8. Observations The delegation observed the following: The province was experiencing service delivery protests that were mainly due to incomplete houses; sinking houses due to poor geotechnical studies that were done. Even though the provincial department painted a glossy picture and good relationship between them and the National Home Builders Registration Council, there were projects that were not enrolled and some required rectification. The tranche payments that were made by the provincial department to municipalities and later to contractors who failed to complete projects and left them blocked. The allocated conditional grant was used to rebuild old houses instead of new houses and that impacted on targets and plans not being met. The provincial department did not utilise its allocated budget for the provision of sanitation even though most of the informal settlements and other townships were still using bucket system and in some areas including rural areas people were opting for open defecation.