Parliament - Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has announced the establishment of a bank that will deal with people in the housing gap market.
Sisulu said during her budget vote in Parliament yesterday that the bank was critical for the market that has been struggling.
The housing gap market includes mainly public servants who are too rich to get RDP houses and too poor to qualify for mortgages at banks.
Sisulu also announced that they will build a house for Matlhomola Mosweu’s family, who was killed in Coligny a few weeks ago, sparking violent protests.
Two men were arrested and charged for his murder.
Sisulu said they will start building the Mosweu family a home from next week.
She was called by Human Rights Commission chairman Bongani Majola to alert her to the poor conditions of the teenager’s family in North West.
In her budget speech, she said they have delivered what they promised they would do.
She said the establishment of the bank was critical for the gap market.
“We now have our own bank, the Human Settlements Development Bank which has been established,” said Sisulu.
“The bank will facilitate the scaled-up delivery of FLISP (Finance Linked Individual Subsidy Programme) to qualifying beneficiaries in the gap market, including the Government Employee Housing Scheme. The strategic focus of the bank will be to facilitate the increased provision of finance across the human settlements value chain, and the specific priority for the bank in this respect is the mobilisation of and the provision of finance for all planned catalytic projects,” she said.
Sisulu added that the bank would also be the entry point for struggling black entrepreneurs into the industry.
Chairperson of the portfolio committee on human settlements Nocawe Mafu said they backed the establishment of the bank.
They would monitor the bank in fulfilling its mandate, Mafu said.
They wanted the bank to also support new black entrepreneurs in the industry, Mafu added.
Solly Malatsi of the DA called for a credible housing database to deal with the backlog of people on the waiting list.
He said many people have been on the waiting list for far too long.
Sisulu said they have now established a credible centralised housing database, which could not be easily manipulated.
Mmabatho Mokause of the EFF said Sisulu was not telling the truth that her department was delivering 1 200 houses a day in the country.
She said the country was up in smoke because people wanted the delivery of houses. The protests in Joburg showed that government was lagging behind in housing delivery.
Sisulu announced the appointment of the Human Settlements Ombudsman to deal with complaints in the department.
Former chief executive in the Office of the Public Protector Themba Mthethwa has been appointed as the new human settlements ombudsman.
Sisulu said they will prioritise the complaints of entrepreneurs who are not paid on time by provincial departments.