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Opening the North West Human Settlements Indaba the Minister of Human Settlements, Lindiwe Sisulu, MP, has announced that Government is working on laws to stop the selling of Government subsidized houses. "When we (Government) give a house to the needy it is for the whole family and not for one person. No one must sell the house, it must be passed from generation to generation" said Sisulu.

The Minister added that National Government will from the beginning of April 2017 implement a centralized National Housing Needs Register (NHNR) which is centralised database of all who require housing assistance in the country. "Finally we have approved a National Housing Needs Register, this is a database of all those who need houses, all forms of housing assistance. Currently we are processing all waiting lists from municipalities to ensure that we have a credible national centralized database, we want to ensure that there is credibility in the process of allocating houses", said Sisulu.

The Minister also confirmed that she is working with all provincial MECs of Human Settlements to ensure that all contractors and material suppliers are paid within 30 days. "I have told my Director-General ( DG) that small contractors and small businesses must be prioritized at all times, if they do not have capacity to process necessary documents they must be assisted, we must pay our service providers within 30 days, they need the money to pay their workers", added Sisulu

The Minister concluded the day by visiting houses for mine workers built by Royal Bafokeng Platinum. "I am impressed by what has been delivered here by Royal Bafokeng Platinum, our miners are staying in decent shelter, this is a good example of what partnerships between Government, private sector and communities can do", said Minister Sisulu.

Issued by Ministry of Human Settlements