The Western Cape provincial treasury is withholding at least R300-million meant for the N2 Gateway Housing Project until the ongoing problems engulfing it are resolved.
It was revealed at a budget committee briefing in the provincial legislature yesterday that millions of rands allocated for the project in the 2007/08 financial year have not been spent and that the department will hold on to a further R300m set aside for this (2008/09) financial year.
The issue was raised after ANC MPL Patrick McKenzie asked whether the Treasury had plans to combat organisations holding up construction on any of the government's housing projects.
The project first encountered problems when Joe Slovo informal settlement dwellers refused to be relocated to Delft - 15km away - to make way for the housing development.
This prompted Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, government-appointed housing company Thubelisha and Local Government and Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi to ask the Cape High Court to order that the squatters be moved to temporary housing in Delft last September.
The more than 4 000 households, who were going to be moved over 45 weeks, opposed the application for their eviction. A long legal squabble, which has now gone to the Constitutional Court, ensued.
The court is yet to decide whether to allow residents to appeal a Cape High Court judgment which last month ordered them to be temporarily relocated to Delft.
This is the delay that has led the Treasury to hold on to the funding until the N2 Gateway legal issue is solved.
The head of public finance in the Treasury, Harry Malila, said that given the problems associated with the N2 Gateway, there was an agreement between the provincial and national governments that any underspending will be rolled over to 2008/09.
Malila said that once everything had been sorted out, the Treasury will then transfer the money to the account of the administrator (Thubelisha).
He said that in the last fin-ancial year, the department had paid only for the work done - from April until about October/November 2007, when problems started.
Part of the underspending - from October/November 2007 to March this year - had been rolled over to the current financial year.
Malila said he wasn't sure of the exact figure of the money to be rolled over.
Sources close to the Cape Argus estimate this amount to be about R80-million.
The Treasury has set aside a further R400m for development for the 2009/10 financial year.
"Among other reasons to withhold the funds was that we also have to look at whether conditions for the conditional grant were being met," added Malila.
The head of the N2 Gateway project, Prince Xhanti Sigcawu, told the Cape Argus that the legal issues had badly affected the development and caused enormous delays to the whole process.
"If people had relocated (last year) and we never went to the courts, we would have gone far with the project," he said.
Sigcawu said massive development in Joe Slovo had not started because of the courts and people refusing to relocate.
"There are other approved funds, even by the city, which are sitting there unless people relocate," said Sigcawu.
Other issues revealed at the meeting were how the energy crisis, high inflation and interest rate climate, coupled with skills shortage, international financial marketing crisis and slow growth in manufacturing and agriculture, were posing risks to the economic outlook of the Western Cape.
- Cape Argus
It was revealed at a budget committee briefing in the provincial legislature yesterday that millions of rands allocated for the project in the 2007/08 financial year have not been spent and that the department will hold on to a further R300m set aside for this (2008/09) financial year.
The issue was raised after ANC MPL Patrick McKenzie asked whether the Treasury had plans to combat organisations holding up construction on any of the government's housing projects.
The project first encountered problems when Joe Slovo informal settlement dwellers refused to be relocated to Delft - 15km away - to make way for the housing development.
This prompted Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, government-appointed housing company Thubelisha and Local Government and Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi to ask the Cape High Court to order that the squatters be moved to temporary housing in Delft last September.
The more than 4 000 households, who were going to be moved over 45 weeks, opposed the application for their eviction. A long legal squabble, which has now gone to the Constitutional Court, ensued.
The court is yet to decide whether to allow residents to appeal a Cape High Court judgment which last month ordered them to be temporarily relocated to Delft.
This is the delay that has led the Treasury to hold on to the funding until the N2 Gateway legal issue is solved.
The head of public finance in the Treasury, Harry Malila, said that given the problems associated with the N2 Gateway, there was an agreement between the provincial and national governments that any underspending will be rolled over to 2008/09.
Malila said that once everything had been sorted out, the Treasury will then transfer the money to the account of the administrator (Thubelisha).
He said that in the last fin-ancial year, the department had paid only for the work done - from April until about October/November 2007, when problems started.
Part of the underspending - from October/November 2007 to March this year - had been rolled over to the current financial year.
Malila said he wasn't sure of the exact figure of the money to be rolled over.
Sources close to the Cape Argus estimate this amount to be about R80-million.
The Treasury has set aside a further R400m for development for the 2009/10 financial year.
"Among other reasons to withhold the funds was that we also have to look at whether conditions for the conditional grant were being met," added Malila.
The head of the N2 Gateway project, Prince Xhanti Sigcawu, told the Cape Argus that the legal issues had badly affected the development and caused enormous delays to the whole process.
"If people had relocated (last year) and we never went to the courts, we would have gone far with the project," he said.
Sigcawu said massive development in Joe Slovo had not started because of the courts and people refusing to relocate.
"There are other approved funds, even by the city, which are sitting there unless people relocate," said Sigcawu.
Other issues revealed at the meeting were how the energy crisis, high inflation and interest rate climate, coupled with skills shortage, international financial marketing crisis and slow growth in manufacturing and agriculture, were posing risks to the economic outlook of the Western Cape.
- Cape Argus
No comments:
Post a Comment