Question NW1981 to the Minister of Human Settlements
19 June 2023 - NW1981
Tito, Ms LF to ask the Minister of Human Settlements
(1) Whether the Local and National Government is responsible to report any evictions of homeless persons to her department, if not what is the position in this regard? (2) Whether she has been informed that the City of Cape Town has evicted homeless persons living along the FW de Klerk Boulevard; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what plans has her department put in place to allocate decent housing to the evicted homeless persons?
Reply:
1. The query was forwarded to the City of Cape Town to provide a reply and the City responded as follows “Local Government has no statutory obligation nor constitutional responsibility to report any eviction to which it may be a party nor court ruling of any nature, to the Ministry of Human Settlements which has no mandate nor oversight role in this regard” Whilst this may be the case, the National Department of Human Settlements (NDHS) is of the view that the City should have requested for assistance from it to address this matter within the framework of cooperative governance, as per chapter 3 of the constitution.
2. The City of Cape Town (CoCT) has not informed the NDHS of such evictions.
The NDHS will not encroach into the functional responsibility of another sphere of government, but it stands ready to provide assistance to the the CoCT via the Emergency Housing Programme when requested to do so.