North West Legislature Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements raise concerns on slow Progress on housing projects in Klerksdorp
On Tuesday, 13 September 2016, the North West Provincial Legislature’s Portfolio Committee on Local Government and Human Settlements has condemned the Department of Local Government and Human Settlements for lack of progress on addressing various backlogs on housing projects; and on poor management of beneficiary lists between the department and municipality which aimed at addressing housing challenges in Matlosana Local Municipality.
This came after the Committee visited several housing projects in the municipality which includes Matlosana Community Residential Units (CRU); Khuma and Kanana Housing projects.
Chairperson of the Committee Hon. Motlalepula Rosho said the Portfolio Committee is worried that the Matlosana CRU project has been completed but remains a white elephant as there is still outstanding issues which includes other exclusions that were not included in the tender for the CRU, such as wardrobes and stoves.
“What we are concerned about on the CRUs is why the Matlosana CRU project was implemented differently from the pilot project in Tlokwe CRU and Marikana CRU project yet it is the same project. The department must go and investigate the problem and also explain departmental bid committees were not sitting to speed up the process of appointing a service providers to complete the project,” said Hon. Rosho.
In Khuma the blocked projects date back to 1999 and 2004 and have not been resuscitated. Some areas were found to be dolomitic and some houses were left at wall plate stage by contractors. Housing Director at the Matlosana Local Municipality, Mr Peter Phala, said there is a backlog of 376 houses and most owners of stands are sub-letting their stands, and have moved to townships making it difficult for the municipality to do audit on the beneficiary list.
Hon. Rosho said Extension 6 at Khuma is one of the first informal settlements after 1994, so it is not acceptable for people to be still waiting for houses today.
“The worst thing is that the list of beneficiaries where community members are awarded houses, get to be awarded through their relationship with ward councillors and yet they do not occupy them instead rent them out. We are concerned about how beneficiary lists are managed in municipalities and the department is not playing a role on cleaning up the lists and ensuring that the lists are verified and there are no delays.
The department and the municipality must go back to relook into the system and ensure that those who receive houses are the right beneficiaries. We should ensure that we all comply especially public representatives like ward councillors,” said Hon. Rosho.
She said the Committee is worried about the slow pace on housing projects in Kanana where there are nine contractors. “The contractors are not doing very well although they were given project extensions since 2013 to finish in 2016. Part of the challenges is the top-up which has been approved and one of the contractors was paid without delivered the service and was assisted by an inspector who was an employee of the department.
That employee is currently working for another state entity and is allowed to get away with wrong doing as he/she flaunted processes of governance and there is no consequence management,” said Hon. Rosho.
The Head of Department, Mr. Ephraim Motoko said Matlosana CRU which was contracted in April 2013 to ProPlan Consortium to build 100 units at R28 million and there is no occupation due to lack of in-house furniture such as stoves, cupboards and outdoor structures such as car ports. “We currently on tendering processes to furnish the CRU.
Both Khuma and Kanana housing projects experienced construction delays and challenges of identifying relevant beneficiaries during the time of construction.
In Kanana Ext 13, where Relay Development was contracted to build 390 houses, the project was stopped by the Department due to the milestones which were claimed by the developer which were not there during the time of audit,” said Mr. Motoko.
“The department removed some of the beneficiaries who qualified during applications period during the commencement of the projects because they already had proper houses. Some projects were delayed for many months because developers submitted requests for additional funding (top-ups) due to price increases on the construction market and initial subsidy quantum,” said Mr. Motoko.
“On instances where a developer cannot construct the initial number of houses in a certain area due to reduction in initial list of beneficiaries or due to various reasons, we have requested them to address housing backlogs in other areas such as in Khuma which has a backlog of 76 houses,” said Mr. Motoko.
Hon. Rosho said the Committee expects the department to deal with the matter of the employee (inspector) who misled the department on the payment of a contractor while the work was not done. “The employees must come and account as he transgressed processes of good governance in the department and in fact provisions in law are there to ensure that he pays back the money.
The Committee will await the report on the investigations. We need to set an example so that public servants must know that when they work within the construction industry, it’s not for their benefit but of the disadvantaged people who needs shelter,” she said.
