They go on to say that it will take at least two years to repair all these properties too. And they then talk about creating a blacklist of individuals who have crooked the government in the past.
Moreover, the blacklist will have to contain much more detail than before so that they can prevent companies that have already ripped off the government from re-registering as a supplier and ripping it off all over again.
At the moment the Department of Human Settlements has an annual budget of R16-billion so even if it spent its entire allocation on remedial work (without paying a single salary to anyone) it would take almost five years to fix the houses that need to be fixed.
Of course, that’s not going to happen. Instead, the government will listen to the pleas from Tokyo Sexwale’s team and carefully consider them too. Then they will put in an appeal (supporting him) to have his allocation increased and the central treasury will agree to give him some more money and slowly the houses may or may not be repaired.
That’s the theory anyway. And, it sounds perfectly acceptable when it’s all so remote and so removed from you and me. Treasury will provide the money; Human Settlements has been ripped off; the repairs are needed because some houses are falling down and so forth.
So let’s put it another way. The government wants you to give 30% of your income to it so it can fix houses that were badly built in the first place. You must please do a transfer to the Department of Human Settlements accounts division of X amount of money (30% of your monthly income) on or before the 28thof February.
Now how would you feel about it?
You’d ask some basic questions like:
What am I spending this money on?
Well, you’re fixing up shoddy houses that were badly built and are falling down.
Why weren’t they built properly in the first place?
Well, we thought they were going to be built properly but then when the people came to move in they found the houses weren’t built properly. So now we must fix them.
Who was responsible for overseeing the projects?
We had inspectors. Inspectors from the National Home Builders Registration Council, inspectors from the local authorities and inspectors from the former Department of Housing.
So why didn’t they fix the faults before the houses were completed. Fix the problems when the builders were still working?
Well, you see, we didn’t have enough inspectors. The inspectors didn’t have cars to take them to the sites. The inspectors weren’t properly trained. In some municipalities there were even no inspectors. The few inspectors we did have didn’t know what to look for.
So why were they inspectors?
They were appointed as inspectors. Why are you asking this question? That’s the past. You must ask them. We just know that the houses were starting to fall down and people were complaining. Now we are trying to fix the problem.
Why did the government pay the contractors if the houses were badly built?
The builders had a contract and the contract said they must be paid at certain times.
Without inspections
I don’t know. You’d have to ask the accounts departments. You’d have to ask other people. We are just trying to fix up the problem now and we can’t say what happened before.
What guarantee do I have that this won’t just happen again?
Eh, none. There are no guarantees. But I will say that we won’t let it happen again. You can believe me. It won’t happen again.
Yeah, right. So I must pay you 30% of what I earn so you can fix something that you messed up in the first place.
Yes. You must pay. Because if you don’t give us your money then we will just take it because we have your bank account details and we can help ourselves to the money from you account. That’s the law. That’s called tax.
These are the realities of the latest assertions from the Department of Human Settlements. They have already wasted countless billions of rands and now want at least R58-billion more to fix up the mess that they allowed to happen in the first place.
Consider what better uses the R58-billion could be put towards: public health services; improved teachers and schools to support our wrecked education system; extensive training courses to get people off the streets and into proper jobs.
There are hundreds of better ways to spend that money.
Surely there must be a better solution to the problem than just providing further funds to a Department that appears to be so ill-equipped to deal with it. Or do we give Tokyo and his team a ‘second chance’?
My own opinion is that Tokyo is identifying – and trying to fix – the widespread problems that were caused by his predecessor, Lindwe Sisulu and on the strength of what he has done already I certainly do think that he deserves to have a ‘second chance’.
What concerns me more is the patent inability of the NHBRC to fulfil its obligations to inspect homes, provide proper quality assurance and to take action against defaulting builders. On balance, I believe the NHBRC should be disbanded and replaced with a new, private-sector building insurance system.
What also concerns me is the failure of local authorities to fulfil their obligations to oversee building projects and, in this regard, I think the inspection of low-income houses should be privatised and removed from the controls of local councils.
Finally, I think that the business models applied to the provision of low cost housing should be completely reassessed and a new model involving a degree of sweat-equity, new and alternative building methods used, and cheaper, equally sustainable methods found to build houses that are affordable and will stand up.
We can’t go on wasting money like this. And if I had a choice I promise you I would not provide a single cent towards repairing houses or building new ones until some of the fundamentals that I have mentioned have been addressed and resolved.
You might feel differently. - Paddy Hartdegen
*Hartdegen writes a regular column for Property24.com. The content of his columns constitutes his personal opinion and doesn’t pretend to be facts or advice. Contact him at paddy@neomail.co.za.
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Big numbers often confuse. Say it quickly and it isn't much. Just to put R58bn into perspective. That is asking every man, woman and child in the country to pay R1,160. - John
Funny enough that this morning I was having a rather confrontation with one of the passengers in a taxi about the state of the so called RDP houses compared to the houses build by the apartheid government. This guy said to me that I am naive to embrace the white regime as a black person than to embrace our government for the good it has done. I told him that I will give credit where it's due. I am grateful to the ANC government for the fact that I have freedom of speech and I can criticize them without being locked up but I am not grateful for the wrong things they do and then blame it on apartheid. Sorry, the housing department is a mess and before they can tax people more to fix the mess I think they must first sell the assets of the companies that were contracted to build those houses to get the money. - Medrec