Question NW605 to the Minister of Human Settlements

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17 May 2016 - NW605

Profile picture: Madisha, Mr WM

Madisha, Mr WM to ask the Minister of Human Settlements

(1)Whether she has issued or was in the process of issuing any invitation to a parliamentary delegation, comprising Members of Parliament from the different political parties, to accompany her and the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs on an in loco inspection of townships in two or three of South Africa’s richest provinces to get a view of life and the living conditions in such townships 21 years after the advent of democracy; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details; (2) whether she will make a statement on the current physical environment of the apartheid-era established townships and to what extent these had remained the same or have substantially been transformed and improved to accord dignity to those who lived there?

Reply:

(1) I hope the Honourable member is not suggesting that he awaits my invitation for him (or his party) to undertake his oversight responsibility. The Honourable member should ensure that his party is represented, if that is not the case, in the Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements or the Select Committee on Social Services. Both Committees have undertaken oversight visits to various provinces and made valuable recommendations to the National and Provincial Departments of Human Settlements. I encourage the Honourable member to do the same and partner with us in ensuring that we provide the much needed sustainable human settlements.

I must emphasize that as political representatives it is incumbent upon us to remain connected with our constituencies, thus we must and should always be aware of the living conditions of our citizens. In my view the entire days, weeks, months and years of a political representative must and should in fact constitute inspection-in- loco oversight of the impact of our work and what still remains to be done.

As part of our Ministerial outreach programmes, the Deputy Minister and I had on a regular basis undertaken oversight visits to areas referred to by the Honourable Member.

Notwithstanding, one of the key development focus areas of government has been to ensure that the previous Black dormitory residential areas comprising African, Coloured, Indian households, are transformed by providing all the essential infrastructure and services to ensure households quality of life is improved but also integrated with the mainly White residential areas and other economic infrastructure and services including retail, industrial, commercial, educational, technological, innovation and transport. This is a task carried out as a multi-sectoral and spherical government area of development and includes private business and communities as partners.

Since the dawn of democracy, the National, Provincial and Municipal spheres of government have planned and implemented various programmes and projects in the Black residential townships established prior and post 1994. These include the various Special Presidential Programmes, Special Provincial and Municipal Programmes and projects, which have been implemented and include amongst others but not limited to the Kathorus and Alexandra Special Presidential Projects in Gauteng, the INK Programme in Ethekwini in KZN, the Special Presidential Projects implemented in Khayalitsha and Mitchells Plan, in the City Of Cape Town, the focused infrastructure programme implemented in Soweto, in the City of Johannesburg and more recently the focused programmes implemented in Botshabelo in the Free State and Umtata in the Eastern Cape.

It is also important that we are reminded of our continued infrastructure and services grants which include the Municipal Infrastructure Grant, the Urban Settlements Development Grant, the Integrated Energy Grant, the Neighbourhood Development Grant as well as the Regional and Bulk Infrastructure Grant for water bulk and link infrastructure, are also applied in the goal of achieving the sustainable development transformation of inherited dislocated and apartheid created dormitory residential areas.

(2) The Honourable member is referred to my reply to question 279 wherein I indicated that;

Indeed Honourable member, we have taken considerable strides in transforming apartheid established townships and we are determined to do more still in order to reverse the apartheid spatial planning and its legacy. For instance, in Soweto we have provided sports facilities, built malls, and paved roads. I invite the Honourable member to visit Cosmo City, which is one amongst our success stories. Evidence of our projects can be seen in many apartheid established townships nationally, places like Kwa-Mashu, Umlazi, Langa, Khayelitsha, Mamelodi and Atteridgeville are a few examples where our footprint can be seen.

We have managed to transform approximately 98% of all our projects to be representative of a human settlement, which includes access to amenities like schools, medical facilities, shopping centres, places of worship, points of transportation and access to roads.

The table below indicates the Human Settlements’ footprint.

Number of projects reflecting characteristics of a Human Settlements

 

Number of projects being implemented (2014/15)

Amenities:
Schools, Medical Facilities, Shopping Centres, Places of Worship, Transportation (Bus-, Taxi-, Railway Points)

Access to roads

Province

 

1 km
Radius

5km Radius

10km Radius

1km Radius

5km Radius

EC

977

829

941

942

904

942

FS

1538

1282

1507

1521

1476

1521

GP

1276

1156

1274

1274

1266

1274

KZN

942

735

924

925

877

925

LP

1251

882

1198

1224

1070

1224

MP

1666

1208

1563

1581

1499

1583

NC

573

354

433

448

430

467

NW

473

436

544

555

542

560

WC

1540

1438

1511

1516

1494

1516

Total

10236

8320

9895

9986

9558

10012

% of projects within specific distances from the project, with characteristics of a human settlement

 

81%

97%

98%

93%

98%

It is further important to note that out of a total of 10 236 projects, only 70 projects (0.68%), fall outside a designated town boundary. That is due to the fact that they are projects that focus on rural communities and self-help projects (PHP).

Additionally, we have referenced and profiled a few of the largest towns in the country in relation to the above analysis (Annexure A). From this list there are none of these large towns that cannot be classified as a human settlement based on the definition of a human settlement”.

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