Gauteng pumping R653 million into rapid land release programme

3 July 3028

The Gauteng Department of Human Settlements will contribute an amount of R653 million to the rapid land release programme of the Premier, Mr David Makhura. With this programme, the Premier plans to make provincial land and buildings available for housing.

The FF Plus is of the opinion that this project and the large sum of money are nothing but a smokescreen for the provincial government’s failure to eradicate all informal settlements and provide proper housing to Gauteng residents before 2019. Evidently, Makhura will now do everything in his power to avoid losing Gauteng to opposition parties in the upcoming elections.

This is at the cost of the tax payers. The FF Plus warned the Premier that he will not be able to eradicate all informal settlements and catch up on the housing backlog before 2019 in 2014 already.

At present, the housing backlog stands at 800 000. And now the Premier and the Department of Housing are using the rapid land release programme in an attempt to make this headache go away.

The FF Plus predicts that the project will fail. It will definitely not be completed within the eleven or so months that are left before the next general elections. Someone will benefit from the R653 million, but it will not be the residents of Gauteng.

Over the last four years, the Gauteng provincial government and the Department of Human Settlements have proven that they are not able to provide residents with proper housing and so the prediction that this money will only end up being squandered is entirely justified.

Issued by Philip van Staden, FF Plus MPL: Gauteng Legislature, 3 July 2018