Pretoria – Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza has handed over 1 000 houses that were built as a result of his service delivery intervention.
The houses were part of the premier’s drive to deliver 10 000 houses within 100 days after he sacked 65 contractors who failed to deliver quality houses.
In March this year, Mabuza announced the formation of a Rapid Implementation Unit (RIU) – which is stationed in his office – which was deployed to oversee the implementation of the housing units across Mpumalanga.
The team, made up of at least 15 officials from several departments, has since March made “direct contact” with contractors to ensure that they meet the 100-day delivery target.
At the same time, Mabuza showed about 65 contractors the door over their failure to deliver, which he said deprived many residents of human settlements.
Mabuza’s spokesman Zibonele Mncwango said the 1 048 Bushbuckridge houses are in Majembeni, Wales and New Line villages.
Speaking at the handover on Wednesday, Mabuza said: “It rests upon us to work as servants of the people; we have been given this responsibility to run government and to deliver services on behalf of the citizens.
“It is my responsibility as the premier of this province to ensure that each member of the executive council, each mayor and each councillor works according to the expectation of the people.
“With the elections coming up next, it is going to be difficult to deliver service as people will have different perceptions about our work.
“We have done everything to ensure that they get their houses, but we have indeed realised that the challenges are deep-rooted. However, we are determined that step-by-step, bit-by-bit and day-by-day we are getting there.”
Last month, the rapid implementation unit reported that 60% of the houses, or 6 000, had so far been built. The latest handover means that Mabuza has to date handed over about 7 000 houses. – SAnews.gov.za
