The North West province accounts for 25 out of the 225 stalled or blocked projects that have been recorded by the Human Settlements Department.
One such project in the province is the N12 Integrated Housing Development, that Minister Thembi Simelane is expected to visit on Friday, as she engages the province’s performance in relation to human settlements.
The project is funded by the department’s grants and the informal settlements upgrading partnership grant provided by the department.
Speaking on YOU FM Newshour, Simelane’s spokesperson Tsekiso Machike said that the Department has resolved to prioritise completing all Breaking New Grounds (BNG) blocked projects and nine distressed social housing projects, that are mainly in KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, North West and Gauteng, with about 40 blocked projects.
Machike said the minister will get a deeper analysis and reasons behind the delay of the projects.
“The Department has earlier in the year decided to embark on a loco inspection of all the affected projects throughout the country to try to amplify and accelerate a delivery of housing as planned.
Simelane’s visit in Klerksdorp is precisely to do that.
She would first make a critical assessment in terms of the performance of the province as far as spending of the grants that the department is providing to all the provinces,” said Machike.
He highlighted that it is the department’s responsibility to assist the provinces and the municipalities with the delivery of housing projects.
Simelane has visited the Free State, which is leading in terms of the highest number of installed projects, followed by KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng to conduct the same exercise.
As part of the visit, Simelane will also hand over title deeds at the City of Matlosana Local Municipality.
She will be joined by the MEC for Human Settlements Oageng Molapisi and the Executive Mayor of The City of Matlosana Local Municipality Fikile Mahlophe.
Meanwhile, the North West’s permanent delegates to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) have called for urgent intervention that will lead to tangible results on stalled infrastructure projects in the province.
The concern was raised during a week-long oversight visit to the province as part of the NCOP flagship Provincial Week Programme. in September last year.
Provincial whip and leader of the delegation, Sylvia Sithole, told Newsnote at the time that there’s an urgent need for implementation of practical interventions for the benefit of the people, who are mostly poor and vulnerable.
