Ido lekota

Ido lekota

The government has decided to intervene in the Eastern Cape housing crisis.

The cabinet announced yesterday that it was sending a national team to assist the Eastern Cape department of housing to deal with the crisis.

The decision was taken after a report indicated that the department was failing to fulfil its mandate to deliver houses.

"The delivery of houses in the province has declined from 37000 units a year in 2004 and 2005 to 11 750 in the 2007 and 2008 financial year," the cabinet said in a statement.

It also indicated that if the situation did not improve the minister of housing would take over the administration of the provincial housing department.

"The deployment of the team will be in terms of section 3 (2) (d) of the Housing Act 107 of 1997 to ensure housing delivery is accelerated in the province," the statement said.

The report listed several problems that had led to poor delivery. These included slow on-site deliveries, inefficient on-site management, irregular material supply, inefficient payment to contractors and high labour turnover.