Chairperson, Minister, hon members of the NCOP and guests, housing remains one of the biggest challenges for government and will continue to be a big challenge for as long as there is no political will and political leadership to get service delivery in place for the poor and disadvantaged people of South Africa.
The hon Minister Tokyo Sexwale - if I read the newspaper correctly, the future President of South Africa - said last year, in this august House, as well as in the media, that everyone who is busy with fraud and stealing from the poor will be taken on and sent to jail. He further made promises that the process of human settlement will speed up in all communities of South Africa.
With the NCOP's Taking Parliament to the People in November 2011 at Nquthu in KwaZulu-Natal, and six months after the speech and promise made by Minister, still nothing had happened in that area. In one of the villages, 500 houses not older than 10 years were destroyed and demolished due to bad workmanship. Not even the foundations remained.
The DA agrees that all South Africans deserve a better life, a house with infrastructure, development to uplift the quality of life of the people of South Africa, the expansion of social and economic infrastructure, and the building of cohesive, caring and sustainable communities. When we do oversight visits throughout South Africa, I am afraid that all these beautiful words on paper seem to have come to nothing.
People complain about corrupt councillors who rent out Reconstruction and Development Programme houses; some families who have more than one RDP house; foreigners who get houses before South African citizens who applied long before they did; contracts that are not completed by contractors; contracts and tenders given to the friends and family of mayors, councillors and municipal managers; and contracts that are delayed because of nonpayment by municipalities and provincial legislatures.
The MEC of the North West Province said that the department of human settlements had challenges in dealing with the illegal occupation of complete housing units across the province but that the department was working tirelessly to reach a resolution and provide housing to its rightful beneficiaries. Although people have been arrested and others convicted, the Special Investigating Unit investigated housing projects only after allegations were made that councillors were selling RDP houses, that beneficiaries were renting them out and that public servants were occupying RDP houses even though they did not qualify for them.
In Vryburg, R86 million was allocated for 470 houses in Extension 25. By mid-2010, only four of these houses had been completed satisfactorily, while 300 were uninhabitable. The foundations and walls did not conform to specifications and building standards. People are moving in and out of these half-built houses and the contractor has stopped any activity to this day. In the meantime, a new project is coming up in Extension 28 and 29, and fraud is already expected on the new site.
In Meriting Extension 3 and 4 in Rustenburg, government spent more than R28 million on 1 900 low-cost houses, but they are so shoddily built that they will be demolished. Not a single house has been completed. Of the R45 million allocated, R28 million has been paid to contractors. It is unsafe for any human being to occupy those houses, whether they were completed or not. An amount of R71 million will be needed to rectify all the houses - the whole project has to be redone.
More than R400 million of the budget of the Department of Human Settlements last year was spent on the rectification of shoddy houses that predate the year 2002. This money could otherwise have been used to construct 7 000 housing units. There are more fraud and housing problems in Kanana Extension 14 in the North West, Khuma Extension 11, Jouberton Extension 24, and so I can carry on. Letsopa in the Tswaing Municipality also needs investigation. Many of the problems I mentioned have been there since 2010.
One of the headaches the department has is the way in which the National Home Builders Registration Council handles quality control when new houses are built. A certain percentage of the money for new houses is paid to the NHBRC to see if the quality is up to standard. Unfortunately, they make use of unskilled inspectors and officials are never on site. Right there everything goes wrong.
The department must establish an open, efficient administration that will not tolerate corruption and will prioritise the delivery of the basic preconditions essential for creating opportunities for all.
In conclusion, believe and act as if it were impossible to fail. [Time expired.]