Free State, KZN lose housing money

2011-01-18 17:35

Johannesburg - Two under-performing provinces have lost housing grants worth R463m, Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale announced on Tuesday.

A total of R263m will be moved from the Free State and R200m from KwaZulu-Natal, the ministry said in a statement.

"Two provinces which were earlier in the group of four under-performers - Western Cape and Eastern Cape - remain on my watch-list and their performance will be closely monitored," Sexwale said in a statement.

"We still expect that, by the end of the administration’s term, all provinces will by and large have met their targets," he said

"It is important to note that the R463m remains in the housing delivery process, and will be used to contribute directly to addressing the housing backlog and the needs of the poor, rather than being rolled-over and/or returned to National Treasury."

The money would be reassigned to other provinces.

Northern Cape would receive R182m for the construction of 2 070 new houses and the upgrading of 350 units in informal settlements.

Limpopo would receive R131m for the construction of 5 300 houses.

The remaining R150m would go to the National Rectification Programme, for repairing poorly-built homes in various provinces.

The monitoring and evaluation department last year found "significant expenditure problems" in four provinces, the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu Natal and the Free State.

Earlier this month, the director general of the department announced that the four provinces faced losing their grants.

They then submitted their spending and delivery reports for December last year and their projections for January.

- SAPA