Human settlements minister Thembisile Simelane has warned severe budget cuts will affect the department’s ability to meet its housing delivery targets, as opposition parties rejected the budget and accused the government of failing to address SA’s housing crisis.Tabling budget vote 33 in parliament, Simelane said the department’s baseline has been reduced by R20.6bn over the medium-term expenditure framework, including a R19.7bn cut to the urban settlements development grant.“The reality is that we are operating under severe fiscal constraints,” Simelane said.The department has been allocated R81.364bn over the medium term, with R26.972bn allocated in the current financial year. Conditional grant funding accounts for R23.679bn, or 87% of the annual allocation.Simelane said SA’s housing backlog is estimated at about 2.6-million, while 11.7% of households still live in informal dwellings.For the current financial year, the department aims to deliver 39,058 housing units, 25,186 serviced sites, 21,918 title deeds, 2,878 social housing units and 744 houses for military veterans. It also plans to eradicate 6,950 mud houses and install 11,215 solar systems.The minister conceded delivery fell in the previous financial year, with 23,027 housing units delivered against a target of 37,779. “This situation cannot continue,” Simelane said.“We will take decisive actions against underperforming contractors and officials who fail to conclude procurement processes within the prescribed time frames.”Simelane said 212 blocked housing projects have been identified nationally, of which 85 have been unblocked, resulting in the delivery of 1,136 housing units in Gauteng, the Free State, the North West, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Limpopo.She said the Housing Development Agency has acquired 2,447ha of well-located land against a target of 1,000ha, while provinces have delivered 24,251 serviced sites against a target of 13,995.ANC MP Albert Seabi and committee chairperson supported the budget, saying it responds to the constitutional obligation to provide access to adequate housing. However, he warned that declining allocations will make it difficult for the department to meet its targets.DA MP Conrad Poole said the housing crisis is no longer mainly a policy problem but “an implementation and accountability problem”.“Nonperformance, corruption, stalled projects and weak oversight have become legacy problems within the sector,” Poole said.MK MP Thulani Gamede rejected the budget, saying cuts to housing allocations show the government is retreating from its responsibility to the poor. “Housing is not merely a commodity. It is a fundamental right,” Gamede said.EFF MP Mbali Dlamini also rejected the budget, saying it fails to reverse apartheid spatial planning and will not address the needs of poor, rural and landless communities.“Black people are still pushed into the outskirts of cities, far from economic opportunities, schools, healthcare facilities and public transport,” Dlamini said.Rise Mzansi MP Makashule Gana said the crisis is driven by the capture of well-located urban land by “profit, speculation, and exclusion”.“Human settlements cannot simply mean houses on the outskirts of cities with no clinics, no transport, no safety, and no economic opportunity,” Gana said.PA MP Saintes van Wyk supported the budget but called on Simelane to focus on housing and title deed backlogs in coloured communities.