More than 100 RDP houses in Khayalitsha standing unfinished since 2012

More than 100 RDP houses in Khayelitsha have not been finished since 2012 and residents are living without ceilings, toilet doors or gutters, GroundUp reports.

Nomakhazi Silayi, 60, said she had no money to buy building materials for her house in Town Two.

“I’m waiting for government to finish building the house because I’m too old to raise money to do so myself,” she said.

Silayi said she and her family moved into the house in 2015. Strong winds easily blow tiles off her roof, she said, and the windows had no handles. There is no door to the bathroom.

Bulelani Mgcuwe, 43, said the City of Cape Town built his house and installed window frames without panes in 2012. Windows were put in a year later but the frames had been damaged. After thugs stole doors from the house, he moved in to protect it, though it was not complete.

Alfred Kwaaiman, a builder and chairperson of Siyifumene People’s Housing Project, said he had been building houses in Town Two since 2012. The company which supplied some of the materials including ceilings, fascia boards and gutters had gone out of business, affecting about 136 houses, he said.

He said the residents had moved into the houses from their shacks before the houses were finished.

“Because their shacks allowed cold and rain in, the residents resorted to moving into the unfinished houses without the permission of the City of Cape Town,” he said.

Felicity Purchase, acting mayoral committee member for human settlements, said the company responsible for the housing project had gone into liquidation. The City and the Western Cape government had started a process to complete the outstanding units.

“The Western Cape Government is finalising the funding process for some of the units after which construction will be completed,” Purchase said.

Republished from GroundUp.

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