South Africa Targets $40bn Women-Led Housing Market Through Procurement Mandate

South Africa’s 40 percent procurement set-aside for women in human settlements is either a genuine capital-allocation instrument or an end-of-year statistic. Human Settlements Minister Thembi Simelane, speaking Monday evening in Johannesburg, made clear she intends it to be the former.

Addressing the Women in Human Settlements Sector Dialogue, Simelane issued a direct challenge to the sector: women must move from passive programme recipients to active owners, investors and decision-makers who shape the economic value flowing through housing and settlement development. Deputy Minister Tandi Mahambehlala and female Members of Executive Councils responsible for Human Settlements joined her at the event, which brought together government agencies, sector entities, industry stakeholders and women beneficiaries to assess progress and identify barriers to women’s economic participation in the human settlements value chain.

The gathering closed the 2026 Women’s Month programme and followed the recent launch of the Women of Human Settlements platform at Freedom Park. Simelane positioned it as a departure from ceremonial recognition toward concrete economic leverage.

“Today’s engagement carries that work forward. It has moved from policy direction to implementation; from targets to opportunity; from institutional programmes to the experiences of women whose businesses, careers and professional journeys have been affected by those programmes,” she said.

The 40 percent set-aside sits at the centre of her argument. Simelane stressed that the approved target must function as an operational tool, reflected in procurement planning, sourcing, awards, contract values, payments and performance reporting. “It should not be treated as a slogan or an end-of-year calculation. It is one practical instrument through which public expenditure can widen participation in the economy,” she said.

Hitting the number, however, is not enough. The sector must examine whether women-owned businesses can access procurement pipelines, meet compliance requirements, compete effectively, secure timely payments, build capacity and advance to larger contracts. The same scrutiny applies to whether professional women are advancing into technical authority, executive leadership and boardrooms, and whether they hold ownership and influence across land, finance, construction, property management, regulation, research and innovation.

By contrast, Simelane connected women’s economic empowerment directly to the reduction of gender-based violence and femicide. Economic dependence constrains choices. Secure tenure, professional pathways, access to finance, contracts and sustainable enterprises expand them. This framing ties housing and settlement policy to broader safety and autonomy outcomes, widening the investment case beyond construction economics.

On 14 August, the Minister announced a policy creating a confidential, survivor-centred pathway for housing-vulnerable survivors of gender-based violence to access priority assessment and appropriate housing assistance. The policy does not guarantee automatic house allocation; it establishes a lawful system for assessing vulnerability, identifying support, assigning responsibilities and making decisions with dignity.

Delivery depends on coordination across multiple institutions. The Department of Social Development provides shelters, psychosocial services, case management and referral pathways. The Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities holds national coordination and monitoring responsibilities. Provinces, municipalities, Human Settlements entities, civil society and other sector partners carry defined roles alongside them.

“The test is whether a survivor encounters a coordinated system rather than a maze of institutions,” Simelane said. “We must protect personal information, minimise repeated disclosure, avoid public labelling and ensure that every referral has an institution that receives it and an official responsible for acting on it.”

The dialogue signals a structural shift in how the sector frames women’s participation: not as a social programme, but as a reordering of how capital, contracts and authority flow through human settlements. Whether procurement data and contract-value reporting will bear that ambition out remains the open question for the months ahead. Further details are available at https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/call-greater-economic-power-women-human-settlements.