Progress with one-stop service centres & service delivery centres to be constructed in rural towns; with Minister and Deputy Minister

Meeting report

The Chairperson said the Committee wanted a progress update from the DPWI on centralised service delivery centres earmarked for the benefit of people in rural areas in terms of budget and timeframes.

Update on precinct development programme

Ms Sasa Subban, Deputy Director-General (DDG): Real Estate and Investment Services, DPWI, said the purpose of the briefing was to provide an update on progress on the precinct development programme for the areas of Howick, Mandeni, Secunda, Kwa Mhlanga, Carolina, Christiana, Matlosana, Vredenburg and Mount Fletcher. It would give the investment values and show the dependency of the Department on user departments to provide agreements and budgets.

The DPWI had developed a strategy for investment in the municipalities and the criteria for investment. The programme started in 2014 with the aim of supporting integrated development and planning, reducing the Department’s lease portfolio and be a catalyst for economic development, especially in rural areas. The spatial investment strategy guided investment through targeted, integrated spatial planning aligned to the transformative national spatial agenda. The criteria were the use of state assets and leases; accessibility; population density and growth; socio-economic factors such as poverty, and concentrations of the elderly and youth; economic growth; and strategic national programmes and initiatives such as the district development model (DDM), the municipal infrastructure grant (MIG) and special economic zones (SEZs). The Department had also engaged with a number of departments and agencies to ensure integrated development and the availability of bulk engineering services. The alignment with a number of prescripts, like the environment and town planning requirements, for example, meant planning and development could take between four to six years.

Turning to the precinct development programme, she said that in Vredenburg the user department lease portfolio totalled 4 248 m2. The estimated value was R64m, excluding the cost of the land acquisition. The Vredenburg Urban Revitalisation Project (VURP) master plan and the urban design guidelines were complete. The land should be acquired by 2024.

In Howick, the development cost was R85m. The land was state-owned, so there was no acquisition process necessary and Council approved the development in 2019. The site clearance had been completed.

In Mandeni, the lease portfolio totalled 235 m2. Other user department uptake was going very slowly. The municipality had donated the land. The construction cost was R3.5m. The Department was awaiting budget commitments from the user departments. The site clearance had been completed.

In Mount Fletcher, the user department lease portfolio totalled 1 770 m2. There had been a lull in the land exchange agreement. The construction cost was R153m. The Department supported the municipality's development of a public-private partnership (PPP).

In Carolina, the lease portfolio totalled 2 357 m2. The service level agreement had been signed, so development could start. The construction cost was R35m for the first phase.

In Kwa Mhlanga, the lease portfolio totalled 600 m2. There were currently land invasions, to which the municipality was trying to find solutions. Some user departments’ needs were currently small, but would grow as economic development of the area grew.

In Secunda, the lease portfolio totalled 3 000 m2. The estimated construction cost was R45m. The property was the subject of land claims, which were being fast-tracked

In Christiana, the lease portfolio totalled 4 000 m2. The municipal land would be acquired through donation.

In Matlosana, the lease portfolio totalled 12 750 m2. The council had donated the land. The estimated construction cost was R116.5m. The Department was still awaiting commitments from the user departments dragging their feet.

The main challenge was obtaining user requirements. The budget was another challenge, as it resided with the user departments, and it required a lot of work to get commitments. Funding was mainly capital expenditure items, and this was limited. Town planning and dependencies on municipalities meant the Department was working with long lead timeframes.

Mr Sihle Zikalala, Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, said a concern was the issue of alignment with other structures in working according to the overarching framework of the DDM, which should be internalised in all planning and work. Most of the projects presented were still at the design stage, as most of the work had gone to the Government Technical Advisory Centre (GTAC) entity in Treasury, specialising in infrastructure. This prolonged processes, as the GTAC outsourced to consultants. He had been emphasising the need to grow internal capacity. The GTAC process was too long. This was an issue that had already been raised.

