During the Human Settlements budget speech debate, the Freedom Front Plus' (FF Plus) Armand Cloete lambasted the department's MEC, Mxolisi Dukwana. Cloete said it was outrageous that the department lost an unspent R20 million of a conditional grant meant for service delivery, which was re-allocated to the neighbouring province of the Northern Cape.

“Our department should be working for our people, not against them. So yes, the National Department of Human Settlements and the National Treasury stopped an amount of R20 million and the funds were re-allocated to the Northern Cape. That’s the demon or dragon this department will need to slay. This department is not working for the province but against it. That speaks to the capacity, speaker, if you continue to employ people who cannot do the job, the Free State will continue to suffer. While the debate regarding land, property and the need for decent housing is a hot topic, politicians regularly make populist statements but we have a department which is unable to fulfil its mandate,” Cloete added.

The DA’s Leona Kleynhans also followed suit and bashed the department for losing these grants on two accusations in different financial years with R100 million being forfeited a year before the current.

“We know that in the last financial year, the department forfeited R20 million in unspent funds, back to the Treasury. We know that in the previous year R100 million was forfeited. In a reply in this Legislature, the MEC said that in the Free State there are 228 blocked projects. This means that 228 projects to build houses (8 836) has stopped and nothing is happening and these 8 836 houses are just standing there unfinished,” Kleynhans added.

Meanwhile, the EFF MPL Mahlomola Majake had cautious words for MEC Dukwana and further reminded him that their party will hold him accountable for his promises to the people of the Free State. We have 70- to 80-year-olds who do not have houses in the Free State today - after 28 years. We note the appointment of conveyors and we hope it will ease issues around the title deeds. We recommend that the Department of Human Settlements should work together with the department of Public Works in advancing one of our pillars in the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) to advocate for the establishment of a state-owned construction company that will be responsible for building houses. We suggest this and recommend this because we think it will go a long way in assisting the department,” Majake added.

Dukwana on Tuesday delivered his first departmental budget speech at the Fourth Raadsaal in Bloemfontein after assuming office. He told Members of the Provincial Legislature (MPLs) and those who were in attendance that “the prudent management of financial resources is an absolute necessity".

He said his department has made modest and bold strides in ensuring that it remains committed to the prescripts of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) and the Public Audit Act, as amended. He, however, mentioned that the road ahead remains steep and challenging.

“We do not believe merely in being technically compliant but [placing] an extra burden on ourselves by monitoring and evaluating our work as well as the impact it has on the lives of our people,” Dukwana added.

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