ANC fails to meet housing target claiming that they can’t find people who want houses

27 February 2018

The DA is disturbed by the revelations in today’s presentation on Portfolio Committee of Human Settlements that the failure by the North West Department of Local Government and Human Settlements to meet its housing delivery targets is due to “shortage of beneficiaries”.

The DA totally rejects this excuse as it simply cannot hold.

It is an insult to the dignity of poor families who have been waiting for years to be allocated a house, only to be told that the ANC can’t find residents who deserve such houses. What’s even worse, the province faces a housing backlog of approximately 237 000.

The DA urges the in-coming Minister Momaindiya Mfeketo to get to the bottom of this issue and prove to South Africans that she and her Department are serious about delivering houses to our people.

The DA will submit Parliamentary questions to get further information  on whether there is a “shortage of beneficiaries” in any other provinces.

To compound the matter, the National Treasury has had to take away R300 million meant for the North West Department of Local Government and Human Settlements for its consistent failure to spend monies allocated for building houses for the poor.

These two developments reaffirm the DA’s belief that the ANC lacks the political will to restore the dignity of poor people through the provision of adequate access to housing.

Issued by Solly Malatsi, DA Shadow Minister of Human Settlements, 27 February 2018