Housing chaos needs solutions
2005-08-31 13:19
Cape Town - Responding to a call that he resign as chairman of a company accused of building shoddy houses, Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane said on Wednesday it was sad how "everything in South Africa was politicised".
Ndungane was responding to a call from the Democratic Alliance that he resign as chairman of the Cape Town Community Housing Company (CTCHC) which is accused of building shoddy houses and misleading prospective tenants.
Ndungane said constructive solutions should be found instead of matters being politicised.
He didn't explicitly refuse to resign from the company's board.
"The DA referred the matter to the premier (Ebrahim Rasool), I welcome it and trust the premier's judgement," Ndungane said in Cape Town.
He said the CTCHC followed corporate governance standards, and the board would consider the DA's interpretation of the company's financial statements.
He didn't rule out possible litigation over media reports in which the DA suggested the company had built the worst houses in Cape Town's history.
Ndungane said the main issue was the "fraught" issue of housing delivery and suggested the DA's approach could further encourage a culture of non-payment.
He refused to be drawn on whether the DA was politicking ahead of the municipal elections, saying the "political musical chairs" which has seen first the DA and then the ANC run the Cape Town unicity had hampered delivery.
The housing company's financial manager, Paul McHardy, who flanked Ndungane, said factual inaccuracies published in the media could have "serious implications" for the company.
McHardy admitted problems, such as using untrained labour to build houses, but said the company had undertaken to repair all 2 193 houses identified as sub-standard.
"The company has unconditionally committed that any structural fault identified by an engineer will be attended to immediately at no cost to the client."
McHardy said the fact houses were now being built at a slower rate was because the company didn't want to repeat previous mistakes and build shoddy but expensive houses.
He denied the company had "grossly deceived" potential homeowners as the DA alleged, saying the company had informed buyers of their responsibilities and financial assistance open to them.
McHardy said while it was true the company initially failed to get approval for their developments, this was because no mechanism existed at the time for approval.
However, developments were undertaken with support from the City of Cape Town and the provincial government, and now more than 90 of homes had the necessary plans.
- SAPA