Reactive versus proactive management system: Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) housing delivery’s unintended consequences

Abstract

The South African democratic government is overwhelmed by unintended consequences resulting from its objective of not only wanting to reconstruct and develop communities, but also to uplift people whose shelter and wealth was lost consequential to the apartheid system. Through Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) low cost houses are built and delivered to the poor for free. The paper aims to diagnose management’s attributes that stifle efficiency and inhibiting RDP housing backlog reduction. The study intends to strengthen RDP management systems, reestablishing Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) strategies and enabling the government to evade housing delivery’s unintended consequences. The question asked was whether relevantly qualified persons effected M&E to RDP projects to confirm compliance to prescripts, ensuring quality deliverables and a requirement for endorsing payment proceedings. Municipal managers involved with RDP housing were interviewed together with inspectors, using structured questionnaires. Purposive sampling was used to obtain data from section managers, who according to researcher’s judgment possessed specific information relevant to the study. The findings disclose partial compliance to M&E prescripts, exposing systems to abuse hence quality compromise. It is worrisome that double payments for the same project persist despite different housing ministers’ reactive approach of appointing investigating committees to reinforce law enforcement agencies in catching perpetrators and curb corruption.