N2 Gateway Business Plan: Ministry briefing

Meeting report

HOUSING PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE
1 March 2005
N2 GATEWAY BUSINESS PLAN: MINISTRY BRIEFING

Chairperson: Ms Z Kota-Fredericks (ANC)

Documents handed out:
Ministry PowerPoint presentation: Overview of the N2 Gateway Business Plan

SUMMARY
The Minister of Housing, Ms Lindiwe Sisulu, and her delegation provided an overview of the N2 Gateway Business Plan, which was concerned with the improvement of informal settlements along the N2 highway near Cape Town. Thereafter the Committee asked questions concerning the project’s timeframes, funding, quality standards and the inflow of residents from other areas. Other issues raised included how to deal with ‘backyarders’, value systems and waiting lists.

MINUTES

Ministry briefing
Minister Sisulu said it would be important to continuously engage with the Committee on this important project. Normally the city would not be able to deliver more than 10 000 housing units a year, but this programme would help ‘fast-track’ delivery. She reminded the Committee that the backlog was huge, and the project should not become a "political football". The current pilot project should prove a "testing ground" for similar initiatives in the rest of the country.

Professor Khan said it was difficult to provide a clear picture of housing in Cape Town, because of varying statistics. The bottom line was that there was a profound crisis, as the backlog grew continually at 15 000 houses per annum, and officials did not always seem aware of the problem. There was thus a need for a new initiative.

Professor Khan described the socio-economic and spatial targets. The desired outcomes of the project were the enhancement of socio-economic empowerment, the performance and maintenance of the metropolitan system, and increasing the capacity of national, provincial and local government to execute settlement upgrading on a large scale. He presented graphics of how they envisaged the affected areas would look at the completion of the project.

Professor Khan described the assumptions on which the project was based (management capacity, time, inter-governmental co-operation, planning and financial) and said that an exhaustive risk analysis was being conducted, and that they had formulated various risk-abatement strategies.

Professor Khan described their implementation approach, statutory planning and institutional framework. The magnitude of the project and the financial complexities had led to the development of a financial plan impacting on all spheres of government. This required significant financial innovation and flexibility. A programme and multi-stakeholder institutional infrastructure would be installed to monitor and evaluate through the collection of quantitative and qualitative information.

Discussion
Mr A Steyn (DA) said that his Party welcomed any project, like the N2 Gateway Project, that would alleviate poverty. He wondered if the recent fires in the settlements were the catalysts for these plans, as the project was not on the drawing board two years ago. He expressed concern about communication and the Department taking ‘short-cuts’, due to the speed of the project. He wondered if the Department had used the proper protocols. He asked if they had done environmental assessments. He also enquired if all attention would be focused on this project to the expense of other city projects.

Minister Sisulu responded that such speed was necessary as there was a huge housing backlog, and that in informal settlement residents lived in abominable conditions, worsened by floods and fires. The N2 project was a pilot project, and therefore they should have some timeframes. There was no reason not to speed up the project, but this did not mean that outcomes would be affected. The Minister said that incoherent housing plans had been inherited from the previous administration, and that this project was started in 2003. ‘Environmental scares’ had been assessed parallel to the other plans and there would be no compromise in standards. Not all land was suitable for living areas, so they had looked at urban farming that would allow people to use land profitably. The Department had taken took great care in ensuring that land was suitable for construction. Money had not been taken from other projects. They had also put together a new policy regarding rental stock. The project had not stemmed from the recent fire in the Joe Slovo settlement.

Ms M Ramakabe-Lesia (ANC) asked if and how the Department could handle the inflow of people from other areas. The Minister responded that they had undertaken an enumeration plan and were working together with community structures. She assured the Committee that they had planned ahead for this.

Mr G Schneemann (ANC) asked if the proposed housing would fall in line with quality standards. The country needed to move away from ‘dormitory suburbs’. He referred to the poor quality of paint illustrated by pictures in the presentation. Minister Sisulu said that she had also been worried about the bad workmanship of the dated pictures used for the presentation. They would look at better quality houses through pooling resources.

Mr S Masongo (DA) asked where the funds were coming from and which people would get houses (referring to the waiting lists). The Minister answered they had collected the funding without compromising other projects, and had brought in banks. The President has indicated that financial services would be ‘kicking in’ soon. Regarding the waiting lists, Minister Sisulu said that they had inherited "a disaster" and had thus employed an enumerating team. They would also ask citizens to look at the list and ask if they were still available for the project. They had had a waiting list before the project’s announcement. Her team had done a wonderful job.

Mr Steyn appealed that the correct information go to other levels of government. Attempts to look at the waiting lists through the City Council, had proved fruitless. There was no real certainty regarding the waiting lists, and he asked why they were not publicly available. Minister Sisulu conceded that their communication strategy had not been aggressive or vigorous enough, and hoped the Committee would help with this. She felt the DA was putting out incorrect messages, but hoped to have a better working relationship with them. Professor Khan said the figures in the presentation regarding the waiting lists had been inserted to reflect the magnitude and depth of the need for housing. Those figures were from before the enumeration.

Mr T Dodovo (ANC) said that they had to make sure that people living in backyards were also catered for on the waiting lists. They also needed to ensure that the project took women on board and was biased towards the historically disadvantaged. He liked the approach the Department had taken in upgrading informal settlements. Minister Sisulu responded that including backyarders was inherent in what they were doing. They had taken into account 30% of backyarders. The project would contain job creation possibilities for women, especially in construction, where 30% had to be women.

Mr M Sonto (ANC) enquired about value systems. He asked if the project would take initiation sites into account. Minister Sisulu answered that the initiation site would stay where it was, and that they were dealing sensitively with the matter.

Mr B Dhlamini (IFP) enquired about risk management, especially as local government elections were to held this year. Minister Sisulu said she would make sure that the project succeeded. She said that "those who were intent on muddying the waters, would be found out for who they really were". The Chairperson added that the Committee had a responsibility to send out positive messages.

The meeting was adjourned.