Chairperson, let me assure every member - I know they come from another debate - that I landed at the right airport when I came here! [Laughter.]
Ministers and Deputy Ministers who are here, Deputy Minister Zoe Kota- Fredericks, hon members, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, in his inaugural state of the nation address, President Jacob Zuma made three pronouncements in respect of the then Department of Housing. These are: the name change from housing to human settlements; policy change; and the practicalisation of this new paradigm to transform the landscape of housing in South Africa forever.
Over the past four years we remained tasked with the implementation of this new mandate. Without any equivocation we state: A firm foundation has been laid for a sustainable and integrated human settlements objective under Vision 2030. Consequently, we have a comprehensive strategy premised upon three segments: Housing for the poor; housing for the gap market; and housing for the middle to abomashayela phezulu [high-income earners] like yourselves.
Let me start with housing for the poor. The main focus of our housing delivery strategy remains the poorest of the poor, many of whom are found around informal settlements. At this stage, the following message must be made very clear: Our government does not build slums, mekhukhu, amatyotyombe [informal settlements.] These squalid areas have their roots in the wars of dispossession; in the 1913 Native Land Act whose centenary is commemorated this year; and in the subsequent apartheid policies. These policies gave rise to landlessness and joblessness which saw, and continues to see, the destitute in our country escaping rural poverty towards urban areas.
Let me repeat what I said at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University concerning slums. They are essentially shanty towns littered across all provinces, particularly around the more affluent metros and municipalities. This, therefore, results in a situation of the classic undesirable situation of poverty migrating to urban areas, to more affluent economic areas - the rural-urban migration of the poor and jobless.
The question is: What steps have we taken to address this? As stated, our focus remains the poor. Over the past four years our department has thus far delivered, through grants, over 750 000 houses and housing opportunities.
During this term of government, this has made it possible, for the first time, for the total housing that has been provided since 1994 to break into the 3 million units threshold for those earning a salary from zero to R3 500. We have supplied 3,3 million houses and housing opportunities, addressing now a backlog of people with a total of 2,1 million housing units that include more than 8 million to 10 million people.
Let us now deal with the gap market housing, what we normally call the financially assisted. The second element of our strategy concerns these people, the assisted. This policy for citizens who earn above R3 500 to R15 000 was announced also by the President in his state of the nation address last year or early this year.
The department's task is to implement this finance-linked policy which covers housing for, amongst others, school teachers, principals, police members, members of the prison system, members of the armed forces, blue- collar workers, etc. The good news is that this is now a reality, not just a mere policy. We are rolling it out throughout all the provinces, under the assistance of our agency, the National Housing Finance Corporation,