After 20 years of democracy, there is still an outcry from the underprivileged for the homes they were promised all those years ago.
Kwa-Zulu Natal MEC for Human Settlements, Ravi Pillay, together with municipality representatives, met with residents in the Newcastle area last week to address their concerns.
Mr Pillay commended the Newcastle Municipality for listening to its people.
“Originally we had planned to visit all the success story areas, but on the advice of the mayor, we decided to change our itinerary, and visit the areas where people are still waiting for their housing claims,” said Mr Pillay.
Mr Pillay said while the Department of Human Settlements was working hard to ensure every citizen of South Africa had a place they could call home, the processes behind housing programmes would take some time. However, he mentioned that in the coming years, residents of Newcastle could look forward to 11 new planned housing projects.
“We have come a long way since 1994. The homes we are now building are coming well-equipped for the people. We want to give our people the best, but they must remember we have restraints put on us, due to budgets,” he concluded.
Newcastle Mayor, Afzul Rehman, agreed with Mr Pillay, reminding the community that housing projects had been at a stand-still in the town, and had only been resumed in 2009.
