By BAKANG MOKOTO
The North West MEC for Cooperative Governance, Human Settlement and Traditional Affairs (COGHSTA), Nono Maloyi said, the core mandate of his department is at the rock face of service delivery to the communities.
Maloyi further said the housing delivery intertwines with many other service deliverables such as bulk services, access roads, proper ablution facilities, electricity, and so forth. In his address during the strategic planning Lekgotla, Maloyi appealed to officials within his department to prioritize integrated planning with municipalities, across all three spheres of government.
“Lack of adequate and integrated planning has proved to be creating a lot of challenges for the department and delivery of low-cost housing. So, I would like to make a call to officials to ensure that our APPs are SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.
“Being smart in approach will assist in yielding positive results and the department will record milestones. I would like to commend our officials for spending the departmental budget as expected and we need to ensure that, the spent budget equals services delivered,” he said.
According to Maloyi, they have a contract that they signed with the people of the North West. He added, therefore, there is an obligation to deliver services as promised.
“We are restoring dignity to our people as guided by the Freedom Charter. I am calling on all officials to make this year, a year of delivery, a year where you will triple your efforts in delivering services.
“I want to see results that will simply say the government has achieved its promises and our people are living in habitable houses in peace and harmony,” said Maloyi.
Meanwhile, the Head of Department (HoD), Kgomotso Mahlobo shared the same sentiments. Mahlobo vowed to ensure that, she will be steering the department towards a clean audit, by approaching and doing things differently.
“The transfer of funds to other departments because of the failure to spend by the department is a thing of the past. I urge our officials to also do things differently and comply with the rules and regulations governing the public service.
“We will improve the administrative functions and make a positive impact as expected. Our financial management plans must be fit for purpose, and this we can achieve that if we reach to each other and communicate real deliverables for definite achievements,” she said.
Without reminiscing her words, Mahlobo said she will not hesitate to terminate all developers that abandoned their site and left projects incomplete.
“We are not going to be delayed by unscrupulous developers, who continue to delay service delivery. We must work faster and smarter to ensure that we take the bull by its horns.
“We are a winning team with capable and skilled personnel. We should not be derailed by negative external forces. We are going to do what is expected of us and within the timeframes expected, said Mahlobo.
She said the department has among others resolved to deal head-on with challenges facing the department. Mahlobo said the strategic session committed to prioritizing unblocking blocked projects, treating disaster or emergency situations with the necessary speed, while still ensuring compliance, and improving on subsidy administration and payments of service providers according to treasury regulations.
The Guardian 