Capricorn EFF airs views on ‘unfavourable’ Housing Bill
The EFF in Capricorn does not believe the Housing Consumer Protection Bill is firm enough to cater for all those who are affected in Polokwane.
POLOKWANE – Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements held a public hearing on August 27 at the Peter Mokaba Stadium, where participants shared challenges being faced by various stakeholders in the utilisation of housing in its broad sense.
EFF’s Regional Interim Leadership Member Tebogo Monyela declared the bill unfavourable to those residing in temporary structures such as shacks.
“The decision to exclude the application of the bill to structures that do not have their own bathrooms or toilets is based on misguided European conceptions of what qualifies as a building. People with land constraints do not always build homes with attached bathrooms or kitchens. Therefore, the exclusion must be removed from the bill,” she read.
The hearing was the second of three which were held in Limpopo where participants highlighted the importance of the Bill in protecting Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) beneficiaries against untrustworthy constructors, who build sub-standard houses.
Monyela mentioned that the Bill should prohibit the prevalent racial discrimination in the awarding of construction contracts.
She said the requirements to register a construction company appears fair but the practical implications of the requirements often ‘exclude home builders who are mostly black contractors’.
As a result, the EFF wants a yearly report “to examine fairness” in the awarding of contracts.
“The use of money to finance transformation measures in the industry must clearly specify that some of the money will be used to assist black entrants by for example, paying for their registration and this must be reported on, annually,” she continued. Furthermore, Monyela in short shared the plight of free housing beneficiaries with those who were present at the hearing, including committee chairperson Machwene Semenya.
“For many years, our people complained about the standard of housing without any help because of failure of the NHBRC which operates like a cartel,” she concluded.
