Question NW3118 to the Minister of Human Settlements

Reply:

The following measures have been put in place to ensure that the time frames for clearing the housing backlog are met, particularly in the rural parts of the Republic:

• The Department has a multi-year development plan that outlines projects that are going to be funded and implemented over a number of years. The multi-year development plan is a bottom-up plan, which is informed by the need for housing that is identified at the local municipality ward level, escalated to a consolidated local, district municipalities and finally provincial level. The plans cover projects that respond to the housing needs in both urban and rural areas. The multi-year development plan gets disaggregated into annual business plans with clear timelines to achieve the project deliverables and budgets to fund the projects.

• The Department funds the Provincial annual business plans through the Human Settlements Development Grant (HSDG) and the Informal Settlements Upgrading Partnership Grants (ISUPG) to fund the development of human settlements projects and upgrade informal settlements.

The Department also funds the Metropolitan Municipalities’ annual business plans through the Urban Settlements Development Grant (USDG) and the Informal Settlements Upgrading Partnership Grants (ISUPG) to fund the development of human settlements projects and upgrade informal settlements.

• To ensure that the plans are implemented within the set time frames and allocated budgets, the Department conducts ongoing monitoring and oversight in all projects under implementation.