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The delays by the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements to complete the River Park housing project in Alexandra have led to frustrated residents illegally occupying the incomplete houses.

For the last six years, no proper bulk infrastructure has been provided to the residents, and there are illegal electricity connections.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) made this discovery during a recent oversight inspection of the housing project. While the actions by the residents are illegal, this once-gain highlights the urgent need by the department to prioritise completing all incomplete housing projects.

During the visit, we also discovered that no services like water and electricity have been provided, as there is a tussle between the City of Johannesburg and the Department of Human Settlements on who needs to provide bulk infrastructure at this site.

The DA will be submitting questions to the MEC for Human Settlements, Lebogang Maile, in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) to determine the causes for the delays in completing this project, why the contractor took so long to complete this housing project, and who is responsible for ensuring that bulk service infrastructure is provided to the housing project.

Our residents deserve dignified housing delivered on time.

A DA government will ensure that contractors who receive tenders from the provincial government are held to strict timelines, and where they are unable to deliver, they will be blacklisted from doing business with the government again.

Issued by Mervyn Cirota MP - DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Human Settlements