Pretoria - The North West government says it will use alternative building methods to address the housing backlog in the province.
“In order to mitigate against financial constraints, the province will [use] alternative building methods in order to achieve more with the limited resources at our disposal,” Premier Supra Mahumapelo said as he delivered his State of the Province Address (SOPA) on Friday.
The provincial government has succeeded in ensuring that 223 591 houses have been built since 1994, costing government R13 billion.
“Today the housing backlog stands at 237 000, which is only reflective of informal settlements. Measures are being put in place to cater for people who are neither serviced under the RDP programme nor can access the bond market,” the Premier said.
He said the MEC for Local Government and Human Settlements will in due course announce plans for providing houses and much tighter processes of managing the provincial housing beneficiary lists.
The MEC will give more details on the clean-up and verification process of all housing beneficiary lists across municipalities to ensure that only deserving people remain on the lists.
All public representatives and government officials, who are found to have allocated themselves RDP houses, will be dealt with accordingly, Premier Mahumapelo said.
Performance of municipalities
The Premier said they remain concerned with the performance of municipalities.
“When the fifth administration assumed Office in May last year, 15 municipalities were in intensive care as reported by the Auditor General. Through dedicated intervention and leadership, seven have been rescued and eight still require ongoing attention,” he said.
The Premier said the situation at Ngaka Modiri Molema is receiving undivided attention.
Since May last year, the fifth administration has successfully implemented the following measures to bring stability in the municipality:
- EXCO [executive committee] invoked Section 139 (c), which led to the dissolution of the council and the holding of by-elections;
- an administrator was deployed;
- operation centre on water issues was established;
- a new Acting Municipal Manager has been deployed; and
- an experienced CFO will be appointed, whose mandate will be to ensure a reduction of the irregular appointment of staff.
This turnaround strategy is expected to bear results in 12 months, the Premier said.
Provincial Local Government Awards
The North West will introduce Provincial Local Government Awards.
These awards will be held within the spirit of Batho Pele principles, Back to Basics and encouraging clean administration, amongst others.
This exercise will be done in collaboration with the Department of Finance, Economy and Enterprise Development.
Additionally, a provincial training academy will be established in the 2015/16 financial year to improve quality leadership and skills development in local government to the tune of R2 million. - SAnews.gov.za
