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.