There are more than 20,000 unfinished RDP houses in the Free State

Toloko Mofokeng and Monyaduwe Tshabalala have waited since 2011 for their RDP house. Mofokeng’s left hand was permanently damaged in a stabbing incident. Tshabalala’s leg was amputated after an accident. Photo: Tladi Moloi

A couple in Bolata village in the eastern Free State have waited 14 years for their RDP home to be finished.

Theirs is one of more than 20,000 Breaking New Ground (BNG, formerly known as RDP) houses in the province that are incomplete, says Zimasa Mbewu, spokesperson for the Free State Department of Human Settlements. These projects are “blocked” mainly because contractors failed to complete the work they have been paid for.

Toloko Mofokeng and his wife Monyaduwe Tshabalala were allocated an RDP house in 2011, to be built on a piece of land where they lived. A contractor arrived the same year but left without doing anything. A second contractor left after levelling the ground. A third contractor put in a concrete slab before also abandoning the project.

Fourteen years later, the couple live in a shack next to the slab. The shack leaks when it rains and will need to be rebuilt soon. Mofokeng, tired of waiting, says he is considering building his own mud hut on the concrete foundation.

Mbewu says the department has scrapped contractors who left work undone and “blocked” housing projects, including Mofokeng’s home, will be completed over the next two years. She declined to name the contractors responsible for Mofokeng’s incomplete house, as disputes over payment were still taking place.

Long history of housing failures

The Zondo Commission found that between 2010 and 2011, under former Premier Ace Magashule, about R1-billion was spent on housing projects in the Free State, many of which were never completed.

In 2014, the province entered into a R255-million corrupt tender for the removal of asbestos roofs. That trial is continuing.

In 2021, the Auditor General wrote that for three years, the housing department had spent most of the grants received for housing but had delivered “significantly fewer houses than the target”, with no consequences for contractors who failed to meet their targets.

In 2024, the Auditor General commended the department on improving internal controls, but the department only reported completing 50 Breaking New Ground houses against a target of 2,065.

The Auditor General found there was insufficient evidence that even 50 houses had been built. “I could not determine the actual achievement, but I estimated it to be materially less than reported,” the Auditor General wrote.

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