Pretoria – Acting Director-General in the Department of Human Settlements, Mbulelo Tshangana, says it’s high time the department moves from an unqualified audit opinion to a clean audit, where there is no emphasis of matters.
“That is what we are aspiring to as the management of the department and I think it is achievable,” said Tshangana.
The department has notched an unqualified audit opinion for the 2014/15 financial year.
Presenting the department’s Annual Report to the Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements on Tuesday, Tshangana said the department looks good in terms of expenditure but on the non-financial side, only 70% of their targets were achieved.
The department has spent 99% of its R28 billion budget, which was used on the provinces and municipalities.
“The Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF) instructed the department to make sure that 149 000 households were living in adequate housing during the year under review. However, the department could only deliver 120 327.
“A total of 150 000 households in informal settlements should have been upgraded in the 2014/15 financial year and only 74 017 of these were delivered. A total of 112 600 individual units for the subsidy housing market was the target during the year under review and only 95 210 individual units were provided,” Tshangana told the committee.
On title deeds, Tshangana acknowledged that it is one area that remains red and has not changed. In the 2014/15 financial year, 59 029 title deeds were handed over by provinces, out of 112 600 targeted.
Tshangana said the biggest challenge is funding for this and the capacity of provinces and municipalities to manage handing over title deeds.
“As an example, while Gauteng has a full conveyancers unit to manage these transactions, other provinces do not. However, everything is being done working with the Estate Agency Affairs Board to make the programme perform.”
Through the Social Housing Regulatory Authority, Tshangana said, the department was meant to have provided 7 400 rental units during the year under review but could only deliver 2 696 units.
“A total of 116 448 home loans for households in the affordable housing market was the target for the 2014/15 financial year and financial institutions granted 26 239 of these for households earning less than R15 000 a month, while 62 952 loans were issued by development finance institutions of the department,” said Tshangana. – SAnews.gov.za
