Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu complained bitterly on Tuesday that her department had not been given enough money to get rid of the backlog in housing.
In fact, she said at a media briefing in Parliament given before she addresses the National Assembly in Wednesday’s debate on her departmental budget, she has not enough even to keep up with the flow of rural migrants into the urban centres of the country.
She said that the backlog was at present 2.1 million units. More than 1.1 million households are living in informal settlements, and another million are in backyard houses.
But each year she estimated that another 1.2 million people leave the countryside to join the teeming throng in the city slums mainly in Gauteng mainly Johannesburg and the Western Cape.
In order to get rid of the backlog entirely by the year 2012, she would require a budget of 120 billion rand. "If we conclude the same backlog four years later," she said, "it will cost three times a much."
The housing budget will be 10.6 billion rand this year, up from 9 billion rand last year. The medium-term budget forecasts for 2009/10 and 2010/11 are 12.7 billion rand and 15.3 billion rand. She complained that the present budget would only allow her to build 266,000 houses.
However, she said, much was being done to tackle the backlog. She was particularly interested in modern building techniques, which her officials said would more than halve the cost of a 40 square metre house. The present traditional method of construction of such a house would cost 260,000 rand. The new tech house will cost only 110,000 rand.
She praised the banks for fulfilling their part of the financial services BEE charter which required them to spend 42 billion rand on housing. "They have already spent 38 billion," the minister said, "and they will have spent 48 billion by the end of the year." - The Times
In fact, she said at a media briefing in Parliament given before she addresses the National Assembly in Wednesday’s debate on her departmental budget, she has not enough even to keep up with the flow of rural migrants into the urban centres of the country.
She said that the backlog was at present 2.1 million units. More than 1.1 million households are living in informal settlements, and another million are in backyard houses.
But each year she estimated that another 1.2 million people leave the countryside to join the teeming throng in the city slums mainly in Gauteng mainly Johannesburg and the Western Cape.
In order to get rid of the backlog entirely by the year 2012, she would require a budget of 120 billion rand. "If we conclude the same backlog four years later," she said, "it will cost three times a much."
The housing budget will be 10.6 billion rand this year, up from 9 billion rand last year. The medium-term budget forecasts for 2009/10 and 2010/11 are 12.7 billion rand and 15.3 billion rand. She complained that the present budget would only allow her to build 266,000 houses.
However, she said, much was being done to tackle the backlog. She was particularly interested in modern building techniques, which her officials said would more than halve the cost of a 40 square metre house. The present traditional method of construction of such a house would cost 260,000 rand. The new tech house will cost only 110,000 rand.
She praised the banks for fulfilling their part of the financial services BEE charter which required them to spend 42 billion rand on housing. "They have already spent 38 billion," the minister said, "and they will have spent 48 billion by the end of the year." - The Times
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