National & Provincial Departments of Human Settlements 2011/12 business plans

Meeting report

Department of Human Settlements: 2011/12 Provincial Business Plans and Outcome 8 Targets: briefing
Mr Anton Arendse, Chief Director, Department of Human Settlements, briefed the Committee on the provincial business plans of the Department of Human Settlements (DHS or the Department) and Outcome 8 targets, in confirmation of the national priorities for 2010 – 2015. The defined outcome was the creation of sustainable human settlements and an improved quality of household life for all people.

Mr Arendse then gave a breakdown of the Human Settlements Development Grant (HSDG) per province. He said that provincial representatives would comment on the position in the provinces after his more general presentation.

In the Eastern Cape, the majority of funds would go towards upgrading of informal settlements. Mr Arendse noted that this province had adopted various approaches and strategies to increase its focus on informal settlements. The Free State had an allocation of 48% towards its informal settlements upgrades. Mr Arendse said that this by no means implied that this only happened in the larger urban centres, but upgrading also took place across all settlements, as well as through the provision of rural housing. Gauteng province was planning to upgrade informal settlements to the amount of R1.6 billion. Gauteng also planned to build 2 678 units for affordable rental purposes. Kwazulu Natal had allocated the majority of its funds to rural housing (24%), because of the vast number of rural areas in the province.

Limpopo province also focused more on rural housing, with more than half of its allocation (58.3%) going towards this. Mpumalanga had set out land acquisition as one of its main objectives, as distinct from the other provinces in this regard. The province was also spending a significant amount (35%) of its allocation on rural housing. The Northern Cape had set aside an amount of R4 million for the planning of affordable rental units. It was also planning to spend 2.5% of the allocation towards rectification. The North West province allocated a total of 65.72% towards informal settlements’ upgrading. The Western Cape had set aside 84% of its allocation towards informal settlements’ upgrading, as well as R249 million towards affordable rental housing.

Mr Arendse said that the highest allocations went to the Eastern Cape, Gauteng, and KZN. A total of 26.24% of the Outcome 8 contribution to informal settlement upgrading would be completed. This amounted to 400 000 sites, as envisaged by the President in his State of the Nation Address.

Mr Neville Chainey, Deputy Director General: Chief Operations, Department of Human Settlements, said that these figures represented a behavioural and developmental shift by the Department. The focus was not only on numbers, but rather on how things would be done differently. Informal settlement upgrading was to happen in existing households as well, and not just be used for shack dwellings. Water and sanitation were two very important basic services for the Department, so it concentrated on this as well as on the physical housing structures. This shift in pattern was planned by all provinces collectively.

Northern Cape briefing
Ms Renita Soodeyal, Head of Department, Northern Cape Provincial DHS, said that R322 million was allocated to various projects in the Northern Cape. Although only 650 units were planned for the informal settlements upgrading, this province also planned an Integrated Residential Development Programme (IRDP), with 2 158 units. This was a different subsidy programme but also within the rural areas. 50 houses would also be built by individuals for themselves. The provincial department had a list of beneficiaries that could be made available to the Committee if needed. The Northern Cape backlog was approximately 48 000 but it would take a few years to complete this number of houses because of the small allocation the province had received. The province, on average, could only build 3 000 houses per annum. 1372 jobs had been created over the past financial year, with an estimate of 1 400 new jobs in the current financial year.      

Eastern Cape
Mr Sjekula Mbanga, Chief Director: Eastern Cape Provincial DHS, noted to the Committee that the province had been riddled with numerous housing problems. The figures shown in the presentation for rectification was only not all inclusive of those rectification programmes that had been handed over to the National Department of Human Settlements. A service level agreement had been signed between the provincial and national department to address this issue. The province estimated that an amount of 9 012 jobs would be created from a rectification programme. The province had a backlog of 750 000 housing units. A challenge was the acquisition of land. With regards to co-operatives, a project had been handed over to co-operatives to help emerging contractors establish themselves.

Limpopo Province
Ms Zesuliwe Mkhize, Acting Head of Department, Limpopo DHS, said that the province spent its funds according to needs. More than half of its budget allocated would go towards rural housing. This included servicing informal settlements. With regard to job creation, 2 867 jobs were created between 2008 and 2009 and in 2011 more than 4 000 jobs would be created, in conjunction with the Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP). Limpopo did not have a separate rectification programme, but would look at blocked projects and identify those as rectification projects. 3 000 stands in informal settlements would be upgraded around the Tzaneen and Polokwane areas. The biggest challenge this province faced was the upgrading of bulk and ageing infrastructure. All municipalities had signed mandated agreements with the Development Bank of Southern Africa.  

