GALOOME SHOPANE A group of Thaba Nchu residents who had thought their long wait for the home promised by government in exchange for votes was over four years ago, have now had to face yet another disappointment.
Courant learned last week that construction on the houses in question started in 2010 but they have remained unfinished since then.
Now residents say they have been told these are being demolished so that new, better quality homes can be built.
The residents say they have been on the receiving end of this type of heartbreak and disappointment for years.
They did not want to be named for fear they might be left out in the cold when the houses are eventually rebuilt.
Senne Bogatsu from the department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs (COGTA), says the houses were demolished for various reasons. She says, “Some incomplete projects are due to work that had to be terminated by the department because of poor quality of work done by the contractors.”
She says in other cases the contractor abandoned the projects due to financial reasons and inexperience. Commenting on contractors who failed to deliver, Bogatsu says, “The projects were terminated and reassigned to other contractors.”
She says the department would not pay those contractors for any work already completed.
One elderly woman who stays with her sons says the man who recently came to notify her of the planned demolition said she may keep the bricks, windows and door frames.
When Courant asked Bogatsu about this, she said: “As some material will be broken through demolition, it will be thrown away. However, that which can be used would probably be considered for re-use.”
Bogatsu says houses are assessed prior to demolition to determine whether full or only partial demolition is warranted.
Bogatsu could not immediately say how much this whole exercise has actually cost the department. She says the department is currently conducting a “process of structural integrity” on outstanding projects, which also includes assessment and costing processes.
One man who is unemployed and in his fifties says, “it has been very painful to sleep in a shack, while there is an almost finished house in the yard that I can’t stay in.”
A woman who witnessed a neighbour’s home being demolished says she was surprised when she saw her neighbour’s walls “fall down by just a touch of a stick”.
Another elderly woman says she has been waiting for long time to get her house. “This is stressful, there is nothing I can do or say, just to accept it,” she says.
As to when the houses will be rebuilt, Bogatsu says, “The plan is to start as soon as (immediately) the demolishing and clearing is done.”
“Immediately’, however is defined by when the contractors would be ready for material to be delivered, etc,” she says.
Bogatsu is hopeful that work will get underway “between now and November”.
For now residents are busy cleaning up their yards, whilst hoping that they will eventually live in dignified homes.
