By MEC Tasneem Motara
It is an honour to table the Budget Vote for the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements for the 2025/2026 financial year — a year that coincides with the 70th anniversary of the Freedom Charter, a living document that continues to guide our struggle for justice, dignity, and inclusive development.
As the Freedom Charter boldly declared in Kliptown in 1955: “There shall be houses, security and comfort for all.” This clause was not just a dream, it was a demand, a blueprint for a democratic society built on equality and redress. Seven decades later, this vision remains urgent. We do so at a time when the clarion call for inclusive development, accelerated service delivery, and accountable governance is louder than ever. A growing population and rising demand for housing but also, at a time of renewed momentum, marked by improved governance, focused delivery, and strategic reform.
Our task is not only to respond but to lead. It is a responsibility that extends beyond the building of structures, it is about delivering dignity, ownership, and security of tenure to our people. To shape human settlements policy and delivery that reaffirms the constitutional promise of Section 26 that “everyone has the right to have access to adequate housing” — and to act on this promise with urgency, integrity, and innovation.
As we reflect on our task, I am reminded of the words of Frantz Fanon, who said: “Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it.” Today, our generation must fulfill the promise; the promise of the Freedom Charter, the Constitution, and the hopes of every South African still waiting for a place to call home.
The Budget we present today is not just a financial instrument. It is a moral commitment. It is our blueprint for unlocking the dignity, security, and opportunity that comes with a home, in a country still scarred by spatial injustice and economic exclusion. As a department, our work sits at the intersection of infrastructure and inclusion, of governance and hope. This budget is firmly anchored in the Gauteng Medium-Term Development Plan (GMTDP), which outlines three key strategic priorities:
• Inclusive growth and job creation,
• Reducing poverty and the cost of living,
• Building a capable, ethical, and developmental state.
We are not merely delivering houses. We are building integrated, sustainable human settlements, places where communities can grow, thrive, and participate meaningfully in the provincial economy.
Political Context & Governance Progress
As we take stock of our institutional journey, we hold close the words of Joe Slovo, former Minister of Housing in post-apartheid South Africa: “The struggle for shelter is not simply the struggle for bricks and mortar — it is the struggle for dignity, for belonging, for the space in which our people can live lives of value.”
This philosophy anchors our reform, our turnaround, and our relentless pursuit of a department that works and works for the people. In my first full year in office, we have prioritised institutional reform and credible delivery. The department has maintained an unqualified audit, resolved 74% of prior findings, ensured 100% of invoices are paid within 30 days, and strengthened intergovernmental coordination through the District Development Model.
Allow me to take this opportunity to formally congratulate Ms Puleng Gadebe Mabaso on her appointment as the Head of Department for Human Settlements in Gauteng. We wish her well in this critical role, which comes at a pivotal time for the department.
Her appointment brings with it a renewed sense of direction and stability and we are confident that her experience, integrity, and leadership will go a long way in providing the much-needed administrative backbone to drive the department’s service delivery agenda.
As we continue to build sustainable, integrated human settlements, her leadership will be instrumental in aligning operations with policy, and in restoring public confidence in our work. Our six-pillar turnaround strategy, covering governance, financial controls, digitisation, GIS planning, stakeholder engagement, and internal capacity has enabled us to rebuild trust, accelerate processes, and become a more agile instrument of development.
Budget Overview
The total budget for the 2025/26 financial year is R6.061 billion:
• R1.235 billion from the Provincial Equitable Share
• R4.826 billion from Conditional Grants .
An additional R332 million has been allocated — R232 million for sanitation services in informal settlements, and R100 million to secure land and structures in areas identified as part of the “Gauteng 13” by the Premier in the State of the Province Address.
These investments are crucial in tackling illegal land occupation, mitigating service delivery strain, and affirming our commitment to spatial justice. Over the MTEF, the budget declines to R5.524 billion a call to sharpen grant absorption, improve procurement efficiency, and ensure that every rand delivers impact.
