The Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements welcomed progress report that was presented jointly by the national and the provincial (North West) departments of Human Settlements on the implementation of the approved recovery plan, as the North West Provincial Department of Human Settlements is currently under section 101 (a) of the Constitution.

Making remarks before the department’s Director General presented the report, the Minister of Human Settlements Ms Nomaindia Mfeketo told the committee that a Memorandum of Understanding with the North West’s MEC for Human Settlements has been signed. Ms Mfeketo told the committee that she is not pleased with the sluggish progress in the implementation and delivery of houses in the North West Province.

The committee heard from the Director General that the projects that were previously blocked, have now been unblocked, and the department is on course in implanting those projects.

The committee questioned the glaring evidence of inconsistence in housing delivery projects per municipality where the actual budget spent is higher than what was initially budgeted for. The committee is also peeved by units that are not occupied, vandalised and the department having to incur cost to refurbish such units.

The committee also noted reports on poor performance by some service providers and its hampering impact on the desired recovery plan, intervention programme progress and that the department has decided to cede work of the poorly performing contractors to contractors with required capacity.

Another concern the committee has, is the illegal occupation of houses completed and the lack of strategy and action by the Provincial Department to address it. 

The Chairperson of the committee, Ms Nocawe Mafu, said: “While we are not happy with the overall performance, but the committee is pleased with the capacity of key and strategic personnel with required expertise deployed to the province to be part of the recovery intervention programme. The committee expects nothing else but high performance from now on.”