INDIVIDUALS OWN GOVT HOUSES – MINISTER

MBABANE – There are allegations that some government houses may have been turned into individuals’ private properties.

This was the assertion made by the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Prince Simelane, who noted that there was no way that government can only have 930 pool houses. 

The minister said as a result, a proper stock-take of all government houses should be undertaken. 

Taken

Prince Simelane was of the view that the government houses may have been taken over by some individuals and turned them into their own private properties. 

The minister made these observations in the House of Assembly during the debate and adoption of the Ministry of Public Service report of government pool and institutional houses audit which was motivated by the minister of Public Service Christian Ntshangase. 

Ntshangase had said the 930 houses were located in all the four regions of the country. 

However, during the debate, Prince Simelane said the figure was very curious and there was no way the State had such few houses. 

He made the example of government-owned houses in locations like Sandla Township in the capital city. 

The minister of Housing said all the houses were built in a similar fashion and it was clear that government had been the original owner.  He said he did not recall a scenario where government houses were sold in the country. 

“I am very suspicious that some people have turned these houses into their own and a thorough investigation can unearth that some of these houses are in the names of individuals,” said Prince Simelane. 

Audit

Meanwhile, minister Ntshangase agreed with his colleague and said due to limited resources, they were unable to carry out a full audit to find out who the occupants of all the houses were. 

Ntshangase said this was mostly because they could only carry out the inspections during the day when the adults were mostly away at work and sometimes they found children who did not have the full details of the house’s occupants. 

Ntshangase said as a result, they had designed a form which was supposed to be filled in by the occupants of the houses. 

The minister further said another challenge the ministry faced was that the time-frame allocated was very short because there were many houses in all the regions. 

Ntshangase said from the total stock of government pool houses, nine of them were found to be unallocated because they were not fit for human occupation and needed major renovations. 

He said the exercise was fruitful to some extent as about 24 occupants were found to be underpaying rent and some of them were found to be claiming housing allowances illegally. 

He said all those implicated had since started paying rent and added that it was further backdated. 

During the adoption of the report, the MPs highlighted that it was of utmost importance that funds were allocated to conduct a proper audit of the houses. Minister Ntshangse said this would also be helpful when government started selling some of it’s property because they could use the survey to give them an indication of how many houses were available. 

The minister further said in future, for the exercise to be effectively carried out, there was a need to work after working hours, including weekends in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Works and Transport and the police to provide safety when visiting the houses. 

Meanwhile, Madlangempisi MP Sibusiso ‘Scorpion’ Nxumalo asked if it was appropriate for a member of Liqoqo to occupy a government house. 

In response, Minister Ntshangase said in some instances, it did happen that politicians occupied government houses and also paid rent. He said for those who qualified for housing allowances, they would forfeit that benefit if they had such. 

The minister also said it was high time that government considered increasing the rentals because rental amounts such as E84 no longer made commercial sense, especially for a person who occupied a three-bedroom house. 

The House adopted the report, stating that the allocation of government houses should also be made in a procedural manner, as in the past there were reports that the housing allocation committee was corrupt as they wanted bribes or sexual favours. 

However, Ntshangase assured that all was in order.

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