In the second of his overarching media briefings since becoming Gauteng MEC of co-operative governance and traditional affairs and human settlements, Dikgang Uhuru Moiloa on Tuesday acknowledged the department’s failures and challenges.

The department has underperformed on housing for at least the last five years and failed particularly in planning and project management.

Moiloa was speaking in Johannesburg on his department’s work on housing and municipalities, with a particular focus on the province’s Rapid Land Release Programme (RLRP).

Shortly after Moiloa replaced Paul Mashatile in March, after the latter was elected treasurer general of the ANC and relinquished his provincial positions, widespread protests erupted across the province, with communities tackling local issues related to Gauteng’s housing backlog of around 600,000 units.

“Remember, when I came into office, Gauteng was burning. There were fires everywhere,” said Moiloa on Tuesday.

The MEC claimed his various community consultations and informing people about the government housing services available had helped reduce the protests, which are currently less prominent.

“The majority of people in this province staying in squatter camps and informally have irrevocably expressed an interest to the premier [David Makhura], to the MEC that they want sites to build for themselves,” said Moiloa on Tuesday.

The province’s answer was the RLRP, which has been tried before with various challenges. Moiloa admitted that having people build their own houses on stands provided by the government with basic services would ease the burden on the state, which has largely focused on providing complete RDP homes during democracy.

The Gauteng government plans to offer 100,000 serviced sites, but Moiloa on Tuesday did not go into detail when asked about timelines and the budget.

A document provided by the department on Tuesday said 2,000 stands had been identified in Palm Ridge, with 10 released so far and 84 beneficiaries approved. Another 1,988 applicants were being engaged.

There are 753 stands available in Khutsong but the lack of road and electricity infrastructure has prevented them from being released. Moiloa said despite recently hosting an event in the area to mark the progress, the stands are still not ready for occupation.

Twenty-nine RLRP projects have been identified on state-owned land with a potential 30,000 housing opportunities. Another 60,000 potential stands are being assessed by the department.

Moiloa has previously suggested the 100,000 stands would be provided before the 2019 general elections, but the document provided by his department on Tuesday said the 29 projects on state-owned land would cost R2-billion over the next three years.

Moiloa said each recipient of a stand would receive a title deed and they can apply for the finance linked individual subsidy (FLISP), expanded recently to allow middle-income earners to receive a subsidy to help build their homes.

The MEC outlined a number of challenges the department faces in increasing the provision of housing. Portions of its budget have been returned to national government in two consecutive years as the department failed to spend them; it has lacked the necessary skills in the right areas; it continues to deal with high migration to Gauteng while communities often occupy housing developments before their rightful recipients are able to occupy them, leading to lengthy court issues.

Moiloa said all future developments will have pre-determined beneficiaries who will immediately receive title deeds, challenges the government has long been trying to catch up on.

Since 2014/15, the date figures provided by Moiloa’s team, each year the department has failed to meet targets on the number of houses built and the number of serviced stands provided. It’s hardly a glowing record and Moiloa outlined a number of external factors that could continue to limit the department’s performance, even if he gets his house in order.

The MEC said he is focusing on ensuring the department spends its full allocation from Treasury and getting the right staff into key positions to turn the situation around.

Opposition parties have not necessarily been against the RLRP project, but they have said such projects have failed in the past and given the lack of detail around Moiloa’s current plans there is little reason to believe they are more than a strategy for the 2019 elections. DM