Money woes for housing department

TWO entities within the Department of Human Settlements are on the brink of collapse.

In a parliamentary portfolio committee meeting it was said by the department that two entities were facing financial difficulties.

“We are not very happy with the fact that it does not look like they are going to meet their targets for this term, but we continue to engage with them,” said Nocawe Mafu, the chairperson of the portfolio committee.

The committee invited all the entities – the National Housing Finance Corporation (NHFC); National Urban Reconstruction and Housing Agency (Nurcha); Rural Housing Loan Fund (RHLF); Social Housing Regulatory Authority (SHRA); National Home Builders’ Registration Council (NHBRC); Housing Development Agency (HDA); Estate Agency Affairs Board (EAAB); and the Community Schemes Ombud Services (CSOS) – for deliberations on their annual performance and financial reports.

The engagements started with a discussion with the department on its audit outcomes for the 2017/18 financial year, as well as its performance and financial expenditure as per assessment by the Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation and the auditor-general.

The Housing Development Agency managed to deliver 1325 housing units in the Western Cape, exceeding their housing target by 399 housing units, while the Social Housing Regulatory Authority managed to deliver only 1129 housing units in the Western Cape.

“Although the committee was generally satisfied with the performance of the department and some of its entities, it was particularly concerned about the performance of the EAAB and SCOS and called for the minister and the department to intervene to save the institutions from total collapse,” Mafu said.

“We have directed the department to develop a turnaround strategy to assist the two entities and report back to Parliament in six weeks’ time.”