The committee chair, Ms Olly Mlamleli, flanked by the CSIR’s Llewellyn van Wyk and Sihle Dlungwana. |
Design and technology applied in the CSIR’s low-income demonstration house, as well as existing sanitation options for use in water-scarce areas, can go a long way towards restoring the dignity of home owners and learners at schools. This was stated by Ms Olly Mlamleli, Chair of the Free State Legislature Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance, Traditional Affairs and Human Settlements during a work visit to the CSIR early in February 2012.
Following the study visit by the Portfolio Committee to the CSIR, Ms Mlamleli hosted two CSIR staff at the opening of the Free State Parliament on 16 February.
The chair invited Theuns Knoetze and Llewellyn van Wyk from CSIR Built Environment to be her guests at the State of the Province Address by the Free State Premier in Bloemfontein.
One of the aims of attending the opening ceremony was for the CSIR to be introduced to appropriate officials and to continue discussions on collaboration between the CSIR and the Free State Legislature on low-income housing and sanitation.
Theuns Knoetze of the CSIR explaining integrated approaches to service delivery to members of the Committee on the Built Environment Innovation Site. |
Protection against the elements: Members of the committee on their way to the low-income houses with the CSIR’s Llewellyn van Wyk (back, centre). |
Louiza Duncker (left) of the CSIR showing members of the committee some on-site, existing sanitation technologies.
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The study visit to the CSIR earlier in February was requested by the committee in light of the devastation caused by a tornado in the Eastern Free State late last year.
Members wanted to learn about the CSIR’s low-income house project and existing ‘wet’ and ‘dry’ sanitation options as possible solutions to the challenges experienced in the Free State with low-quality ‘RDP’ houses and insufficient sanitation facilities, specifically at newly-constructed schools.
The chair mentioned that they had seen as many as seven different ‘RDP’ houses, all of a very inferior quality, in one street in an informal settlement.
The CSIR gave a presentation on its low-income house project and the implementation of this at Kleinmond in the Western Cape. More than 400 houses had been rolled out there, using many of the design aspects and technologies of the CSIR demonstration house.
After the presentation, the committee went to the Built Environment Innovation Site to experience the solutions implemented in the CSIR demonstration house as well as the sanitation technology demonstration centre first-hand.
On hearing about the CSIR’s technology transfer activities for contractor development, Ms Mlamleli said that she wanted to pursue the possibility of such training courses for Free State contractors and subcontractors who had already shown their commitment to training.
At the conclusion of the meeting, the chair said that she would invite the CSIR to give a presentation on low-income housing and sanitation at the Free State’s Service Delivery Indaba. She noted that the committee learned from the CSIR that solutions should be selected to be appropriate to a specific situation and that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach would not work.
The CSIR concurred with the Free State Legislature Committee that the study visit was just the beginning of working relations to the benefit of the people of the Free State. The fact that the chair invited the CSIR as her guests at the State of the Province Address shortly after the visit bears testimony to the commitment to future collaboration.
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