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The Minister of Human Settlements, Mmamoloko Kubayi, has called on all three spheres of government to draw a line in the sand on fraud and corruption, poor performance and slow pace in delivering sustainable human settlements.

Minister made this clarion call during her visit to the North West Province, where she received a briefing from the provincial Department of Human Settlements on the progress made to achieve its delivery target for the 2021/2022 financial year. The meeting also discussed areas that require her immediate interventions, such as blocked and delayed projects that negatively impact the pace of service delivery.

“We need to get the North West Province back on track to deliver services. It is not the government’s intention to keep the province under administration forever. However, at some stage, we will have to exit and leave behind a credible, capable team to deliver the expected services”, said Minister Kubayi.

Noting with concern the illegally occupied Marikana Community Residential Units (CRUs) and BNG (RDP) units, which formed part of the site inspections, the Minister indicated that this was an illegal act that has denied the rightful owners their Constitutional right to decent shelter. Furthermore, this act has led to no maintenance of the properties, leaving them in a poor state. “We will be working together with the Province and the Rustenburg Local Municipality to find lasting solutions for those that are still waiting to benefit. While the provision of shelter is a constitutional obligation on government, it cannot be correct that we have people on our database whose homes are ready for occupation but are currently occupied by others illegally”, she added.

Minister Kubayi invited all stakeholders to work together and find lasting solutions against the illegal occupation of human settlement developments, while emphasising a need to timeously hand over completed structures to the qualifying beneficiaries to avoid illegal occupation and vandalism.

During the visit, Minister Kubayi, together with MEC for Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs, Lena Miga and Executive Mayors, also handed over title deeds to senior citizens and conducted site inspections at various human settlements projects in the Bojanala and Dr Kenneth Kaunda District Municipalities.

Since August, eight provinces around the country have been visited. Various stakeholders, including beneficiaries, raised several issues relating to blocked projects and contractors who deliver shoddy workmanship. Consequently, this has left many people living in unsuitable conditions. But, on the other hand, there were commitments by all three spheres for clean governance and picking up the speed in giving back dignity to the communities. This also required the payment of contractors on time.

Beneficiaries of the Bokamoso Project in Rustenburg were pleased to hear that the Department of Human Settlements has since terminated a contract with a contractor who abandoned a construction site. A new one has been appointed and will commence with the speed required in January. Meanwhile, Eskom is expected to connect residents to the grid by the end of January 2022.

Minister Kubayi informed community members in Rustenburg that another contractor was also called back to fix the defects identified by residents on the BNG/ RDP houses.

 

Issued by Department of Human Settlements