'Housing delivery needs help'

2007-03-06 19:14

Johannesburg - The "dismal" state of housing delivery in the Eastern Cape needs national intervention, said a public watchdog organisation on Tuesday.

Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) researcher Chantelle de Nobrega said the province would not meet a nationally set target to eradicate informal settlements by 2014 without help.

De Nobrega said: "The Eastern Cape will contribute little towards achieving this target unless the national department of housing takes decisive steps to intervene and improve the dismal service delivery record of the provincial department of housing, local government and traditional affairs."

The department would get a 24% budget increase in 2007/08 to R1.57bn - which included a 37.8% housing conditional grant increase and a 34.26% increase for housing.

However, money was not the answer to "the housing delivery crisis", added de Nobrega.

Third quarter spending results for 2006/07 had demonstrated the department?s "inability to effectively manage its finances and spend money allocated to it for the building of houses", she said.

Department uses half of budget

By the third quarter, the department had spent 49.32% of its budget when it should have spent roughly 75%.

In addition, only 38.2% or R291m of its R762m conditional grant allocation, had been spent by the same period.

"Increasing its budget is therefore unlikely to result in more houses being built," she added.

Long-standing systemic problems included poor planning, monitoring and evaluation systems, and weak human resource management, said de Nobrega.

Most of the province's 400 housing projects in the province were "blocked" or stalled, as recently indicated by the provincial treasury's superintendent-general Newman Kusi.

Department 'doing too little'

De Nobrega said: "The department has done little to progressively realise access to adequate housing.

"Without national intervention, it will do little to contribute to the ambitious target of 2014."

National housing department spokesperson Monwabisi Maclean said the department would look at the issues raised by PSAM, the province's performance, and whether a need for intervention existed.

He said: "The department works with all the provinces at various levels and on various issues."

The provincial department's spokesperson Mbulelo Linda said the department was addressing a number of housing issues.

'We're on track'

These included blocked housing projects, municipal capacity shortfalls and emerging contractors.

"We're on track in terms of dealing with the problems that we have highlighted," added Maclean.

Both departments said they had not seen the PSAM statement.

- SAPA