The North West Department of Human Settlements, Public Safety & Liaison is to unblock the Huhudi Extension (ext) 25 and 28 housing development projects outside Vryburg while it pursues recovery of R86 million which it had transferred to Naledi Local Municipality as a housing conditional grant. This undertaking was made by MEC for the provincial department, Desbo Mohono during her intervention meeting held on Tuesday with Naledi Local Municipality Mayor, Councillor Langa Modise in Vryburg.
MEC Mohono also committed that her department will speed up construction of the remaining 1 000 units at Ext 25 and the appointment of engineers to prepare plans towards installation of services in Ext 28 which comprise of 1 500 units. The provincial department has already appointed a service providers to undertake township establishment which will allow final transfer of individuals stands to identified beneficiaries.
The provincial department had entered into a development agreement with Naledi Local Municipality in November 2008 for construction of 3 000 housing units in Huhudi Ext 25 and 28 which were never delivered.
According to a recent audit report presented by the municipality, only 400 built units of which most need to be demolished due to poor workmanship were delivered by Khasu Engineering, the turnkey contractor it had appointed. The contract between the parties was reportedly terminated due to non-performance before the municipality dragged the contractor to court leading to litigation which was won by the municipality. The matter is still under investigation by the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) appointed by the President to investigate allegations of corruption in housing delivery.
Mohono’s department is with the assistance of the Auditor General and the Provincial Internal Audit finalising physical and financial audits of the R908 million transferred to municipalities over the past 10 years that the said institutions across the province could not account what they did with housing conditional grants transferred to them.
Through the investigations, the department has reconciled over four-hundred million of the R908 million owed to it by municipalities and is continuing with the reconciliation process across all municipalities in the province in order to account for the full amount.
As part of the department’s zero tolerance towards non-performance and shoddy work by contractors, all eight housing development projects within the jurisdiction of the municipality including those that are about to close are to be subjected to physical and financial audits.
“The department as part of government has a responsibility to ensure that every cent that was transferred to municipalities to provide our people with decent housing served to reduce the housing backlog and eradicate of informal settlements throughout our province. Where monies are unaccounted for, action will most definitely be taken to ensure that those who are responsible are behind bars and their assets seized to recover such monies.” said MEC Mohono at the conclusion of the meeting with Modise.
Enquiries:
Lesiba Moses Kgwele
Tel: 018 391 0420
Fax: 018 381 0328
Cell: 083 629 1987
E-mail: Lkgwele@nwpg.gov.za
North West Human Settlements to unblock housing project but pursue Naledi Local Municipality for recovery of R86 million
Province
