THE Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality's human settlements department was given a tongue-lashing by councillors yesterday for under-performing and delivering fewer than half its target of 3600 houses in the last year.
A damning report on the department's performance – compiled by the chief operating officer Israel Tsatsire's office – painted a bleak picture of a department that was failing to provide crucial services to residents of the metro.
While the department maintained it could not meet its annual targets due to delayed payments from the Eastern Cape Department of Human Settlements, councillors were not impressed.
Some of the targets not met were:
- Only 1682 low-cost houses were built out of a target of 3600;
- l61 social housing units were provided to the homeless out of a target of 300;
- 69 houses were relocated from stressed informal settlements against a target of 1200; and
- Only 1133 RDP houses were rectified from a target of 6325.
Councillor Sizwe Jodwana (ANC) said: "We don't see any improvement in this directorate ... It looks like there is no turnaround strategy in this department."
DA councillor Trevor Louw said: "Tyres are burning outside and we are blaming this department... Ten percent of our budget is for rectification of houses and we can't even do that right; we are behind even with that."
COPE councillor Rano Kayser said he felt it was life-threatening to tell the public he served on the human settlements committee. "I thought the protests would put us on high alert to perform better, but now we are using [them] as an excuse."
