The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng notes with great concern that the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements has once again failed to reach its set targets for the Fourth Quarter of the 2019/20 financial year.
According to the fourth quarterly report, the department underperformed across all their targets.
The table below indicates the department’s programmes, fourth quarter planned targets and the outcomes:
| Department Programme | Fourth Quarter planned target | Outcomes |
| Maintenance of hostels | 6 | 0 |
| Maintenance of stands | 118 | 0 |
| Rapid Land Release Programme: the land to be handed over for implementation | 500 | 0 |
| Rapid Land Release Programme: where the land is handed over to beneficiaries | 6,510 | 0 |
| Completion of plans for informal settlements upgrading | 4 | 0 |
| Building of Social Housing Capital units | 1,312 | 0 |
| Approved beneficiaries allocated to available housing units | 7,777 | 1,290 |
| Mega Projects housing units completed | 4,072 | 3,514 |
| Formalisation of townships | 15 | 3 |
This clearly indicates that this department is not serious about delivering on its core mandate.
This department’s incompetency is completely unacceptable as it consistently underperforms yet no one is held accountable.
The reasons given for the department’s under performance are poor performance by the contractor, non-availability of beneficiaries, delays in receiving approvals and in some cases, there were no valid reasons given.
This clearly indicates a lack of planning and management skills in the department as this same issue was also noted in the third quarterly report.
I will be tabling questions to MEC Maile in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature to ascertain what measures the department is putting in place to ensure that their set targets are achieved.
We further call on the Gauteng Premier David Makhura to conduct a performance assessment of all the departments to hold those underperforming to account.