Following her assignment to the human settlements portfolio in 2021, Minister Kubayi declared the unblocking of human settlements projects as part of her apex priorities as these deny qualifying households their right to adequate housing and dignity. Thereafter the Minister directed her department and its sector partners (Provinces and Municipalities) to unblock all blocked or abandoned projects over a period of three financial years, namely, 2022/23 – 2024/25.
Subsequently, all provinces collectively identified a total of 320 blocked and incomplete projects which were placed in their 2023/24 Business Plans and later approved by the Minister with the requisite budget.
The human settlements sector defines a blocked and incomplete project as; A project where no progress delivery has been made for a period of 12 months following the first payment to the contractor. Blocked and incomplete projects include serviced sites and houses at different levels of construction namely, slab level, wall-plate level, roof level, etc.
The most common factors that lead to the blocking of human settlements projects are illegal land occupations, geotechnical variations, construction mafias, community unrest, the escalation of material costs, the lack of bulk infrastructure and link services including poor performance by contractors (some of whom would have abandoned sites).
The Department continues to monitor and support the progress of provinces on the unblocking of blocked and incomplete human settlements projects through physical site visits and the Provincial, Municipal and Human Settlements Entities Performance Reviews that are held each quarter.
In addition to the above, the Department has encouraged all sector partners to;