Note to Broadcasters: Please find attached soundbites in English and Sesotho by Freddy Sonakile
The DA welcomes the unprecedented approach by the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Human Settlements to reject the North West Housing Corporation’s (NWHC) 2023/24 Annual Performance Plan (APP) and budget yesterday.
This follows the continued failure by the NWHC to address previous issues raised by the Committee. This includes, among others, failure to implement the resolutions around interprovincial properties belonging to the North West Provincial Government, failure to present a plan and implement it on the pronounced Mega Cities project and the general failure to perform on its mandate.
While the Committee rejected this APP and budget of R68 million, comprising mainly of a R44 million grant allocation from the Department of Human Settlements and only R23 million of their own revenue, the big elephant in the room remains unattended – whether the NWHC sold Morula Sun?
Morula Sun, now known as Goldrush Bingo Morula, was transferred to the NWHC in 2017 by Sun International to much fanfare.
The flimsy presentation from NWHC under the programme: Administration, only makes mention of an ‘amount of revenue collected through commercial sales (Morula)’ and lists an amount of R20 million. This left us with only questions as the NWHC did not provide any further clarity on the proposed sale of the property.
The DA wrote to the MEC of Human Settlements, Nono Maloyi, requesting that he takes the province into confidence as to whether Morula Sun has been sold, and if so, he must submit a comprehensive report on the nature of the sale.
We will also assess all the facts around the sale, as well as probe how the deal which had the potential to boost the North West provincial economy collapsed under NWHC’s custodianship in less than 6 years.
We welcome the resolution that the Department must not process any grants allocation to the NWHC until it has clarified several issues, including the Morula Sun matter. The DA will be following developments in this matter to safeguard the interests of North West residents.