Nearly 2 months of silence from Minister de Lille on land for housing

POLITICAL NEWS - It has now been nearly 2 months since the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Patricia de Lille, told the press that she had signed off on the release of at least 5 parcels of land for human settlement purposes in the Western Cape.

Since then, no formal communication has been received by either the provincial Department of Human Settlements or the Housing Development Agency.

This is despite attempts by the provincial Minister of Human Settlements, Tertuis Simmers, to engage the Minister on the matter when he wrote to Minister de Lille in May.

MPP Matlhodi Maseko says: “I am not sure what the Minister aims to achieve by remaining silent on the issue. We have given the Minister and her department time to respond to our questions, and yet nearly 2 months have gone by since Minister de Lille claimed to have handed over land parcels.

The Minister chose to mention this through the media rather than speak to the provincial government. This is poor form for cooperative governance relations.

Whilst we are well aware that these processes take time, it is well within the Minister’s reach to inform a provincial government when the Department of Public Works is in the process of handing over land parcels for human settlement purposes, where they are located, and a timeframe for the transfer to take place.

This may offer the provincial Department of Human Settlements the opportunity to plan for housing developments on these sites and engage with other departments and local municipalities.

So, why does the Minister refuse to take the provincial government and, by extension, the people of the Western Cape into her confidence?

My concern is that these claims will amount to nothing. The Rooidakke and Snake Park Housing Development in Grabouw have seen more than 1,000 housing opportunities built by the local municipality in partnership with the Western Cape Government.

For more than a decade the local municipality has been waiting for the national Department of Public Works to transfer the land so that residents can begin to receive title deeds for their homes.

The Housing Demand Database is nearing 600 000 beneficiaries and the Department of Public Works needs to act with urgency rather than take 10 years to hand over land. We reiterate our call on Minister de Lille to fulfil her constitutional mandate and work in the spirit of cooperative governance with the Western Cape Government. The people of the province deserve better than a silent Minister.”