Minister Thembi Simelane meets with Free State Human Settlements and Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality on housing delivery

Minister of Human Settlements Thembi Simelane has pledged to support Free State Province in its efforts to achieve the 2024-2029 target to deliver housing units for the qualifying beneficiaries.

However, she discouraged working in silos between the provincial department and municipalities while emphasizing the significance of working together to address the housing backlog and the delivery of sustainable human settlements for the citizens of the Free State.

She was addressing the Free State Department of Human Settlements and Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality as part of a country-wide municipal and provincial assessment of human settlements programme performance.

While noting the progress that is being made to ensure the qualifying beneficiaries receive their houses with some contractors already on the ground, she expressed her displeasure about several incomplete projects in the Free State province.  

“We are gearing ourselves for the current 2024-2029 Medium Term Development Plan (MTDP) to deliver on our mandate. With our limited budget, we are aligning our plans to ensure that we effectively use our allocated budget”, said Minister Simelane.

Minister Simelane noted that central to the delivery of housing units are the contractors. Accordingly, she cautioned against those who have been given opportunities to “do the right thing and deliver houses”, she said.

“We will not let go of those contractors and officials who have let our people down. There shall be consequences. A delayed project means one senior citizen is denied his or her constitutional right to adequate shelter”, added Simelane.  

Simelane undertook to visit Metros every quarter to ensure that housing and service delivery targets were met. She underscored the importance of ensuring that every cent allocated to the department is spent towards improving the life of a deserving household. This was echoed by MEC of Human Settlements Teboho Mokoena who challenged the Minister to consider visiting the province every two months while making an undertaking that the province was committed to doing things better.

Mokoena also emphasised that Budget remains a challenge. “This, in the main, will have an impact on our programmes, mainly the informal settlements upgrading programme. Progress is being made on several projects that were blocked including G-Hostel and Dark and Silver City. The qualifying beneficiaries are expected to incrementally move into the completed units during the year 2025/2026 financial year”, said MEC Mokoena.

The province is one of the provinces that has been struggling to complete housing projects and some of the problems include a range of issues such as multiple changes in contractors due to non-performance, vandalism on unattended sites after contract terminations, community disruptions and non-compliance issues, financial constraints, and non-payment of completed work certificates and bureaucratic delays in approvals for variation orders and claims.

In dealing with these obstacles the provincial department has put in place several interventions which include the appointment of new, reliable contractors, and regular monitoring and reporting.

Despite these challenges, the province has done exceptionally well in the provision of serviced sites. By January 2025, the province reported the successful delivery of 5 025 service sites against the 1755 2024/2025 target. Most of the sites delivered are in Fezile Dabi District Municipality.

Minister Simelane is expected to return to the province to hand over completed units at Dark and Silver City Community Residential Units and military veterans housing units at Vista Park integrated human settlements project. The latter is expected to deliver thousands of residential housing opportunities including Breaking New Ground (BNG), social housing, First Home Finance and student accommodation.

Enquiries: 

Tsekiso Machike, Spokesperson to the Minister 
Cell: 077 410 5050 
E-mail: Tsekiso.machike@dhs.gov.za 

Mandulo Maphumulo, Acting Head of Communications 
Cell: 082 099 7699 
E-mail: Mandulo.maphumulo@dhs.gov.za

#GovZAUpdates