The Department of Human Settlements (DOHS) is considering establishing a state-owned construction company. This is according to a statement made by the Minister of Human Settlements Tokyo Sexwale on Wednesday.

Sexwale outlined that when houses are built in the government housing programme, the department relied heavily on companies stemming from the ‘bakkie brigade’.

“This does not take away the fact that some small companies have experience, but a lot of fly-by-nights take the taxpayer to the cleaners with their shoddy workmanship,” he pointed out.

The DOHS together with the Department of Public Works are exploring theconceptof a state owned construction company as the DOHS isa key player in the property market. A recent study has shown that that 1.44 million of the six million registered residential properties in the Deeds Registry are government subsidised. This represents 24% of the total number of registered residential properties.

Sexwale stated this could increase to 35% if the backlog in issuing title deeds was overcome. This he explained could allow the DOHS to focus on low-cost housing construction projects in its attempt to root out corruption and maladministration.

Nearly R30 million that has been lost through corrupt activities in the housing delivery chain has been recovered.