Pretoria - Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale will tomorrow be briefed on the under-expenditure of provinces on housing construction projects, says the department.
At a MINMEC meeting between the minister and Human Settlements MECs in Durban in November last year Sexwale warned that provinces that were underperforming in the 2012/13 financial year risked having a portion of their budgets taken away due to under-expenditure.
Sexwale will be provided with the latest expenditure update of all provinces by Director General Thabane Zulu on Friday.
“Whilst recognising some genuine difficulties confronting provinces such as the absence of bulk infrastructure due to inadequate capital expenditure, a situation cannot be tolerated where flimsy excuses are put forward which stymie delivery to communities,” said Sexwale.
He said the malaise was essentially as a result of the combination of two factors – the employment of officials and people with little or no experience at all to administer huge human settlement funds at provincial and local level, and the hiring of questionable contractors to participate in large scale housing construction projects.
“This year we are determined to see the last of this under-expenditure whilst our people remain stuck on growing housing list,” said Sexwale. - SAnews.gov.za
