South Africa's housing budget would receive a further R2,7-billion boost, elevating the total allocation over the next three years to R32-billion, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel reported on Wednesday.

Delivering his 2007 Budget Review speech, Manuel emphasised that this figure had grown significantly, highlighting that in 2004, government spent R4,6-billion on housing, while in 2010, it would be spending nearly triple this amount, or R12,5-billion.

“Allocations for water, sanitation, electrification and municipal roads all rise in a complementary fashion,” he stated. “Our government is determined to meet the targets that the President set in 2004.” Over the medium term, housing delivery would be speeded up, with informal housing settlements receiving upgrades, and municipal and residential development planning was to be streamlined to ensure more sustainable integrated mixed-use housing settlements, the 2007 Budget Review document said.

“The integrated housing and human settlement development plan is allocated an additional R2,7-billion over the next three years, bringing the total housing programme allocation to R29,6-billion over the next three years.

This would provide relief for the millions of South Africans, mostly black, that lived in shacks in informal settlements, scattered around South Africa's urban areas.

However, problems have arisen regarding corruption in the Department of Housing, which was hampering the roll-out of low cost houses, but on Monday the Department reiterated its dedication to rooting out corruption, by firing two corrupt officials.