It's high time the state kicked youths out of the house

If you are under the age of 40, you will not qualify to get a free house from the state, Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said this week.

This step by the government is long overdue and should have been taken a decade ago.

We fully support measures that will put the brake on housing projects. This programme sucks up billions of rands a year and the system has frequently been abused by people masquerading as "poor".

While there is still a need for free housing for many individuals - notably elderly black folk who were treated as mere visitors in white South Africa under apartheid - the system is not sustainable.

South Africa is the only country in the world that has been providing free housing to most of its citizens.

With an erratic "means test" being applied, many people who could actually afford a home have milked the system to get a free house.

With our unemployment rate being so high, beneficiaries of free housing have in some cases sold their homes and moved back to informal settlements.

Sisulu said: "I don't know of a country that gives free houses to young people. Free housing in a few years will be something of the past. You [the young people] have lost nothing [to apartheid]."

Every year, the government notes the number of houses it has built but the rate of informal settlements keeps on rising.

We fully agree with limiting the age at which a person qualifies to get a free house from the state, but the measure should also take into account the rising number of unemployed people.

What we call for is a progressive means test that looks at numerous factors, not just age.

The proposed special tribunals that will prosecute those who sold or rented out their free houses should be implemented as soon as possible. If we are to realise true value for our taxes, we should begin to empower the young generation and encourage a new spirit of self-empowerment.