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department of human settlementslatest news & developments
The KwaZulu-Natal province experienced a deadly series of natural disasters, exacerbated by heavy rains driven by inevitable climate change. Photo: X/KwaZulu-Natal government

Democracy should feed land hunger

It is shocking that a post-1994 dispensation, emerging from a colonial-apartheid liberation struggle whose core objective was the return of land, has presided over the increase…

On precarious: The sight of dwellings built on a floodplain and thereby placing communities at high risk to life has become commonplace, as evinced by this scene in Nkomazi,
Mpumalanga. Photo: GCIS

Climate disasters: Time to return to basics

It is critical that municipalities prioritise the routine maintenance and upgrading of stormwater systems, bridges, roads and essential services

Minister of Human Settlements Thembi Simelane

Thembi Simelane: Human Settlements

SCORE: E It’s fair to say that Simelane has struggled to come out from under the heavy cloud of corruption allegations against her linked to the VBS Mutual Bank scandal. Earlier…

Jabulane Sambo, 62, is on the waiting list for a government house. (Aarti Bhana/M&G)

Human settlements department can’t meet demand for housing

The department’s budget is too small to meet the demand for homes

Shacks in Tembisa, Gauteng. Photo by Delwyn Verasamy

The shifting landscape of South Africa’s informal settlements

As households increasingly build in bricks and mortar within informal settlements, the face of these communities is changing

(John McCann/M&G)

The ANC’s internal cracks and the moonshot: What’s new?

South Africa’s news headlines suggest the opposition and the ANC are still struggling to get its act together

About 150 residents of Makhaza marched to Parliament last month. Some were demanding that the asbestos in their houses be replaced; others want title deeds to the houses they have been living in for years. Photo: Vincent Lali

Khayelitsha families want asbestos roofing removed

Residents march to parliament to insist they be given the title deeds to their homes and that the government reactivate a project to replace the roofs

Minister of Human Settlements Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane. (Jeffrey Abrahams)

Human Settlements asks SIU to probe its entities

Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi said that since arriving in the portfolio she had been ‘bombarded with allegations and counter allegations of corruption’

Lack of basic services: Empty buckets belonging to the residents of a sprawling informal settlement on the outskirts of Lawley, Johannesburg, are lined up waiting for a water truck to fill them up. (Marco Longari/AFP)

Get people involved in development

Service delivery is about improving people’s lives, not expedient election promises

Pull the other one: It’s likely Cyril Ramaphosa (right), who was Jacob Zuma’s deputy for years, knows plenty about state capture. Photo: Madelene Cronjé

Shuffles, shocks and surprises

Zuma’s mystery illness has given TV viewers time to watch his successor swap ministers and be astonished about the extent of state capture

On Wednesday, the human settlements, water and sanitation minister, Lindiwe Sisulu, under whose department the HDA falls, fired its acting chief executive, Mikki Xayiya, and its chief financial officer, Brian Mosehla.
. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

Sisulu axes HDA bosses

Top executives fired a year after being appointed

Spread out: The Housing Development Agency built temporary residential units at the Mamelodi Hostels to reduce density, but there have been complaints of poor quality. (Photo by Gallo Images/Alet Pretorius)

‘Shack’ agency remains leaderless

Former Mvelaphanda head gets another six months at the helm of the Housing Development Agency

Living in the dark: Yigal Paul Fraser lost his job during the lockdown and is unable to pay his rent. His landlord has cut the electricity to his family’s apartment. (David Harrison)

Eviction spike as the lockdown relaxes

Housing tribunal data shows that tenants are increasingly in distress as landlords come knocking for the unpaid lockdown rent owed to them

The South African Human Rights Commission and housing activists brought — and won — an application to halt lockdown demolitions of what the City of Cape Town said were unoccupied dwellings

High court declares the City of Cape Town’s lockdown evictions illegal

The South African Human Rights Commission and housing activists brought — and won — an application to halt lockdown demolitions of what the City of Cape Town said were unoccupied…

Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu. (David Harrison)

Sisulu axes another water board

Umgeni Water’s board in KwaZulu-Natal was appointed irregularly by her predecessor, the water and sanitation minister claims

On Wednesday, the human settlements, water and sanitation minister, Lindiwe Sisulu, under whose department the HDA falls, fired its acting chief executive, Mikki Xayiya, and its chief financial officer, Brian Mosehla.
. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

Leaked memorandum threatens Lindiwe Sisulu’s presidential bid

A document leaked to journalists says the minister was aware of illegal fundraising for her presidential bid by her own task team … and ‘kept quiet’ about it

Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said she had appointed the task team based on its “strength and capabilities” and had believed its members would do their jobs without any form of corruption.
(David Harrison/M&G)

Sisulu disbands her own national rapid-response task team

The human settlements minister has axed her controversial rapid-response team after corruption charges. Some team members were alleged to be running her 2022 ANC election campaign

In an interview with the Mail & Guardian, Nyawose said he was “very uncomfortable [with] the manner in which people in the media always refer to me as a Ramaphosa ally”.

‘Unity’ man in battle for eThekwini

Thabani Nyawose will challenge disgraced former Durban mayor Zandile Gumede while 17 other ANC regions also hold elective conferences

The municipality has accrued billions of rand in wasteful spending, and more than 6 000 putrid bucket toilets

Sisulu and the bucket toilet stink

The minister has joined a long line of politicians and ministers promising to eradicate bucket toilets and then failing to deliver

Hard worker: Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu visits Khayelitsha in 2017. Her portfolio now includes water and sanitation. (David Harrison/Gallo Images/Sunday Times)

Why I decided to work for Lindiwe Sisulu

She is a hard taskmaster but caring, a stickler for rules and committed to serving the country