standing
2 August 2007
In response to the Democratic Alliance's persistent demands to the Housing
department to make the housing waiting list public, this is nothing new and the
matter was presented and debated in several meetings of the Portfolio Committee
on Housing in Gauteng Legislature.
The department has also consistently made it clear that the Housing Demand
Data Base normally known as the waiting list is a planning tool used by the
department and municipalities to determine the housing demand in the
province.
This tool (Demand Data Base) will assist government to know and understand
how many people require houses per region and area and what is their status but
also what type of housing assistance do they require in terms of various
housing typologies available. The DA has been part of these meetings and has
agreed with the approach that the department in dealing with housing demands
and allocation of houses in the province.
The prospective beneficiaries who have applied have an opportunity to always
check their status and update their personal information as and when required
so by the department. Therefore the demand by the DA is nothing but just
playing cheap politics on something that is very essential to people that needs
houses.
Information derived from the database can be used to:
* identify housing need both within the area of jurisdiction of each
municipality and the province as a whole;
* identify potential areas for housing projects and serve as a basis for
launching housing project in the province;
* assist municipalities in counteracting 'queue-jumping' by land
invaders;
* provide information to developers and other institutions, thus serving as a
basis for launching housing projects.
The Housing Demand Data Base should be seen as the pre-screening phase for
the Housing Subsidy System. The inclusion of a person's name on the database
does, however, not automatically entitle them to receive a housing subsidy. It
is every person's democratic right to apply to be on the Gauteng Demand Data
Base, however, it would be an impossible task for the province to supply
housing to all the people on the database given the backlog that exists all the
time.
The Gauteng Department of Housing in conjunction with various local
authorities is committed to ensuring that families registered between 1996/97
are expeditiously allocated sites and houses in housing developments. The
department again wishes to appeal to people that have applied between the years
1996 and 1998 to always contact the department in order to get latest
information on housing delivery programme and status of their individual
applications.
The Gauteng Department of Housing is highly committed to work with people of
Gauteng to find solutions to the problems of housing and we are working
tirelessly to speed up delivery and ensure that we reduce housing backlog in
our province.
The assurance that we give our people is that if delivery has not happen in
your area it will soon happen as it did in other areas where people waited
patiently. We are also coming to your community. What we humbly ask for from
our people is cooperation and understanding as we strive to deliver on our
mandate
In line with the Constitution of this country, the Gauteng Department of
Housing in highly committed to ensure that citizens who qualify for shelter are
assisted to the best ability. To demonstrate our commitment, the department is
on track to deliver 58 552 houses in this current financial year that this will
result in 297 760 people having access to shelter through various housing
delivery programmes.
The MEC for Housing, Nomvula Mokonyane, has stated on record that corruption
will not be tolerated within and outside the department. In all instances where
these cases have been brought to department's attention, corrective action has
been taken, including reporting the cases to the relevant police station.
The Gauteng Provincial Department of Housing has introduced stringent steps
to weed-out corruption and maladministration as part of a comprehensive plan to
improve delivery of low-cost housing to the rightful beneficiaries.
These mechanisms include the establishment of an internal Investigating Unit
which is currently conducting a number of investigations both within the
department and externally.
During the last two years, the department has intensified its community
outreach programme and has held meetings and Izimbizo with communities and
various stakeholders at local level to educate beneficiaries as well as to
discuss housing development including matters relating to the housing demand
data base.
The department has acquired services of Servcon Housing Solution to
undertake housing occupancy audit across the province, to-date we have audited
over 200 000 housing units. This process will enable the department to
establish the level of 'unregistered occupants' residing in Reconstruction and
Development Programme (RDP) houses throughout the province.
The audit is being carried throughout the province and once completed a
process of normalising and rectification will begin and will focus on
correcting all the information gathered regarding the beneficiary status,
ownership status, structure of the house and defects identified, if any. This
process will also assist the department to update its database and to establish
accurate and reliable information for each and every house and beneficiaries
allocated.
"The department has put aside resources to carry out this work as we believe
that it its necessary and will assist us to have reliable data for future
reference and usage," added Mokonyane.
The department is determined to reduce the housing backlog significantly and
has introduced various interventions such as normalising the housing market,
developing and stabilising existing informal settlements, adopting mixed
land-use developments by using different housing typologies and technology as
well as densifying settlements.
For more information contact:
Victor Moreriane
Cell: 082 561 3768
Mongezi Mnyani
Cell: 082 602 5358
Issued by: Department of Housing, Gauteng Provincial Government
2 August 2007
Source: Gauteng Provincial Government (http://www.gpg.gov.za)
