Dignity restored for thousands of Eastern Cape destitute families through housing delivery <\/p>\n
Dozens of Eastern Cape destitute families continue to benefit from the delivery of decent quality houses, reshaping their lives and the Provincial landscape. More than 28 000 destitute and vulnerable families have been provided with houses by the Eastern Cape Provincial Government through the Department of Human Settlements, in the current term of administration. This shows good progress as the province is changing the narrative as far as service delivery is concerned. This is one of the commitments made by the ruling government, of serving the Eastern Cape citizenry and upholding the responsibility to effectively provide quality homes thereby restoring the people\u2019s dignity. A reported case on the plight of a 32-yearold Amalinda mother of three who found herself homeless after her shack burnt down, leaving her without any belongings including identity document, saw South African Social Services Agency (SASSA) move swiftly to ensure that the family receive appropriate social grants to change their plight.
\n To ensure qualifying individuals who are not in possession of identification due to various reasons access social grants and improve their livelihoods, government has put policies in place to allow citizens to benefit whilst still awaiting identification documents. The South African Social Services Agency (SASSA) Regulation (13.1) of the Social Security Act 2004 stipulates that the Agency may accept alternative proof or any supporting documents for an application of a social grant to make the process easier. Such situations include a person who have never had an identity document or birth certificate.
\nIn situations where these documents have been destroyed or lost, One of the beneficiaries, 84- year-old Ntonga Notshu from Mqanduli, was elated when she was notified that her name was amongst those identified and deserving families, following natural disasters that destroyed her house in the area. Even the relatively cold weather conditions on the day of the handing over could not dampen her spirits, as she eagerly waited for her new house, and her life changing for the better. The story of mama Notshu is much familiar to many families in the province who had to seek refuge from neighbours after natural disasters destroyed their homes. She stated that the house brought positive change to her family.
\n\u201cI am very excited to receive the house. Previously I was staying in a delipidated mud structure for years with my grandchildren, but today it is a different story. The entire family is joyful knowing that we have a quality house that cannot be easily affected by disasters,\u201d said Notshu. The department has made strides in executing its priorities which include provision of housing prioritising the destitute, vulnerable groups and military veterans, as well as the systematic unblocking of historically blocked projects, accelerated registration and issuing of title deeds to homeowners. Human settlements\u2019 mandate requires to go beyond low-cost housing and create social, special, and economic integration through sustainable settlements with due consideration of mixed housing typologies. This is being done through strengthening relationships with stakeholders and developers to make a lasting impact on the landscape of the province. The Eastern Cape Government is committed to effectively coordinate and secure mutually supporting actions amongst all stakeholders to fast-track delivery of integrated and sustainable human settlements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecdhs.gov.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102475"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecdhs.gov.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecdhs.gov.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecdhs.gov.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecdhs.gov.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102475"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecdhs.gov.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102476,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecdhs.gov.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102475\/revisions\/102476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecdhs.gov.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecdhs.gov.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecdhs.gov.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}