31 July 2006
The North West MEC for Developmental Local Government and Housing, Phenye
Vilakazi, has launched a programme aimed at unblocking all the blocked projects
in the province, at function held in Taung on 29 July 2006.
It is estimated that there are at least 300 blocked housing projects through
out the country, 72 of which are in the North West. Taung had seven such
projects and two of them have already been completed. They are the Pudumoe and
the Reivilo hostel re-development project which were initiated in 2005. The
remaining five projects are Taung extension 6, Ba-ga Maidi project at Tlapeng,
Ba-ga Mothibi phase three at Modutung, Phuduhutswana and Boipelo. All these
projects will be completed in the next three months.
Reasons that led to the projects being stalled ranged from delays in
obtaining tribal land release resolution from the relevant authorities, delays
in geo-technical reports, fly-by-night developers and contractors, lack of
proper monitoring mechanisms by government to severe poor workmanship in some
of the projects.
Amongst the dignitaries who were also present at the ceremony was the Mayor
of Greater Taung local municipality, Boitumelo Mahlangu, the executive mayor of
Bophirima district municipality, Kaone Lobelo, councilors, municipal officials
and traditional leaders.
Speaking during the occasion, Vilakazi said that the province has really
taken an initiative in housing delivery by being the first to come up with a
comprehensive programme to address the abandoned housing projects.
âOur province has already demonstrated high capacity in housing delivery by
emerging from being the worst performer in housing delivery to become the best
performer in the country. We are demonstrating again today our seriousness in
remaining the best performer by becoming the first province to launch a project
of this nature,â said Vilakazi.
Vilakazi reassured the community that the lessons learned from the previous
mistakes will help the department to clean the housing backlog. He mentioned
that the department will conduct an audit of all the projects in the province
to determine the exact state of the blockages and the required resources to
complete the projects.
âWe hope to give a comprehensive report on this audit and the progress we
will have made during our next budget speech,â he said.
Enquiries:
Mandla Mathebula
Departmental Spokesperson
Tel: (018) 387 3813
Cell: 083 282 6133
Issued by: Department of Developmental Local Government and Housing, North
West Provincial Government
31 July 2006
