When the premier (David Makhura) approached me to take over the responsibility as MEC for Human Settlements, I had mixed emotions about the task at hand, especially when there are such high expectations from our people on meeting their basic need of a roof over their heads.
Gauteng’s backlog of housing is a microcosm of what is happening in the country, but on the other hand can’t be compared with the pressures other provinces face, mainly because of internal and external migration.
This makes the provision of housing a moving target, because the more we provide houses to our people, the more people migrate into our province. This may become overwhelming because of the limited resources at our disposal.
But we are not about to despair. We take over this responsibility where agility and innovation are required to tackle this backlog.
We are also doing so in the middle of the all-important land debate - the land hunger among our people is painful and is an indictment on our 24-year-old democracy. But the government has listened and is acting to make this situation right.
My department is working with colleagues in the Executive Council, municipalities and partners to identify land in the ownership of the state and private sector to ensure that those who qualify for land to build their own houses be given the opportunity to do so.
To this extent, I announced in my budget speech recently that a preliminary analysis had been undertaken of municipal-, provincial- and national-owned land. The total land identified is 89000 hectares, excluding land still to be identified by municipalities.
We are getting on with the task of identifying unused land in private hands for expropriation for public interest.
The cabinet committee is hard at work identifying suitable portions of land in the five development corridors of Gauteng province, and the premier will soon make an announcement on the way forward, including testing Section 25 of the Constitution on expropriation of land without compensation.
The Department of Human Settlements has budgeted R653 million to service the identified portions of land in the current financial year for the realisation of the Rapid Serviced Land Release Programme.
This programme will yield 98000 sites, and even more if we reserve others for densification.
We need all spheres of the government to co-operate. For this reason, I have engaged the executive mayor of Joburg (Herman Mashaba) to secure the power of attorney (PoA) that will allow the province to undertake development in the deep south.
The mayor has in principle agreed and has instructed his officials to issue the PoA.
The public needs to know that the issues of human settlements, whether linked to migration, the provision of RDP houses, the allocation of title deeds, as well as the revival of areas such as Alexandra that have fallen into disrepair are at the top of the agenda of the government as key to restoring the dignity of our people.
Uhuru Moilwa is the MEC for Cogta and Human Settlement in the Gauteng government