South Africa’s Human Settlements Minister, Thembi Simelane, has unveiled a large-scale intervention to revive over 200 stalled housing projects as part of efforts to address prolonged delivery delays affecting thousands of households.
Speaking in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on Tuesday, 17th March, Simelane disclosed that 212 blocked, abandoned or incomplete projects—valued at approximately R37 billion—have been earmarked for unblocking in the 2025/2026 financial year.
The Free State has emerged as the most affected province, with 154 projects requiring urgent intervention, largely due to contractor abandonment and poor workmanship.
Other provinces impacted include Gauteng, where fewer but larger “mega projects” are stalled, alongside KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, North West, and Western Cape. While the Eastern Cape has no officially stalled projects, it continues to grapple with delays linked to mud housing programmes.
Simelane attributed project delays to a combination of legal disputes, infrastructure constraints, land availability challenges, administrative bottlenecks, and contractor non-compliance. Measures including payment suspensions and referrals to public works authorities are being implemented to enforce accountability.
The Government is prioritising long-delayed developments—particularly those dating between 2006 and 2014—and is strengthening provincial support through conditional grants, alongside interventions in disaster-affected and rural areas.
In the 2024/2025 financial year, more than 200 projects were identified for intervention, resulting in the delivery of at least 815 housing units. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to completing all outstanding projects and ensuring that affected communities receive long-overdue housing support.