Hon Chairperson, 2014 is the target date scheduled by the Department of Human Settlements for the eradication of the existing 2 700 informal settlements in the country. The IFP would like the Minister to advise this House if that deadline will still be met by the department. We have also noted that there is no allocation in the budget for the formalisation of informal settlements.
Hostels such as those situated in Thokoza, Alexandra, Benoni as well as Imbali in Pietermaritzburg are badly run down and in desperate need of maintenance and upgrading. Why is there no budget allocated for this? All the recent service delivery protests that have been happening around the country started because of poor service delivery in the area of human settlements. Bulk infrastructure should be made available before any natural catastrophe occurs like a South African tsunami.
The backyard dwellers are another group that is being neglected by the Department of Human Settlements. We would like to see some directives from the department as to how we are going to resettle those people. We should at least get a directive on how to supply backyard dwellers with basic services such as electricity, water and sewerage.
The Reconstruction and Development Programme, RDP, housing scheme is plagued by poor building practices, largely due to fraud and corruption within the department in relation to the tender process involved with RDP housing schemes. Rectification because of inferior workmanship, which has resulted in extra costs of many billions of rands, are wholly unnecessary.
Kulesi sixakaxaka sezinkinga sokuchitheka kwezimali ibikuphi i- National Home Builders Registration Council, NHBRC. [When funds were being mismanaged, where was the National Home Builders Registration Council, the