Tokyo Sexwale, Minister of Human Settlements, seems to have proved this and it really would help our whole country if many others, such as State Security Minister, Siyabonga Cwele, were exposed to the commercial world before entering politics.
How can one explain that Cwele’s wife, Sheryl, has been arrested on charges of drug dealing? She’s married to the State Security Minister and these are the allegations that have been levelled against her. She was refused permission to apply for bail when she appeared in court last Friday.
Cwele is just one of many high-profile arrests that have been made amid widespread reports of alleged corruption, fraud, nepotism and self-enrichment against cabinet ministers and other senior government officials. Every day you open a newspaper, read online news reports or listen to a radio station, more corruption cases emerge.
Now Tokyo Sexwale, Minister of Human Settlements, has admitted to Parliament that more than 40,000 houses need to be demolished because, he says, crooked contractors have taken the government for a ride.
His predecessor, Dr Lindiwe Sisulu, presumably in the process of messing up the South African National Defence Force as she did when she was Minister of Housing, was probably responsible for approving those building contracts that cover almost 8,000 housing projects around the country.
Forty thousand badly built houses that must be demolished (over and above those that have already fallen down) is a testament to incompetence, not professionalism.
Last year, while Sisulu was in office, I warned, along with many other columnists and journalists, that she and her Housing Department were making a complete mess of the government’s housing efforts and that she and her officials were completely incompetent when it comes to delivering houses to millions of poor people in South Africa.
Houses that you and I pay for.
Many people, including her own department, responded angrily to my comments, reverting to the most pathetic of all excuses that “Hartdegen is a racist”. Well, guess what, 40,000 houses must now be demolished because they were so badly built by contractors who were so utterly incompetent that they couldn’t do a decent job.
And Hartdegen’s a racist. Grow up.
Just last week we covered another of the appalling blunders from government who paid R300m on a contract to build 4,500 houses and failed to deliver them but paid the Mpisane’s for the job.
Do a bit of research into failed government housing contracts and you will find that billions of rands have gone from government coffers, and billions more have gone into luxurious houses, fleets of luxury cars, overseas holidays and Jimmy Choo shoes.
Sexwale’s plan is to now use technology to keep an eye on the almost 8,000 projects around the country. Clearly, while in the commercial world, running Mvelaphanda, and holding directorships at Trans Hex Group, Northam Platinum, Absa, Allied Electronics and Gold Fields he learned quite a lot.
It was there that he became intimately involved in the intricacies of the business world, and presumably it was there that he discovered just how much of a business aid technology is. And he obviously started to use it to stamp out any malpractice.
Now that he is the Minister of Human Settlements he is using technology to keep his beady eye on the progress being made at every building site everywhere in the country.
Sexwale, while briefing Parliament’s Oversight Committee on housing, has introduced what he calls mega-sleuth software that will allow him to keep an eye on every national housing project from the computer on his desk and will even use Google Earth to see the progress on site.
Hurray for technology.
And, in Sexwale’s case, the computer is not just a decoration that sits on his desk (as it is for so many other ministers, government officials and directors-general), but rather a tool that will help him get his work done.
Google Earth’s software has been embedded into the new software Sexwale is using and means that he will be able to zoom in on building sites and see what houses are being delivered. While there might not be enough detail in the images to see actual building quality from his desktop, it will give him an overview of what’s happening on the site.
Within the software, all Sexwale needs to do is click on a building site and he will have instant access to satellite images along with all the details of the approval processes that were followed, how the tender was adjudicated and which contractors and government officials are responsible for the job.
Had Sisulu had the same dedication to doing a decent job she may have stopped the government from being ripped off by incompetent, lying contractors. She may have saved billions of taxpayers rands used to enrich a favoured few with political links to the ANC.
Who knows, maybe she was rewarding other favours.
Sexwale told Parliament last week that he was not making “idle threats” when it comes to prosecuting those unscrupulous few who are stealing taxpayers’ money. He warns that he will use Willie Hofmeyr, head of the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to prosecute those crooks (be they government officials or private sector contractors) and, where possible, will confiscate their assets and return the proceeds from these assets to the government coffers.
Well done, Tokyo.
This is the sort of enterprise that we need from government and we need to see it in practice every day in every government department in the country.
Believe me, using software to track the progress of a particular task is something that is done routinely in the commercial world. It covers everything from awarding contractors, monitoring payment procedures, to keeping tabs on the contracts as they progress.
If such software is available commercially then there is no reason – other than incompetence – that it should not be deployed throughout every government department and made to work properly too.
Presuming, of course, you can get the government officials to switch on the machines and teach them how to use the software properly.
Sexwale says that those government officials who fail to monitor projects properly, incorrectly approve developments or are guilty of nepotism in any form would be held to account.
Hopefully what he means by this is that they’ll be summarily dismissed, arrested, formally charged and, if found guilty, jailed. His actions may start to clean out the widespread corruption, self-enrichment and theft that abounds in the housing sector.
If other ministers follow his example then, perhaps, government departments might start cleaning up their own act too.
My own opinion is that President Jacob Zuma needs to seriously re-evaluate Lindiwe Sisulu’s position in Cabinet because judging by her past performance she doesn’t seem competent to run anything at all.
If she made such a mess of housing, then it stands to reason she’ll make even more of a mess with the defence portfolio she’s handling now.
Of course, this apparent incompetence might suit government down to the ground given the outcry over the multi-billion dollar arms deal that is still shrouded in secrecy.
Sisulu might be exactly the right person for this job because she’ll make it as difficult to get any meaningful information from Defence as she did when she was running Housing.
As I have said before, history will be the judge of Sisulu’s performance and with thousands of houses now being demolished after billions of rands have been wasted, it is clear that history has been scathing in judging her performance.
A judgement that, in my view anyway, is sufficient to summarily dismiss her from any position of responsibility in any government department.
But then, I’m not part of government. I work in the commercial world. So my opinion, right as it might be, won’t carry any weight, will it?
*Hartdegen writes a regular column for Property24.com. The content of his columns constitutes his personal opinion and doesn’t pretend to be facts or advice. Contact him at paddy@neomail.co.za.
Readers' Comments Have a comment about this article? Email us now.
Please get an opinion from Mr Sexwale on the NHBRC’s officials and inspectors. The NHBRC do fall under Human Settlements. My experience with them is that their officials and inspectors are incompetent and corrupt. When will something be said about the NHBRC. I have never come across a good record or comment regarding the NHBRC. Can somebody please help the taxpayer to protect them against the NHBRC!!!! Please Mr Sexwale do something about those corrupt and incompetent officials too!!!! – Carmen Carstens
Hi Paddy
Hope you have seen the News 24 item today on SCOPA's attack on Sisulu and the Department of Defence. Your comments about her are justified, but what the hell can we get the PP (Promiscuous President) to do about it? – Vic Neilson
Great article! Unfortunately no government official will read it, for their PC’s are either offline or used as a footrest.
Keep going. Good reading. – Almero Dreyer