Discussion

Ms A Siwisa (EFF) said she was scared because the presenter had mentioned Infrastructure South Africa (ISA) twice, and they would be brought in through the back door and would take over the programme. When the precinct programme had started, it had been promised that 20 precincts would be developed by 2020, while the talk was still about proposals and that only four people in the Department were doing the work. Which 20 rural precincts were supposed to have been developed? There was a concern that the PPP was being promoted despite Treasury’s review being incomplete. There was no legislative framework in place giving the Department power to enforce coordination of municipalities to speed up integrated development. Most projects were at the stage of proposals and site clearance only. People in the rural areas struggle, and they should have been prioritised.

Ms L Mjobo (ANC) asked about council resolutions on donating land. Who was donating the piece of land mentioned in the presentation? She asked what the time frame to start work was.

Ms S van Schalkwyk (ANC) said the DPWI was a national department, and municipal planning was not part of its mandate. There had been court cases which confirmed that municipal planning was not a national competence. She did not see a sign of legislation binding municipalities to work with Department on the DDM, for example. There was no enforcement or timelines to implement programmes, and this was of concern. The mixed-use development, like in Vredenburg, was the way forward. It should be practical and beneficial to the community through centralising government departments and services. How did the Department establish which developments should be mixed-use development, and where would they use it? What was the Department’s plan to ensure that services were provided to rural areas?

The Chairperson said the information being asked for was not new. She understood the concerns and frustrations raised by the Minister. She asked if the DPWI was not part of the challenge, because there was no Public Works Act, and therefore the Department did not have the power to deal with its client departments. She asked if the development timeframes were not unfair to SA citizens.

Department's response

Ms Nyeleti Makhubele, Acting Director-General (DG), DPWI, said there were delays and the programme was very client centric, as the budget also lay with them. Site clearance, registering PPPs and funding were municipal issues. There was limited human resource capacity within the Department.

She said ISA was viewed as part of the Department, and as an implementing agent. The Department was still using PPPs until the review indicated otherwise. The Property Management Trading Entity (PMTE) was concerned about infrastructure that was within the national Department, whereas ISA was responsible for intergovernmental, interprovincial and strategic projects for the whole of South Africa, not only for a department.

Ms Subban said the presentation reflected an alignment with ISA’s planning timeframes. This was across all the sectors they worked with to unblock planning challenges. They also saw that meeting town planning requirements and aligning with legislation took four to six years. ISA had been approached when the Department was trying to unblock planning challenges with municipalities. Projects in smaller towns and rural areas would be carried out through capital expenditure.

She said the Department would provide a list of the initial 20 precincts.

On collaboration with municipalities, she said all projects were aligned with integrated development plans (IDPs) and the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act (SPLUMA) legislation. The Department was linking to the DDM model in the prioritised areas.

Council resolutions were required when municipal land was needed. If the Department owned the land, no municipal resolution was necessary.

On mixed-use development, she said the trigger normally was the IDP of a municipality, and the Department would link to the municipal development master plan.

She agreed that the absence of an Act made it difficult to enforce anything. The ministry was working to fast-track the bill, and then the Act, but she did not have those timeframes.

Regarding the issue of Treasury funding and resources, she said that in terms of specialised resources such as engineers, the Department did not even have a transport engineer, and had to look at municipalities for support, and small towns and rural municipalities did not have these resources. The Department also engaged with technical forums, but this needed to be intensified.  

Ms Bernice Swarts, Deputy Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, said the services were really needed by the communities, especially in the rural areas. Issues of capacity and professional services within the Department had been raised. She said the planning took long and depended on the municipality. There needed to be an intensified way to approve the Public Works bill and the Act, otherwise the Department would always be lagging behind in what it wanted to achieve. Notwithstanding the community services which were really needed, the Department had to speedily rectify what would assist in providing these services in a shorter period of time than planned. Even in the DDM, the challenge was having a professional service team.

The Chairperson said the DPWI owned many buildings around the country, and it had the potential to raise revenue in some of them. She hoped the precinct developments which came into existence would change the lives of people in rural towns. She asked the Department to do follow-ups to reduce the timeframes for the developments to come to fruition.

Adoption of minutes

The Committee’s meeting minutes held on 6 September were considered and adopted.

The meeting was adjourned.