MEC Mamabolo wastes millions to guard dilapidated houses

The Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development has spent R22 million to date to safeguard 36 vacant and dilapidated Gauteng Provincial Government houses situated along 14th and 15th Avenue in Boksburg North, Ekurhuleni.

This has been revealed by Gauteng Infrastructure Development MEC, Jacob Mamabolo, in an oral reply to the DA questions in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature.

According to MEC Mamabolo, a security company was hired in October 2011 to safeguard these houses.

To date the Department has paid R22 million for the security services and, with no apparent plans for these houses, this cost is set to escalate.

While the Gauteng ANC-led administration continues to waste the people of Gauteng’s money, the infrastructure that it is responsible for continues to fall into an unusable state.

These houses now have a much lower market value than what is being spent to guard them and are not in a habitable state.

We will hold MEC Mamabolo accountable to ensure that there is an immediate solution regarding these houses which are costing the province millions of Rands annually in unnecessary expenditure.