INLSA
Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela
Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, has asked whether the government needs to provide everyone in SA with a permanent house in urban areas or if there are more cost-effective options.
In a briefing to the KwaZulu-Natal legislature in Pietermaritzburg yesterday, Madonsela called for a housing “Codesa” (summit) to be set up to review current policies.
This is in the wake of ongoing complaints about RDP housing in the country.
“Should every individual be provided with a permanent house in urban areas or should the government provide a job-seeker with a house for use while in urban areas as some of them have a permanent houses provided by the government elsewhere in the country?” Madonsela asked.
The public protector was talking to MECs about complaints regarding the supply of RDP houses in KZN.
“The government needs to decide what to do with the issue of job-seekers in urban areas,” she said.
She told MECs there were more than 2 000 complaints regarding RDP houses, including quality, allocation and building tender processes.
In addition, the massive urbanisation of the province, particularly Durban, had seen the mushrooming of informal settlements which contributed to pressure on the government.
KwaZulu-Natal had a backlog of 906 000 houses which translated to R72 billion, the legislature heard.
Responding to Madonsela’s proposal, Human Settlements and Public Works MEC, Ravi Pillay, said: “There is no single silver bullet solution for the human settlement challenge.
“We have the rural housing programme (30 000 units) already built,” he said.
He said KZN was incrementally building more rental stock – 5 000 units have been built already.
A programme to help those who did not qualify for a government subsidy or a bank loan was also under way.
Pillay said he had concerns with a mass rental stock approach as suggested by Madonsela.
“We do not want to replicate the current hostel system,” he said.
This meant limited resources would be used to upgrade informal settlements – each home needed a surveyed site, electricity, water and sanitation.
“Even an informal settlement resident must have an address,” said Pillay.
Nigel Gumede, eThekwini’s human settlements and infrastructure committee chairman, said the housing backlog in the city would always be high, especially if there was little or no housing development in other provinces.
“If there is no development in the Eastern Cape people will flock to eThekwini. Housing delivery needs to be evenly spread across the country. People come to Durban because they are drawn by the number of houses we build…” Gumede said.
He said Madonsela’s suggestions “made sense” but the municipality’s primary objective was to provide permanent homes.
The council’s rental stock – social housing – was to accommodate people looking for employment in the city.
DA spokesman on housing, George Mari, welcomed the idea of a housing summit.
“We will fully participate in one as we believe that it is necessary, given the failure of government to deliver housing to communities,” he said.
