The MEC for Human Settlements in the North West Lena Miga called on officials in her department to work closely with their municipal counterparts to deliver services. She was speaking after a three day strategic retreat by her department in Rustenburg recently.
According to the department, the commitment made, came after a robust discussions among officials and other stakeholders within the human settlements sector, on how to improve service delivery and further fast track the process of delivering houses to legible beneficiaries. The department has been encountering several challenges and delays in delivering houses in recent past due to the Covid19 and other administrative challenges.
The department further committed to continue to, unblock blocked projects, appoint contractors to speed up delivery of outstanding housing projects, prioritise valuable groups such as women, people with disability, elderlies, child headed households and military veterans.
MEC Lena Miga hailed the move to re-plan, as beneficiaries were already showing signs of despondency on government and its services. “You have identified issues that were obstacles and have agreed that you are going to work on correcting and deliver on our mandate. I’m extremely elated by your initiative to reprioritise the service delivery, and ensure that government is still on track to deliver quality houses with basic amenities. In that way we will be fulfilling our mandate as the department and I will have delivered on my portfolio,” said MEC Miga.
MEC further called on officials and stakeholders to improve in communication with each other, with more emphasis on municipalities. “If we implement what has been agree upon, we will win and overcome the challenges that have been preventing the department to delivered as expected. Work closely with municipalities, and get them to understand departmental plans. I believe we will improve and achieve our targets in this financial year and further improve in the next financial year,” said Miga as she concluded.
However the department further acknowledged that it has a serious backlog when it comes to service delivery of houses within the province.
The Acting Head of Department James Mashigo called on officials to fully commit and work closely with stakeholders such as treasury to ensure that they adhere to legislations and regulations. “Working closely with contractors with one vision can lead to the success in delivering houses in the province. We committed as the department to ensure that we partner with them in delivering services and ensuring anintegrated human settlements within the province. We are committed to do our part and hope they will reciprocate,” said the Mashigo.
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