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Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale has disclosed that government will have to spend R1.3-billion - or 10% of this year's budget - to rectify badly-built houses.
"This is a national shame," he said during a site visit to the Alphendale community in East London to announce further details of his National Audit Task Team.
"What brings me here today is the fact that there is unhappiness - both in me and the people. It's not a nice day. It is not a good day. It is a national shame," he said.
"This is money down the drain. It is money that should have been spent on new houses."
Sexwale pointed out that government is committed to directly addressing the needs of the poor, and has done extremely well by providing housing for more than 2.8-million people, or 13-million families in total.
"But we did not spend time in jail so that people could steal from the poor. The people who built these houses are stealing your money.
"Wrong things are being done in the name of government," he said. "These are people we have entrusted with government jobs and government contracts. They are supposed to serve the people -- but they are thieves."
Sexwale said government was "serious about corruption and about acting against government officials involved in corruption".
"If you are corrupt, get out!" he said. "We want to bring this thing to an end. People say we must act, and we will."
Sexwale also introduced the members of the Task Team to the community.
The team is led by Special Investigations Unit (SIU) head Willie Hofmeyr, and a senior representative of the Auditor-General's office, Paul Serote.
"We are working with the SIU because they have the power to investigate - but they also have the power to institute criminal and civil action," Sexwale explained. "But they don't work alone --- they are also working with the office of the Auditor-General, which is in charge of looking at all our books, to check how we spend money."
The team has the backing of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) and the Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements.
The team is supported by representatives from the national Department of Human Settlements' finance, legal and internal audit teams, and representatives from each of the nine provincial human settlements departments.
"Our officials will support, co-operate and collaborate with the audit task team," he said.
The national audit task team has already begun investigating 20 priority projects - one of which is Alphendale.
Sexwale explained that a total of 339 houses in the Alphendale project needed to be rebuilt because of the poor quality of construction.
One of the Alphendale houses, occupied by Mrs Nomfuduko Ntwanana, was later demolished, and will be rebuilt within a month as part of the provincial government's rectification programme.
"The money we should have used for another house has to be spent to rebuild this one. It is a shame. It is a shame that all that money we used to build these houses has gone down the drain - just like the rain that is falling today."
"That house is a source document for your investigation," Sexwale said to his task team. "We want to know who built these houses. We need to ask serious questions, and bring people to book. We are going to fix the problem - but we are also going to fix the people who caused the problem.
"We must combat corruption. We must fight it."
Sexwale called on communities across South Africa: "We want to hear from you. You have to help us identify the culprits.
"We won't pay those companies that we find to be culpable. We also want to withdraw the trading licences of these companies. We want to blacklist them - close their companies down and send them to jail. Whatever needs to be done, will be done, within the ambit of the law.
"Where we are given knowledge and information, you can trust us - we will act."

Note to editors:
The brief of the National Audit Task Team is to investigate the following:
· Continuous contracting of the same bad contractors.

· Projects which have been delayed for inordinate periods.

· People who have been in housing queues for years.

· People selling government houses.

· Illegal occupation of government houses.

· Nepotism.

· Abuse of the housing waiting list system.