The Department of Human Settlements will no longer provide free RDP houses to poor South Africans in order to combat the dependency syndrome.
Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu announced during a press briefing on the sidelines of the Habitat III Thematic International Conference on urbanisation in Hatfield, Pretoria, on Thursday, that her department was coming up with new measures to provide government housing to the needy.
She said they had identified a new financing model in which the state would provide people under 40 with subsidies so that they can build houses themselves.
"We cannot continue giving out free houses anymore. We'll give people subsidies so that they can build houses themselves.
"Giving free houses creates a dependancy syndrome," Sisulu added.
Delegates from all over the world heard how the growing urban populations who go to big cities for a better life was a global phenomenon which led to the creation of informal settlements.
United Nations human settlement programme executive director Dr Joan Clos said about seven billion people out of 7.4-billion of the world's population lived in cities.
