MBOMBELA – Newly appointed MEC for human settlements, Mr Speedy Mashilo wants to improve service delivery to communities. He met with departmental senior managers last Friday to map out a new path in order to expedite service delivery.
During his address, Mashilo emphasised that the department must strive for an equitable spread of opportunities for all contractors to avoid shoddy workmanship from incapable contractors.
Mashilo addressed the managers in a meeting arranged to welcome him to the department following a recent cabinet reshuffle. “I need to know about all those contractors who do not have the capacity to deliver. We do not develop contractors, we deliver houses and infrastructure to our people,” warned Mashilo. He further explained that officials should not get confused with what human settlements are, but remember that it entails the building of adequate houses and creating habitable infrastructure for the people of the province. “Contractors do not deliver houses, but we do.
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Their interest is in making profit,” he said. He warned sternly against the illegal allocation of low-cost government houses to people who do not deserve them, and maintained that this tendency should be curbed immediately. He said, “Houses have been built but given to wrong beneficiaries. Such negligence cannot be tolerated.”
In conclusion, Mashilo mentioned that human settlements was key in service delivery and while he was still at the local government level he was at the receiving end of these houses. “Today I am entrusted with the responsibility to deliver these houses to local municipalities. Therefore, we need to maintain close working relations with local municipalities,” he concluded.