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The Annual Report of the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) depicts an entity whose own house is not in sufficient order to protect consumers from shoddy workmanship on their homes.

The NHBRC is an entity within the Department of Human Settlements tasked with protecting housing consumers and regulating the home building environment. They have a specific mandate to monitor the quality of RDP housing.

This year, approximately R930 million was set aside for the rectification of just over 34 000 state-sponsored housing units across the country. The Minister of Human Settlements, Tokyo Sexwale has indicated that a budget of R50 billion will be required to upgrade crumbling RDP houses.

The DA has repeatedly called for urgent intervention into the NHBRC management. The Annual Report shows once again that the entity’s management is not up to scratch. This year, the entity received a qualified audit and the financial statements reveal a shocking R201.3 million in irregular expenditure.

Irregular expenditure is, in essence, money that was not spent according to the requirements of public sector procurement policy. It is money that should have, in this case, been spent on ensuring that sustainable human settlements are delivered to South Africans.

Poor workmanship remains a defining characteristic of RDP housing developments. It is unacceptable that the NHBRC is failing to ensure proper supervision and delivery of these developments, while incurring millions in irregular expenditure.

I will use the opportunity when the NHBRC reports to the Human Settlements Portfolio Committee on its annual report to demand that Minister Sexwale and Acting NHBRC CEO, Dr Jeffrey Mahachi, explain what steps they will be taking to ensure that the structural failures at the NHBRC are addressed.

The NHBRC has an indispensible role in ensuring that quality housing developments are delivered to South Africans. We cannot afford for this entity to falter.