Provision of housing opportunities remains top priority for W.Cape government

Western Cape Minister of Human Settlements, Tertuis Simmers says that the delivery of housing opportunities to the most vulnerable, deserving and needy, remains his top priority.

Minister Simmers said: “There are two main sources of funding used for human settlement development in the Western Cape. The Urban Settlement Development Grant (USDG) and the Human Settlement Development Grant (HSDG).

The USDG is specifically allocated to the metros across the country, and managed by respective metros accordingly. In the Western Cape, and for the 2018/19 financial year, an amount of R1.484bn was allocated to the City of Cape Town (the City). These funds are used across various functions within the City, inclusive of, Water and Waste, Transport, Energy and Climate Change, Community Services, Health and Human Settlements.

The HSDG is allocated to the Western Cape Human Settlements Department specifically for development of housing opportunities. For the 2018/19 financial year, a total of R2.018bn was allocated to the Province, of which 100% was spent by March 2019. For that period, these funds were used to deliver over 20 000 housing opportunities, including services sites and units, to the people of the Western Cape.

During a recent engagement with the national Minister of Human Settlements and Water and Sanitation, Lindiwe Sisulu, it was revealed that the Western Cape is the only province whose HSDG-spend for the current financial year, is above 50%, at 58%. With these funds, over 3000 units have been completed and others are near completion. In addition, the Department has over 6 000 sites that are currently being serviced for access to water, sanitation and electricity.

This means, we are on track to deliver more than 16 000 housing opportunities throughout the province during the current financial year.

The report by the national minister confirms our commitment to creating opportunities for our residents. Further to this, we are in the process of accelerating not only the delivery of housing opportunities, but also full ownership through the handing over of Title Deeds. In fact, since taking office at the end of May 2019, we’ve handed over just under 1 000 Title Deeds. This ensured that our residents became fully-fledged home owners, while also restoring their dignity, particularly given past injustices.

We’ve committed to work much closer with the City of Cape Town, after R117-million of their R170-million USDG grant underspend was allowed to be rolled over. The national Minister recognised how both province and the City are leaders in creating opportunities and wanted to ensure that this continues.

As the Western Cape Government, we remain committed to accelerating human settlement delivery, while promoting social inclusion through the development of integrated, resilient and sustainable human settlements in an open opportunity society.”