Housing

“In line with tightening the laws around the sale of state subsidised houses there will be a clause that forbids the sale of subsidised houses to foreign nationals. Foreign nationals are urged to look to other forms of housing provided, such as social housing. The South African government would like all to understand that there are various housing options for everybody, but a free house is for an indigent South African”. These remarks were made by the Minister of Human Settlements during her budget speech to lawmakers.

In her view, “the provision of decent human settlements is an essential first step towards a solution to address most of our social ills. It is no longer only about a constitutional right, a Freedom Charter directive and the basis for dignity. It is now more than ever about the restoration of normalcy in society, where so many social ills thrive in conditions of poverty, homelessness and squalor”.

Speaking on her commitment to create a centralised database to reduce corruption in the allocation of houses, the Minister reported that the Department is working tirelessly to build this database and make sure that it links through to transparent processes of applying for a housing opportunity. The information system, built on a web-based platform, is called the National Housing Needs Register (NHNR). The Housing Needs Register has 2.22 million records, and each record represents a household that registers a housing need over the last seven years.