Department sets out to complete unfinished houses
All hands are on deck as the Mpumalanga Department of Human Settlements set out to complete all unfinished houses throughout the province.
This followed the department’s MEC, Speedy Mashilo’s call at the recently held forum of municipalities and the MEC (MunMEC), and politicians responsible for human settlements and development, to urgently deal with all incomplete houses that adversely affect the department’s constitutional mandate to provide access to adequate housing.
The executive mayors, members of mayoral committees and senior managers attended the virtual session which aimed to take stock of persistent challenges and outline a new direction for the department to take this year and beyond.
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The incomplete houses are understood to be ones abandoned by contractors or terminated for various reasons. With this understanding, Mashilo recounted Executive Council Lekgotla decision to have all houses completed.
“EXCO Lekgotla took a resolution in June 2019 that the Department of Human Settlements must develop a programme of action to address all the incomplete houses from the previous years.”
He further noted that 48 incomplete houses need to be completed by the close of the second quarter. The consolidation of the list sourced from municipalities reported 1 191 incomplete houses; however, upon physical verification by the department, the number drastically dwindled to 59.
Moreover, on further beneficiary verification on the Housing Subsidy System and technical assessment, only 48 houses qualified for completion.
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“Most of the 1 191 houses listed by the municipalities were not necessarily incomplete houses, but rather houses not built for waiting beneficiaries, houses that are still under construction, houses with pending issuance of title deeds, houses without external service connections, or houses with maintenance-related issues” explained Mashilo.
He said his department planned to deliver 31 324 housing units over the Medium Term Strategic Framework period, however, they had to navigate pertinent challenges such as the slow economic growth and the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It is worth mentioning that the department has downscaled on the delivery of top structures and moved towards delivery of more serviced stands. Thus, over the last seven financial years, there has been a steady decline (69 per cent) in housing delivery targets,” concluded Mashilo.
