Bathabile Dlamini appointed chair of social housing interim board

Former social development minister Bathabile Dlamini has been appointed as chairperson of the interim board of the social housing regulatory authority (SHRA).

The SHRA is a public entity which was established by the minister of human settlements in August 2010. The entity reportedly has a budget of a R1 billion intended for delivering housing projects.

The spokesperson of the department of human settlements, water and sanitation, Makhosini Mgitywa, spoke to Bongani Bingwa on radio 702 on Friday morning about Dlamini’s appointment.

Mgitywa said South Africans were open to debating whether Dlamini was the suitable candidate for the job “but I can tell you what was behind our thinking”.

“The minister is of the view that social housing must be regulated in line and in cooperation with social development because there is a lot of fraud and cheating that takes place and social development has got a system, they know who is indigent, who qualifies for what, now the minister, in wanting to leverage that she appointed miss Bathabile Dlamini to head the social housing regulatory authority because of her background from social development, department of social development,” said Mgitywa.

The Constitutional Court found Dlamini had lied in the South African Social Security Agency grants saga. The court ordered her to pay part of the cost personally and President Cyril Ramaphosa was criticised for not acting against her for breaching the executive ethics code.

In October, Dlamini was let off the hook by Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, who announced during her releasing a number investigative reports that the allegation that Dlamini deliberately misled parliament about Cash Paymaster Services’ (CPS’s) inability to pay out grants could not be substantiated.

The complaint against Dlamini was brought by DA MP Bridget Masango.

On Friday, Mgitywa pointed out that Dlamini remained a member of the governing party’s national executive committee and the president of the ANC Women’s League “and we have to accept the fact that there is a deployment committee of the ANC that decides who can go where”.

The Citizen contacted ANC national spokesperson Pule Mabe who asked to be given some time to “establish the facts” before giving confirmation whether the ANC’s “deployment committee” had deployed Dlamini to the job.

During the radio interview with Bingwa, Mgitywa said: “We can have views about people but we work on the principle, and this minister works on the principle that … former minister Bathabile Dlamini was a minister of social development and she has got the institutional memory that she needs.”

Mgitywa said in her role, Dlamini would not be in charge of the SHRA’s budget, “she does not have control over the budget” but will only have influence at policy level.

He said the ministry of human settlements was of the view that with Dlamini’s “institutional memory” due to her experience as minister of social development, “she is the person who can help us with solving the social housing issues in the country given her background from social development”.

Former social development minister Bathabile Dlamini has been appointed as chairperson of the interim board of the social housing regulatory authority (SHRA).

The SHRA is a public entity which was established by the minister of human settlements in August 2010. The entity reportedly has a budget of a billion rands intended for delivering housing projects.

Mgitywa spoke to Bongani Bingwa on radio 702 on Friday morning about Dlamini’s appointment.

Mgitywa said South Africans are open to debating whether Dlamini is the suitable candidate for the job “but I can tell you what was behind our thinking”.

“The minister is of the view that social housing must be regulated in line and in cooperation with social development because there is a lot of fraud and cheating that takes place and social development has got a system, they know who is indigent, who qualifies for what, now the minister, in wanting to leverage that she appointed miss Bathabile Dlamini to head the social housing regulatory authority because of her background from social development, department of social development,” Mgitywa said.

The Citizen contacted ANC national spokesperson Pule Mabe, who asked to be given some time to “establish the facts” before giving confirmation whether the ANC’s “deployment committee” had deployed Dlamini to the job.

During the radio interview with Bingwa, Mgitywa said: “We can have views about people but we work on the principle, and this minister works on the principle that … former minister Bathabile Dlamini was a minister of social development and she has got the institutional memory that she needs.”

(Compiled by Makhosandile Zulu)

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.