1,500ha of land in the process of being acquired, says human settlements minister

11 May 2023

Human settlements minister Mmamoloko Kubayi says the process of releasing land will continue in this financial year, with a further 1,500 hectares of publicly- and privately-owned land in the process of being acquired.

Source: John Williams © 123RF.com

Presenting the department’s budget for 2023/2024, Kubayi said a total of 539 hectares of land have been released in various provinces by the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure to the Housing Development Agency (HDA) for human settlement development during 2022/2023 financial year.

R220m allocated to remove asbestos roofs

Kubayi reported that during the past financial year, a total of 1,500 asbestos roofs have been removed in Seshego, Limpopo, and 2,100 in KaNyamazane, Mpumalanga.

“In the current financial year, a total budget of R220m has been allocated to the provincial Human Settlements Development Grant (HSDG) business plans in the Eastern Cape, Free State and KwaZulu-Natal to implement 27 projects across the provinces to remove asbestos roofs.

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Eradication of mud houses

Kubayi announced that seven provinces have planned to eradicate 11,791 mud houses this financial year, with a budget of R1.7bn allocated for the process.

“We will introduce the use of remote sensing through satellite technology and other modern technology applications to help us locate and get a total count of all mud houses across the country. This means we will have to acquire the skills to capacitate our department to be able to utilise these technologies,” the minister said.

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Skills shortage

Kubayi reported that the department is currently embarking on a skills audit in a bid to close the skills gap and deliver on its mandate.

“Human settlements development, by its very nature, is a highly technical sector, which requires very specialised skills, such as civil engineering, town planning, geoscience and many more.

"We will relentlessly pursue excellence and performance improvement by applying a strict framework skills allocation system without exception,” she said.

Source: SAnews.gov.za

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