FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ATT: REPORTERS, ASSIGNMENT EDITORS
19 April 2022
DEPARTMENT IN SEARCH FOR APPROVED INDIVIDUAL HOUSING SUBSIDY BENEFICIARIES TO DEAL WITH BACKLOG
The Eastern Cape Department of Human Settlements is calling upon all approved beneficiaries of the Individual Housing Subsidy in Nelson Mandela Bay Metro (NMBMM) and Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipalities (BCMM)to urgently contact the department. There is a total of 1185 beneficiaries with outstanding documentation for the finalization of their transactions which makes it impossible for the department to process payments.
These beneficiaries were approved between 1995 and 2017 calendar years and were based in NMBMM and BCMM. The beneficiaries are urged to contact the Provincial Department of Human Settlements within twenty-one working days (21) commencing from 30 March -03 May 2022. The list of the beneficiaries has been published in newspapers, the departmental website and social media.
These beneficiaries were approved on the Housing Subsidy System (HSS) but their transactions could not be finalized due to outstanding documents. The department has put measures in place to ensure prioritization of these beneficiaries. In December 2017, the department halted acceptance, capturing and approval of new Individual subsidy applications to clear the backlog.
The initiative yielded limited results as a significant number of beneficiaries did not come forward to conclude their transactions with the department. The failure to come forward had detrimental effects to the beneficiaries themselves. One of the policy requirements (Guidelines for the deregistration of missing beneficiaries of government subsidized houses – July 2005) and the deletion of beneficiaries from the Housing Subsidy System (HSS) is to trace the beneficiaries on newspapers and other platforms prior to deleting them on HSS.
Issued by the Eastern Cape Human Settlements Department
Inquiries: Yanga Funani – 078 348 0099
Facebook – EC Human Settlements News Channel.