Housing in Southern Africa March 2016

News

487 000 Potential home owners

H ome Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba recently announced that 87 000 government em- ployees enrolled for the new hous- ing allowance. The employees will receive the allowance backdated to 1 July 2015. Chairing the Governance and Administration Cluster briefing, theMinister said that government has anticipated that by the end of March 2016 over 400 000 employees would have enrolled for the homeowners allowance. Gigaba said that the balance of government employees will have an opportunity to enrol when the Government Employees Housing Scheme (GEHS) website is launched in March 2016. The GEHS follows the signing of the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council Resolution in May 2015 aimed at increasing home ownership and asset security among public service employees. Gigaba said the implementation of the GEHS includes: • Enhancing the capacityof theGEHS Office within the Department of

Public Service and Administration (DPSA) to manage and operate the scheme, while a dedicated government component is being established; • Implementing the housing allow- ance of R1 200monthly andprovid- ing a savings facility for employees to accumulate the housing allow- ance towards home ownership;

• Startingtheenrolmentandprofiling of employees for access tohousing; • Implementing the housing finance service funded by the Government Employees Pension Fund and Public Investment Corporation to provide affordable home loans and implementing partnerships with public and private sector role players. ■