​Thembisa Shologu
The Gauteng Department of Human Settlements has developed and will implement a turnaround strategy to address underperformance and a lackadaisical employee attitude in accelerating housing delivery. Addressing the media on Monday, 14 September 2020 in Sandton, MEC Lebohang Maile said this would help address the housing backlog of about 1 million, which is the most urgent of service delivery concerns.
"We have put together, approved and are implementing an anti-corruption and fraud strategy, with policies on fraud, corruption and ethics in place, with the aim of inculcating a culture of clean governance and accountability within the department.
 "Our Anti-Fraud and Corruption unit has concluded investigations into various officials accused of corruption and money laundering, illegal sales of houses and stands as well as theft and misappropriation of funds and has handed these matters over to the relevant law enforcement agencies, where there have been findings and evidence of fraud and corruption," said Maile.
 He said one of the critical failures of the department over the years had been a failure to obtain clean audits and adhere to the principles of good governance.
 "In order to address this, we have undertaken a process of resolving issues raised by the Auditor General (AG), addressing 90% of the AGs findings for the 2018/19 financial year. 
"The department has accruals amounting to R956 million, arising from poor controls for project and contract management by both contractors, suppliers and the department.
"This is further compounded by claims relating to security services rendered for guarding houses against illegal invasions, counter land invasion as well as emergency relief that was never verified by the department," said the MEC.
Maile also cited lack of proper coordinated planning as a major contributor in the underperformance and underspending by the department and the province as a whole on housing delivery matters. 
"We are fixing this through the finalisation of the Gauteng Spatial Development Masterplan, which will have a project bank to align all development, across all spheres of government, within the province, along with a project readiness matrix. 
"Mega projects should be government-driven and not developer-driven, located within the spatial master plan to ensure alignment with municipal IDPs," said MEC Maile.