​Thembisa Shologu
Gauteng is leading in terms of housing delivery compared to other province, but despite the large scale of housing delivery, there is still an estimated backlog of over two million housing units which is a cause for concern. 
Department of Human Settlements has reported that to eradicate this backlog the province needs R800 billion which is a challenge considering the current economic conditions. 
In October 2020, the Human Settlement Portfolio Committee embarked on a process of assessing government housing service delivery in the province and visited numerous unfinished projects across the various regions of Gauteng. 
During these oversight visits, the Portfolio Committee discovered that there were challenges in the beneficiaries' identification and subsequent allocation processes that have contributed to the backlogs.
Following this, the Portfolio Committee on COGTA and Human Settlements at the Gauteng Legislature held a seminar with various stakeholders on processes involved in the delivery of government housing projects.
Representing the department, Collin Pitso said Gauteng has about 2.1 million people sitting on the National Housing Needs Register (NHNR)."The information that is sitting there is incomplete, very imprecise records, and many of those who do not qualify, many whose life has changed for the better, some died, and duplicates. 
"For us to eradicate the backlog in the database, the departmentrequires R800 billion. In today's interest rate, I don't know how much it will cost us and where the money will come from," said Pitso. 
Before 2004 there were various databases that departments, municipalities and provinces used, the department needed to create a uniform platform wherein all those databases would be captured under the National Housing Needs Register (NHNR).
In terms of the Housing Subsidy System (HSS), a data bank of the department at National was created with its main responsibility is to work around the application of subsidy for everyone that is on the NHNR. 
"What we have since done as the department is noting we have a huge problem, we then revised the Provincial Housing Allocations Policy precisely because of the cry coming from the people who have registered between 1996 and 1999, people over the age of 60, military veterans and those with special cases. 
"We had to think creatively in terms of what is it that we need to do with the little that we have, but we seem to be pushing back the challenges that are there. We also had to work around on our Beneficiary Management System such that it becomes more transparent, it also involves so many people," he said.
The department is in the process of trying to digitise the system, to collapse the two (NHNR and HSS) and creating one system that will move the department to the next level. 
The seminar was held at The Innovation Hub in Pretoria under the theme: "Getting to understand the housing allocation policy and the credibility of the demand base''.
Portfolio Committee Chairperson, Kedibone Diale-Tlabale said there was a need to come up with new ideas that are relevant to the current environment government finds itself in. 
"We are trying to find a balance on all these challenges that we are experiencing, and qualifying beneficiaries must be able to get houses. 
"We are trying to say to the department, let's try and relook into how we have been doing things so that we are able to deal with the backlog," Diale-Tlabale. 
She said continuous assessment was needed on individuals that on the register, to check if they were still where they were when they registered. 
"We are also calling upon the youth to come up with ideas, this is a serious problem, and it requires innovation more than anything," she said.