Elfas Torerai

A national record has been set. Brick for brick, it is the most expensive RDP house that has been produced in South Africa.

The house is not much bigger than the size of two caravans placed side by side.

But this one-in-a-million piece of “low-cost” housing cost the Greater Taung local municipality a whopping R8m.

The two company directors of MD3 Developers, said to be lovers, had won a municipal tender to build 371 RDP houses, but managed to build only one. For that, they were paid about R8.5m.

That was back in 2004. More than seven years later, residents in Mokasa II community in North West still wait for the day the other 359 houses will be built. There is nobody living in the house. When The New Age visited the house, it cut a lonely figure among rural homes and its owner was not there. Neighbours said even the person who had been tasked to look after the house hardly ever stayed there.

Councillor Bridget Mogakwe-Sokamo said the 359 residents who were supposed to benefit from the R8.5m housing scheme had been short-changed in a big way.

“When we allocate new stands or houses, most of these people are overlooked because their names have been recorded as having ‘benefited’.

“What makes matters worse is that the area has been demarcated and people who were once in one ward are now in four separate wards. This means it’s no longer possible to build a new area, but rather to build houses in people’s yards,” she said.

Asked about the house, one Kesonogile Moshoge said: “We were told this was a show-house and that others were going to be built and the new settlement was supposed to be called Mankuroane Gardens, named after local chief Tshepo Mankuroane.

“However, nothing has been forthcoming and people are beginning to build houses on stands that were allocated to us,” she said.

Moshoge said, at that time, they were told the house was valued at R23000.

“People were made to file affidavits, but were dismayed by the silence around the project. Already three councillors have served and nothing has happened yet,” she said.

Mogakwe-Sokamo said the housing project was a headache.

“We are a disaster-prone area and we cannot put some of the people who were supposed to be beneficiaries of this project on new lists because they somehow still stand to benefit,” she said.

Meanwhile, the two company directors, Machiel Christoffel Marais, 47, and Janice Mendes, 42, have since been arrested by the Hawks and appeared in the Mmabatho Magistrate’s Court on Friday.

Police records show that their company received payments amounting to R16612100 for two housing projects in the Greater Taung local municipality.

provinces@thenewage.co.za