Question NW1319 to the Minister of Human Settlements

Reply:

In my reply to question 126 I indicated the following:

“The information provided by the North West Provincial Department of Human Settlements is as follows:

(a) The project commenced in June 2008.

(b) &(c) The progress made in respect of the project in Khudutlou Village is as follows:

• 3 Houses were completed
• 9 Units were at the roof level
• 11 Units were completed up to wall plate level
• 2 Slabs were completed

Due to poor workmanship, construction on the project has been put on hold and the North West Provincial Department of Human Settlements indicated that they are awaiting an engineering report with a view to considering cancellation of the contract.

(d) (i) The cost of the project is R1 282 025 for 25 units.

(ii) The total projected cost is R 2 569 200.

Furthermore, and for the benefit of the Honourable member who has recently joined the Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements, I wish to reiterate what I said during the Policy Debate on the budget of my Department on 12 May 2015 in the NCOP. I indicated,

“We are no longer rectifying houses using our budget. Any house that has defaults is the responsibility of the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC), which is responsible to identify the contractor and ensure that they rectify the shoddy work at their own cost. The money currently used on rectification can and will be used in building more houses”.

Accordingly, I have requested the MEC for Local Government and Human Settlements in North West to provide me with a full report on this matter with a view to ensure that contractor responsible returns on site to undertake remedial work or is blacklisted if found to be in breach of the contractual agreement”.

In respect of this follow up question, I wish to add that there were no other contractors involved in the housing project in Khudutlou Village and reiterate that an amount of R1 282 025 was paid to the contractor for 25 units delivered.

With regards to the request for name(s) of contractors involved in the housing project referred to in this question, I am constrained and prohibited by the document titled “Guide to Parliamentary Questions in the National Assembly” from providing the Honourable Member with the name of the contractor. The document referred to states that:

“Questions are to be framed as concisely as possible. All unnecessary adjectives, references and quotations are omitted. Names of persons, bodies and, for example, newspapers are only used in questions if the facts surrounding the case have been proven. As the mere mention of such names could be construed as publicity for or against them, it should be clear that this practice is highly undesirable. If a question will be unintelligible without mentioning such names, the Departments concerned are notified of the name (-s) and this phrase is used: ".......a certain person (name furnished)”

I encourage the Honourable Member to provide me with any information that will assist me to deal with any challenges regarding the housing project Khudutlou Village.