Committee Strategic Planning Workshop

Meeting report

Chairperson's opening remarks
The Chairperson said that initially the Committee had been scheduled to meet with the Department of Human Settlements (DHS or the Department) to discuss certain policy and land issues, but the senior staff had been called to Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality to accompany the Minister for the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding with the new Mayor. The Department, not wishing to send junior staff to meet with the Committee, had requested the meeting to be postponed.

She noted that although the Committee had already come up with a Strategic Plan, Parliament had then produced its own strategic plan and the two plans would need to be aligned.

She noted that Ms Ntobongwana of the EFF was discharged from the Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements and was replaced with Ms Mmabatho Mokause.

Committee Strategic Plan: Policy Parameters for Human Settlements
Mr Sabelo Mnguni, Committee Content Advisor, led the Committee through a presentation on the policy parameters for the sector.

Working Definition Of Human Settlements - National Development Plan (NDP)

The National Development Plan (NDP) defined human settlements as an entire human community (whether a city, town, or village) with all the social, material, organisational, spiritual and cultural elements that sustain it, consisting of elements and services.

The physical components of a human settlement were the shelter and the infrastructure. Services were those that the community required to fulfill its education, health, welfare and recreation functions.

Human Settlements were complex social and economic phenomena which existed along an urban- rural continuum. However, there was no commonly agreed definition of “urban” and “rural”, nor a clearly defined physical and social boundary between urban and rural areas. Urban and rural areas were economically, socially and environmentally interdependent; the major differentiation was the actual form of housing and the types of tenure.

Eligibility/ Qualification Criteria for subsidy

A person qualified for a subsidy if s/he was a lawful resident of South Africa or in possession of permanent residence status, legally competent to contract and had not yet benefited from government assistance. A person could qualify whether married or cohabiting, or if single with financial dependents that resided permanently with them. Persons classified as military veterans, persons classified as aged with or without financial dependents and so forth were also covered.

Norms and Standards

All residential developments that were undertaken through the finance provided in terms of the National Housing Programme must comply with conditions relating to:

• Acceptable housing to potential user – alternative technologies must be consulted,

• Compliance with NHBRC standards,

• Roof, which must be durable and water proof,

• Lighting, ensuring enough light to ensure safety,

• Environmentally efficient housing,

• Insulation

• Flooring that must achieve thermal efficiency,

• Windows, ideally, must be north-oriented.

 

Discussion

Mr K Sithole (IFP) said the presentation was an eye opener in understanding the logistics of human settlements versus housing. However, he commented that traditional dwellings were not mentioned. Another issue related to queue jumping, as most of the time informal settlements were prioritised, whereas there was also the matter of backyard dwellings which had existed pre-1994. He asked what DHS could do regarding urban and rural economies.

Ms T Baker (DA) asked if the government was saying all houses that were going to be built would comply with the norms and standards – by installing solar heating, and floor thermal efficiency. These terms were used vaguely, since "thermal efficiency" could mean floor heating to one person, and it could mean something else to another person.

Ms T Gqada (DA) asked what was meant by “lawful resident” under the qualification criteria. Another requirement was “legally competent to contract”. She asked what might happen to someone who was disabled.

Mr L Khorai (ANC) said the definition of human settlements spoke about city houses and villages but in some rural towns there were still people that believed they could not leave farms for towns. He asked how they would be covered. He asked why the government still had Breaking New Ground (BNG) houses with different shapes and sizes and why, for instance, Free State was building 50m2 houses and other provinces could not. The lack of a standardised design for human settlements in South Africa made it seem as if provinces were competing.

Ms L Mnganga – Gcabashe (ANC) said it was a pity that Members were only hearing the presentation after a year of being in office; although she conceded that the Committee did not previously have its own Content Advisor. She said the thermal floor efficiency point needed to be clarified, as heated floors were found in upper class suburbs, and as much as government wanted to improve services it should not be committed to things that were not achievable.

