By Sino Majangaza

BUFFALO City Municipality is taking a building contractor to court over a R500000 repair bill, after booting the contractor from a housing construction site two years ago.

The contractor, whose name is known to the Mdantsane Dispatch, was contracted by the municipality to build 500 housing units in Mbekweni in August 2005.

But five months later, in January 2006, the municipality terminated the contract due to poor workmanship.

Municipal spokesperson Ondela Mahlangu said this week the municipality was now taking legal action against the contractor, who could not be reached for comment.

The municipality appointed a new contractor in November 2007.

“The cost of the repair work by Grinaker LTA is approximately R500 000,” said Mahlangu.

Mahlangu said the contractor was paid retrospectively on the basis of work completed.

“In January 2007, a summons was issued for the recovery of the cost of the repair work,” Mahlangu said.

The case was expected to go to court in late May or early June, she added.

Grahamstown-based public service watchdog, the Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) said many housing projects in the province were of sub-standard quality because municipalities used inexperienced contractors to carry out the work.

PSAM spokesperson Chantelle de Nobrega said there was a lack of monitoring mechanisms.

“The other challenge is the overwhelming increase in building material, which results in contractors cutting corners so that they can build a house with less money,” De Nobrega said.

She said between February 1998 and February 2005 the cost of building had risen by 143 percent.

“This means that the cost of building a house escalated while the subsidy did not,” she said.

Provincial Housing spokesperson Phumlani Mdolomba said government had set aside R3 million to do remedial work on incomplete housing projects in the province.

He added that all construction companies must now register with the National Home Builders Registration Council before they can get a tender from the government.

This decision was taken after government noticed that huge sums of money were being wasted on rebuilding and repairing houses. — Mdantsane Dispatch

Source: Daily Dispatch