The national government has moved to increase housing subsidies, but beneficiaries and activists are sceptical on whether they would see the fruits of it any time soon.
In the Western Cape, almost 600 000 people were still on the housing waiting list.
On Friday, Minister of Human Settlements, Mmamoloko Kubayi announced policy changes that would see a 29.7% increase in subsidies for RDP and social housing.
According to Weekend Argus, she said government was compelled to effect an increase to speed up housing delivery, “otherwise, more projects will be left incomplete, and construction companies will find it hard to survive”.
* RDP services and top structure will increase from R196 887 to R255 364
* Houses for persons with disabilities increase from R209 071 to R271 166
* Military veterans’ houses increase from R240 607 to R312 069
* First Home Finance will increase from R130 505 to R169 265
* Social Housing will increase from R327 667 to R424 984
Kubayi said solar kits would be installed in the homes, while houses for persons living with disabilities would also be fitted with burglar bars.
However, Housing Assembly activist Kashiefa Achmat was not convinced.
“Talk is easy, but implementation is not. She has added more money to the pot, but we want to see whether this will translate to how many houses are to be built,” she said.
“There are people who have been on the housing waiting list since 1985 but get bumped up by young people during allocation.
“So it’s well and good to say that houses are being built, but there’s no accountability.”
MEC Tertuis Simmers welcomed the changes but said clarity is needed on the rollout of the additional features.