Mr Mnguni said thermal efficiency did not necessarily mean advanced under-floor heating. Ubulongwe (cow dung) was used in traditional houses to prevent insects from entering the house, to ensure that the house was warm in winter and cool in summer and ensure that there were no cracks on the surface of the floor. That was a form of thermal efficiency. The Housing Code was also very flexible; when it said “thermal efficiency”, for instance, it gave the provinces leeway to determine their own best-suited approach.

When dealing with the People’s Housing Programme (PHP), people could be involved in their housing development, and determine if they wanted something different from the normal housing, in which case they could do that provided the houses fell within the minimum norms and standards.

The Chairperson said that the concept was obviously different from what Members had in mind. This meant that the terminology could be misinterpreted and abused.

Mr Sithole said the Free State issue needed to be looked into, as it was confusing. This province even had houses that were 70 m2, some of the houses even had an outside and inside toilet.

The Chairperson accepted that this was an important issue. There should be acceptable norms and standards so that it did not appear like provinces were competing with each other.

Overview of Housing Policy and Programmes

Mr Mnguni first outlined the unintended consequences and challenges of the housing policy and the programmes. These included peripheral development of low cost housing which continued the apartheid settlement patterns, the poor quality product, and the fact that settlements lacked social and economic infrastructure. There was inadequate community participation, corruption and maladministration, and under spending of housing budgets.

Outcomes of a Comprehensive Consultation Process
The policy principles in the Housing White Paper of 1994 continued to underpin the programme. The policy and programmes needed to shift to a demand driven approach, place emphasis on quality of the product and the living environment, and the contract with civil society needed to be strengthened.

The encompassing goal was: “Human Settlements which are economically, socially and environmentally sustainable” and a plan was approved by Cabinet on 1 September 2004.

The Comprehensive Plan, 2004

The focus areas for the this plan were creation of quality living environments, a needs oriented approach, building a non-racial and integrated society, unblocking delivery constraints, building capacity, and rooting out corruption and maladministration.

The proposed interventions included an investigative Unit which was established and operational and linked to the Special Investigation Unit (SIU), upgrading of Housing Subsidy System and Housing Demand Database, and a National Monitoring and Evaluation Unit.

The National Housing Code

The Code was required in terms of section 4 of the Housing Act, 1997. It sought to guide the housing development programme, contained all approved Housing programmes and suggested guidelines for implementation. The discretionary guidelines provided maximum flexibility to housing practitioners and decision makers.

Proposed interventions under the Housing Code included financial interventions, social and rental interventions, rural interventions, and incremental interventions.

Discussion

Mr S Gana (DA) said the upper band, especially the rental one, had remained unchanged for almost thirteen years, whereas the reality was that rental costs had gone up. Renting a two bedroom flat was R7 500 yet the policy still said that in order to qualify a person had to earn a maximum of R7 500. This was something the Committee needed to look into and lobby for the review of the upper bands for the subsidy, Finance Linked Individual Subsidy Programme (FLISP) and rental, all of which, in their current form, excluded the people they were meant to be targeting.

The Chairperson said this was a valid point.

Ms Baker asked how frequently the accreditations of municipalities were reviewed, and if there was a process in place – because some municipalities progressed and performed well, but often there were others that were under-performing but were still accredited. Also, she asked if there was a cut-off date for the post-1994 rectification.

Ms Baker added that there were a lot of developments that took place pre-1994. She had grown up in a mixed-use development (with buying houses and rental housing) in Newlands East. These developments were good examples to learn from, and they needed to be revisited, especially when defining the norms and standards.

The Chairperson said the issues raised by Ms Baker were very important, however the Content Advisor could not answer them as they were key policy issues that the Committee needed to look into. In relation to accreditation, the Committee had asked the Minister to appear in front of the Committee and give an update to give clarity to the Committee. The proposed cut-off date of the rectification programme was something that the Committee needed to debate. In the Minister’s policy speech, she had said that rectification was concluded, but there were still ongoing discussions.

