Diazville Housing Project: Millions Later, Still Nowhere to Call Home

Statement by Brett Herron, GOOD Secretary-General & Member of the Western Cape Parliament:

Despite R79.6 million allocated and a promise of 559 homes, the Diazville Housing Project in Saldanha Bay remains yet another unfinished chapter in the Western Cape’s housing backlog.

In response to written questions submitted by GOOD, the WC Infrastructure MEC confirmed what we already suspected: the Diazville housing project is still incomplete despite breaking ground in the 2014/15 financial year. Four years later, on the 23 May 2018 the DA confidently stated, on their website, that the project would be completed by August of that year. Yet here we are in 2025, staring at roads that lead to nowhere and empty plots where homes were meant to stand years ago.

The Diazville project began in 2014 and was rolled out in phases with the first phase of 102 units being completed in 2015. According to the MEC, 439 units were constructed between 2015 and 2018, but the project stalled. The remaining units have now been kicked down the road, postponed to the 2026/27 financial year.

Roads and other infrastructure were completed nearly a decade ago, but they’ve served no one. Administrative dysfunction has deepened the crisis. Poor beneficiary management, the use of “dummy plot numbers” during applications, and shifting qualification criteria have left would-be homeowners in limbo.

Some applicants, previously approved, now no longer qualify due to updated income thresholds or changes in national directives that prioritise certain “vulnerable groups.”

Diazville is no longer just a delayed housing project. It is an unwanted reminder of bureaucratic failure, broken promises, and a government more comfortable issuing press releases than delivering homes.

Infrastructure was laid, but dignity was never delivered.

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