Leadership inconsistencies in the Department of Human Settlements contribute to inefficiencies

The MEC of the Department of Human Settlements in the province Uhuru Moiloa said that the issue of housing in Alexandra will remain problematic until the country’s thorny issue of land is resolved.

Moiloa was speaking during the oral submissions to the Alex inquiry, in which issues that led to the recent Alex total shutdown were being investigated. He pointed at inconsistencies in administrative leadership as one of the contributing factors that have led to the poor performance of the department. He said that land and property owners in Alexandra have to come to the party in ensuring that the township is developed.

“The answer to how to solve the problem of Alexandra is a block by block development programme,” Moiloa said. “That will mean demolishing what exists and replacing it with a new programme, but there are certain conditions that need to be fulfilled to reach that stage.

“Anything less than that will require us to come back here to another commission to explain ourselves. This places an obligation on the president of the republic because this issue can not only be a provincial problem, but is a South African problem.”

When asked by the chair of the inquiry, Buang Jones, if his department will be able to build one million houses as President Cyril Ramaphosa promised residents at the San Kopano centre during his visit, Moiloa said the president was quoted out of context by the media and some political leaders of the opposition parties. He said the president meant one million houses countrywide in the next five years, not in Alexandra alone.

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