KwaZenzele informal settlement residents unhappy about slow pace of housing development
The residents say the housing development which started last year, has been moving very slowly.
Residents of KwaZenzele informal settlement shut down the R554 on Wednesday during their service delivery protest.
The residents say the housing development which started last year, has been moving very slowly.
Speaking on behalf of the community Mphostoli Mthimuli says, “The development has not borne fruit.
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“The contractor started in March last year and till today there isn’t a single RDP house nor has any foundation been laid.
“They keep saying this is a dolomitic area and they have to use special people to come and build and while we understand that it might be true, but looking at similar projects that started at the same time, where they managed to build 2 000 houses, it tells you there’s a big problem here,” says Mthimuli.
The community say they have not been informed about what is happening with the development and were requesting that the present contractor be removed and another appointed.
In addressing the community the MMC for Human Settlement, Themba Motsepe, acknowledged that there had been delays in the development and said there were a number of issues that caused the delay.
“Some of these were because of our own internal processes which we have decided to waiver so the contractor can start working.
“The other issue was that because it is a rural project, we have to work with other departments.
“However, the community has been kept in the loop during this whole time as there are members of the community that sit on the project steering committee whose duties include giving progress reports to the community,” says Motsepe.
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As for the removal of the contractor, Motsepe says the contractor cannot be removed as they have signed a contract and the groundwork has started.
After consultation with the community and departments, the contractor said he would be on site today.
Springs Police spokesperson Capt Johannes Ramphora confirmed that the road was open to traffic this morning and the protest had died down.
Ramphora said police were monitoring the situation.
