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The Gauteng Department of Human Settlements (GDHS) continues to demonstrate its incompetence in providing housing for vulnerable residents in Gauteng as it once again fails to meet key targets.

According to the GDHS’s First Quarterly Report for the 2024/2025 financial year, the department achieved only 50% of its targets, marginally improving from 42% in the 4th quarter of the previous year.

See report here.

Furthermore, the Annual Report for the 2023/2024 financial year, as well as the 5-year term report for the period 2019-2024, indicate that, as currently organised, the department will not meet its mandate of providing adequate housing to Gauteng’s most vulnerable.

The department delivers on average 18,000 housing units and serviced sites per year, against a backlog of 1,2 million units. This statistic provides insight into the fact that it would take almost 70 years to deal with the backlog.

The quarterly reports show a glaring inability to meet critical targets that are central to the department’s mission. Procurement from township businesses, meant to bolster the local economy, reached a mere 1.81% against a target of 60%. This dismal performance undermines the Gauteng administration’s efforts to empower the township economy.

In housing development, the department has not met targets for upgrading informal settlements, delivering bulk infrastructure to support housing projects, presenting title deeds to confirmed beneficiaries, and producing serviced erven.

What is troubling is the department’s admission that it lacks systems to monitor project performance, a fundamental weakness for an entity whose operations are project-driven. Without these systems, the department will continue to lag, leaving the housing crisis unresolved.

A Democratic Alliance (DA) government would ensure that this department meets its objectives by engaging with the private sector to improve the relationship with government and agree on incentives to entice the contribution of finance and expertise to public housing projects.

The DA would also ensure that the department undergoes urgent structural reform and a strategic revamp in order to provide adequate housing for its citizens.

The DA will continue to push for the progressive realisation of every Gauteng citizen's constitutional right to adequate shelter.

Issued by Alan Fuchs MPL - DA Gauteng Member of Human Settlements Committee