http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A639698

Stones unturned in crackdown on housing graft
Andile Sokomani

ON THE face of it, the government appears to be cracking down on housing fraud. According to recent media reports, more than 50000 public servants who appear to have been receiving low-cost houses irregularly have been identified, and the state is in the process of bringing them to book. The Special Investigating Unit has also started investigations into an estimated R3bn fraud committed between 1994 and 2004 by unscrupulous housing developers and contractors. Does this therefore suggest the government is nipping the problem in the bud? Unscrupulous public servants, private developers and contractors are indeed part of the problem, but they are not the exclusive culprits. For a start, the risk posed by private developers is no longer significant. The increasing emphasis on municipalities as developers removes the private developer from the payment transaction chain.