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The purpose of the Department of Community Development was to promote the housing and settlement of all the different population groups in the country and the development of sound communities, and to remove, by means of slum clearance and urban renewal, poor conditions impeding proper community development.

The functions of the Department included: professional and technical planning of and control over housing programmes for the National Housing Commission and the Community Development Board; settlement and development of communities and provision of alternative facilities; activation of and assistance to local authorities to provide housing in terms of the Slums Act, 1934, and the Housing Act, 1966, and to develop areas for specific population groups with or without financial assistance from the Department, buying, selling and letting properties within the framework of the activities of the Department; renewal and replanning of depressed urban areas; provision and maintenance of official quarters for certain public servants; administration of the housing loan plan for public servants, of the Slums Clearance Act, and the Rents Act, of government villages, and of permits in terms of the Group Areas Act, 1966, in respect of proclaimed group areas.

There were eight regional offices in South Africa - in Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, Kimberley, Pietermaritzburg, Pretoria and Port Elizabeth.