Sexwale in trouble for underspending

A parliamentary portfolio committee wants Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale to explain the under-expenditure of R2.5bn in his department.

MPs said on Friday that of the R25bn allocated to the department only R10bn had been spent during the first six months of the financial year.

The department’s officials told the human settlements committee they had spent only 40% of the expected 50% of the budget by the end of September.

The committee also said that the department had not succeeded to meet thousands of targets it had set.

Chairperson of the portfolio committee Nomhle Dambuza said the department needed to clean up its act and start using all the funds it had been allocated.

The department was supposed to have used half of the R25bn by the end of September, but it emerged from the officials, who appeared before MPs, that only 40% of the funds had been used by that time.

Dambuza and the members of the committee wanted Sexwale and provincial housing MECs to appear before the parliamentary committee to explain the under-expenditure of R2.5bn.

While no date had been set for the appearance of the minister and provincial MECs, the committee wanted all the funds to be used.

Dambuza said she wanted the department to ensure the money allocated to it was used by the end of the financial year.

She said the funds could not just be under-spent when there was a pressing need for houses for thousands of needy South Africans.

This is the second time that the department has been hauled over the coals by a parliamentary committee for under-spending on projects.

The department told the select committee on public service in September that it had not used all the budget for the building of toilets in all provinces except the Western Cape and Gauteng.

The department had set aside R1.2bn for the construction of toilets over four years.

During the 2010-11 financial year the department set aside R100m, but spent only R70m on the building of toilets.

In the 2011-12 period human settlements allocated R257m for the building of toilets, but it spent only R187m.

This forced the department to shift the funds to the next financial year.

The department has allocated R479m for toilets this financial year and R389m for the 201-14 financial period.

- newage