Question NW3429 to the Minister of Human Settlements
08 December 2023 - NW3429
Mey, Mr P to ask the Minister of Human Settlements
(a) What is the total number of housing projects that her department abandoned in the North West, (b) for how long have the projects been abandoned, (c) what are the details of the responsible contractors and (d)(i) what plans and timeframes have been put in place to complete all incomplete housing projects of her department in the North West and (ii) at what costs per project?
Reply:
According to information received from the North-West Provincial Department of Human Settlements;
a) They have a total of 41 blocked and incomplete projects. A blocked or incomplete project is defined as: A project where no delivery progress has been made for a period of 12 months following the first payment to the contractor. The blocked or incomplete projects include serviced sites and houses at different levels of construction namely, slab level, wall-plate level, roof level, etc. Projects are usually blocked and incomplete due to illegal land occupations, extortion by the construction mafia, community unrest, the lack of bulk infrastructure, poor performance by contractors (some of whom would have abandoned sites) etc.
b) The majority of the reported projects became blocked and incomplete in the 2005/2006 financial year.
c) Please refer to the column marked “Developer” on the enclosed presentation from the North-West Provincial Department of Human Settlements.
(d)(i) It is anticipated that the 41 blocked and incomplete projects will be implemented in the 2023 / 2024 and 2024/25 financial years as some are planned over multiple years.
(d)(ii) The projected costs for each project are in the attached the presentation.