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HOUSING Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has rallied the housing development
sector behind a concerted drive to address the housing backlog.
Sisulu said recently at a housing indaba held in Cape Town, where 46
stakeholders signed a social contract, that she hoped accelerated housing
delivery would wipe out the backlog, which she said stood at 2,4million,
by 2014.
This would require a 12% annual increase in housing delivery, which
could be an important instrument in job creation.
A key outstanding issue was the percentage of the total value of total
upmarket commercial projects — beyond an agreed threshold —
which housing developers would allocate to low-income housing.
Further discussions would be held because no agreement could be reached
on the 20% figure that was proposed by the housing department.
Each of the stakeholders — including developers, building materials
suppliers, government, small contractors and banks — made specific
commitments relevant to their sectors.
Suppliers, for example, committed themselves to supplying quality products,
while government undertook to reduce time taken to approve applications
and to pay its bills.
Government plans to set up a dedicated unit within the department to
handle complaints and give advice.
Banks meanwhile committed themselves, in terms of the financial charter,
to invest R42bn in low-income housing finance over the next five years.
To ensure that the contract does not turn out to be an empty promise,
a plenary session of stakeholders would be held in January, while a
mechanism would be established for monitoring and implementation.
Sisulu, in her opening address, painted a daunting picture of the challenge
of housing provision in a situation where urbanisation was proceeding
rapidly and where sizes of households were smaller, resulting in higher
demand for houses.
“Despite the huge public investment in housing of R29,5bn over
the past 10 years, apartheid’s legacy remains,” she said.
Between 1996 and 2001, the number of households living in shacks in
informal settlements and backyards increased 26%, from 1,45-million
to 1,84-million.
This was far higher than the 11% population increase in the same period.
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Newsletter:
3 February 2012 to 10 February 2012 - Krugersdorp, Gauteng, South Africa
