Housing project system replaced

THE controversial roster system used to allocate housing projects in Nelson Mandela Bay has been replaced with a new database system.

The new system will allocate housing projects according to contractors’ experience, skills and gender.

The Housing Development Agency (HDA) believes scrapping the roster system, which had 400 housing contractors, will i mprove transparency in how the government and municipal projects are allocated.

In the new pre-approved database, 431 housing contractors qualified to be tasked with building RDP houses, while 741 failed to make the cut.

Of the 431, 164 are women-owned while 53 are owned by youth.

To meet the 70% threshold required to get municipal projects, contractors were scored according to their experience, capability and a commitment to employ local labour.

They were also required to be registered with the National Home Builders’ Registration Council (NHBRC).

The 741 will be trained through the SMMEsupport programme run by the NHBRC.

The training will run for a year. There is also a three-year learnership programme aimed at better equipping contractors.

While being trained, contractors will be tasked with building five RDP houses with the guidance of the NHBRC.

The training is scheduled to be rolled out from April 1.

The roster system was mired in controversy, with some contractors alleging only a select few benefited from municipal projects.

Addressing contractors at the Lillian Ngoyi Community Sport Centre in Kwazakhele on Friday, HDA Eastern Cape programme manager Nicholas Tsewu said the new database was designed to improve transparency.

“There is a master list which includes everyone. In it are also women and youth contractors. This is to know how many women and youth contractors get projects.

“We cannot all get projects at the same time, so let’s wait,” Tsewu said.

The announcement was met with mixed emotions from contractors, who claimed that some had made it to the list of pre-approved contractors despite not being registered with the NHBRC.

The home-building industry regulatory body approves compliance certificates of builders.

This means without these, builders and contractors cannot be awarded tenders.

The allegation was dismissed by Tsewu, who challenged contractors to name those who did not meet all the requirements but had been pre-approved.

Later, Tsewu conceded that not everyone would be happy about the new database.

“Considering that we had 1 500 people who showed interest, only 7% had queries which shows there will always be complaints. But the majority are comfortable with the process,” he said.

Contractor Malibongwe Tshanga, who failed to meet all the requirements, was positive that after undergoing the training programme he would be employable.

Because he only registered his company in June, he understood why he failed to make the cut.

“I believe I will grow my business with this programme and be equipped with the necessary skills,” he said.