BHC loses P26 million to design flaws
Lebogang Mosikare | Friday August 25, 2017 16:26
The recent scandal involves BHC’s houses at Mophane at Gerald Estates here, which are currently undergoing some repair works. Some of the houses are cracking due to a number of factors.
BHC’s corporate communications manager Tebogo Mmokele confirmed the recent developments after Mmegi sent him a questionnaire to enquire about the issue.
“Indeed some of our houses located at Mophane at Gerald Estates are currently undergoing repair works. Investigation revealed that for some of our houses the contractor that was engaged to build the houses might not have complied with engineering designs, which led to some of the defects.
“It was also found out that there was fault in workmanship, especially where the engineering drawings clearly demonstrated how the works should have been carried out,” Mmokele said.
Mmokele dismissed allegations that the houses started to develop some defects because they were built on clay soil.
He said: “The area where these houses were constructed is mostly black cotton soil. An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) survey was carried out before the houses were constructed. The EIA surveys are carried out prior to every project as part of requirements of the law. However, it should be noted that the defects here in question are largely attributed to design flaws, workmanship as well as geotechnical characteristics of the soil and not the EIA.”
Mmokele said 63 houses are being repaired to rectify the identified defects.
The cost for repairing these houses, Mmokele noted, is approximately P26 million. He added: “Indeed an external company was engaged to carry out the EIA survey as required by the law”. He said that BHC expects to have completed the repair works by February 2018. The P26 million will surely hit hard on the bottom line of the Reginald Motswaiso-led BHC, which is responsible for the provision of housing to Batswana.
The corporation has been experiencing tough times in recent years, as government has been reluctant to approve significant increases to rentals charged by BHC, while the cost of new developments has eroded the cash flow.