Hail damage report
Of the 1088 assessed houses that were approved for repairs, 375 roofs have been repaired
The Emnambithi/Ladysmith Municipality has issued a press release regarding the project of the hail storm damage. The municipality has requested the Department of Human Settlements to consider the progress that the municipality has made with the repairs of the houses which were affected.
The Department of Human Settlements has been approached to consider making additional funding available to construct houses in line with the current Subsidy Quantum. This process requires that the houses be enrolled with the National Housing Building Regulations Council (NHBRC) who require that the houses constructed meet the required standards.
This includes replacing the roofs, rather than repair them in order to ensure that the roofs are sustainable. The engineers also propose to reconstruct the walls as they conclude that the walls would collapse as they will not be able to support the weight of the new roofs due to the fact that block-work has been severely compromised by the storm.
For these reasons the Department of Human Settlements has accepted a request for additional funding and the matter has been referred to their Housing Evaluation Advisory Committee.
The implementing agents have assessed 3600 houses, 2703 were received and 1722 have been referred back to the Implementing Agents to furnish more accuracy and additional information. Of these, 1088 assessments were approved for repairs and 375 roofs have been repaired. the Implementing Agents have appointed Geotechnical Engineers for NHBRC enrolment to build complete new structures where applicable which process should be completed by mid April 2014. The Implementing Agents will visit houses not included as part of the 3600 houses provided. Of the R96 million which was assigned to repair the houses, R14,799,289,1 has been spent.
The municpality also said that due to the unique nature of this project the Department of Human Settlements and the Implementing Agents were faced with many administrative challenges which are being dealt with by way of weekly meetings at Provincial and Municipal level.
