04 Feb 2021

Government is reviewing the Housing Policy among others to address issues of  housing to  public officers and other workers, says  the Assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration, Mr Dumizweni Mthimkhulu.

Responding to a question in Parliament on Wednesday, Mr Mthimkhulu said government believed that every citizen, public officers included should be facilitated to access housing, but emphasised that lack of funds and   limited availability of private rental houses was a stumbling block.

Mr Mthimkhulu said government had also recently capacitated BHC to build houses under the Public Officers Housing Initiative (POHI) programme to further augment public officers housing.

He said government pool houses were reserved for qualifying public officers who were not entitled to institutional housing.

He also clarified that the construction of government houses was subject to availability of funds whilst construction of BHC houses was largely influenced by ability to levy cost recovery rentals.

Mr Mthimkhulu further stated that the private sector and the general public was encouraged to venture into development of houses for rental to among others, public officers which would have the added benefit of income generation for the house owners.

Moreover, assistant minister said that government had also made available schemes to encourage public officers to build their own houses, including those who work at their home villages.

Among the schemes that could assist in acquiring houses, Mr Mthimkhulu noted were Government Employees Motor Vehicle Advance Scheme (GEMVAS), SHHA for public Officers at scales D4 and below and SHHA home improvement.

Meanwhile Mr Mthimkhulu said he was aware of the acute shortage of housing for public officers nationwide, including Qabo, Kuke, Grootlagte and D’kaar settlements.

He said that to alleviate shortage of housing, government leased houses from the private market, BHC and Village Development Committees to augment the housing for public officers.

He further said that officers in those settlements were paid Remote Areas Settlement Allowance (RASA) to compensate for the additional challenges of working in remote areas.

With regards to all officers who work in remote areas, he said they were  assisted to find accommodation, adding that a total of 78 officers had benefitted directly from government housing; with19 at Grootlagte, 25 at Kuke, 17 at Qabo and 23 at D’Kar.

He also stated that a further total of 50 were living in VDC houses and a few in privately rented houses, 15 at Grootlagte, 10 at Kuke, 12 at Qabo and 14 at D’Kar.
Ghanzi North MP, Mr John Thiite had asked the minister if he was aware of shortage of staff housing in Qabo, Kuke, Grootlagte and D’kaar and that it demoralised and affected performance of public officers serving in those settlements.

MP Thiite also asked the minister to state the number of public officers eligible for staff housing, how many public officers had benefited from staff housing as well governments efforts in addressing shortage of staff housing in those settlements. ENDS