The Minister of Human Settlements, Mmamoloko Kubayi has, during the delivery of the 2022 Budget Vote, announced members of the newly established national Human Settlements War Room.

Led by Mr Dan Gorbachev Mashitisho, the former Director-General of the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs as the convener, the specialized team will bring a broad range of much needed skills to the sector and includes:

• Mr Abongile Dyariwe, project and construction management specialist with a Master’s Degree in Built Environment

• Ms Patience Ntombifikile Ndlovu, a specialist in Urban planning with a Masters in Urban & Regional Planning

• Dr Mmaphaka Ephraim Tau, Governance, Strategic Leadership and Development Expert who until recently was the Head of the National Disaster Management Centre

• Mr Kwena Maphoto, infrastructure development specialist who is a professional technologist in civil engineering

Their skills range from project and construction management to urban planning, governance, and infrastructure development.

The War Room is expected to amongst other things, coordinate efforts, monitor and fast track the implementation of diverse projects across provinces, coordinate the support of various entities and consolidate reports to the War Room. Its role will extend to providing project tracking tools on all human settlements projects, monitoring and reporting to the War Room whilst identifying strategic partners to unblock challenges in the implementation of projects.

Minister Kubayi announced that the Department has committed itself to get rid of these projects by 2025. This announcement follows Ministerial visits to various provinces to receive briefings of the performance by Team Human Settlements, as the priority is to transform people’s lives through the delivery of sustainable human settlements.

The department intends to complete a scoping exercise of all the blocked projects, including financial implications by the end of 2022.

Source: Government of South Africa