ADVERTISEMENT:

 

 
 

The remnants of the original hostel complex in Tshikota. The entire complex has been vandalised and partially destroyed. 

“Monument to incompetence” in the spotlight again

Date: 10 April 2015 By: Frans van der Merwe

The Tshikota Hostel upgrading project that was once termed by residents as a “monument to incompetence and corruption”, and later gave rise to serious violence, is now once again in the firing line.

The original multi-million-rand project, which the Provincial Department of Housing and Local Government handed to a young contractor years ago, was handled in such a way that, at its completion, the local municipality refused to officially take possession of it. This was due to the sub-standard material and construction methods used. The entire costly development was eventually trashed by experts as unfit for human habitation and “fit only for total demolition.”

In a news release last week, the Democratic Alliance urgently called on the provincial MEC to investigate the delay in the promised rectifying of the Tshikota Hostel blunder.

The DA says it has discovered that the Department of Cooperate Governance, Human Settlement and Traditional Affairs in Limpopo failed dismally to meet their deadline for rectifying and redeveloping the Tshikota Hostel project in Makhado.

“In 2013, the former MEC, Clifford Motsepe, made the pronouncement during his 2013/2014 budget speech to address the unfinished rental housing project that was abandoned nearly 14 years ago. The MEC indicated that more than 100 community members would benefit from this hostel redevelopment and that phase one of a two-phase redevelopment project would commence in the 2013/14 financial year,” the DA says.

The DA says that residents of the area are currently living in shacks because they have been unable to apply for RDP houses since the municipality negligently recorded them as having received the Tshikota homes. “Over 132 RDP houses were meant to be built as part of the Tshikota Hostel development. The houses, including the hostel which the municipality started to build in 2001, were never completed and now these building are being vandalised,” says the DA.

Doors, windows and corrugated iron roofs have since been stolen and criminals are using the buildings to hide out and engage in criminal activities. “It is clear that the pronouncement was one of those empty promises that the ANC-led government uses to score cheap political points at the expense of the community. The DA urges MEC Makoma Makhurupetje to urgently investigate the delay and to prioritise plans to unblock the project with immediate effect,” the DA says.

Asked for a response with regard to the Tshikota Hostel blunder, the spokesperson for the MEC, Motupa Selomo,  said upon enquiry that the MEC would deal with all relevant issues during her upcoming budget speech.

 
 
 

Viewed: 2416

 

 
 

Frans van der Merwe

Frans van der Merwe is a freelance journalist with more than 40 years experience in the newspaper industry. Apart from newspaper reporting, he was also involved with radio news, news reading, training and marketing. He has been living and working in Louis Trichardt since 1991.

 
 

More photos... 

One of the sub-standard dwellings which were never put to use. Together with the rest of the planned development, it has since been vandalised.

ADVERTISEMENT

 
 

ADVERTISEMENT:

 
 

ADVERTISEMENT