Mr N Capa (ANC) asked if the unintended consequences could be explained, so that they were not used by people as issues. He also asked if the discretionary guidelines could not be misused by provinces; a case in point was the Free State using the Urban Settlement Development Grant (USDG) for a stadium. Mr Capa asked if it not possible to incentivise (and not force) the farmers to make land available.

Mr Mnguni said the Housing Code was both prescriptive and also flexible. The Housing Code was revised in 2009 as provinces found the 2007 Code too rigid and did not consider the local contexts of the individual provinces. Guidelines were then added to ensure flexibility.

Mr M Shelembe (NFP) asked about the instances where there were no houses built and people received serviced sites. There was a programme where those people received vouchers from government to buy material and build their own houses. He asked how these people were included in the rectification programme.

Mr Mnguni said the vouchers were associated with the PHP, where people got vouchers. The rationale behind the voucher was that if people received money, they used that for other things. If someone had a serviced stand, s/he could use the consolidation subsidy. Also, there were houses that were owned by government, and the consolidation subsidy could also be used to rectify defects and upgrade the houses to conform to the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) standards.

Ms Mnganga – Gcabashe added that the consolidation subsidy in the eThekwini Metro was used in a lot of stock where government had to go back to certain programmes. There were sites where people did not receive their vouchers, because at some stage the government discovered that they were being abused and therefore phased them out.

The Chairperson said this was a good question and suggested that Mr Shelembe should raise it again on behalf of the Committee to the Department of Human Settlements so that the issue was discussed thoroughly.

Strategic Priorities of the Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements

Mr Leepo Tsoai, Committee Researcher, went through the strategic priorities of the Committee for its period. These were issues emanating from many meetings involving the Department and its entities that the Portfolio Committee was mandated by Parliament to oversee .

Consider legislation referred to the Committee and effect amendments to legislation

The Housing Act was to be amended into Human Settlements Act, and there was to be a review of the Housing Code and its norms and standards, the Property Practitioners Bill, and the Consumer Protection Measures Bill.

Exercise oversight over the Department of Human Settlements, its entities and implementing Agents

The revitalisation of mining towns needed to be closely monitored. In addition, this Committee would have to monitor the upgrading of 750 000 informal settlements to level 2 serviced sites. Other things to be monitored were the implementation of FLISP, issuing of title deeds to new home owners in the subsidy market, the implementation of 27 000 state-led social housing schemes, hectares of well located land to be zoned and released, the Municipal Capacity Development Programme, the Master Plan for Spatial Development and the implementation of Mortgage Default Insurance.

Participate in international best practices, activities and capacity building programmes

South Africa was a signatory to United Nations (UN) programmes and attended the UN Habitat Conference. The Committee needed to monitor all the international pacts entered into by the Department of Human Settlements.

Facilitate public participation in the Committee processes

There had to be improved facilitation of public hearings during drafting of legislation. Consultation with stakeholders through workshops regarding title deeds was also imperative. There was a target to reach 2 million consumers between 2014 and 2019 about housing consumer education programmes.

Capacity development

A Human Settlements course had been developed for Committee Members and support staff. The call to professionalise the human settlements sector had been noted, with a professional degree now being offered in different universities. There was a reviewed and improved curriculum on the property market and ownership for subsidy housing market.

Strengthen co-operative governance

 

There needed to be improved collaboration with the private sector, particularly the banking sector. The consolidation of the Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) needed to be monitored, and the assessment and recommendations of municipalities for various levels of accreditation and assignment also had to be monitored.

 

Discussion

Mr Shelembe spoke about the people given a housing subsidy or a house, only to find out that two years later they were back in squatter camps and shacks. In Cosmo City in Gauteng, houses built by government might, after two years, be made into a shop owned by non-South Africans, whilst in another nearby neighbourhood, people were protesting, and asking for houses. He asked what the government was doing to keep monitoring that once the house was built it was not converted to a business, also that beneficiaries were not abused and lost their houses.

