Question NW972 to the Minister of Human Settlements

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23 May 2016 - NW972

Profile picture: James, Ms LV

James, Ms LV to ask the Minister of Human Settlements

(1)How many government subsidised houses currently require rectification in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality in the Eastern Cape; (2) (a) how many government subsidised houses were rectified in the specified municipality (i) in the (aa) 2011-12, (bb) 2012-13, (cc) 2013-14 and (dd) 2014-15 financial years and (ii) since 1 April 2015 and (b) what plans does her department have to limit the need for rectification in the specified municipality?

Reply:

(1) Five thousand four hundred and sixty five (5 465) houses in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality in the Eastern Cape require rectification.

(2) (a)(i)(aa) to (cc) From 2011 to 2014 a total of 28 261 housing units were rectified by the Provincial Department and/or Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality;

(dd) In 2014/15, a total number of 2 048 units were rectified by the Provincial Department and/or Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality;

(ii) Since 1st April 2015, a total of 1 561units were rectified; and

(b) As far as rectification is concerned, it is now policy that my Department will no longer rectify any houses using its funds. A directive in this regard was issued in 2015 to all Provincial Human Settlements Departments that no funding from the Human Settlements Development Grant may be utilised for rectification. Where defects and poor workmanship are identified, they remain the responsibility of the Province, Municipality and/or the Developer to take relevant remedial action against the contractor and enforce repairs at the cost of the contractor or developer.

The Honourable member is also referred my speech to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on 12 May 2015 during the Policy Debate on the budget of my Department. I indicated,

“We are no longer rectifying houses using our budget. Any house that has defaults is the responsibility of the NHBRC, which is responsible to identify the contractor and ensure that they rectify the shoddy work at their own cost. The money currently used on rectification can and will be used in building more houses”.

In order to limit the need to rectify houses, Government established the National Home Builders Registration (NHBRC). Its mandate is to ensure that all contractors who undertake the construction of a subsidised house are registered with the NHBRC and the requirement for registration, amongst others, is that they comply with all minimum norms and standards and expertise to construct a house.

In addition, the National Department conducts structured project-level monitoring on a quarterly basis in all nine Provinces for verification of delivery. During these, the quality of construction is also observed and reported. I also recently met with contractors involved in the housing subsidy market to address challenges and to emphasize amongst other the importance of quality workmanship.

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