For dozens of families in Wembezi’s Emahhashini area, 2018 has been another year of service delivery fails and empty promises. 21-year-old Kwanele Dlamini has experienced this first hand.
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He lives in a community where homes are crumbling around people, families are crammed into makeshift houses and development of the area is almost non-existent.
After listening to concerns from some of the residents, Mr Dlamini has decided to publicly challenge, while seeking answers from Inkosi Langalibalele Local Municipality.
Mr Dlamini explains that the community’s main concern is the structural damage done to 22 houses during a storm in 2017.
Walls, roofs and windows were severely damaged, making some houses inhabitable. A community meeting with municipal officials ensued and the affected residents were promised that their homes would be rebuilt. It’s a year later and the residents have seen no sign of repairs.
“Three wendy houses have been provided but they are so small that you will be shocked to see how people are sleeping,” said Mr Dlamini.
He wants the municipality to be clear about plans for the damaged homes, a topic that has been avoided for more than a year.
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Municipal Manager Patrick Mkhize provided this detailed explanation:
“The stage two (construction) agreement was concluded at the end of January 2018 but we could not commence with the construction as we were waiting the Bill of Quantities to be provided by the Department of Human Settlements (DoHS) as they had appointed a service provider to undertake this task.
“On May 2, we met with DoHS and the service provider to receive the Bill of Quantities
DoHS advised the Implementing Agent (IA) to provide engineering reports for the houses and in particular the slabs, concentrating on core tests results. This was finalised towards the end of July 2018.
“The IA then proceeded with site establishment and the relevant stakeholders were engaged and it was decided that the sub-contractors will have to be sourced from within the community, namely bricklayers and unskilled labour. They commenced with the first house and inspections were conducted by DoHS and municipality staff on September 5 who found serious faults and then requested the building inspectors to inspect the house the following day.
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“Inspectors from DoHS and the municipality, together with the Engineer from the IA, agreed that the house did not meet the minimum standards and will have to be demolished and rebuilt. The report was forwarded to the DoHS. During the on-site meeting held on September 6, we were advised that most of bricklayers from the community were working at the Ultra City Project as the rate of pay was much higher than that being offered on this project.
“The sub-contractor from within the community is not able to deliver the quality we are expecting on this project, the main contractor did bring in his own professional bricklayers but this was met with serious challenges from the community and they had to be sent back to avoid any confrontations.
As a way forward, the DoHS in collaboration with NHBRC, agreed to train the bricklayers from within the project area. The training commenced on October 1 until 5. Our suggestion, as the municipality, is that the Implementing Agent be allowed to bring in his own professionals to fast track this project, which is already delayed by nine months to ensure that the approved funding is not re-directed to other projects. Presently the IA is busy with the slabs and there is a progress on site.”
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