DURBAN - The KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Executive Council has noted that the figure for housing delivery in eThekwini Municipality has declined and that not enough focus was being placed on social housing.
Premier Sihle Zikalala said the PEC, at a meeting, reflected on a number of issues impacting the lives of the people of the province.
This week a report on the Human Settlements Strategy was presented by eThekwini Municipality mayor Mxolisi Kaunda, deputy mayor Philani Mavundla, and acting city manager Musa Mbhele.
The PEC raised concerns about the decline in the rate of housing delivery, blamed on two years of Covid-19. Zikalala urged eThekwini Municipality to introduce a turnaround approach that will again ramp up the delivery of houses.
The PEC called for faster implementation of the strategy.
The presentation of the strategy for eThekwini covered a number of areas, including the housing backlog, land invasion, transit camps, the completion of Cornubia, social and gap housing, and community residential units.
Zikalala said the PEC noted and appreciated the work being done to meet the ballooning demand for housing in eThekwini which is exacerbated by rapid urbanisation.
He said the PEC raised concerns related to invasion and the illegal occupation of land which in some instances is affecting transport and impacting negatively on the economy.
“Land invasions also frustrate development plans for the city, adding undue delay through litigation. The Executive Council expressed outrage at allegations that officials are reportedly fighting among themselves over who will benefit from housing developments. In some instances, officials serving in bid committees fight among each other,” Zikalala said.
In addition, the PEC called for strict measures to be taken against people who sell RDP houses or rent them out, only to continue staying on land that was not suitable for human settlement. The PEC, Zikalala said, wants a sense of urgency and more pace in delivering houses and arresting the moving target of informal settlements.
“To that extent, the municipality has been requested to return soon to the council to present reports and a project plan with clear timelines on the eradication of transit camps, informal settlements upgrades, projects that have been stopped and why,” he said.
Zikalala said the PEC will also pay close attention to the state of the city and will request a session to reflect on issues related to water, sanitation, metro police, hijacked buildings, and many others.
Meanwhile, MEC for Human Settlements and Public Works Jomo Sibiya and stakeholders convened a Social Housing Policy Workshop that will end on Friday (today).
Sibiya said this will help the department sharpen strategies to ensure that they move with speed and a high level of efficiency to respond to these socio-economic challenges.
“We want to use the social housing programme to radically usher in a new rental housing landscape,” he said.
Martin Meyer, DA MPL, said the KZN human settlements portfolio committee oversight inspection, held last week, focused on transit camps and hostels in the eThekwini metro.
“It revealed that the building of new housing units within the metro is set to be severely compromised for the foreseeable future due to ongoing bulk water infrastructure challenges,” he said.
Daily News