KZN Human Settlements Department unveils housing plans for disaster victims
THE Department of Human Settlements in KwaZulu-Natal has announced detailed plans aimed at addressing accommodation for people displaced by disasters.
This comes amid concerns that the department has failed to deliver on key objectives, including building disaster relief housing in a timely manner. The department revealed yesterday that it plans to renovate a building purchased from Transnet, which will provide immediate housing relief stock for those left homeless by recent disasters.
Going forward, the department intends to limit spending on private accommodation for those displaced by natural disasters. Last week, 189 individuals and more than 60 families spent a night outside after being evicted from the Bayside Hotel in Durban amid a payment dispute, as the department had not paid the hotel owner.
To date, it has spent R185 million to accommodate families in about six private accommodations across Durban, and it said it needed an additional R128 million to continue doing so. The flood victims have since been placed in another building after the hotel owner refused to take them back in.
This incident unfolded amid growing concerns that the department was failing to deliver on its key mandates. DA spokesperson on Human Settlements, Riona Gokool, stated that the department’s portfolio committee was briefed on its performance to date, raising serious concerns.
“KwaZulu-Natal’s Department of Human Settlements (DHS), under MEC Siboniso Duma, has failed to meet delivery targets across its most critical mandates, despite reporting 100% financial expenditure of its 2024/25 R3.9 billion adjusted budget.
“The damning information came to light during a recent KZN Legislature Human Settlements portfolio committee meeting, during which officials outlined the department’s fourth-quarter reports and proposed Annual Oversight Plan (AOP) for 2025/26,” she said.
“The reality is that out of a total of 50 performance indicators, only 28% exceeded targets, while 36% underperformed, notably in Planning and Housing Development. This reflects a serious misalignment between expenditure and actual outcomes, raising concerns of inefficiency, poor planning, and lack of consequence management.
“Only 21 out of 410 targeted post-1994 title deeds have been registered, with zero community residential units delivered out of a targeted 270. No informal settlements have been upgraded to Phase 3 despite escalating housing backlogs, and only 540 disaster relief houses have been delivered out of 1 500 targeted units,” she stated.
The department pushed back on these claims, stating that the information was meant to misinform members of the public. It said, guided by MEC Siboniso Duma, that over the past 391 days, the department has delivered:
- 7 976 fully subsidised houses for ordinary members of communities
- 5 030 houses for people in rural areas
- 464 homes for vulnerable members of society
- More than 900 sites established to enable members of the public to build their own houses
- 1 638 title deeds registered and handed over to ordinary members of society
- 315 households assisted to own houses for the first time through the First Home Finance Programme.
The department said it is doing significant work to deliver housing, including spending on bulk infrastructure to ensure that projects are completed on time, despite that being a municipal function. Regarding the progress made to address the issue of housing for disaster victims, the department stated that all levels of government are working together to coordinate their response to disaster relief.
Part of this expenditure was the acquisition of Montclair Lodge from Transnet, which has 600 beds to accommodate flood victims. “We have paid R33m for this facility, which will be repurposed to accommodate victims of floods. The transfer from Transnet to us took place on 31 May 2025. In other words, we will no longer use private facilities as part of the Temporary Emergency Accommodation,” said MEC Duma.
It said a professional engineer will be appointed before the end of July 2025 to conduct a basic assessment, which will determine the scope of work for the refurbishment. The contractor will be appointed immediately upon receipt of the basic assessment. A minimum of R35m will be set aside for the refurbishment, while R4.2m has been made available for the basic assessment, it continued.
It is anticipated that some flood victims will take occupation in the lodge during December 2025 or January 2026. “Our plan is to ensure that we are ready for heavy rainfall and flooding associated with the summer season,” concluded the department’s statement.