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MEC must clarify Breidbach housing tender to company with sequestrated directors

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Dear MyPE

Human Settlements MEC Helen Sauls-August must clarify why a housing project for Breidbach was awarded to a company whose directors had been placed under sequestration. On Thursday, it was reported in the media that the department had acquired 163 sites from the Buffalo City Metro on which to build RDP houses in Breidbach. Does this form part of the deal with DCI Holdings?

This community, just outside King William’s Town, has been crying for houses for years now and has seen a number of violent protests. We cannot allow a situation where people are being led by the nose simply to keep the peace.

In a response to a legislature question I asked the MEC last year, she confirmed that the Breidbach Housing Project was awarded to DCI Holdings. The response went on to elaborate that part of the criteria for determining a successful company is “good administration and financial management”. However, Government Gazette No. 40604 shows that the directors of DCI Holdings, trading as Daku Group, were placed under sequestration on 2 November 2015 and the order was made final on 15 August 2016.

During this time, DCI Holdings was appointed to the Lesseyton and Ntsongeni Housing Project in Queenstown. The contract was terminated on 5 August 2015 by the Eastern Cape Department of Human Settlements due to poor performance and non-compliance with the Project Implementation Plan. The termination came amidst allegations that DCI Holdings was not paying its subcontractors.

The DA demands that the department clarify why it continues to award housing projects to this company when its directors had been placed under sequestration and the company removed from a previous project in the Eastern Cape.

Housing development companies in the Eastern Cape have questioned why a company that is based in the Western Cape continues to receive housing projects in the Eastern Cape to the exclusion of companies based in the province.

I have written to MEC Sauls-August asking her to outline the reasons why the department chose to award the project to DCI Holdings instead of the other companies that also submitted tenders.

Voters are sick and tired of poor service delivery. What we need is a change in approach to ensure transparency and accountability. A new DA-government will ensure this happens.

Regards

Sanele Magaqa

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Port Elizabethan

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