Parliament, Tuesday, 17 September 2024 – The Northern Cape’s permanent delegates to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) had a briefing session attended by the Premier of the Northern Cape Province accompanied by the MECs responsible for the roads, social housing, head of water and sanitation infrastructure projects in the province and the Auditor General’s Office.
This briefing was, according to the leader of the NCOP delegation, Mr Solomon Mabilo, fruitful, valuable and positive. He said the delegation has an insight on progress, challenges and executive undertakings regarding some of the unfinished infrastructure projects in the province. And the executive undertaking that stipulate their timelines for completion.
The aim of this week-long oversight program is underscored by the theme for this year’s programme: “Confronting the Challenges Facing the Timely Delivery of Viable Public Infrastructure to Communities”. The delegates first oversight visit was in Ritchie, Sol Plaatjie Municipality, where they got a briefing on the progress of the In Fill Housing Project that remained unfinished after five years of its inception.
The delegation was told by the Chief Director of Cooperative Government, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs (COGHSTA) in the province, the Sol Plaatjie Housing Development Manager and councillors, that the cause of the delay in completing this project was due to, among others, insufficient funding, the recipients of title deeds who are nowhere to be found, families that illegally occupy serviced plots of this project without title deeds as well as the issuing of title deeds to beneficiaries by the Sol Plaatjie Municipality even though their houses remain incomplete up to now.
Mr Mabilo expressed his apprehension stating that the five-year delay in completing this project is a concern. He asked the Department of COGHSTA to give the delegation a full report of its progress and the timelines of its completion in writing.
He said: “We call on the implementing agents of this project to prioritise it and to expedite it and to give them firm executive undertaking and full commitments to accomplish it to ensure that the rightful beneficiaries of this housing project, who have waited patiently for years, are prioritised and their dignities are restored.”
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE LEADER OF THE NORTHERN CAPE NCOP DELEGATION, MR SOLOMON MABILO.
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