Minister Kubayi cracks the whip on underperformance in emergency housing response in the Eastern Cape
The contractors in the Eastern Cape responsible for providing emergency housing have two months to finish the work or their contracts will be terminated, with cost to themselves.
This was expressed by the Minister of Human Settlements, Mmamoloko Kubayi, at the emergency housing engagement with the province, six Districts, and 24 Local Municipalities to consolidate emergency interventions in the Eastern Cape.
In the reports presented to the Minister during the Tuesday meeting, it emerged that there are still families who were affected by various disasters as far back as 2021 who have not been housed in any form of formal shelter.
Of the victims between 2021-2023, 2382 households have been assisted with permanent houses across the province. A total number of 2172 households have been assisted with temporary shelter. This leaves 5766 households who have not been assisted and thus have had to find alternatives such as living with friends, families, and neighbours.
“We are going to work around the clock to make sure that we turn the situation around. Having listened to the municipalities around this room, we are all in agreement that we owe our people speedy resolution of this situation,” said Minister Kubayi.
The Minister announced that she would be approaching National Treasury to assist with funding to speed up these interventions for the province. She also instructed officials led by the national office to consolidate the backlog for those households who were victims of disasters in the past five years and the budget needs thereof. This will assist in expediting and focusing on building homes for the said victims. The National Department will be leading in the verification process of the work ahead to ascertain that funds are properly utilised.
On April 1st this year, the Minister announced that the Department of Human Settlements would take over the responsibility of Emergency Housing Response. However, it was highlighted then, that provinces and municipalities would still be responsible for interventions in disasters that occurred before the policy change.
The Minister emphasised that moving forward the department would no longer accommodate people in Temporary Residential Units as these are not sustainable.
“As articulated in our Budget Vote, we have decided to embrace innovative Alternative Building Technologies so that our solutions are sustainable and of good quality, with efficiency and cost-effectiveness, being the primary drivers of our disaster response. This way we will know that we have given permanent quality homes” emphasised Kubayi.
She urged the meeting to always keep in mind that they have a duty to the vulnerable communities who are affected by these disasters.
“We owe it to the people we serve, who only have us as their hope for a better future and we dare not to fail them. There is no time for excuses”, concluded the Minister.
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