MINISTRY OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES (NCOP)
QUESTION FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO.: 113
DATE OF PUBLICATION: 8 SEPTEMBER 2014
Ms T K Mampuru (ANC-Limpopo) to ask the Minister of Human Settlements:
Whether her department is on course to eradicate informal settlements by
2014; if not, (a) why not and (b) what are the revised (i) time frames and
(ii) measures to eradicate informal settlements; if so, what are the
relevant details?
CO173E
REPLY
In 2004 I said that:
"The Premier of Gauteng has fired the first salvo in our war against
shacks. His bold assertion that informal settlements in his province
will have been eradicated in ten years, is the best news I have ever
heard in my tenure as Minister. Now if we consider that Gauteng has
24% of households in informal settlements in the country and it is
projected these would have been dealt with by 2014, it should follow,
I would like to think, that the other four pressure areas of KwaZulu-
Natal, Western Cape and Eastern Cape, can calculate on the same rate
of delivery, clear their slates in the next six years. In my
discussions with the MECs this has been identified as a do-able, so
the outer figure of six years then it shall be".
The target for 2014 for the eradication of informal settlements was set by
me as the Minister of Housing and I had every intention of achieving that
goal. The goal was part of our Millennium Development Goals submitted to
the United Nations General Assembly. The commitment was not carried through
in between 2009 and 2013 because priorities of the Department changed.
However, this is coming back on our priorities and we are yet to set a new
target.
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