Mr Tsoai said the Department had a Housing Subsidy System (HSS) which registered housing beneficiaries, but the implementation and use of the technology was not clear. He suggested that the Committee call the Department in and discuss the implementation of the systems, as proper implementation was important.

Ms Gqada asked for clarity on the matter of the Housing Development Agency (HDA) assisting the Department in acquiring and developing the well located land. She said this was a conflict of interest for the Agency. How was the Department monitoring the work of the HDA and what exactly they were doing with the land?

Ms Gqada asked if the Portfolio Committee was supposed to monitor all international pacts entered into by the Department of Human Settlements. She proposed that the Committee should look locally, in order to recognise the same skills here in South Africa. She also asked about the 10% allocation of housing opportunities to Alternative Building Technology (ABT) as mentioned by the Minister.

The Chairperson said the confusion was that the HDA was normally requested by municipalities (based on individual agreements) to acquire land parcels for them. Recently, there were two areas (one being Nelson Mandela Metro) where there was a special proclamation, and where the HDA was requested to be project implementer due to certain challenges. That was not part of its original mandate.

Mr Gana said there were other areas that the Portfolio Committee needed to start monitoring. For instance, it might want to monitor backyard dwelling which was an area that had not been a prime focus of the Committee until recently. The Minister had spoken, during her budget speech, on hostel abolishment or upgrading, and although this was an area that the Committee had focused on during meetings, it was not listed as a priority area in the strategic priorities.

In relation to revitalisation of mining towns, it was understood that government revitalised existing structures that had been left unattended. However, the programme was not going to the old mining towns. For instance, Marikana was an active mining town. There needed to be clear distinction on how these funds were spent on both the active and the ghost mining towns.

Mr Gana proposed hosting imbizos with communities if the Committee was serious about attracting public participation of consumers.

The Chairperson said the Community Residential Units (CRU) programme dealt with hostels.

Mr Gana said he was referring to a question he had asked the Minister around abolishing hostels and removing people from the hostels to subsidised housing, CRU and rental housing. The Minister stated that this was a policy that was within her powers to develop; Mr Gana said if there was indeed a policy then the Committee should be involved.

The Chairperson said if there was a policy it had to come to the Committee so that it could be included in the process.

Mr Tsoai referred to a mining town in Mpumalanga, which was a ghost town but where government intervened and proposed shifting the economic focus of the town to tourism. The town now was offering visitors the chance to experience the old buildings, horse carts and so forth. Through tourism, the municipality could sustain itself.

Ms Mnganga – Gcabashe asked that the Rental Housing Bill be noted as legislation that the Committee had dealt with.

Ms Baker said the HDA was tasked with the acquisition of land and in one of its previous reports it had cited the fact that it had not met targets as it had acquired land unsuitable for development. She asked how it was possible that the Agency acquired unsuitable land when its mandate was to acquire land for development.

The Chairperson said another issue that the Committee had discussed, was that there was no legislation making it mandatory for municipalities to use the HDA. Some municipalities acquired the land for themselves. This meant that the Department had an entity that only fulfilled its mandate when it was asked to be a party to a process.

Ms Mnganga – Gcabashe said it was also not mandatory for the provinces to approach the HDA and the reality was that provinces also did not approach the HDA because they did not want to give money to the Agency to contribute towards running costs.

Committee's draft strategic plan

Mr Mnguni said the Committee’s strategic plan was informed by the Department’s strategic plan, which led the Committee to decide what it monitor for each financial year. Parliament required that the Committee align its strategic plan to the National Development Plan (NDP). The Department had already done this, and this was something that the Committee would have to monitor.

Mr Mnguni read through the strategic objectives, their indicators and the financial targets for each financial year, with the Committee indicating if they agreed or not.

The Committee was in favour of the five year Strategic Plan of the Committee, apart from making a few mathematical corrections and language amendments. Members proposed and adopted the Strategic Plan formally.

The meeting was adjourned.