North West Province
Mr Thupi Mokhatla, Head of Department, North West Provincial DHS, said that the province intended to create 5 000 jobs. There was a backlog of 283 000 matters, inclusive of informal settlements, affordable and rental housing schemes. With regards to informal settlement upgrading, the Department intended to do upgrades in 69 informal settlements in 19 municipalities, in 11 040 units. The housing co-operatives were not doing well but women and youth contractors were being promoted. In conjunction with the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC), 177 units were identified that needed to be rectified. These included houses built prior to 2002. The beneficiaries of subsidies were identified by both the Department and municipalities, and not only by the developers. As part of the turnaround strategy, and to avoid houses having to be rectified in the future, the Department had appointed 12 building inspectors. This province was operating within financial constraints and was in discussion with Provincial Treasury to get more funding. With regard to land acquisition, the province had engaged with the Housing Development Agency (HDA) and 259 hectares of land had been identified, which would create 3 000 residential units. Blocked projects would be taken over from the municipalities and transferred to the Department.  

Gauteng Province
Mr Mongezi Mnyani, Head of Department, Gauteng Provincial DHS, said that the province would create an estimated 15 000 jobs and currently had a housing backlog of 852 000. However, this number was constantly growing. A breakdown of the rectification programmes was available for the Committee. The province had a demand database which gave beneficiary lists ward by ward. The NHBRC, the Department and the municipalities all had their own inspectors. They all had a co-ordinated arrangement on how housing inspections were done. The province did have co-operatives, in the form of a community builder programme, and this was working well and coordinated matters, mainly for job creation. The budget was set out over a three year period as projects were ongoing. Money was also set aside for the preparation of soil due to the high concentration of dolomite. This was covered by the housing subsidy grant, but in the pre-building phase the digging would reveal whether these adverse soil conditions existed. The engineers then had to do some adjustment but the funds for this had to be applied for per project.

All projects were enrolled with the NHBRC and the Department gave no upfront payments to municipalities. The Breaking New Ground (BNG) projects were all well within norms and standards, and within the subsidy quantum. With regard to land acquisition, the province received land donated by the municipalities. The rental housing schemes were developed for a minimum monthly rental fee of R1 500. However, the communities said that they could not afford this amount so in some areas it had been lowered to R750.     

Kwazulu Natal
Mr Elijah Cele, Acting General Manager, KZN Provincial DHS, said that his Department was focusing mainly on the upgrading of informal settlements. There were currently 500 informal settlements in the province, and 4 476 units would be upgraded. Ethekwini was a major economic hub, with many people moving into the area for work and residential purposes, so most of the upgrade projects were focused on this area. The province had a working relationship with HDA, and was in the process of acquiring 1 208 hectares of land, as identified previously, to an amount of R135 million. This included both public and privately owned land. Overall, the province was planning to build 13 271 rural houses in line with the Outcomes 8 target. Rectification was focused on projects from 1994 to 2002, but R51 million allocated to this programme also included current projects that needed rectification.

Mr Cele noted that there was a lack of capacity in the Department in respect of technical skills, but this was currently being addressed. He reported that the proposed appointment of municipalities as project developers was not working, because these municipalities themselves were experiencing capacity problems. Therefore the Department had decided to act as developers and the municipalities would become the stakeholders. People in the community were not satisfied with the pace of development. The Department therefore had ongoing engagement with communities to keep them up to date with developments. The province was planning to create 10 000 jobs and also to provide water tanks and community halls to further assist communities.    

Mpumalanga
Mr David Dube, Head of Department, Mpumalanga Provincial DHS, said that 91 000 jobs would be created in this year, based on a formula created by the technical team. This might seem a large number, but he emphasised that it included all types of skills involved. The rectification programmes dealt with the demolition and rebuilding of houses. In many cases it was found that the house foundations were not suitable for the ground where they had been built. The province had a very good working relationship with the NHBRC and money was set aside for the enrolment of projects. With regard to blocked projects and incomplete housing, the province had set aside an amount of R77 million. As far as the provincial backlog was concerned, the province had a figure of 240 000, according to Stats SA. This number was growing constantly. For the new financial year, only 5 300 were planned for rural housing. The municipalities were experiencing capacity problems and the lists of beneficiaries had to be updated. Other information would be forwarded to the Committee.  

