Africa-Press – South-Africa. Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi, delivering his first State of the Province Address (SOPA) on Monday, has said the province wants to introduce a biometric system to prevent the illegal occupation of land and RDP houses.
Lesufi, who took over from David Makhura in 2022, said the system would use fingerprints rather than physical keys at RDP houses.
“We are also aware that there are people who are occupying RDP houses that don’t belong to them. Together with the Department of Human Settlements, we’re starting a new process where we will use your finger as a key to open your house instead of giving you a key,” said Lesufi.
A 24-hour anti-land invasion unit would also be introduced to prevent and stop the building of illegal houses, he added.
“This unit will be fully equipped and backed by legal brains to stop the lawlessness of invading other people’s land easily.”
Lesufi also shared his plans to “upgrade” informal settlements and hostels in the province.
“Informal settlements are not a dumping site for our people. We will beautify them and make them habitable with the long-term view of taking [people] to proper houses,” said Lesufi.
A budget of R3.1 billion has already been allocated to the human settlements department to improve informal settlements.
The department had already started upgrading 179 houses and had intervened in 731 settlements around the province to address the housing backlog, Lesufi said.
He added that 482 service stands with water, electricity, and roads had been released to speed up the building of houses in Gauteng.
“This means instead of people waiting for an RDP house, we will release fully serviced stands.”
These stands would be allocated to the youth, while RDP houses would be distributed among the elderly and disabled, Lesufi said.
Gauteng DA leader Solly Msimanga said Lesufi had sold them “dreams” during his address.
“This was a pie in the sky delivered in a ground-to-earth humility. Panyaza sold us a whole lot of dreams today. We have heard about how RDP houses are going to be opened using biometrics, we have heard about a bullet train that is going to be going to Limpopo from Gauteng, we have heard about helicopters that are going to be bought while the basics are not being taken care of,” he said.
Msimanga emphasised the importance of the government focusing on the fundamental issues before offering these grand plans.
Gauteng ActionSA chairperson Bongani Baloyi found the speech “fair” and “valid,” calling it the basis for Lesufi’s election campaign.
“We believe that a plan is only as good as its implementation. The history of the ANC implementation, all of us understand that they are unable to implement their own plans, so we believe that the foundation will be laid for us in 2024 to continue with the building of Gauteng,” he said.
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