President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed a new proclamation authorizing the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) to investigate allegations of maladministration in the Housing and Development Authority (HDA) and human settlements departments in all provinces.
The R33.15-billion 2024/25 budget gives much of the money to rural areas, but Minister Thembi Simelane cited “systemic corruption and mismanagement” as a major challenge in delivering housing projects.
Proclamation No. 265 of 2025, announced on June 16, empowers the SIU to investigate maladministration in the identification, acquisition, development and release of state, common and private lands.
This includes suspected wrongdoing between April 1, 2016 and May 30, 2025, including related activity involving the same person, entity, or contract before or after that time.
The investigation will assess whether the procurement process violates fairness, transparency, competitiveness, cost-effectiveness, and relevant laws and financial regulations.
“This includes land designated for residential and community purposes, whether owned in the name of a government agency, on behalf of a state authority, or by the state authority itself,” SIU spokesperson Kaiser Kganyago said.
He said the investigation will assess whether procurements and contracts are fair, transparent, competitive, cost-effective, or violate relevant laws or Treasury guidelines.
HDA property sales under investigation include Chris Hani’s 2,560 serviced stands in Ekurhuleni for R389.1 million, Tshwane’s R279 million and Eagle’s Nest in Ekurhuleni for R213 million.
These purchases were made despite purported valuations ranging from R285,000 to R13.2 million.
“The investigation will also examine… actions by officials and employees of government agencies and local departments, their suppliers and service providers, or any other persons or entities suspected of being involved,” Kganyago said.
dangerous housing projects
South Africa’s Human Settlements Department is a government agency responsible for housing, urban development, and related services, with the aim of addressing historical spatial inequalities and providing affordable housing.
However, corruption and mismanagement in these sectors result in significant economic losses through mismanagement, fraudulent procurement, and other unethical practices, affecting public trust and service delivery.
Recently, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) found the North West Human Settlements Authority in violation of the right to adequate housing, with over 5,500 incomplete RDP homes due to inadequate oversight, planning failures and contractual disputes.
The committee also accused the state Treasury and the Office of the Prime Minister of failing to hold the department to account.
Since 2011, 457 complaints have been filed in the state, including the case of a 70-year-old woman from the village of Tsetse who has been waiting for a promised home since 1995.
In addition to this, the SAHRC’s Mpumalanga office recently issued a summons to the Mpumalanga Human Settlements Department for failing to address complaints about RDP housing and asbestos roofing, and violating residents’ rights to adequate and safe housing.
Business Tech reported several abandoned human settlements across Gauteng.
Although not everything is carried out by the human settlements department, but rather by the city, the national and local departments have nevertheless allocated large sums of money to these white elephants.
For example, the Dagafontein Megacity in Springs, which was scheduled to deliver 18,000 homes by 2023, remains without a single home built nearly 10 years after it was announced, despite spending more than R313 million.
Although some internal infrastructure exists, progress has been held back by delays, funding issues and contractor setbacks, with the first phase of the project currently postponed to 2029/2030.
Many of the findings came from the Human Settlements Development Grant (HSDG), which is funded by the central government and allocated to state departments of human settlements.
Another project, a R371-million mega-housing project in Tembisa, Ekurhuleni, which was promised to provide 3,510 homes for Winnie Mandela informal settlement residents, now remains abandoned.
Despite early progress and a phased completion plan by 2024, the site once hailed as transformative has been left bare with construction halted and buildings left unfinished.
After the BusinessTech article was published, the minister and local MEC conducted an “unblocking visit to the site” promising to restart the stalled project.
“The ministry is prioritizing mega projects such as the Tembisa Ext 25 mega housing project in Ekurhuleni to address blocked projects and extend delivery times,” Mr Simelane said.
“To expedite the process, a simplified delivery model is being promoted where developers handle planning, construction and issuance of title deeds,” she added.
