The Minister of Human Settlements, Lindiwe Sisulu will on Friday participate in a panel discussion at the Banking Association of South Africa (BASA) summit that will discuss partnerships in accelerating housing delivery.

The summit held under the theme “A partnership for Housing Delivery” will focus on identifying challenges and opportunities with a view of guiding the banking sector in developing implementable programmes to address the housing challenges in South Africa.

Amongst other panellist will be Sizwe Nxasana Chairman of BASA, Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene, First National Bank CEO Jacques Celliers, Yusuf Patel Managing Director of Basil Read Developments and Johannesburg Executive Mayor Parks Tau.

Members of the media are invited to attend the event to be held as follows:

Venue: 177 Empire Place, Cnr Rivonia Road Sandton

Date: 31 October 2014

Time: 08:30 for 09:00

Enquiries
Ndivhuwo Mabaya, Head of Communication
Mobile: 083 645 7838
Date: 30 October 2014

Human Settlements Deputy Minister Zou Kota-Fredericks will hand over 76 houses built by a group of 100 volunteers for the indigent at Lindelani Informal Settlements, outside Galeshewe in Kimberley to commemorate the 1976 student uprising.

The 2014 Human Settlements Youth Build project was launched by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa during his visit to the province in June.

The Deputy Minister joined, by Hon. Premier of the Northern Cape Sylvia Lucas, MEC for Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs, Alvin Botes, the Executive Chairperson of the NYDA, Yershen Pillay and the Executive Mayor of the Francis Baard District Municipality Cllr K Moloi will also preside over a graduation ceremony.

Date: 13 November 2014
Time: 10:00 am
Venue: Lindelani, Galeshewe, Kimberly in Northern Cape

NB: Please note that the graduation ceremony will take place at the Galeshewe Social Centre after the handover ceremony in Lindelani.

Issued by: NDHS 10/11/14

For more information contact: Teboho Montse 082 88 66 721/Isaac Skhosana 081 495 2222/Gamien Abrahams 083 456 6161/Sello Matsie 076 152 6628

On December 1, 2014 at Gallagher Estate, Midrand, The Minister of Human Settlements; Lindiwe Sisulu will hosts a National Human Settlements Youth Summit to discuss the active participation of youth in housing delivery and the strategy to position young people on the forefront of the implementation of the Social Contract for the Development of Human Settlements

The Summit will discuss the housing programme and explore how the youth can take part in the implementation of programmes. “Many young people I have interacted with said they do not want free housing, they want land and jobs and they will build for themselves, the summit will look at how we can use our budget to train young people to play an active role in the delivery of human settlements, Amongst other issues we will deal with is the prioritisation of elders, making serviced sites available for young people to build for themselves, training and development of small companies to implement housing projects” Minister Sisulu said.

On December 2, 2014 at Savannah City, Midvaal, The Minister will launch the National Human Settlements Youth Brigade as a vehicle to train and develop young people to participate in the building of 1.5 Million housing opportunities. The Brigade is in partnership with the National Youth Development Agency , National Home Builders Registration Coucil and the Estate Agency Affairs Board. “The National Human Settlements Youth Brigade is our vehicle as a sector to train and develop young people to actively participate in the implementation of our 1.5 Million housing opportunities, we seek to train and develop tomorrow big construction companies, we are looking for young people who want to form cooperatives, who want to learn different skills and join the construction and property sector” Sisulu said.

All programmes starts at 09:00am

Please confirm your attendance with Mr Tuso Zibula @ tuso.zibula@dhs.gov.za

Enquiries:
Ndivhuwo Mabaya
Head of Communications
Cell: 0836457838
Email: Ndivhuwo.mabaya@dhs.gov.za

The Minister of Human Settlements, Lindiwe Sisulu, South Africa’s youth organisations and department’s key stakeholders signed the National Human Settlements Youth Accord (NHSYA) for active participation in sustainable human settlements development.

The youth accord is the outcome of a one-day National Human Settlements Youth Summit held in Johannesburg to discuss government housing programmes aimed at empowering young people while mobilising them to support government and department’s priorities in the next five years. Key to the department of Human Settlements priorities is the delivery of 1.5 million housing opportunities by 2019 with a special focus to elderly, child-headed household and military veterans.

In putting resolutions of the Human Settlements Youth Summit into action, the department and different stakeholders today (02 December 2014) launched the National Human Settlements Youth Brigade at Savana City, Midvaal with 100 youth participating in the actual building of houses.

Youth Brigade programme will see youth getting training in different construction fields and the running of small businesses while getting experienced at catalytic projects across the country.

