Over R1, 2 billion was spent by the North West Department of Human Settlements towards delivery of 16816 housing units and unblocking of 13 housing development projects. The milestone was achieved in an effort to address the housing backlog and accelerate access to housing, North West MEC for Human Settlements, Public Safety and Liaison, Ms Desbo Mohono reported in the Provincial Legislature on Tuesday in Mahikeng.
In her presentation of the 2010/11 Annual Report to the Portfolio on Local Government, Traditional Affairs and Human Settlements, MEC Mohono highlighted that 9599 of the delivered housing units were part of the informal settlements eradication programme while 3688 addressed homelessness as part of the rural housing programme.
Mohono reassured members of the portfolio committee that her department will meet the end of December 2011 deadline it had set itself to complete reconciliation of the remainder of the R908 million tranche payments it had made to municipalities.
“We have discontinued multiple allocations to contactors to minimise the risk of non-performance as part of correcting every past wrongdoing while striving to reach new targets we have set to accelerate housing backlog in our province,” emphasised the MEC.
She further informed the committee that she has completed her one- on- one session with all municipalities to assess the state of housing delivery, challenges encountered and spell out targets and objectives towards implementation of the housing delivery turnaround plan dubbed “Thuntsha Lerole-Kick the dust”.
In order to ensure that phenomenon of blocked projects does not recur as this have not only been a setback on the department, but also a serious challenge on housing delivery in the province, MEC Mohono said that proper and adequate planning which takes into account all elements and prerequisites for completion of projects, strengthening of project monitoring and inspection capacity have been adopted as intervention measures.
Enquiries: Lesiba Moses Kgwele
Tel: 018 391 0140
Cell: 083 629 1987
Fax: 018 381 0328
E-mail: lkgwele@nwpg.gov.za
