A quarter-century after shack dwellers were first moved in, nearly 1,000 state-subsidized homes in Mthatha remain unfinished and structurally unsound, highlighting systemic failures in a provincial housing project.
The situation stems from 1999, when 969 RDP houses were allocated to residents. However, upon occupation, the beneficiaries discovered the homes were of shockingly poor quality. According to Chantel King, a Democratic Alliance (DA) Member of the Provincial Legislature (MPL), the project was effectively abandoned for decades.
“The contractor then left the site,” King stated in a recent interview, revealing that of the original 969 homes, only 100 were ever completed. Of those, a mere 30 were built to a satisfactory standard.
The Eastern Cape Department of Human Settlements has since appointed a new contractor. On June 11, 2024, a new “turnkey contractor” was tasked with rectifying 486 houses at a value of R86 million. However, King reported that progress has been “very slow,” leaving communities “still left stranded.”
King identified several systemic issues enabling such project failures. A primary problem was the historical practice of paying contractors in full from the foundation phase, which she described as “a red flag in itself.” Combined with the non-payment of other contractors, this has led to widespread project delays and abandonments.
A critical failure, according to King, is the department’s refusal to blacklist defaulting contractors. She revealed that since 2019, only 13 contractors have been recommended for the national registry for defaulting contractors, and not a single one has been officially blacklisted.
“This then goes against… national treasury regulations,” King explained, adding that this allows contractors to “change the company name and then re-enter the system” under a new name.
The human cost of these failures is severe. Following recent natural disasters, residents were angered when temporary shelters were erected, not because they opposed the aid, but because they feared their long-standing plight for permanent, decent housing would be forgotten.
“Some of them have now moved back to the shacks where they stayed in. Others were forced to stay in the sort of rectified homes,” King said, describing conditions where roofs leak, doors are cracked, and walls were never properly plastered.
The financial scale of the problem is vast. King disclosed that there are 87 abandoned housing projects in the province now being “unblocked,” which will ultimately cost R3.7 billion to address. In one egregious example, a contractor was paid R186 million in 2017, only to abandon the project after merely building the slabs.
King has sponsored a motion calling for the Eastern Cape Department of Human Settlements and the Provincial Treasury to establish a public, provincial register of defaulting contractors to enforce transparency and accountability.
She expressed her hope that ongoing Hawks investigations would lead to contractors being blacklisted and, most importantly, that the lost funds would be recouped.
“The people of Maiden Farm have now lost twice on receiving decent houses,” King said. “I feel they deserve to be given a proper house to stay in.”