Cape Town - The Department of Human Settlements will need an extra R102 billion more than its current budget allocations over the next three years if it is to create human settlements that government can be proud of.
"Previous studies by the department concluded that continuing with the current trend in the housing budget would lead to a funding shortfall of R102 billion in 2012," said Minister for Human Settlements, Tokyo Sexwale, on Tuesday.
He further said this was of great concern, especially considering that that this shortfall would increase to R253 billion by 2016.
Director General in the department, Itumeleng Kotsoane, said more money was needed if government was to address the housing backlogs and live up to its Millennium Development Goals it had committed to.
He explained that while the current budget of R40 billion was increased each year, the costs of building materials and land went up substantially too.
"The country needs that money to deliver. We were just making a point that more needs to be done in financial terms," said the Director General.
Mr Sexwale said that compounding this was the current global economic downturn. "We are in a recession in South Africa and the impact of this will be negative," he said.
One way in which the budget shortfall can be addressed is by partnering with the private sector.
The minister said that business had indicated its willingness to get involved and government was currently finalising a proposal which would be put forward to business in the coming month.
Mr Sexwale said while he had a concept of how the partnership would work, he did not want to detail it as it would be improper business practice.
The minister said the creation of human settlements went far beyond just building houses. He wanted to create integrated communities that were close to amenities such as clinics, parks, schools, shopping centres and railway stations.
"These amenities need to be incorporated into the settlements in a holistic manner so that people can be proud of where they live."
He said his department would set out to correct situations such as in Soweto were there were two million people sharing one public pool.
Attention will also be focused on the design of the houses.
"In Dube, in Johannesburg, where I come from - the houses look like they were built for military people returning from World War 2, rows upon rows, upon rows of houses, like army barracks."
He said he wanted to eradicate these "slaapdorpe" where people were living far away from their places of work and entertainment. He said this was eating away at people's disposable income because they had to pay to travel everyday to reach ammenities.
