The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng is not surprised to discover that the Rapid Land Release Programme, promised by the ANC-led Gauteng administration under Premier David Makhura has not yet come to fruition.
According to the Gauteng Department of Human Settlement’s annual report for the 2019/2020 financial year, the department did not achieve its target to have 2,000 land parcels handed over for implementation process.
The reasons given for not meeting this target was that the planning work was not completed due to additional planning milestones that were not approved, however the motivation for approval of additional planning milestones had to be revised and resubmitted in the 2020/21 financial year.
The department also failed to achieve its target to have 6,510 opportunities handed over to the rightful beneficiaries.
The department states that this target was not achieved due to the non-availability of beneficiaries to participate in the programme yet evidence to the contrary has been provided.
Furthermore, according to the department’s third quarter report for the 2020/21 financial year, the department also failed to meet its target of handing over 1,500 release opportunities of serviced stands to the rightful beneficiaries.
This clearly indicates that the rapid land release programme is not a priority for the department but just a pipe dream that is used by Premier Makhura and the Gauteng MEC for Human Settlements and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Lebogang Maile for electioneering purposes and to calm poor Gauteng residents who would be protesting for dignified housing.
Last year, during his State of the Province Address (SOPA), Premier Makhura said his government will release 10 000 serviced stands across the province between April and June as part of the rapid land release programme yet to date nothing has happened.
Last week, in his SOPA, Premier Makhura said nothing about the rapid land release programme and we were not surprised as it was one of the many empty promises made by the Premier in the past.
This programme would make it easier for our people who are in desperate need of dignified housing and who are capable of building their own homes. The government only provides basic services such as water, electricity, sanitation, and roads.
It is high time that our people are informed about the exact status quo of this programme and are no longer fooled by the ANC-led Gauteng administration.
The DA will continue to put pressure on both Premier Makhura and MEC Maile to ensure that the serviced stands are allocated to the rightful beneficiaries as a matter of urgency. Based on previous experiences the longer these serviced stands remain unoccupied the more likely they will become targets for illegal occupants, vandalism, and corruption. We also call for the speed-up of the planning work and implementation processes. We will also be tabling questions in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) to ascertain what measures are being put in place to speed-up the rapid land release programme.