Residents living in council owned flats in
They complain of cracking walls and leaking taps.
The City says it is working with the developer,
It says some of the issues were due to a lack of maintenance.
Cracked walls, leaking taps and general shoddy workmanship are some of the issues raised by residents in recently built council-owned flats in
Most of the 204 tenants began moving into social housing units at the Fever Tree complex as part of the
The City's housing department contracted
But beneficiaries say that the units were riddled with defects when they moved in.
"For three years, Calgro has not been assisting us properly. When we report the defects, they do not fix the issues properly. We reported cracks in the walls and all they did was paint the walls. After three days, the cracks were visible again," said Mabi.
In
The units have prepaid electricity meters and prepaid hot water meters. The residents we spoke to said they were under the impression that they did not have to pay for the use of cold tap water.
"It was not clearly communicated to the residents when they would start receiving bills from Joburg Water," said Fever Tree resident
Gloria Magqaza, 74, said her unit flooded several times because of leaking pipes. "There are no air vents in the flats. We have to sleep with our windows open when it's hot. It is difficult to keep the windows open in winter because of the cold," said
Ward 57 Councillor Faeeza Chame said, "We noted that the calibre of work was not of a professional standard. Windows were installed upside down, walls were cracking and taps were leaking. One block does not have a veranda to keep the rain away. So when it rains, the water goes straight onto the kitchen doors."
A few residents also moved into units with no electricity, said Chame. Some of these residents are still waiting for their units to be electrified, she said.
Urvash Kissoon-Singh, commercial and finance director at
When asked about the issues at Fever Tree, Goba said that the City was working with
According to Goba, capacity issues at the Moffat View Substation have delayed the electrification of some units. "We are unable to give timelines as the procurement of transformers has its own process," he said.
Copyright GroundUp. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com)., source