Kubayi concerned over 'mushrooming' informal settlements

Those are the words of Human Settlements Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi. 

Kubayi says it's causing government a headache.

She says a baseline evaluation has revealed there are around 2 600 informal settlements in the country.

"The majority of these settlements are located in unsuitable land that is prone to housing emergencies. 

"I have been engaging many comminutes in informal settlements, firstly to discourage illegal occupation and request municipalities to ensure that we don't allow anymore illegal occupation of land." 

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"This illegal occupation of land denies us an opportunity to plan and implement human settlements program properly. Moreover, these are the areas which have been mainly affected by disasters and leads to losses of lives."

The minister tabled her maiden budget vote in Cape Town. 

The human settlements budget allocation for 2022/23 is R33 billion.

"R18.7 billion is allocated to provincial grants, R11.7 billion for municipal grants and R1.6 billion will be transferred to human settlement entities. We will make every effort to ensure that we deploy these resources as efficiently as we can so that we can get more for less."