Minutes of Previous Meeting, Draft Committee Report and Budget: adoption

Meeting report

HOUSING PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE
18 February 2004
Minutes of previous meeting, draft Committee report and budget: ADOPTION

Chairperson: Ms Z Kota

Documents handed out:
Draft Committee Report
Presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Housing (Awaited)
Recommended Committee expenditure (Awaited)
Proposed Programme for the PC on Housing as at 26 January 2004 (Awaited)

SUMMARY
The Committee accepted the report on its activities, with some amendments; approved the minutes of the previous meeting, and accepted the budget for the financial year ending in March 2005 and the proposed programme for the first three months of 2004. The original request was R1 802 059 and the revised Approved Budget was R459 255. The presentation document listed above was distributed but not discussed at the meeting.

MINUTES
Ms Z Kota gained unanimous support for adoption of the minutes of the previous meetings.

Ms Kota asked the Committee if the budget met with its approval. Ms MN Buthelezi-Oliphant said that it was inappropriate for this Committee to approve the budget. The new Committee, which would be formed after the election, should be given the opportunity to scrutinise the budget and make proposals. Ms Kota said that the existing Committee should nevertheless be able to visit a province if an emergency arose and the budget was available for this. Mr M Steele (DA) asked if there was a principal applied in making allocations for provincial visits, and, if so, what it was. Ms Kota said that it was "difficult to know what criteria were used" in making the allocations, but she noted that the bulk of the Committee's budget was allocated to provincial visits and the Committee had the highest allocation for this purpose. Ms Buthelezi-Oliphant again expressed reservations about approving this budget for another Committee. The Committee passed the budget with this reservation. The original request was R1 802 059 and the revised Approved Budget was R459 255.

The Committee then turned to the draft Committee report. Ms Kota drew the Committee's attention to some of the numerous typographical, spelling and grammar errors. The following more substantial errors and omissions were noted:
The first sentence of point 4.3 should read "building contractor…" and not "building co-ordinator…:"
The "over-arching recommendations" should be renumbered. This unnumbered recommendation should be read as "When National Home Builders' Registration Council (NHBRC) needs to be involved…" instead of "is involved". Recommendation 6 should read that the "Committee has noted with concern that the amount given to build each house is R8 000 - what happened to the rest of the subsidy - Committee wants an investigation to this matter." The last over-arching recommendation (8) should have "This process needs to be fast-tracked" added at the end.

Mr Steele said the recommendations that applied to the provincial government and those which applied to the national governments should be clarified. Ms Kota agreed and added that municipalities should be included.

Ms C Ludwabe (ANC) said that there should be "somebody who checks buildings". Ms Kota explained that that was why the report recommended that there be a project manager at district level. She said that the Department should also send its inspectors and that this should be emphasised in the report.

Mr JH Nash (ANC) asked if the Mount Ayliffe municipality that had built no houses, had been investigated. Ms Kota agreed that this should be reinserted into the report. Mr Nash reminded her that the Deartment had promised to fill a vacant post in that municipality.

Mr Steele said that Ms J Semple (DA) had asked him to ensure that the "problem at Elfindale" was in the report. The Chair agreed that this should also be reinserted.

The Committee passed the report, with the above corrections and additions.

The meeting adjourned after 25 minutes duration.