Free State
Mr Kaizer Maxatshwa, Chief Director, Free State Provincial DHS, noted that this province had no allocation towards rectification because these projects were being dealt with in conjunction with incomplete and blocked projects. 26 000 jobs would be created in the province as a result of 46 projects under the category of infrastructure, and there were also 6 projects under rental housing, 13 social and economic development projects and other BNG projects. The province had a backlog of 200 000 houses, most in the big urban centres, where migration was taking place. Previously, not all projects were enrolled but currently the province had a good working relationship with the NHBRC. 

Western Cape
Mr Mbulelo Tshangama, Head of Department, Western Cape Provincial DHS, said that the Outcomes 8 strategy informed the province on how to conduct its operations. Beneficiary management was reliant on systems, capacity and maintenance. However, this list needed to be updated. There were 24 municipalities who currently had reports on their waiting lists, and these reports were used to inform the planning route that needed to be taken. The intention of the Department was to strengthen the municipalities to do more. The province, according to a study in 2006, had a housing backlog of 410 000, but a more recent study done in 2010 by the University of Stellenbosch indicated that the figure had risen to 426 000. However, this figure seemed to vary according to different surveys, as the Department used approximately eight sources of data, including those from Stats SA.

Mr Tshangama said that the R6 million allocated to rectification projects was a small amount. The problem of rectification included wear and tear on houses, or problems caused by poor engineering. The provincial department still needed to categorise these figures. There was also a need to do a balancing act, as the Department needed to decide whether the priority was to build new houses, or rectify old ones. As far as job creation was concerned, 8 000 jobs were created last year, and the Department envisaged creating 7 000 jobs this year. He explained that this amount had decreased because fewer funds were transferred directly to the City of Cape Town from the Urban Settlement Development Grant. The Western Cape had a good working relationship with the HDA, as 300 hectares of land was available for acquisition. There were currently 223 informal settlements inside the City of Cape Town, and a breakdown list per municipality was available for the Committee.

Discussion
Ms M Borman (ANC) thanked the Department for the hard work that went into the presentation. She thought that this meeting would be the first of many meaningful consultations. She wanted to know whether the 12.85% of the Eastern Cape informal settlements upgrade was a percentage of the total allocation. 

Mr Zulu replied that this was correct. The 12.85% going towards the informal settlements upgrade was taken from the total allocation.

Ms M Njobe (COPE) wanted to know if the informal settlements upgrade was temporary or permanent.

Mr Arendse replied that these upgrades were envisaged to be permanent in most cases.

Ms D Dlakude (ANC) said that the rectification processes due to shoddy work was costing the Department a lot of money. She hoped that for the next financial year, the Department would have a turnaround strategy to address this.  

Mr A Steyn (DA) said that when adding up the percentages of each province in the allocation column, they do not add up to 100%, and he asked why this was so.

Mr Arendse replied that these totals would not always add up to 100%, because some provinces had allocated some of their budget to other programmes which were not included in the presentation. The presentation given today had focused on the Outcome 8 and key priority areas, and did not set out the entire breakdown of allocation per province per programme.

Ms T Gasebonwe (ANC) wanted to know more about blocked projects in the Northern Cape.

Ms Soodeyal replied that she was aware of these blocked projects. These were part of the cross-border issue, where the boundaries of some municipalities lay partially in Northern Cape, partially in North West. Although these houses fell under the jurisdiction of the Northern Cape, the North West province still had to do rectification, and this would happen during this financial year, whereafter these houses would be handed over to the Northern Cape.

Mr Steyn commented that most provinces were focusing on rectification of projects built prior to 2002. This was not accurate, as rectification was also happening on projects constructed after 2002. The reports given by the provincial departments were indicating minimum standards that should have been met over the past 15 years, but to date not much had been done.

Ms Borman asked since what date the municipalities in the North West had owed the Department the amount of R908 million, which had not been accounted for.

Mr Mokhatla replied that this amount dated back to 1998, but these municipalities had signed acknowledgements of debt and were planning to repay these funds.

Ms A Mashishi (ANC) asked whether the 3000 sites allocated for Limpopo were intended to fall under the upgrading or formalisation of informal settlements programmes.

