Pretoria - Officials at the Gauteng department of human settlements are living in fear of a so-called “business forum” known for hijacking service delivery projects, after some of their colleagues were shot at.
This was revealed by the department’s deputy director-general for planning and property, Ngoako Molokomme, during his interaction with members of the portfolio committee on human settlements.
Molokomme said two weeks ago, four shots were fired at some officials, allegedly by people associated with the “business forum”.
“The business forum is a criminal syndicate. I am not trained as a crime practitioner … I am trained as a town planner to build houses, not to pursue criminals that are killing our people.
“Our colleagues were shot at with four bullets. And we are sitting here, saying we don’t have crime … But we have got a major problem!
“We are scared and the beneficiaries (of houses) are also scared. There is a criminal syndicate that hijacks projects, and they threaten our officials,” Molokomme said.
He pleaded with the portfolio committee to assist in terms of shielding officials from the syndicate.
The modus operandi of these people is to swindle money from infrastructure projects in municipalities by demanding they be allocated at least 30% of a project’s budget.
Many municipalities previously blamed this “forum” for incomplete projects or for stalling service delivery, in general.
Despite the government previously announcing plans to eradicate hostel dwellings built for migrant workers in most townships, Molokomme said there had been a problem with the internal supply chain processes, which would affect the hostel projects in this financial year.
In the City of Tshwane, hostel dwellers in Mamelodi and Saulsville were still waiting for the redevelopment of facilities, after the metro announced a budget of R20 million for each project in 2020.
Regarding backlogs in low-cost houses, Molokomme said: ”The City of Tshwane took a decision that they will scale down the construction of houses and focus on bulk infrastructure and service.”
He said the City reasoned that it was no use for it to get a budget for the building of houses, which it ended up not building owing to a limited budget. “If you look at Tshwane compared to small municipalities like West Rand and Sedibeng, you will see West Rand and Sedibeng, being smaller municipalities, having bigger budgets compared to Tshwane,” he said.
He said that it was about time the government re-looked at the budget allocation for metros, saying the demand for houses was mainly within Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and Joburg.
During its visit to Tshwane last week, the portfolio committee identified challenges related to unfinished houses, contractual problems and unscrupulous contractors.
Pretoria News