‘We may have slipped up on quality of units’ – Housing development agency head reveals

The Housing Development Agency (HDA) has admitted to “slipping up” over the quality of some of its transitional residential units (TRUs) during the Covid-19 lockdown.

News24 spoke to the head of the HDA, Lucien Rakgoale, who admitted the agency had faltered in providing quality temporary housing to residents in densely populated areas, but added that overall the agency had fared well.

This came after Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu commissioned an investigation into all recent projects relating to temporary residential units.

The housing units came into the spotlight when Limpopo Premier Stan Mathabatha was heavily criticised and embarrassed when he handed over more than 40 temporary Covid-19 tin shelters in August. It was described as “expensive shacks”.

News24 reported that the national Department of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation’s director general, Joseph Leshabane, hinted that the Talana project was marred by poor quality and workmanship.

“There are certain quality issues that were lax, and we contacted the constructor and he will be attending to remedial works as proposed by the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC),” he said.

In Mamelodi, Tshwane, 1,000 units meant to have been handed over to hostel residents in July have had three extensions.

The units were meant to relieve the population of 8,000 hostel dwellers living in unfavourable conditions which pose grave health risks.

“The Mamelodi TRUs were decided upon through a consultative process between national and provincial government and the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality.

“The Housing Development Agency was then mandated by the City of Tshwane to construct 1,000 quality temporary relocation units (TRUs) to reduce overcrowding for people living in the hostels and 700 of these units are intended to be used as residential units and the remainder as quarantine units,” Rakgoale said.

He said the project is expected to be completed by the end of November, adding that only 200 of these units were complete and ready to be handed over.

“We have been very hard on the contractors and we are also looking at other alternatives which entails bringing in different other service providers to beef up the capacity on the ground such that the project is not delayed any further because I must admit we are finding it difficult to explain to the Mamelodi hostel residents and the community there. I admit the fact that we possibly could have done better,” he said.

Rakgoale added that he understood why Sisulu called for a probe into the quality of temporary units across the country.

“In instances where we may have faltered or instances where we may have slipped [up], especially on the quality issues, I am sure that the minister is fully entitled to chastise us, as she may have done.

“We had a very comprehensive response plan, we managed to identify congested spaces and in some other space we managed to zoom in where you need water tanks and in some instances worked with province and municipalities to identify additional sanitation points. In that respect, I think we have done fairly well.

“We might not have done well in terms of rolling out the decongestion and de-densification programme in terms of the construction of TRUs, but I think, generally, in terms of the implementation of the response plan I think that we have done fairly well,” he said.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.