Minister of Human Settlements Mmamoloko Kubayi says government is fast tracking the release of title deeds for subsidised houses “as an important instrument of economic empowerment”.

Kubayi was speaking during Parliament’s debate on the State of the Nation Address (SONA) delivered by President Cyril Ramaphosa last week.

Currently, the backlog stands at some one million houses – an estimated R242 billion in assets.

“Working together with Operation Vulindlela, the Department of Human Settlements will expedite the provision of title deeds for subsidized houses.

“Over and above this, we are working around the clock to unblock the title deeds issuing across provinces. We are working with the communities of Mawiga in Gauteng to unlock 14 000 title deeds of houses that they were never allowed to own by the Apartheid government.

“We have established a steering committee with the community to ensure accountability and transparency of the work done,” she said at Wednesday’s debate.

In relation to tittle deeds for informal settlements, the Minister said the department is working to upgrade and bring much needed services to South Africa’s 2700 informal settlements through the provision of water, electricity and sanitation.

“When an informal settlement is upgraded, it means it has gone through the process of formalisation, such that title deeds can be issued for individual stands. In the last financial year, about 24 671 stands were created through the informal upgrading process,” she said.

Kubayi explained that upgrading these informal settlements also allows government to respond more efficiently to disasters in those areas.

“With climate change, natural disasters are becoming more frequent and most of our infrastructure was not designed to be resilient. In the past five days, our country has experienced devastating floods in KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Limpopo and Mpumalanga.

“In the past few days, we have also seen numerous fires here in the Western Cape, especially in informal settlements.

“For an effective response to these disasters, we need land, we need South Africans to embrace each other in integrated communities and political parties that don’t play politics at a time when families are homeless, vulnerable and distressed.

“Going forward, we also have begun to reconceptualise how we develop human settlements so that we can incorporate climate change resilience in the infrastructure we provide,” said the Minister.

Source: South African Government News Agency