Mr Arendse replied that this figure included both the formalisation and upgrading of informal settlements

Mr K Sithole (IFP) requested that the Department provide the Committee with figures on how many hectares of land had been acquired in each province.

Mr Arendse replied that the Department would send the Committee a comprehensive report on these figures once finality was reached on how many hectares had been acquired.

Ms Borman wanted to know how the Gauteng province determined its beneficiaries.

Mr Mnyani said that the information on beneficiaries was used for planning. According to the housing demand database, categories were created, and it was then identified how many people qualified for rental or rural housing, or subsidies of bonds. The planning for specific projects used this information.

Ms Mashishi asked whether the municipalities in the Gauteng province owed the Department any funds.

Mr Mnyani replied that the province did not do any upfront payments, so there were no municipalities owing money.

Mr Steyn noted that some provinces were not aware of the Housing Development Agency (HDA) when doing land acquisitions. He thought that it was important for the Department to make use of the HDA as much as possible. 

Mr Zulu agreed that the communication to provinces about the HDA was not very comprehensive. Land was available but how to utilise it remained a problem. This issue would be dealt with this year.

Mr Steyn noted that in the previous meeting with the Department, it was reported that not all provinces had signed off on their business plans yet. He wanted to know whether all the plans had been received.

Mr Arendse replied that the Department had indeed received all provinces business plans, signed off by the heads of departments (HODs).

Mr Sithole asked whether Gauteng had any relationship with the HDA.

Mr Mnyani replied that the Gauteng provincial department did have a good relationship with HDA, around the acquisition of mainly State-owned land.

Mr Steyn wanted to know whether the Gauteng province had any projects that were not enrolled with the NHBRC, either in the past or currently.

Mr Mnyani replied that in the past there were projects that were not enrolled, and the provincial department had faced some legal issues on this basis. Since then, a new provincial manager had been appointed and several meetings had been held to strengthen quality assurance. All projects that were currently under way were enrolled.

Mr M Mdakane (ANC) said that the Department should provide the Committee with a comprehensive report on how many jobs were created in the past financial year. He was concerned whether the national Department was focusing on this issue as well.

Mr Matshoba said that five-year planning in the Western Cape area of Beaufort West was a long period of time.

Mr Tshangama replied that this even though the province planned broadly for 5 years, projects were constantly being updated and added within that time frame.

Mr Mdakane wanted to know whether the Eastern Cape had any units planned for its affordable rental schemes, as an amount of R4 million was allocated to that programme.

Mr Mbanga replied that the R4 million was set aside for feasibility planning and research before the actual building started taking place. Provision of rental housing would commence once planning had been done. The province had set a target that by 2014 there would be 1 800 rental houses built. 

Mr Mdakane asked whether the Northern Cape had the capacity that it needed to perform its function well.

Ms Soodeyal replied that the Northern Cape indeed had this capacity, but the problem lay with a lack of funding. The province had five regional offices headed by senior managers and housing development was indeed taking place, in conjunction with the municipalities.

Ms Dlakude wanted to know how many households, and in which areas, would benefit from the installation of water tanks in Kwazulu Natal.

Mr Cele replied that 10 000 households in various districts would benefit from the water tanks programme. The specific areas would be identified together with the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform.

Mr Steyn wanted to know whether all projects in Kwazulu Natal were enrolled with the NHBRC, pointing out that six months previously, there had been faulty and non-enrolled projects.

Mr Cele acknowledged that not all projects were enrolled in the past, but currently all projects were enrolled successfully.

Mr Steyn wanted to know if Kwazulu Natal had provided its people with emergency housing following the heavy rain.

Mr Cele replied that the provincial department had assisted over 6 000 families, through a voucher system, to help with the repair of their homes. The communities were being very pro-active by doing most of the pre-building work by themselves. However, 1 200 houses had to be completely rebuilt due to extensive and irreparable damage. In these cases a service provider was appointed to assist.  

The Chairperson said that it was important for all provincial heads of department to report to the Committee on a regular basis. The issue of rectification had to be dealt with comprehensively. Turnaround strategies should be put in place by all provinces to mitigate against rectification of shoddy work having to be done in future. She noted that some provinces went the extra mile in the acquisition of land, and hopefully all provinces would follow this trend. The delays in providing sustainable housing were causing much unhappiness in communities, leading to numerous strikes and protests. The Department had the responsibility to engage with local people and keep them up to date with developments in respective provinces.

The meeting was adjourned.