MEC Helen Sauls-August has announced that an R300 million will be utilised to unblock services that are stalling the implementation of housing projects in small towns in the province.
Small Towns to benefit from this intervention on blocked housing projects include: Engcobo, Mthatha, Humansdorp, Mbizana, Kati-Kati, Jeffrey’s Bay, Cape St Francis, and Hankey for this financial year.
She also announced the construction of 12 247 units to be undertaken by High Performing Capacity Contractors and Developers with the units to be divided into approximately 1000 units each, making individual projects.
The objective is to fast track the implementation of rural housing projects in the province.
This program will benefit mostly rural towns such as Mount Frere, Elliotdale, Mbizana, Grahamstown, Port St Johns, Flagstaff and Lusikisiki.
The department is prioritising the matter of title deeds so that beneficiaries can legally own their properties, as a result a process has begun to assume the overall function of appointing conveyancers to speed up issuing out of Tittle Deeds which is currently the responsibility of municipalities.
A Beneficiary Administration Unit has been established to manage all matters relating to beneficiaries, including amongst other things, deregistration and registration of beneficiaries for lodgment by conveyancers to Deeds Office.
Following reports of illegal occupations and conversion of RDP homes into Spaza shops and taverns, we will launch the “One house, one legal beneficiary” campaign which has been informed by an increase in number of illegal occupations and misuse of low cost houses throughout the province. This program will help us to identify and resolve the misuse of RDP homes in the province.
Beneficiaries are involved in these illegal activities either by leasing or selling low cost houses as business, thus remaining homeless, in so doing contributing to the mushrooming of informal settlements. We will be launching this project in Chris Hani District.