Programme Allocations
To give practical effect to our developmental agenda and the
constitutional mandate of adequate housing for all, the Department’s budget is implemented through four strategic programmes each with distinct objectives, budget allocations, and performance targets designed to drive delivery, improve governance, and transform the spatial landscape of Gauteng.
Programme 1: Administration
R646.9 million (2025/26)
Focuses on enabling systems, compliance, financial controls, and procurement that favours township businesses, women, youth, military veterans, and persons with disabilities.
Programme 2: Housing Needs, Research & Planning
R134.6 million (2025/26)
Supports the Rapid Land Release Programme (R50 million), updated project pipelines, two research reports, and 33% investment in Priority Development Areas.
Programme 3: Housing Development
R5.050 billion (2025/26)
Delivers 7,503 BNG housing units, 31 serviced sites, 4,982 engineering services, 200 hectares of land, hostel upgrades, and informal settlement upgrades. It also creates 2,579 EPWP work opportunities and 750 skilled jobs.
Programme 4: Housing Assets & Property Management
R228.7 million (2025/26)
Drives the registration of 8,623 title deeds, transfer of flats to municipalities, and 70% resolution of rental housing disputes.
Key Priorities and Service Impact
Let us be clear; housing delivery is not a numbers game. It is about lives, hopes, and the restoration of dignity. Let me take you to Droogeheuwel, where a grandmother named Mama Maria, who waited over 15 years for a house, finally received the keys to a dignified home. As she stepped into her new living room, tears in her eyes, she said, “Thank you… I now live in my own house with my grandson. I no longer fear water leaks.”
This is not merely a story of shelter. It is a story of dignity restored; a reminder that behind every unit delivered is a human being whose life has been transformed. In informal settlements, we’ve relocated 518 households and serviced 9 settlements.
In Bekkersdal, we exceeded our sewer upgrade target, laying 14.1km and connecting 900 homes to water. Our hostel redevelopment programme now includes upgrades at George Goch, Denver, Jeppe, MBA, Murray & Roberts, and LTA Rethabile, an intervention that speaks to the dignity of communal living.
The Department has also prioritised five municipal owned hostels, that being; Mamelodi Hostel in Tshwane, Sethokga hostel in Ekurhuleni, Jabulani hostel in JHB, Ratanda Hostel in Lesedi and Kagiso hostel in Mogale City.
Land, Title and Transformation
We’ve allocated R39 million to register 8,623 title deeds. But this remains one of our toughest battles, impeded by illegal occupation, municipal delays, and pre-1994 disputes. Still, we persist. Because a title deed is a declaration: “This land belongs to you.” We are transferring flats and serviced stands to municipalities including 5 complexes and 703 stands to Johannesburg. With urgency, we call on municipalities to finalise their acceptance of these devolved assets.
Jobs, Inclusion and Equity
Our programmes have created nearly 30,000 work opportunities through EPWP, and we continue to prioritise women, youth, military veterans, and persons with disabilities, not as afterthoughts, but as integral partners in human settlements delivery. We draw from the wisdom of Prof. Thuli Madonsela, who once said: “Justice is not an abstract ideal. It is what love looks like in public.” Through fair land allocation, accessible services, and transparent subsidy enrolment, we show love. We advance justice.
The Work Ahead
Let me close by affirming that Africa has always been a continent of builders, thinkers, and visionaries. As Cheikh Anta Diop once wrote: “When we say that the ancestors of the Blacks… were the first to invent mathematics, astronomy, the calendar, sciences in general… that they built the immense temple of Karnak… and sculpted the first colossal statues… we are merely expressing the plain unvarnished truth that no one today can refute.”
This is our inheritance — not just the pyramids or temples, but the audacity to build the future. Let us honour it not with nostalgia, but with work. Let us not falter in the face of difficulty, nor seek comfort in empty rhetoric. This budget is a declaration that we are not claiming easy victories, we are building hard-won progress, one brick, one title deed, one dignified home at a time. In Gauteng, dignity is not postponed, housing is not negotiable, and hope is not an illusion.
I hereby table the 2025/26 Budget Vote for the Department of Human Settlements.
Thank you, Ngiyabonga, Dankie.
