WATCH: No progress in the City’s old flats

Residents in the old council flats, South Hills, are not satisfied with the workmanship by contractors hired by the City of Johannesburg to do repairs.

They say their flats are in more of a mess than they were before. In May, a project was awarded to a contractor who was supposed to replace the baths, basins, toilets and kitchen sinks.

Lee-Ann Pretorius said this project was meant to better the lives of the tenants who are living in these flats but unfortunately that was not the case as it has apparently become a super-hot mess.

“There are over 10 blocks of flats which have been affected by the lack of workmanship, yet this multimillion-rand project is not complete, which had a deadline of August if I am not mistaken.

“SMMEs were appointed to do certain tasks but for many weeks the teams were unable to deliver because there was no material to complete the tasks,” said Pretorius.

“When community members started engaging SMMEs eventually material arrived, which was still not enough to complete even one block of flats.

“Community members that are affected by this disaster project are all up in arms simply because before this multimillion-rand project people had issues such as bats flying into flats through the open ceiling or rats running through the ceiling into homes. This is not acceptable.”

No contractor in sight

“To date, we have not heard or seen the main contractor, we go back to the SMMEs that only have so many answers, and they are not being paid for the work they have been doing,” said Pretorius.

“I know that the SMMEs are even going as far as buying certain things with their money, which is not right after funds have been paid to the main contractor for the work to be done. Where are the funds as the work is not done, surely the funds cannot be finished?

“As the community, we demand that the flats be restored as this project has been going on for a very long time with very little traction. It is unacceptable and this mess has to be cleaned up.

“Tenants cannot be complaining about the same things daily. At Glenrock Court the exterior roof is loose it has been reported to the councillor however to date there is still no improvement. Are we waiting for a strong wind to rip off the roof, or are we waiting for it to fall on a child or maybe for robbers to enter homes through the collapsing roof?” she asked.

Nothing completed

Ward 57 councillor Faeeza Chame said South Hills flats are very old and not well maintained over the years. “When I was informed about this project I was overjoyed and so were the residents.

“I thought it will be a big relief for the residents and to beautify their units because there were continuous issues of water leaks and broken toilets including basins that were not up to standard.

“Many people are jobless and with this project, we thought it will be a relief for them to earn some money, but the workers always complained to me about not getting paid on time or not getting paid at all.

“Since the project started the residents had to have the contractors invade their units to do the installations of new baths, basins, sinks and taps including tiling.

“On inspection of the units, nothing was completed. Most of the work was half done or the residents’ units were worse than before. Tiles were not put in, pipes were leaking and nothing was to my satisfaction. The contractor promised to fix what was not fixed by the SMMEs. Then the SMMEs complained that there was no material to complete these unfinished jobs.”

No response

“When we have meetings with the stakeholders, the contractor is not willing to accommodate the SMMEs, he always comes up with excuses to not pay what is due to them. The work was supposed to be completed already but they are still far from completion,” said Chame.

“Rubble is also left at these units; it was supposed to have been collected by the contractor. This has also not been done for months. I trust these issues will be resolved and that our residents will be satisfied.”

Last month the COURIER sent an email to the City of Johannesburg seeking clarity on this and no response has been received so far. The main contractor Xihlala Construction was contacted for comment, however, its owner said contractually they are not obliged to speak to the media but we must speak to the councillor and City of Johannesburg.