\n \t\t\t \t\t\t
![\"Copy](\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/87989_1867011758.jpg\")
<\/p>\n \t
\n \t\t\t \t\t\t <\/p>\n
INLSA<\/p>\n
Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela<\/p>\n
\n
\t\t \t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t \t\t <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
In a briefing to the KwaZulu-Natal legislature in Pietermaritzburg yesterday, Madonsela called for a housing \u201cCodesa\u201d (summit) to be set up to review current policies. <\/p>\n
This is in the wake of ongoing complaints about RDP housing in the country. <\/p>\n
\u201cShould 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?\u201d Madonsela asked. <\/p>\n
The public protector was talking to MECs about complaints regarding the supply of RDP houses in KZN. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe government needs to decide what to do with the issue of job-seekers in urban areas,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
She told MECs there were more than 2 000 complaints regarding RDP houses, including quality, allocation and building tender processes. <\/p>\n
In addition, the massive urbanisation of the province, particularly Durban, had seen the mushrooming of informal settlements which contributed to pressure on the government. <\/p>\n
KwaZulu-Natal had a backlog of 906 000 houses which translated to R72 billion, the legislature heard. <\/p>\n
Responding to Madonsela\u2019s proposal, Human Settlements and Public Works MEC, Ravi Pillay, said: \u201cThere is no single silver bullet solution for the human settlement challenge. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have the rural housing programme (30 000 units) already built,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
He said KZN was incrementally building more rental stock \u2013 5 000 units have been built already. <\/p>\n
A programme to help those who did not qualify for a government subsidy or a bank loan was also under way. <\/p>\n
Pillay said he had concerns with a mass rental stock approach as suggested by Madonsela. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not want to replicate the current hostel system,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
This meant limited resources would be used to upgrade informal settlements \u2013 each home needed a surveyed site, electricity, water and sanitation. <\/p>\n
\u201cEven an informal settlement resident must have an address,\u201d said Pillay. <\/p>\n
Nigel Gumede, eThekwini\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf 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\u2026\u201d Gumede said. <\/p>\n
He said Madonsela\u2019s suggestions \u201cmade sense\u201d but the municipality\u2019s primary objective was to provide permanent homes. <\/p>\n
The council\u2019s rental stock \u2013 social housing \u2013 was to accommodate people looking for employment in the city. <\/p>\n
DA spokesman on housing, George Mari, welcomed the idea of a housing summit. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe will fully participate in one as we believe that it is necessary, given the failure of government to deliver housing to communities,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 \u201cCodesa\u201d (summit) to be set up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-15283","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15283\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}