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Parliament - The department of human settlements is
considering establishing a state-owned construction company, Minister Tokyo
Sexwale said on Wednesday.
Sexwale said when houses were built in the government
housing programme, the department relied "by and large" on
inexperienced shovel, wheelbarrow and bakkie brigades.
"Many of these discredit the good name of genuine and
committed small to medium emerging contractors," he said.
"This does not take away the fact that some small
companies have experience, but a lot of fly-by-nights take the taxpayer to the
cleaners with their shoddy workmanship.
"Is it perhaps not time to establish a state-owned
construction company? We at human settlements are exploring this idea together
with Public Works."
Sexwale said the department was a key player in the property
market, with a recent study finding that 1.44 million of the six million
registered residential properties in the Deeds Registry were government
subsidised.
This represented 24% of the total number of registered
residential properties.
Sexwale said this could increase to 35% if the backlog in
issuing title deeds was overcome.
The department, he said, would focus on low cost housing
construction projects in its attempt to root out corruption and
maladministration.
More than 50 housing projects, valued at R4.2bn, had been
identified as the targets of an investigation, Sexwale said.
"The new focus in our current investigations is on low
cost housing construction contracts.
"In this regard, more than 50 housing projects with the
value of R4.2bn were identified. Over 40 investigations have been completed and
17 are ongoing."
Sexwale said Limpopo had "taken the lead" in the
fight against corruption by blacklisting 24 contractors for shoddy workmanship,
non-delivery and incompetence, and recovering more than a million rands from
these companies.
More than 290 public servants who had committed housing
subsidy-related misconduct and fraud had been arrested.
Nearly R30m lost through corrupt activities had been recovered, Sexwale said.
