Military veterans fear houses built by state will collapse

Military veterans say their state-supplied houses are a disgrace

21 April 2019 - 00:00 By BOBBY JORDAN

As soldiers, they risked their lives to build a better future. In return, the government built them 37m² "pondoks" that some fear may soon collapse on their heads.
Veterans from both sides of the apartheid divide, who live in a state-subsidised Cape Town housing estate that opened late last year, are united in their outrage at the shoddy state of their homes, some of which have already started to crack.
"They can fall on us and our kids," said Zola Mosia of his walls, which he believes need to be demolished rather than repaired.
Mosia, a former member of the Azanian National Liberation Army (Azanla), said the Belhar houses do not comply with the agreed specifications. They were supposed to be 50m² and equipped with stoves and built-in cupboards, but they only have tiny hotplates, no gutters, and are built on cement slabs rather than proper foundations.
Belhar Extension 8 is sandwiched between a shopping centre and a railway station. There is only a handful of streetlights.
The neighbourhood is the second phase of the Western Cape veterans' housing programme, itself part of a national housing programme co-ordinated by the department of military veterans (DMV). Similar problems have been reported at other housing sites.
"They repaired this in December - it is cracked again," said ex-South African Air Force member Ryan Jones, pointing to a corner of his bathroom ceiling.
Jones, who suffers from asthma and heart complications, believes his ailing health could well falter due to his home's rising damp. "It will be hell for me to stay in my house," he said, adding that he and most of his neighbours were unemployed.
Another resident pointed to a wall which he said had been repaired three times. He criticised the DMV for bungling a project that had promised so much.
"I even don't want the president to come here and open this place," the resident said, adding that many neighbours who had previously lived in shacks or with relatives had no option but to rent out their homes for income.
Danny Morris, who was a member of the South African Defence Force, said auditors had concluded the houses were worth far less than the agreed R188,000 subsidy. He blamed the government co-ordinators and building contractor. "Where are the other square metres they promised? The building contractor eats a lot. All the houses have the same problems. These people take us for fools."
Mosia said that to date there had been no response to veterans' complaints. Neither the DMV nor the building contractor responded to Sunday Times queries this week.
However, the South African National Military Veterans Association said there was "serious concern" about veterans' housing projects countrywide, including Belhar.
"Most of the houses do not conform to the specifications that have been agreed upon," said secretary-general Tshidiso Paka.
"These are in some instances characterised by shoddy workmanship and poor-quality materials used in the construction of the houses. Some, such as in Mpumalanga, are built in improperly compacted areas which used to serve as dumping areas."
Paka said the association had raised its concerns with government departments and received undertakings that the defects would be repaired.
Documents seen by the Sunday Times set out the dimensions and design of the Belhar houses. Veterans claim the contractor built 14 houses more than the initial 88, which may explain the units' smaller size.
Zolile Lambert, Azanian People's Liberation Army (Apla) Western Cape secretary-general, accused the government of bias towards the ANC's former military wing, Umkhonto weSizwe, whose members, he said, had been allocated the lion's share of units.
"My main concern is that, in any housing project across the country, all the time MK will take half of the houses, if not 60%," he said.
"We have a problem with that and we have raised it in numerous meetings."
It is not the first time veterans have aired their frustrations with government welfare efforts. Last year, Azanla veterans in KwaZulu-Natal accused MK vets of hijacking a housing and employment programme.
Said Lambert: "If you can go to America, or Zimbabwe, you'll see they treat their military vets better than SA. The conditions veterans are living in here is unacceptable."..

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