DA demands answers over R2.6m RDP house in Sedibeng

28 April 2022 - 17:18
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The interior of the RDP house that was built for R2.6m in Evaton last year. The DA says its councillors in Sedibeng will challenge the council to conduct an oversight inspection at the newly built house.
The interior of the RDP house that was built for R2.6m in Evaton last year. The DA says its councillors in Sedibeng will challenge the council to conduct an oversight inspection at the newly built house.
Image: DA

An RDP house in Evaton in Sedibeng cost a whopping R2.6m, yet there are cracks in some of the walls and some of the rooms are not tiled.

The house was built after a letter written by a grade 11 schoolgirl from Evaton dated October 10 2019 to the Sedibeng MMC for health and social development, requesting the extension of the RDP house because there are too many occupants in her home.

The girl said her mother was ill and unemployed.

Instead of an extension, another RDP house was built next to it.

Gauteng DA MPL Kingsol Chabalala said while millions of Gauteng youth are struggling to access sustainable job opportunities and funding for their start-up businesses, the National Youth Development Agency (Nyda) wasted more than R2.6m building this house.

This money could have been used to fund about 25 youth businesses with R100,000 each.

Chabalala asked co-operative governance, traditional affairs and human settlements MEC Lebogang Maile which service provider was appointed by the municipality for the project, how was the service provider appointed and how much did the project cost the municipality.

Maile said a company known as Conloy was the service provider appointed by the Nyda, which has a memorandum of understanding with the Sedibeng district municipality. Maile said the project cost more than R2.6m.

“The DA conducted an oversight inspection at the house and was disappointed and shocked to discover that there was no extension. However, there was an additional house that was built and left incomplete. 

"There are no tiles in some of the rooms in the new house and the walls have cracks. The house is not worth R2.6m as the value of such a house is a mansion,” Chabalala said.

The unfinished bathroom in the house that cost R2.6m.
The unfinished bathroom in the house that cost R2.6m.
Image: DA

Chabalala said he would demand to see a copy of the memorandum between the Nyda and Sedibeng.

“The DA councillors in Sedibeng will request the MOU from the council and challenge the council to conduct an oversight inspection at the newly built house to determine whether there is value for the R2.6m spent on it.

“This will allow us to ascertain what role, if any, the council played in building a new house and if the council had any oversight over the building of this new structure.

“If it is found that due processes were not followed, we will demand immediate action against the officials and politicians involved.”

Should it be found that taxpayers’ money was misused by officials and politicians they must pay back the money immediately and be held accountable.

“They must also fix the defects and complete the house,” he said.

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