Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale is "sharpening his pencil" to root out corrupt contractors and officials who build shoddy houses for the poor.

A National Housing Audit headed by the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) had been instituted to find the culprits who had caused "chronic" and "massive" problems in housing, he told journalists in Pretoria.

"The audit deals with issues where the law had been broken."

Sexwale said recent visits to all provinces, where he heard the concerns of those on the receiving end of low cost housing, and of those on waiting lists, had highlighted the need for an audit.

In the Northern and Eastern Cape alone 3000 houses would have to be destroyed as a result of "shoddy" and corrupt workmanship.

"In response to the situation we face, we have decided that we need to take a rigorous look at housing delivery, from top to bottom.

"We need to focus on issues we know are specific impediments: fraud, delays, corruption, absentee contractors, ghost houses, shoddy workmanship again and corruption around waiting lists."

Sexwale said those found guilty would face civil or criminal action. For those found within the government ranks, suspension with pay was not an option, he said.

Unscrupulous subcontractors and service providers would be blacklisted.

"We have to force these people to own up."

Sexwale said R20 million had already been recovered by the SIU after 800 government officials "nationally and provincially" had been found to be unlawful beneficiaries of housing subsidies.

A total of 120 of these were municipal employees who had been arrested.

He said more than R12 billion of the funds allocated to his department in the medium term budget would be spent on housing delivery. This was not enough considering the department was operating in a "shrunken economy" and would need to tighten its belt, he said.

Sexwale said it was "unfortunate" that human settlements had not been highlighted as one of government's key priorities, alongside national security, health, job creation, education and rural development.

Referring to the newly-launched presidential hotline, Sexwale said: "The first 27,000 calls to the hotline, the majority of those calls impact on human settlements. If housing has come out as the number one problem we need a paradigm shift.

"We need a paradigm shift that would have to resonate with budget."

He said he understood why, in the new national administration's infancy, people across the country were up-in-arms over poor service delivery.

"We are experiencing a widespread action by ordinary South Africans hardly six months since the election of this government," he said.

However while noting people's concerns he denounced "drop of the hat", "wrongly organised", violent protests.

"Whilst we condemn that, we now know why people would find themselves in that situation.

"We understand. We won't turn our backs on the poor. But how does it help anyone to burn a library? Why do you burn a clinic? For God's sake your child will need it," Sexwale said.

Sapa

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