Addressing the Summit Minister Sisulu said the Youth Brigade’s Youth Brigade‘s strategic intervention and rational is among others, to “create a sustainable reservoir of sufficiently skilled young people who will sustain the construction sector beyond the 5th Administration; ensure that this crop of builders and construction workers is well supported and sustained through mentorship and other professional support and ensure that such a crop of construction workers inspire other young people to take up the task of re-building their country;

Sisulu also challenged young people to build their future. “Young people are not our priority candidates for welfare and free housing. What our young people have which not even Apartheid could take away is their youth. You have the rest of your lives ahead of you. Our responsibility as the government is to empower you, educate you, provide you with work experience and opportunities and to the extent that we can provide you with jobs”, said Sisulu.

The Youth Summit was attended by Minister of Small Business Development, Lindiwe Zulu who committed her Ministry towards support for young people and Deputy Minister in the Presidency, Buti Manamela who encouraged youth to participate in the development of National Youth Policy.

Enquiries:
Ndivhuwo Mabaya, Ministry Spokesperson
Mobile: 083 645 7838 
Issued by the Ministry of Human Settlements 
Date: 02 December 2014

The Deputy Minister, together with the Deputy Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform, Ms Candith Mashego-Dlamini and Deputy Minister of Water & Sanitation, Ms Pam Tshwete will engage with women on empowerment opportunities and create awareness on services that exist within government, and how ordinary rural communities can access them.

Date: 10 December 2014
Venue: Hukuwa Lower Primary School, Queenstown
Time: 10:30 am

For more information contact isaac.skhosana@dhs.gov.za and xoliswa.salman@dhs.gov.za

When l look at what we have achieved in six months since the 2014 general elections in May, we must all be proud of what we have achieved, we deserve a good rest to recharge and prepare for 2015.

Over the last few months we have laid a solid foundation as a sector towards the delivery on our target. We have identified 50 priority projects that will deliver more than 10 000 housing opportunities each. This will be a combination of Breaking New Ground (BNG) houses, affordable bonded houses, rental and serviced sites.

As an urgent priority we have launched the Military Veterans housing programme aimed at providing housing to our heroes and heroines who sacrificed so much in order to bring about freedom and democracy which we all enjoy today. Our target is to eradicate more than 5000 military veterans’ housing backlog by 2017.

To consolidate our resources and also prepare all stakeholders to achieve the 1.5 Million housing opportunities we convened the National Human Settlements Indaba on October 16 – 17. The Indaba was also a platform to review progress made in the implementation of the 2004 Breaking New Ground Policy and review the Social Contract for the Rapid Housing Delivery signed in 2005. At the end of the Indaba a Social Contract for the Development of Sustainable Human Settlements was signed with human settlements stakeholders. The contract details their (stakeholders) level of partnerships and contribution towards the 1.5 Million housing opportunities by 2019. The contract and contribution of all stakeholders which include banks, mines, private affordable housing developers, big employers and contribution of Government is estimated to value over R250 Billion by 2019.

To ensure youth participation in the implementation of human settlements programmes we hosted the National Human Youth Summit together with the Department of Small Business Development and the Presidency. The Summit shared with the leadership of youth formations and many other stakeholders programmes aimed at empowering young people and also challenged youth to actively participate in the implementation of the Social Contract for the Development of Sustainable Human Settlements. The Youth Summit concluded with the signing of a National Human Settlements Youth Accord (NHSYA) for active participation in sustainable human settlements development;

At the end of the Youth Summit, the National Human Settlements Youth Brigade was also launched. The Youth Brigade programme will see 10 000 young people getting training in different construction fields and the running of small businesses while getting experienced at Mega projects across the country by 2019. For the financial year 2015/016 more than 2000 young people are currently being trained to start work in February 2015.

We seek to finalise title deeds for close to 1 Million citizens who currently occupy Government supported housing pre 1994 and after 1994. We believe the title deed will allow them to access finance to improve their houses and to access finance for personal and family development. We urge those who are receiving title deeds not to sell their houses to secure money for entertainment and short term benefits.

As we take some time to rest and reflect on 2014 let us rest knowing that we have achieved what can be described as a miracle and have started our five-year journey to achieve our target of 1.5 Million housing opportunities by 2019. The 2015 is a year of youth empowerment through the youth brigade and fast tracked implementation of our Programme.

In 2015 we call on all big employers, mines, parastatals and multi-national organisations to assist their employees to have own houses. They can buy them serviced sites, give guarantees for them to access housing finance or buy them start up houses.

Our Christmas call to all big employers is that let's all join hands to assist all South Africans to have a house and a home.

In 2015 we also call on youth organisations to partner with us to form cooperatives and companies to participate in the rolling out of the Youth Brigade and the total human settlements Programme. We want young people in construction and human settlements infrastructure development.

To all South Africans, young and old we ask you to work with us. We have said we will prioritize elderly, child headed households and military veterans. I believe if we all work towards a common purpose nothing will stop us from achieving our target which is to provide shelter to all South Africans.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

LN Sisulu, MP
Minister of Human Settlements

Enquiries
Ndivhuwo Mabaya, Ministry Spokesperson
Mobile: 083 645 7838
Date: 21 December 2014