Department of Human Settlements commits to providing quality services

The Department of Human Settlements is in the process of developing the best possible funding and financing model that will enable the achievement of a vision of sustainable human settlements and improved quality of life.

This was revealed during the Department of Human Settlements Indaba and Exhibition at Birchwood Hotel and Conference Centre on March 6.

The Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation, Lindiwe Sisulu, highlighted that the new funding and finance model will assist in addressing investment in priority development areas, upgrading informal settlements and ensuring access to various forms of housing assistance to qualify households.

“We declare a new covenant on building robust, youth-owned business entities, woman-owned business entities, and military veterans’ business-owned entities and people with disabilities.”

Sisulu said they are committed to ensuring the set-aside targets of 30 per cent for allocation of business projects to these prioritised groups are embedded in the Housing Code, which is the blueprint of service delivery in the housing and human settlements sector.

“We want to encourage more young people to participate in construction of houses as a form of service to the community and their country, and at the same time become empowered by gaining skills, further learning and employment,” said Sisulu.

Meanwhile, she highlighted that the department has delivered more than 4.7 million housing opportunities since 1994, though there’s still an estimate of 2.3 million housing backlog.

Sisulu said the department has undertaken 50 catalytic projects to install basic services and infrastructure in 2 000 informal settlements, while laying foundation that will ensure that by 2030 all South Africans live in adequate housing.

Some of the challenges raised by the sector include high and frustrating levels of instability in the development process as well as payment of invoices within 30 days, especially to emergent and empowerment stakeholders.

The Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, also addressed attendees on making integrated development a reality.

Dlamini-Zuma said cities are bursting at the seams with high rural/urban migration, but no matter how much the cities are redesigned and revamped, they simply were not designed to take such large inflows.

“We must therefore transform our rural settlements by giving them a more urban face. As we build new cities, we must focus on areas such as the OR Tambo district in the Transkei and locate opportunities and smart cities there. This will curb the rural to urban migration trends,” said Dlamini-Zuma.

She said industrial and private sector investments have concentrated themselves in areas that have been advantaged with opportunity.

She further highlighted that this has led to low local economic growth in rural and township areas.

“This is an indication that we need to focus on the untapped potential. For instance, the OR Tambo district has a 160km coastline which could be a tourist, fisheries and maritime mecca. It has an abundance of land, flora, fauna and talented people who can grow and create things, yet it is one of the poorest districts,” said Dlamini-Zuma.