Dear Editor
The Umzimvubu Local Municipality’s failure to execute housing projects since 2021, combined with the Department of Human Settlements’ inaction against the municipality, has left 436 families without the homes they were promised. With completion now pushed to the 2027/28 financial year, these beneficiaries face close to a decade of waiting for a basic roof over their heads.
This delay is not the result of unforeseen obstacles, but of a department that failed to exercise its oversight responsibilities. The Democratic Alliance (DA) will be writing to the Human Settlements MEC, Siphokazi Lusithi, to request an explanation and urgent interventions.
In response to parliamentary questions from the DA, MEC Lusithi confirmed that no audit of Umzimvubu Local Municipality has ever been conducted since it was appointed as an implementing agent in 2021. For four years, the Department failed to intervene while families languished in temporary shelters and delivery ground to a halt.
The Department’s own replies show the scale of failure. Six projects have delivered no houses at all, affecting 436 beneficiaries directly. The combined contract value across the projects exceeds R94 million. Yet, the Department reports no irregular, fruitless, or wasteful expenditure and no recoveries, and concedes that it did not conduct any audit.
This is not an unavoidable delay but a collapse of oversight. The National Housing Act places a clear duty on the MEC to intervene when a municipality cannot or does not fulfil its housing mandate. The Public Finance Management Act requires proper stewardship to ensure that funds are used effectively, efficiently, and economically. The Human Settlements White Paper commits the government to accountability, regular monitoring, and decisive action where delivery fails.
By allowing these projects to drift for years without an audit or timely intervention, the Department has failed to fulfil these obligations. The absence of any intervention demonstrates disregard for these contractual and policy requirements.
I will be writing to MEC Lusithi to highlight these grave shortcomings and to demand a comprehensive review of all projects delivered through implementing agents. Where implementing agents are failing to deliver, independent audits must be initiated immediately, and remedial action must be enforced.
It cannot be that families are left in limbo for close to a decade because the government has abandoned its own legal responsibilities.
The people of the Eastern Cape deserve a housing programme that restores dignity through delivery, not one that abandons the most vulnerable to years of waiting and broken promises.
Regards
Chantel King MPL
DA EC Shadow MEC for Human Settlements