'Cheaper solutions needed to housing backlog'

'Cheaper solutions needed to housing backlog'


April 17 2007 at 04:48AM
By Anel PowellAlternative building materials could alleviate many of the structural problems at the N2 Gateway development, says Richard Dyantyi, MEC for local government and housing.Speaking at the opening of a two-day conference on innovative building methods on Monday, Dyantyi said: "The conventional system of brick and mortar has proved to be costly and in relation to the rate at which the backlog is increasing, to no longer be a viable option." At a weekend public meeting, Dyantyi admitted to residents of the N2 Gateway development that work on some of the houses was sub-standard. He said work on the second phase would continue once the problems in the first phase had been solved.

Dyantyi said on Monday that the N2 Gateway could be one of the sites identified for a pilot project of alternative building methods.He said structural problems, such as those at the N2 Gateway, were caused by incompetent contractors and inferior building materials. Dyantyi said the government had to work with the private sector to find cost-effective solutions to the housing backlog, estimated at more than 400 000.He said the biggest challenge would be to convince home owners that structures made of steel and other materials were as reliable as conventional brick or timber houses.Alternatives discussed at the workshop included using light-weight steel frame structures, which cost less and can be erected more quickly.John Barnard, of the SA Light Steel Frame Building Association, said these structures could be used for multi-storey complexes, were fireproof, provided insulation and acoustic protection, and could be built in less than a month using unskilled labour. Hennie Botes, of Moladi Construction Technology, said using alternative building methods would allow for the rapid delivery of quality houses, while empowering the local community. "With housing, we can stimulate job creation."
This article was originally published on page 4 of Cape Times on April 17, 2007

AUDITOR-GENERAL’S REPORTS SHOW MAJOR PROBLEMS WITH HOUSING DELIVERYA

DA analysis of Auditor-General’s reports on provincial housing departments has shown that many housing delivery projects are failing because of staff shortages, ineffective financial controls, poor management and a host of other problems, the party revealed last week.
Two key problems were poor control over housing subsidies and poor management of housing projects, said party housing spokesperson, Butch Steyn last Thursday.
Steyn cited some examples such as the Free State, where there was often no evidence that beneficiaries had qualified for subsidies - in 49 cases the Auditor-General looked at, he could find no records of applicants’ incomes and he also found cases where subsidies were awarded to government employees earning above the subsidy threshold.
He had also found 5 houses which had been allocated to more than one beneficiary, 417 developments where no sewerage services had been provided, and 17 sites where other fixed structures already existed on the land.
In KwaZulu-Natal, a forensic investigation had found evidence of fraud in the awarding of housing subsidies to government employees, but the department had done nothing to close the loop-holes identified to prevent the fraud from recurring; and,
In the Eastern Cape, a number of houses did not meet National Home Builders’ Registration Council standards, which was often a result of money being paid over to developers without service level agreements being in place.
“It is not hard to understand how these problems arose when one considers appalling staff shortages in many departments and the lack of proper plans to address these shortages” Steyn said.
“There is a 68 percent vacancy rate In the Free State department, a 67 percent vacancy rate among assistant directors in the KwaZulu-Natal department and a 43 percent vacancy rate in the Eastern Cape.”
He said there were many other significant problems - provinces struggled to collect debts and rentals owed to them, and some did not even have contact details for debtors or did not know how many houses they were renting out.
“It is obvious that, until these problems are addressed and basic business principles adhered to, the provincial housing departments will not fulfil their mandate to provide decent houses for the poor,” he said.
Read the full report HERE