It's a matter of taking from the poor and giving to the rich as more than half of the unspent housing money returned from the Eastern Cape has ended up in Gauteng housing projects.
Gauteng received R152 million of this money, the Free State R68 million and Mpumalanga R50 million.
In 2008 the province returned half of the R1 billion it received for housing;
In 2007 R200 million,
and in previous years the money returned totalled almost R400 million.
Pandy said that at the end of 2008, which was three-quarters into the financial year, the Eastern Cape housing department had had the lowest spending rate in the country, at 56 percent.
The National Treasury then stopped R270 million in terms of the the Division of Revenue Act and re-allocated the money.
This was gazetted in the Government Gazette on February 6, she said.
Pandy said this money had at that point not yet been transferred to the Eastern Cape and was simply re-allocated within the national housing department.
"The three provinces that were allocated the money from the Eastern Cape included the relevant amounts in their own adjustment budgets which were passed at the time of the tabling of provincial budgets in February 2009," she said.
Eastern Cape Housing MEC Thobile Mhlahlo, who took over the reins of the department in September 2008, denied that the money had been forfeited or that it was lost due to a lack of delivery.
"Around November 2008 we said we might not have the capacity to spend the remaining R200&nsp;million but on the ground we are moving with housing projects," he said.
Mhlahlo said instead of forfeiting the money to the National Treasury the province had struck an early agreement for the money to be taken back and returned later when the Eastern Cape had the capacity to spend the money and needed it.
"It is not because there is a lack of delivery. It is just that we wanted to buy some time in terms of expenditure strategy."
Despite the province's difficulty in spending the money and addressing delivery problems for three consecutive years its unconditional grant for housing is set to grow.
The province received R1.2 billion as an unconditional grant for housing in 2008/09, an allocation which has grown to R1.5 billion in the current financial year and which is due to grow to just under R1.9 billion in the next financial year.
DA leader in the province Athol Trollip said about 26 000 houses could have been built with the money the provincial housing department had failed to spend over the years.
One of the big problems was the 710 vacant posts in the department, he said.
The DA said there was a housing backlog of about 800 000 units in the province.
Eastern Cape ANC spokesman Mcebisi Jonas said the ANC was aware of the problem in housing.
He said there had been an improvement in delivery after the housing and local government departments had been split.
The lack of co-operation between tiers of government, the lack of officials with technical skills and problems with the acquisition of land were the problems.
- Cape Argus
The Eastern Cape can be likened to an internal Zimbabwe; backward development due to corruption nepotism and cronyship, from where the people have migrated in droves to other provinces.Treasury spokeswoman Thoraya Pandy confirmed yesterday that R270 million of unspent housing money from the Eastern Cape had been re-allocated to other provinces where housing projects were under way.
Gauteng received R152 million of this money, the Free State R68 million and Mpumalanga R50 million.
Despite all the former MEC of Housing Richard Dyanti's 'hands-on' management of Eastern Cape housing probelms - No amount is listed that the Western Cape benefited from...2009 is the third consecutive year that unspent money from the Eastern Cape's conditional grant for housing has been re-allocated to faster-spending provinces.
In 2008 the province returned half of the R1 billion it received for housing;
In 2007 R200 million,
and in previous years the money returned totalled almost R400 million.
Pandy said that at the end of 2008, which was three-quarters into the financial year, the Eastern Cape housing department had had the lowest spending rate in the country, at 56 percent.
The National Treasury then stopped R270 million in terms of the the Division of Revenue Act and re-allocated the money.
This was gazetted in the Government Gazette on February 6, she said.
Pandy said this money had at that point not yet been transferred to the Eastern Cape and was simply re-allocated within the national housing department.
"The three provinces that were allocated the money from the Eastern Cape included the relevant amounts in their own adjustment budgets which were passed at the time of the tabling of provincial budgets in February 2009," she said.
Eastern Cape Housing MEC Thobile Mhlahlo, who took over the reins of the department in September 2008, denied that the money had been forfeited or that it was lost due to a lack of delivery.
"Around November 2008 we said we might not have the capacity to spend the remaining R200&nsp;million but on the ground we are moving with housing projects," he said.
Mhlahlo said instead of forfeiting the money to the National Treasury the province had struck an early agreement for the money to be taken back and returned later when the Eastern Cape had the capacity to spend the money and needed it.
"It is not because there is a lack of delivery. It is just that we wanted to buy some time in terms of expenditure strategy."
Despite the province's difficulty in spending the money and addressing delivery problems for three consecutive years its unconditional grant for housing is set to grow.
The province received R1.2 billion as an unconditional grant for housing in 2008/09, an allocation which has grown to R1.5 billion in the current financial year and which is due to grow to just under R1.9 billion in the next financial year.
DA leader in the province Athol Trollip said about 26 000 houses could have been built with the money the provincial housing department had failed to spend over the years.
One of the big problems was the 710 vacant posts in the department, he said.
The DA said there was a housing backlog of about 800 000 units in the province.
Eastern Cape ANC spokesman Mcebisi Jonas said the ANC was aware of the problem in housing.
He said there had been an improvement in delivery after the housing and local government departments had been split.
The lack of co-operation between tiers of government, the lack of officials with technical skills and problems with the acquisition of land were the problems.
- Cape Argus
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