Human Settlements Review - Parliamentary Monitoring Group

Human Settlements Review, Volume 1, Number 1, 2010
3.2 Quality of structures:
Studies conducted in both 2003 and 2010
found that within a few months of completion of
construction structural defects such as gaping
wall cracks, roof leaks, unstable roofs, water
penetration and seepage were experienced.
In some cases houses were demolished due
to shoddy workmanship. All these problems
contributed to already negative perceptions
of alternative building technologies which
prevented large scale rollout.
3.3 Developmental issues:
Minimal manufacturing capacity and focus on
importing
Most companies tend to rely on importing the
materials they use, functioning as traders while
manufacturing plants are based in foreign often
developed countries. This can have negative
impact on economic development as it expands
the country’s import value and increases capital
outflow instead of expanding the manufacturing
capacity of the country. Secondly, beneficiaries
find it difficult to extend the units because
materials are not readily available.
Job Creation and local economic development
South Africa is a developing country with
unemployment rate of about 25.3% (Stats SA,
2010) therefore improvement of living conditions
of the poor through job creation among others
is a priority of government. While conventional
building processes have proven to have the
ability to create a variety of opportunities for
the unemployed in local communities through
bricklaying, material provision, subcontracting of
services, etc. alternative building technologies
are not there yet. These technologies are often
high tech, requiring extensive training which is
not often carried out properly as it is seen by
providers as eroding profits.
Business sustainability and protection of
consumers
Most companies were found to be new ventures
that import materials from mostly developed
countries and their sustainability or potential
to expand is often associated or dependent
on accessing government projects. Although
government has a role to support innovation it
also has a duty to protect the consumers, as a
result when there are too many unknowns to
contend with, the tendency is not to invest or -
as seen in the past 10 years - to have minimal
investments in alternative building technologies.
The price of alternative building materials
A number of providers of alternative technologies
claim that alternative building technologies will
make housing development cheaper for the
state. On the contrary, the studies conducted in
2008 and 2010 found that the use of alternative
building materials is not cheaper than brick-andmortar
and when there are savings these were
not accrued to the beneficiaries or the state –
only providers benefitted.
3.4 Institutional support
Procurement and tender processes
Although the department has had keen interest
in using alternative building technologies and
systems, there has been little, if any institutional
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