Question NW984 to the Minister of Human Settlements

Reply:

Since the beginning of 2019 financial year up to December 2022, the Department of Human Settlements has worked with all Provinces, municipalities and entities in a concerted effort to significantly reduce the housing backlog. The measures used include delivering 158 769 serviced sites, upgrading 329 informal settlements, issuing 17 492 first home partial subsidies for houses, 9 764 social housing units, 1675 community residential units, delivered 87 687 title deeds ,constructed 184 637 housing units to qualifying beneficiaries, acquiring 12,8774 hectares of land from state owned entities and 3902,5075 hactares of land from the public works and rural development and 11902,6699 hactares of land from private owners.

The Department has provided grant funding to Provinces and metropolitan municipalities. It has also prepared the informal settlements upgrading plans across the nine Provinces. The plans promote participatory planning processes to enable development of layout plans based a negotiated process with the communities to ensure incremental upgrading of areas.

The Department has facilitated that Provinces develop Multi-Year Housing Development Plan (MYHDP), that are aligned with the Provincial Growth and Development Strategies (PGDS) and the Provincial Spatial Development Plans (PSDP). This has created a roadmap to identifying mechanisms to further reduce the housing backlogs. This integration and alignment of plans seek to incorporate planning systems which promote densification, infill and compaction in the wake of high rates of urbanisation in urban areas and migration patterns prevalent in the Province. Such mechanisms and programmes aim to significantly reduce housing backlogs and ensure that approved beneficiaries receive dignity and enjoy spatial transformation and sustainable human settlements.

The department is also providing social housing in identified restructuring zones and is also acquiring land and the providing bulk infrastructure where capacity issues and deficits have been identified. Where there has been blockages the Department has prepared national unblocking plans to ensure development is not stalled and that human settlements service delivery imperatives continue.

In line with the Medium Terms Strategic Framework the Department has been focusing its investment in strategic areas that are often a subject of Urbanisation around the metropolitan municipalities and identified priority housing development areas. The department has also appointed and deployed technical teams comprised of civil engineers, planners, social faciilitators and quantity surveyors to serve as members of the War Rooms. These members have also crisscrosed the country diagnosing challenges and providing the required technical housing support to Provinces.