MEC for Corporative Governance, Human Settlement and Traditional Affairs Mmoloki Cwaile has warned contractors that his department will not hesitate to penalize them for building houses of poor quality. While virtually delivering his department’s budget speech to the provincial legislature on Tuesday in Mafikeng, MEC Cwaile warned that his department will not hesitate to blacklist non-performing contractors on the Treasury database for non-performance, fraud and corruption so that they must be barred from getting tenders from the department.
“We state it unequivocally that we will not tolerate corruption under any circumstances. We will not tolerate shoddy work by our contractors. We will not tolerate use of sub-standard material, my message to those contractors is that your days are numbered and you will not make money out of our people and programs just like that,” said MEC Cwaile.
Cwaile further made it clear that consequence management will apply to those departmental officials who condone these acts, saying they will also face the full might of the law.
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Decent housing delivery
Thus far over 280 000 houses have been constructed in the North West Province in the past 27 years of democracy. For the financial year 2021/2022, the department is committing to focus on among others, constricting 5225 low cost houses, eradicate informal settlements, especially in mining areas, procuring land to build townships and issuing of title deeds to low cost houses beneficiaries. The department will further strive to address the backlog on housing delivery across the province.
The MEC further raised concerns about the challenges facing his department. He said that the province is continuously challenged with service delivery especially in issues such as, slow delivery of housing opportunities over the years resulting in backlogs and blocked projects, rapid and widespread mushrooming of informal settlements, land invasions, and a gross shortage of affordable rental stock, especially in areas where economic opportunities are located. He said that all the said challenges will be addressed, including disclaimers by the auditor general of South Africa.
The legislature however approved the Human Settlements budget of over R1.8bn for this financial, which according to Cwaile will be used to better the lives of North West communities.
