Slow housing delivery in Gauteng fuels illegal land invasions
12 April 2018
The DA calls on Gauteng Human Settlements MEC, Uhuru Moiloa, to fast-track the process of reducing the housing unit backlog in the province, which now stands at over a million.
The substantial housing backlog is giving rise to illegal land invasions, the mushrooming of shacks and the illegal occupation of abandoned and dilapidated buildings.
There have been incidents of land invasions across the province where our poor people who are desperate for a place to stay have resorted to occupying land illegally.
This practice of illegal land invasion has been ignited by the ANC and EFF’s policy on expropriation of land without compensation.
The DA strongly condemns the illegal invasion of land and abandoned buildings.
The only solution to this problem is to ensure that the Department of Human Settlements provides decent and dignified housing to all those who are still waiting for homes.
Our people are in dire need of security of tenure and that can only be done by providing them with houses and title deeds.
The Department must be clear in that the demand of land is not for rural land but urban land.
MEC Moiloa must fast-track the completion of the unfinished housing projects and the allocation of the completed and unoccupied Community Residential Housing Units to beneficiaries across the province.
The Department has the budget to finish these projects but lacks a proper strategy on how to do it.
The Mega Housing projects will take years to be completed and we must not rely on them as a solution to alleviate the current backlogs.
We will continue to put pressure on MEC Moiloa to fast-track the completion of the unfinished housing projects and to allocate the completed housing units to their rightful beneficiaries. This will drastically reduce the housing backlog and quell further illegal land invasions in the province.
Issued by Mervyn Cirota, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Human Settlements, COGTA and Traditional Affairs, 12 April 2018
