People who get RDP houses should have a safe place to call home

Let’s be honest, the quality of RDP houses is downright appalling. And with tenders handed to pals for the construction, it really is no wonder that these houses are in this condition.

Imagine waiting for years and years to be handed your keys, sometimes protesting, adding your name to list upon list, making city council visits and repeatedly voting for a government that keeps promising you a better tomorrow.

Then, after twenty-something years and handing over a few brown envelopes, you get the keys to the shoddiest of houses. If your definition of a home is walls riddled with cracks, ill-fitting doors and darkness – as most of these houses lack electricity – you’re in the right place.

Even though the ANC is delivering houses at a slow pace, the houses are of questionable standards in townships, with no infrastructure.

A case in point is Tshepisong, a RDP settlement that, even after 10 years, still has no proper roads. The residents have electricity issues more often than most other townships. This is an ANC problem: it is
the ANC-led government that has given out these tenders and accepted this poor workmanship.

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Why are they not being asked about failing to deliver quality houses and why have the masses accepted that the ANC will only deliver scores of houses when elections are at the doorstep and then these houses are built too quickly?

We cannot reason that because these people are getting government housing they should live in squalor.

Even people who get government houses should have a safe place to call home. The standard of RDP houses needs to be better. The first step is to stop handing these tenders to a pal who only has experience in the cleaning and security industry.

These houses are an insult to those who live in them and under circumstances when the residents are required to stay indoors for their safety – like in Durban at the moment – it is these houses that must keep them safe. We honestly have such a long way to go.