A total of 923 government officials have been caught during the human settlement department's crackdown on corruption, Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale said on Thursday.

"We cannot allow people to turn the poor into a business. This is morally reprehensible," Sexwale said at a housing settlement meeting in Boksburg, on the East Rand, adding that the department was hot on the heels of other people in government.

The two-day meeting ends on Friday. Participants include representatives from the mining and financial sectors.

His department was not just "mouthing slogans", but "giving teeth" to its drive to root out corruption, Sexwale said.

According to a report by the Special Investigation Unit (SIU), which heads the department's special audit task team, 800 of those arrested were in national and provincial government, and 123 in local government.

Five members of the legal fraternity had been struck of the roll for housing corruption.

The SIU said it was asked in April 2007 to investigate housing subsidies and housing contract procurement. It had since dedicated a team to housing fraud.

The investigation initially focused on government employees who had received low income housing subsidies.

Those who were caught, had typically misrepresented either their income, employee status or marital status, the SIU said.

"In one instance an employee earning more than R100,000 per annum declared that he was unemployed and as a result of the misrepresentation qualified for a RDP house which he was not entitled to," it said in a written response to questions.

The five legal representatives faced criminal charges for conveyancing fraud.

The SIU said it was also investigating 6074 municipal employees identified in a report by the Auditor-General.

To date, 159 officials had appeared in court. Of these 106 cases had been finalised and 53 were pending.

"In the second phase of this investigation, the SIU will be focusing on the housing contractor and syndicates that are responsible for selling and renting RDP houses," it said.

At the meeting in Boksburg, Sexwale said it had been necessary to demolish or renovate 40,000 houses across the country because of poor workmanship.

In two instances, a 13-year-old youth and a woman died when houses collapsed.

"Clearly, somebody must account. The situation clearly follows from questionable contracts and building standards approved by government officials and implemented by the private sector."

Sexwale wanted the "stamping out" of corruption to form part of Thursday's meeting.

It originally aimed to build partnerships between the government and the private sector in the drive to build sustainable housing settlements in the country.

Sexwale urged delegates to come up with ideas to "give the poor a voice".

"We face a complex financial reality where the private sector too often adopts a wait-and-see attitude to financing the homes of the poor... this is a call for us to go the extra mile."

Despite the latest positive GDP figures, Sexwale said there was a long haul to real economic recovery.

"At the level of national government departments, the division of revenue has seen a decline in allocations... the situation is not going to improve significantly," he said.

Careful thought was needed to overcome this and the accompanying increase in informal settlements.

"All stakeholders must understand that being financially poor does not mean intellectual ineptitude.

"That is why it is important to work with the poor. There are challenges confronting all of us... We must think and think things through in order to find appropriate solutions," said Sexwale.

Sapa