R33 billion budget: Kubayi appoints ‘war room’ members to fast-track housing projects

Human Settlements Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi has announced members of the newly established national human settlements war room to help accelerate housing delivery.

Kubayi announced the members during her department’s 2022 Budget Vote on Tuesday.

Led by Mr Dan Gorbachev Mashitisho, the former Director-General of the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs as the convener, the team that will bring needed skills to the sector includes:

• Abongile Dyariwe, project and construction management specialist with a Master’s Degree in Built Environment
• Patience Ntombifikile Ndlovu, a specialist in Urban planning with a Masters in Urban & Regional Planning
• Dr Mmaphaka Ephraim Tau, Governance, Strategic Leadership and Development Expert who until recently was the Head of the National Disaster Management Centre
• Kwena Maphoto, infrastructure development specialist who is a professional technologist in civil engineering
  

According to Kubayi, the war room is expected to coordinate efforts, monitor and fast-track diverse projects across provinces, coordinate the support of various entities and consolidate reports to the war room.

For the financial year 2022/23, the department has a budget allocation of R33 billion, of which R18.7 billion is allocated to provincial grants, R11 billion for municipal grants and R1.6 billion will be transferred to human settlements entities.

The department intends to complete a scoping exercise of all the blocked projects, including financial implications by the end of 2022.

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“The demand for socialhousing and student housing is overwhelming. Our Social Housing Programme has about R140 billion worth of assets. President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that R64 billion of the R700 billion from the infrastructure fund will be spent on social housing and student accommodation. In an effort to facilitate access to ownership among government employees by utilising Help Me Buy a Home Subsidy as an instrument, the NHFC has signed a memorandum of understanding with government Employees Housing Scheme. The MoU will enable qualifying government employees to access FLISP subsidies,” said Kubayi.

“The department has set aside a three-year period starting from 2022 – 2025 financial years to close off all the blocked projects in the country. The department intends to undertake a scoping exercise that will include site verification and estimation of all cost implications for the unblocking of the projects and a diagnostic report will be completed by the end of the year.”