The Housing Investigation Task Team has so far handed over 16 cases to the police for further investigation. The Task Team's responsibility is to ensure that the R3,6 million paid out to Conveyancers and later paid to different Contractors was actually used to build houses. It is not correct to believe that all the money has been embezzled until the investigation is complete.
The investigation is not only centred in our Departmental Officials. There are four groups of people involved in the expenditure of an Individual Subsidy Grant. The first is the beneficiary when he applies for subsidy, the second is the Departmental Official who accepts the application. The third is the Conveyancer (Attorney) who is paid the money by Government in Trustee. The fourth is the builder who has to build the house. All these parties should have played their role to prevent housing subsidy abuse.
We have engaged the Supervisory bodies of all these structures during our investigations. No Departmental official has been arrested as yet and we can't speculate until the police have finished their work on the 16 cases already in their hands. The only person arrested so far is Mr Given Hally Ngobeni who is either a Contractor or a member of the public not an official as reported by other media sources.
Issued by Communication Services Department of Local Government, Housing & Land Administration Media Enquiries : L.A. Mbangwa Tel (013) 7554810