MAKHADO – The Makhado Municipality claims that recipients of incomplete RDP houses in Tshikota will have roofs over their heads by the end of June this year.

Speaking to Mirror, the Director Corporate Services, Mr Ntsieni Peter Magwala, currently the municipal PRO, said that the provincial department of Local Government and Housing gave the municipality R4,2 million to complete 210 of the 703 incomplete RDP houses at the Tshikota township.

He said that priority would be given to the 32 identified beneficiaries whose uncompleted houses have a solid base (foundation). He said that the previous contractor, Project Group, did a shabby job in 1998. He added that 54 contractors from the previously disadvantaged communities, mainly composed of women and the youth, have been appointed to finish the houses.

"We have allocated each of them two houses in order to speed up the process and to evaluate their capacity. We expect them to get the labourers they need from Tshikota. On April 1, they signed an agreement with us that they are going to build the houses and we expect them to have completed the houses by the end of June," he said.

When asked about the remaining 493 houses, Magwala said that they are still waiting for the Local Government Department to give them more money to complete the houses, adding that, as the government's policy is to build houses for needy beneficiaries, the remaining houses would be completed.

Magwala said that, if the quality of work of the contractors impresses the council, they would again be appointed complete the remaining houses when enough money is available.