Mpumalanga Department of Human Settlements targets living conditions
The department's MEC, Speedy Mashilo, said the target for the 2023/24 financial year is to eradicate 299 mud houses in various villages in the province.
The Mpumalanga Department of Human Settlements has seen a slight decrease in its budget allocation compared to the previous financial years, but MEC Speedy Mashilo said work to improve the living conditions of the province’s people will continue unhindered.
Mashilo announced that his department will construct 3 085 government-subsidised houses during the 2023/24 financial year. The housing units will be spread across the province covering all three district municipalities, with Ehlanzeni getting 1 095, Gert Sibande receiving 966 and Nkangala, 1 024.
“Our target for the 2023/24 financial year is to eradicate 229 mud houses, already identified in different villages in Mkhondo, Bushbuckridge and Albert Luthuli local municipalities.”
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He said the impact of climate change has not spared Mpumalanga, as unprecedented high rainfall, heavy winds and hailstorms caused a lot of damage to the houses’ structures and drastically affected the infrastructure.
“The effects of climate change have affected the province before, and the department has still to finalise the repairs. But the unpredictable weather struck again in November 2022, when heavy rains and strong winds caused severe damage to private and public properties in the Hazyview area of Mahushu and Mbombela. As we speak, a total of 383 natural disaster damaged houses are being repaired.
“In February 2023, the northeastern part of the province experienced persistent heavy rains, which resulted in catastrophic flooding, mainly in Mbombela and Nkomazi Local Municipality. Over 2 448 residential houses were affected by these floods provincewide, compelling the department to appoint a team of engineers to assess and cost the damages.
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To date, 10 contractors have been appointed and are currently busy with repairs. It is worth mentioning that disaster interventions will be co-ordinated by the Department of Human Settlements. This is aimed at improving turnaround response time as the budgetary resources shall be held by this department,” said Mashilo.
