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The Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements undertook an oversight visit to North West last week in an endeavour to execute its constitutional mandate.

The main objective of the visit was, among others, to oversee: (1) Compliance in policy and legislative prescripts for human settlements delivery; (2) Pace and progress in the implementation of programs and projects; (3) Quality of service, value for money including assessing the impact of human settlements programs in changing the lives of communities to a better quality of life; (4) the roll-out of the rural sanitation program and (5) finally to evaluate progress made in resolving a long standing issue of winding down the North West Housing Corporation.

The Committee had an opportunity to meet the MEC for Human Settlements, Public Safety and Liaison, Mr Nono Maloyi, and undertook site visits to various projects in all four provincial districts - namely the Ngaka Modiri Molema, Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati, Dr Kenneth Kaunda and Bojanala.

The Committee appreciates and is also encouraged by the commitment, honesty & transparency demonstrated by the MEC in articulating challenges facing his department including plans to address them. Furthermore, the Committee was very delighted to discover that women, and young people, were participating in building houses of good quality in the province.

Issues that mostly disturbed the committee include:

Tranche payments made during the period from 2002 where municipalities committed 39 thousand units to be built. Subsequently, some contractors disappeared after receiving payments leaving incomplete projects and some never took-off from the ground.
Geotechnical studies were never done prior delivery which gave rise to poor workmanship and unauthorised expenditure.
On Sanitation the committee expressed its disappointment to discover that a budget allocation of R57 million for this program for 2012/13 financial year was not yet spent while the province has massive inhabitable informal settlements.
Another concern of the delegation was the current VIP toilet system which seemed to be popular for provision of access to sanitation in rural areas. The committee is worried about the adequacy and sustainability of that system. Because maintenance posed a great challenge especially considering that the people allocated these structures can not afford to buy chemicals. Therefore, when these began to develop unpleasant odour. People tended to abandon them and revert back to the field thus impacting negatively on the environment.

In conclusion, the Committee pledged to support the province in addressing these issues but emphasised the importance of making sure that those contractors found to be at fault are brought to book. The Committee committed itself to constantly oversee the province until there is stability on delivery of services. Furthermore, the province has been advised to consider other cost effective & efficient alternative technologies to provide adequate sanitation facilities.