Picture: North West MEC for Public Works and Roads, Oageng Molapisi/Facebook
By OBAKENG MAJE
The government employees, who continue to occupy houses belonging to the North West Public Works for years without paying any rent, are now R72 million in arrears. The North West MEC for Public Works and Roads, Oageng Molapisi said, they have appointed a law firm in a quest to recoup the money owed to them. Molapisi said they might evict those who fail to pay the rental money.
“The concern that we are raising here is that, some of these people have signed lease. However, they are not honouring their contractual obligations. This means they are not paying rent as they were supposed to.
“So, what we have done as the department because this impact in our ability to collect revenue, we have told them that, whether they are going to pay whatever is outstanding or we are going to evict them,” he said.
Molapisi further said, his department is also in the process of disposing non-core assets of the government. He added that some of those non-core assets are properties or houses belonging to the department.
“Now, we want to dispose these houses and many of the people who occupied them are government officials. So, as we were trying to sign deeds of sale of these houses, we found out that, some of these people are owing the department.
“For example, we are selling a house worth R650 000 and the occupant owes us R350 000. This means, if we continue to sell, the occupant will be buying the house at nothing, said Molapisi.
He said the amount that is being owed to his department is around R72 million.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) provincial spokesperson on Public Works and Roads, Freddy Sonakile said Molapisi must account for the department’s inability to recover lost rent as well as for failure to implement the State Housing Policy.
According to Sonakile, the State Housing Policy only allows political office bearers and scarce-skill officials such as medical doctors, nurses, and other professionals in far-flung rural regions, not departmental employees, who work at provincial government departments.
“The Auditor General (AG) has for years indicated that the department suffers from internal control deficiencies, and a failure to implement its policies confirms this.
“The DA raised this matter several times at the Portfolio Committee. The department has previously indicated that, it administers 1352 properties across the North West, which consist of freestanding houses, apartments, institutional accommodation, and single-quarter residences. These properties should be used to accommodate scarce skills in communities,” he said.
Sonakile said, they will submit written questions to Molapisi on how many officials have been living rent-free, for how long, the total revenue lost, their positions, and who authorised the occupation of these properties. He said it seems just like ANC politicians live in luxury at taxpayer expense in North West, this has been extended to cadres employed in government.
“This is unacceptable, especially considering that hundreds of thousands of desperate people across the province live in terrible conditions waiting for formalised state housing while battling unemployment, yet salaried government officials think they can live rent-free at taxpayer expense,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) provincial secretary, Papiki Babuile said: “We fully support the move that, anyone who can afford a house, in particular, government employees, must pay for the services rendered including rentals.
“This will assist the department in renovating those houses and so on. Molapisi must first make sure that these people are given the necessary warning and all due processes are followed before they are evicted.”
Babuile said the alternative that Molapisi can do is to make sure these people sign a lease with the department. He said then the department can directly deduct the rental money from these salaries.
“Removing people from their houses without providing them with alternatives, it will be a violation of human rights. The department must make sure that it follows all procedures before evicting them.
“The department can only evict them if they fail to pay back the money owed to it. So, we must also be wary that the department will not evict people only for those houses to be occupied by high-ranking politicians and government officials’ cronies and families,” said Babuile.
He alleged that they have seen this tendency in the province, especially during auctions.
The Guardian 