Mpumalanga premier David Mabuza is moving top management in the human settlements department to other departments, his office said on Thursday.

"Premier Mabuza voiced his frustrations that the department was failing him and the needy communities by not delivering the RDP [low-cost] houses as expected," spokesperson Zibonele Mncwango said in a statement.

"He said there was no authority in the department and that it was mainly occupied by relatives and politicians."

This made them redundant and lacking in authority, and it was time to dismantle the nest as it compromised service delivery.

Mabuza said: "People cannot be politicians and at the same work for government. They are not pleasing us, instead they are creating more problems for government."

The Mpumulanga human settlements department had only delivered 3 900 houses of its 10 980 end of the financial year target, he said.

This included those carried over from the previous year.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the province said moving the human settlements management was little more than "rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic".

"The fact of the matter is that every government department under his command is in exactly the same state, incapable of delivering on its mandate, virtually bankrupt, and on the verge of complete meltdown," DA MPL Anthony Benadie said in a statement.

"The human settlements department is merely symptomatic of the general malaise that has befallen the African National Congress-led (provincial) government led by premier Mabuza."

Benadie said if Mabuza was really angry he would have fired all the officials in departments which were not performing.

Mabuza said the management transfers would be done in groups until the department had new leadership with creative ideas to address the problems.

Management would know their fate next week after the transfers.

Head of department David Dube's employment contract would not be renewed, he said.