In a statement, the Department of Human Settlements says the department has already terminated about 15 developers' services who were found to be incompetent or performed poorly. MEC Nono Maloyi said poor performance or non-delivery by appointed contractors delays service delivery and as such leads to the department not achieving its mandate. MEC Maloyi also made a call to departmental officials to ensure that service providers are paid within 30 days.  

“The more you delay payments to our service providers, the more you frustrate and collapse their businesses. That will delay service delivery and hinder the department from achieving its mandate. If found to be engaged in such activities, I will not hesitate to crack the whip.”  

“Everything that we do in achieving our goal should be done within the prescripts of the law. I'm going to ensure that whatever move we make should be thoroughly verified and ensure that all regulations are followed. We must accelerate the speed in delivering services,” Maloyi said.

More contractors are expected to have their contracts with the department terminated. This was revealed during a meeting between Maloyi and his departmental officials recently.

In this meeting, Maloyi called for further investigations into the delay in payments of contractors and also called for officials to apply consequence management on those who have been sabotaging the process.

In this meeting, Maloyi and his officials further made recommendations and explained challenges experienced at different municipalities that obscure service delivery.

Issues such as the non-spending of municipal infrastructure grants by municipalities, the implementation of renewable energy in some areas across the province, the provision of water infrastructure, electricity, roads and many other services were some of the major issues the MEC emphasised for officials to fast track," Maloyi further said.

The termination of poor-performing contractors was one of the key issues raised by Premier Bushy Maape during the state of the nation address last month. During this meeting officials further revealed to MEC Maloyi that there is a serious challenge with blocked projects.

It's said that some of the projects date back to as far as 2006. The departmental officials have since vowed that they will deal with such.

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