Hon Speaker, last night on the SABC news the people of South Africa had the misfortune to hear that the Free State Premier, Ace Magashule, will go to the Kingdom of Lesotho to build houses. What we would like to know is why on earth Mr Ace Magashule would go to Lesotho to build houses when thousands of families in the Free State are forced to live in informal settlements without water or sanitation.
In addition, the Free State government has a backlog of about 8 700 houses, which the Free State government made a commitment to complete before the end of this year. The cost of reducing the backlog will be R385 million, taken from this year's budget for last year's project. In Ezenzeleni, 336 RDP houses and 94 land restitution houses are incomplete or partially completed despite the fact that the project was initiated in 2009. In Zastron, a town next to the border of Lesotho, about 670 houses remain incomplete. However, Mr Ace Magashule jumps fences to go to Lesotho to build houses while South African people in the Free State are suffering. [Applause.]