The department of human settlements is considering establishing a state-owned construction company, Minister Tokyo Sexwale said on Wednesday.

Sexwale said when houses were built in the government housing programme, the department relied "by and large" on inexperienced shovel, wheelbarrow and bakkie brigades.

"Many of these discredit the good name of genuine and committed small to medium emerging contractors," he said.

"This does not take away the fact that some small companies have experience, but a lot of fly-by-nights take the taxpayer to the cleaners with their shoddy workmanship.

"Is it perhaps not time to establish a state-owned construction company? We at human settlements are exploring this idea together with Public Works."

Sexwale said the department was a key player in the property market, with a recent study finding that 1.44 million of the six million registered residential properties in the Deeds Registry were government subsidised.

This represented 24 percent of the total number of registered residential properties.

Sexwale said this could increase to 35 percent if the backlog in issuing title deeds was overcome.

The department, he said, would focus on low cost housing construction projects in its attempt to root out corruption and maladministration.

More than 50 housing projects, valued at R4.2 billion, had been identified as the targets of an investigation, Sexwale said.

"The new focus in our current investigations is on low cost housing construction contracts.

"In this regard, more than 50 housing projects with the value of R4.2 billion were identified. Over 40 investigations have been completed and 17 are ongoing."

Sexwale said Limpopo had "taken the lead" in the fight against corruption by blacklisting 24 contractors for shoddy workmanship, non-delivery and incompetence, and recovering more than a million rands from these companies.

More than 290 public servants who had committed housing subsidy-related misconduct and fraud had been arrested.

Nearly R30 million lost through corrupt activities had been recovered, Sexwale said.