NATIONAL NEWS - Beneficiaries, including the flood victims of 2019, were relocated to Mooiplaas, Pretoria in July 2020.
The Tshwane metro started building them temporary residential units last December, and these were handed to the beneficiaries in April 2021.
The beneficiaries, however, complained that the side walls of the units were starting to crack, before they were handed to them in April.
Adelaide Khoza said she was relocated from Willow Farm informal settlement after becoming a victim of flooding.
She said she and her neighbours were relocated last year around July, and they were told that they were being sent to a safer place.
Khoza said the metro started building the houses in December and in April they moved into the units.
However, she said around February the units were already showing signs of cracks on the side walls.
Khoza said there was some delay in handing over the units and the residents could not wait anymore since they were told to move their shacks to make room in their yards for the new units in December.
She said the residents complied and moved their shacks on the side with the understanding once completed, they would move in.
“The units are on the verge of collapsing and one day someone will be seriously injured when the side walls tumble down on them,” she said.
She said the units were falling apart, while others were leaking.
Khoza said she was unemployed and has already spent hundreds of rands buying waterproof silicone to patch the cracked side walls.
Other residents pleaded with the metro to at least change the building materials because they no longer wanted the hardboard walls. Houses should be built with stronger material for longer life.
Tshwane spokesperson, Lindela Mashigo, said the metro was not aware of the complaints.
“The residents were housed in Nellmapius multi-purpose centre, Mamelodi West Baptist Church, Stanza Bopape community hall, etc, after the 2019 flood.
“The metropolitan municipality appointed Housing Development Agency to build temporary residential units in Mooiplaas,” said Mashigo.
“The units are not permanent in nature, and it is the Tshwane metro’s view that the beneficiaries would build their own accommodation following this intervention.”
