Cape Town - The Western Cape Department of Human Settlement’s housing demand is currently sitting at 588 000, with most of the demand – 61% – in Cape Town.
Acting department head Phila Mayisela told the legislature’s Standing Committee of Public Accounts (Scopa), that the city topped the list followed by the Garden Route and the Overberg at 11% and 12% respectively, the West Coast at 8% and Central Karoo at 1% as the region with the least demand.
Mayisela spoke during deliberations on the Annual Report of the department for the 2020/21 financial year.
She was answering questions from committee member Nomi Nkondlo (ANC), who also wanted to know the figures of actual housing delivered and details of how many informal settlements had been upgraded in the province.
Mayisela said the number of delivered housing units against targets set by the department was 6 247 delivered against a target of 8 506.
These are units in the Integrated Residential Development Programme as well as the People’s Housing Process Programme.
She said the department was unhappy with its audit outcome, which regressed from unqualified with no findings to unqualified with findings.
“The material findings relate mainly to some non compliance identified during procurement and contract management and material corrections to the financial statements, which led to non compliance.”
Human Settlements MEC, Tertuis Simmers, said processes were under way to address the shortcomings. His department continues to incorporate innovative solutions in construction, such as sustainable building technologies (SBT) initiatives.
“These include water, electricity and sanitation-saving mechanisms, and using an environmentally friendly block, termed Hebel, as an alternative to standard bricks. This resulted in the construction of 1 035 housing units against a target of 1 000.”
Committee member Matlhodi Maseko (DA) said the department’s efforts to expand the Finance Linked Individual Subsidy Programme (Flisp) will be a game changer for first-time homeowners across the province.
“As the Western Cape consistently has the lowest unemployment rate in the country, the majority of beneficiaries do not qualify for fully-subsidised housing. Instead, partial subsidies, through Flisp, will unlock opportunities for first-time home owners.”