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The type of R64,000 house you get varies considerably depending on which province you live in.
This much is evident for residents of Talana in Tzaneen, Limpopo, and Zandspruit in Johannesburg, whose temporary housing shelters differ as much as the two areas are geographically.
For the 2,000 Zandspruit informal settlement residents, R64,000 will secure them a home in comfort in a two- roomed temporary prefab structure complete with electricity, aluminum windows wooden doors imported from Malaysia and LED lights.
In Talana, R64,000 could only pay for a tin shack placed on top of bricks and with no electricity or ablution facilities. Both the projects in the two provinces, however, are driven by the human settlements development agency (HDA) as part of the government's plan to de-congest high-density informal settlements during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In Johannesburg, at least 2,000 households are expected to be moved from high-density Zandspruit informal settlement to the new units that are expected to be completed by the end of September.
A manufacturer who is making the prefab structures for Zandspruit residents said he was frustrated after specifications were changed recently to include aluminum windows and imported wooden doors at the same cost of R64,000 per unit. "Now they want electricity installed. We have to change window frames from steel to aluminium.
"The two doors must now be meranti doors, which are made of wood imported from Malaysia. Under the roof we must now put insulation for heat," said the builder who said he was also going to erect them at a chosen site.
"They also want three LED lights inside the unit, two double plugs and the distribution board with a certificate of compliance for power and there must be barge boards on the side of the unit.
"A normal RDP house does not have aluminium window frames. The house I live in has steel window frames. All this adds to about R9,000 to R10,000 on each of the units."
The man said he was approached by two contractors who won the tender from HDA to start building about 700 temporary housing structures made of prefab material for R64,000. "I have two contractors who have ordered 350 units each but they see no profit following the changes.
"As a result, I'm stuck with 156 ready-made temporary shelters."
He said the project standards are set by the HDA.
On July 10, the City of Johannesburg announced that it intended to move people from the congested Zandspruit Ext 10 into an open site for temporary shelter.
A project manager in the Zandspruit development who did not want to be named said the changes in the specifications during the project were common.
"We are still trying to see how we can be able to deliver the project with the new specifications that have been introduced.
"The project has not stalled at all. Specifications do change sometimes and you have to find a way to deliver the project," he said.
An official from the agency confirmed that they made changes on the Zandspruit technical specifications and added aluminum window frames, insulation and meranti doors for temporary shelters. It was, however, not immediately clear if the changes were done as result of the fallout from the Limpopo project.
The City of Joburg spokesperson Nthatisi Modingoane said contractors are expected to resume work next week.
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