Tembisa Mega Housing Project Failure Reflects Government’s Poor Planning and Oversight, ActionSA Calls for Accountability and Consequence Management
Funzi Ngobeni MPL
ActionSA Gauteng Provincial Chairperson
A joint project by the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements and the City of Ekurhuleni that was supposed to deliver over 3 000 full subsidy and social housing units in Hospital View in Tembisa has been abandoned for almost five years.
With a backlog of over 1.3 million units in Gauteng, this project would have provided much-needed relief for accommodation to residents. Former Ekurhuleni MMC for Human Settlements Cllr Lesiba Mpya had assured residents on 19 November 2020 that the project would be completed by June 2021. Instead, the 58ha site resembles an aftermath of a war zone currently, with the four-storey buildings having been stripped of roofs, doors, windows and electrical sockets.
ActionSA is alarmed at the nonchalance of both the Human Settlements and the City over the stalling of such a critical project for such a long period of time. We demand that both the City and Department take the residents into confidence on the following: • What led to the project stalling? • What is being done to resuscitate the project? • How much had been spent on the project before being abandoned? • Have there been any investigations into the awarding of the tender, contractor’s performance and/ or payments to the contractor? • What measures have been done to ensure that project abandonment don’t happen in the future?
ActionSA implores both the Department and the City to take urgent and decisive action to remedy this dire situation. Consequence management should be instituted against parties that are found not to have executed their responsibilities accordingly.
These are just some of the reasons that have led ActionSA to call for the introduction of the Public Budget Transparency Portal to track projects’ implementation. This Portal would be accessible to all members of the public through their gadgets in real time where the public will be able to check who is the contractor of the project, how much has been spent on it and how that project has benefited the intended beneficiaries.
The most vulnerable of our society already face hardships with unbearable socio-economic conditions they are subjected to and cannot afford to have an uncaring government failing to provide them with the dignity of home ownership.
ActionSA will continue seeking answers on the stalling of this project at both the Gauteng Legislature and Ekurhuleni Council until beneficiaries are allocated their units.
Tembisa Mega Housing Project Failure Reflects Government’s Poor Planning and Oversight, ActionSA Calls for Accountability and Consequence Management
A joint project by the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements and the City of Ekurhuleni that was supposed to deliver over 3 000 full subsidy and social housing units in Hospital View in Tembisa has been abandoned for almost five years.
With a backlog of over 1.3 million units in Gauteng, this project would have provided much-needed relief for accommodation to residents. Former Ekurhuleni MMC for Human Settlements Cllr Lesiba Mpya had assured residents on 19 November 2020 that the project would be completed by June 2021. Instead, the 58ha site resembles an aftermath of a war zone currently, with the four-storey buildings having been stripped of roofs, doors, windows and electrical sockets.
ActionSA is alarmed at the nonchalance of both the Human Settlements and the City over the stalling of such a critical project for such a long period of time. We demand that both the City and Department take the residents into confidence on the following:
• What led to the project stalling?
• What is being done to resuscitate the project?
• How much had been spent on the project before being abandoned?
• Have there been any investigations into the awarding of the tender, contractor’s performance and/ or payments to the contractor?
• What measures have been done to ensure that project abandonment don’t happen in the future?
ActionSA implores both the Department and the City to take urgent and decisive action to remedy this dire situation. Consequence management should be instituted against parties that are found not to have executed their responsibilities accordingly.
These are just some of the reasons that have led ActionSA to call for the introduction of the Public Budget Transparency Portal to track projects’ implementation. This Portal would be accessible to all members of the public through their gadgets in real time where the public will be able to check who is the contractor of the project, how much has been spent on it and how that project has benefited the intended beneficiaries.
The most vulnerable of our society already face hardships with unbearable socio-economic conditions they are subjected to and cannot afford to have an uncaring government failing to provide them with the dignity of home ownership.
ActionSA will continue seeking answers on the stalling of this project at both the Gauteng Legislature and Ekurhuleni Council until beneficiaries are allocated their units.