Residents Cry Foul Over Compensation

ARNOLD LETSHOLO
Correspondent | Monday November 12, 2007 00:00

Some of the residents say their houses were damaged by the blasting of hard rocks during construction but they have not been sufficiently compensated. They have forwarded letters to the Kweneng South East constituency office to air their grievances.

Their MP, Mmoloki Raletobane has written a covering note to go with the letters addressed to the deputy secretary of Mogoditshane sub-Land Board. The MP's note says 'the construction company and the project consultant, Geoflux are reluctant to respond to his constituents' queries on the grounds that they do not know the criteria used to compensate them'.

One of the complainants, Dipuo Sebase told Monitor that her house has been extensively damaged because of the blasting during construction. 'When it rains I am forced to stand up until it stops raining. Because the foundation has been shaken, the bricks are no longer in line with the foundation, so the bricks have sunk down a bit and the roof has left space as you can see. When it is windy at night, I just pray that morning comes before I am buried under rubble. But the compensation has been so small. For dividing my home into two like that, they have paid P1,500,' she said. 

'And for these cracks that you see in all my two houses I have been given P3,880. This is far too little given that I have to repair these cracks. And when the builder really does a good job, they have to chop and do this and that. How do I pay the builder and how do I buy material, knowing how expensive it is? This is quite unfair. I tried to leave the cheaque there but the MP's secretary advised me that even if I leave it they would not take any action. So I took it, photocopied it and sent the copy attached to the letter.'

Mmoloki Raletobana, the area MP said he plans to call the construction company, Geoflux and the Land Board to ask them about compensation. 

'What I gather is that there were times when the construction company did not find land owners. This led to them being compensated late. There were times when the workers were forced to go through homes that were not budgeted for. Explosives were used to break hard rocks and sometimes houses were cracked. People came to me complaining about compensation but since I am not a professional in the field, there is little I ca do to help. I think I should call a Kgotla meeting that will be addressed by the professionals,' said Raletobana.

The resident engineer for the sewage project, Kenneth Msapenda said he is aware of cracks that developed during the construction period. He asserted that there were houses that were already cracked before construction. He said he did not know the criteria used to compensate people who suffered loss during blasting. 'I cannot comment because I do not know how the calculations were done,' he said. (Sila Press Agency)