The national human settlements department was allegedly complicit in an attempted “housing heist”, which left 39 220 families living in dilapidated corrugated iron homes after R270-million was squandered.
The R270-million is part of the R338-million left unspent from the provincial human settlements department budget, announced by Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu last month, and was to have been used to upgrade informal housing in the province’s six districts, incorporating 23 municipalities.
A parliamentary portfolio committee meeting heard on 5 June last year that the provincial human settlements department had a budget of R1.5-billion for the 2020-21 financial year and 113 informal settlements had been identified to benefit from R270-million allocated towards housing upgrades.
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