Human Settlements
Regarding the dumping of emergency housing material at the airport near Plettenberg Bay by the Bitou Municipality and with reference to the article “Millions of rands of housing materials dumped since 2018” published by GroundUp:
- (a) What are the details of the communication received by his Department from the Bitou Municipality regarding this particular matter and (b) what reason or reasons did the Municipality provide for its failure to use the emergency housing material to erect housing structures;
- whether his Department received correspondence and/or directives regarding this matter from its national government counterparts; if so, what are the relevant details;
- whether the building material is still in a useable condition; if not, why not; if so, what steps can his Department take to ensure that (a) these materials are used, (b) the Municipality complies with its mandate to supply housing opportunities to its residents and (c) the national government plays a supporting role in this matter?
)(a)(b) According to the Bitou Municipality, the failure to implement the project was because the material was rejected by the community. To date, no further reports were submitted by the municipality.
(2) The municipality applied for funds directly to the National Department of Human Settlements in line with the provision of the Municipal Emergency Housing Grant.
The only correspondence received from National Department was confirmation that the funds had been approved and transferred to the municipality.
(3)(a)(b)(c) My department has requested a report from the municipality on this matter. At this stage it is unclear whether the material is still in useable condition.
My department together with the National Department of Human Settlements are providing the necessary support to the municipality, however the responsibility is still with them to ensure that they utilise the material for the purposes it was intended for.
