“Allocate finished houses to people”!
“MEC Lekgoro emphasised the need for the department to speed up allocation of houses to communities following a quarterly meeting held with senior management of the department.
“The department has many unoccupied houses which opens us up to security and logistical problems. When houses stay empty communities immediately think that we do not want to give allocate them, some houses are invaded and others vandalised. These include developments in the hostels were largely many of them have no electricity and water services connections,” said MEC Kgaogelo Lekgoro.
“All the finished houses should be allocated as soon as they are completed and that in the next quarterly review there should be a marked improvement. We understand that some of the problems of allocations relate to problems of missing beneficiaries. We also know that some houses have not been completed and compliance certificates have not been issued” said MEC Lekgoro.
“The department should also be available to assist people who want to complain about structural problems they identify about their houses. The department should be able to follow-up on every query regarding defected houses” said MEC Lekgoro.
The meeting acknowledged that there is going to be an increase in community protests leading to the elections.
“We should continue to focus on delivering services to communities and not allow to be sidetracked because people are going for elections. Some people would selectively target councillors because they want to increase their political profile. It is important to ensure that we keep within our mandate and deliver services which are required by communities,” said MEC Lekgoro.
“We are pleased that the department was able to provide more than 42 000 housing opportunities in the past financial year. All this work was done even in the presence of challenges of land, late connections of services, financial problems faced by government as well as some missing beneficiaries of the houses,” said MEC Lekgoro.
“We need to ensure that we move quickly with the implementation of the Gauteng Integrated Energy Strategy which was unveiled. We had indicated that we are going to install 30 000 solar geysers in the current financial year and about 150 000 in the current term of government. We need to see movement on implementation of these pronouncements. We should also ensure that issues in relation to the merger of Tshwane and Metsweding District are understood by communities” said MEC Lekgoro.
Details of all the issues and plans for the next financial year will be communicated on the budget vote day of the department this month, 25 May 2010. This will also include issues of the merger as well as the programmes of the department.
For more information, please contact:
Fred Mokoko
Cell: 082 447 8407
Tel: 011 355 4013
E-mail: Fred.Mokoko@gauteng.gov.za
Issued by: Department of Local Government and Housing, Gauteng Provincial Government
16 May 2010
