The Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements has cut short its oversight visit to Limpopo due to the sitting of the National Assembly which has been called for tomorrow (27 November).
Despite having spent three of the five scheduled days, Committee Chairperson, Ms Nocawe Mafu, believes the Committee managed to get an overview of housing delivery challenges and successes in this province. She said the briefing by the MEC responsible for human settlements, meetings with mayors and their site visits to different housing projects provided Committee Members with a clear picture of the state of housing delivery in the province.
“Some of the projects we visited in Seshego and Nkowa-Nkowa showed that this province is committed to providing decent housing for its people. However, in other areas like Bandor, the province has not started building houses it was supposed to have already built,” said Ms Mafu. The Committee was supposed to have also visited Giyani and Lephalale. Ms Mafu says oversight visits to these areas would still happen in the not-so-distant future.
Notwithstanding the fact that the province did not build any houses in the 2013/14 financial year as a result of the (provincial) Treasury department being placed under administration and thereby stifling any human settlements programmes, the Committee still wanted the provincial government to ensure that decent housing were provided to the people of this province.
“We want the provincial government to come up with plans on how it would deliver houses in the next financial year. As the Committee, we will then monitor the implementation of these plans and we expect the department to table quarterly progress reports,” added Ms Mafu.
Ms Mafu added that engagements with relevant stakeholders in the human settlements industry would be critical in order to avoid any delays in the provision of houses in this province.
For media enquiries or interviews with the Chairperson, please contact:
Temba Gubula
Cell: 078 735 8809
Tell: 021 403 8307
Email: tgubula@parliament.gov.za
