On Friday, 12 September 2025, Minister of Human Settlements, Ms Thembi Simelane, held a bilateral meeting with the Executive Director of UN-Habitat, Ms Anacláudia Rossbach, on the margins of the Urban Twenty (U20) Mayors Summit held in Sandton, Johannesburg. 
 

The Minister and the Executive Director discussed issues of common interest related to human settlements in South Africa as well as areas of cooperation in the global human settlements forums. The Minister briefed the Executive Director about progress made towards the opening of the Habitat Country Office in South Africa. This follows Cabinet approval for South Africa to host the Country Office, the signing of the Contribution Agreement and the Exchange of Notes. With the legal framework in place, this has now paved way for the official launch of the UN-Habitat Country Office which shall be hosted in Pretoria. It is envisaged that the outcomes and benefits of hosting the UN-Habitat Country Office would be amongst others the following, capacity-building, disaster risk management and response, climate resilience and early warning systems. 
 

She also highlighted the areas for further cooperation and prioritisation by the Country Office, namely: (i) integrated spatial planning; (ii) innovative building technologies; (iii) transformation of informal settlements; and (iv) strengthening of stakeholder cooperation and coordination at national and international fronts. 
 

The Executive Director appreciated the Minister’s briefing and added that, UN-Habitat equally value the long-standing cooperation with Department of Human Settlements. She recognised the support of the South African Government in advancing the global human settlements agenda such as the New Urban Agenda, Global Action Plan on Accelerating Transformation of Informal Settlements and Slums. She acknowledged that South Africa has been championing the global agenda on the transformation of informal settlements and that the country has generated valuable knowledge and expertise in this area. In this regard, the Executive Director proposed that South Africa’s UN-Habitat Country Office should be designated as a Knowledge Hub on Informal Settlements. Such a designation will enable South Africa to share experiences with other countries and to learn from them for mutual benefit.  
 

The Executive Director recognised South Africa’s past global leadership in championing eradication of informal settlements within the UN-Habitat and amongst member countries. Emanating from this recognition, she then informed the Minister about the work of the UN-Habitat Open-Ended Working Group on Adequate Housing. She invited South Africa to consider joining the group to contribute to the global discourses on matters such as: (i) crafting the global definition of an “informal settlement”; (ii) housing finance and its modalities; (iii) social housing best practices, to mention just a few. 
 

The Minister and the Executive Director shared views on a number of subject matters including city-level planning and effective local governance. Efforts to revive cooperation with countries such as Brazil and India were also noted with the view that the UN-Habitat Country Office will assist to facilitate targeted technical cooperation, exchange of knowledge and best practices on adequate housing delivery models.
 

The Executive Director encouraged the Minister to participate in the Thirteenth Session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) to take place in Baku, Azerbaijan, in May 2026.  She also expressed condolences to the family of the late South African High Commissioner to Kenya and United Nations Office in Nairobi, High Commissioner MJ Mahlangu, as well as to the people of South Africa. 

Enquiries: Tsekiso Machike, Spokesperson to the Minister on 077 410 5050 Tsekiso.machike@dhs.gov.za

Issued by the Ministry of Human Settlements, Govan Mbeki House 240, Justice Mahomed Street, Sunnyside, Pretoria