Responses to the Report of the Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements on oversight visit conducted in Mpumalanga Province

Table of contents						

Item												page 

1.	Background										3
2.	Objectives of the visit									3
3.	Overall observations by the delegation						3	
4.	The Portfolio Committee’s recommendations					5
4.1.	To the Minister of Human Settlements						5
4.2.	To the Minister of Public Works							5
4.3.	To the Minister of Basic Education						5
4.4.	To the National Department							5
4.5.	To the Province									6
4.6.	To Parliament									7
5.	Responses to the Portfolio Committee’s recommendations			7
5.1.	Minister of Human Settlements’ responses					7
5.2.	National Department’ responses						9
5.3.	The Province’s responses							10
5.4.	The Minister of Public Works and Minister of Basic Education’s responses 15
6.	Conclusions										15
7.	Recommendation									16

Responses to the Report of the Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements on oversight visit conducted in Mpumalanga Province  

The Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements (the Portfolio Committee), conducted an oversight visit in Mpumalanga from 24 to 30 July 2011 in relation to the implementation of the human settlements strategic plans, programmes and projects.

1.	Background

In terms of the South Africa’s Constitution of 1996 as well as parliamentary rules, the Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements has a responsibility to conduct oversight over any executive organ of state that falls within its portfolio. In line with this mandate, the Portfolio Committee undertakes provincial oversight visits to evaluate progress and identify challenges encountered in respect of the implementation of programmes and projects. Furthermore, the Portfolio Committee seeks to promote and enhance intergovernmental relations and co-operative governance principles in the delivery of human settlement services.  

2.	Objectives of the visit 

The objective of the visit was to conduct briefing sessions with the provincial department and other stakeholders in relation to the implementation of human settlements strategic plans, projects and programmes. The focus was on the following key issues:
 
•	Implementation of a comprehensive, integrated human settlements strategy in the province;
•	Performance in meeting service delivery targets identified for 2010/11, as well as challenges encountered;
•	Role of public and private sectors in service delivery;
•	Plans, programmes and service delivery targets for 2011/12;
•	Progress in supporting disaster-affected communities; 
•	Blocked projects and plans to unblock them;
•	Strategies in relation to the rectification programme; 
•	Number of informal settlements, the plan and the progress in upgrading such settlements, including Community Residential Units (CRUs);
•	Implementation of Farm Worker Assistance Programme;
•	Co-ordination and management of the beneficiary list and incorporation of backyard dwellers in the provincial housing database;
•	Use of alternative technologies in construction. 

3.	Overall observations by the delegation

1.	The Province still faces a huge housing backlog however the delegation observed that the province still has difficulties in quantifying its backlog figures.
2.	Due to lack of bulk infrastructure, houses were being built without basic infrastructure in a number of projects
3.	Inadequate planning: projects being approved without conducting geotechnical studies. For example, in Thaba Chweu, it was discovered that land on which a project had been approved was dolomitic. 
4.	Invisibility of the National Home Builders’ Registration Council as well as the Housing Development Agency.
5.	No proper coordination and management of the beneficiary list
6.	Lack of dedicated policy to regulate the roll-out of the sanitation programme  including lack of commitment from both the national and province to fast track and upscale sanitation programmes
7.	No evidence-based report to quantify the provision of sanitation services in the province
8.	Lack of monitoring of contractors, resulting in incomplete housing structures, non-compliance with regulations and project management capacity thus compromising quality
9.	Limited community consultation on the part of municipalities as it is a fundamental principle that targeted communities ought to be involved in all aspects of their housing and human settlements solutions
10.	Disaster-affected areas not prioritized – in Bushbuckridge Municipality bridges that were washed away following heavy rains were not rebuilt and as a consequence school children are struggling to get to schools in the affected areas
11.	No policy in place to address the plight of backyard dwellers
12.	Continuing land invasion is affecting some of the municipalities due to lack of capacity and willingness to enforce by-laws
13.	Inadequate capacity within some of the municipalities (Provincial inspectors accused of not doing enough to assist municipalities)
14.	Shoddy workmanship on houses and toilets which remain unused due to poor quality
15.	Non availability of a quantifiable report on state owned land or private land in the province 
16.	Human Settlements’ unacceptable tendency on the part of the provincial department to just start projects without informing/involving local municipalities 
17.	Need to strengthen intergovernmental relations and cooperative governance
18.	Lack of synergy and coordination between municipalities and the provincial department of Human Settlements 
19.	No monitoring and assessment of Contractors
20.	Houses constructed without ablution/sanitation facilities
21.	Poor access roads.
22.	Difficulty in relocating communities for housing development for example, hostel dwellers
23.	Houses built on wetlands, proper environmental assessment not conducted Bureaucratic red-tape impacts and hinder/compromises sound working relationship between municipalities and the province thereby impacting on service delivery 
24.	Some municipalities accused the provincial department of being reactionary instead of being proactive in attending to some of the issues of concern
25.	There were still people residing in houses that have asbestos roofing. No arrangements have been made to re-house people 
26.	Role of private sector was not convincing.

4.	The Portfolio Committee’s Recommendations 

The Portfolio Committee made the following recommendations:

4.1.	To the Minister of Human Settlements:

4.1.1.	Request a briefing to the committee with regard to the international treaty signed between China and South Africa relating to the project in Graskop area, Thaba Chweu municipality. 
4.1.2.	A final draft policy that would address the backyard dwellers housing should be presented to the portfolio committee by December 2011 because this has been a long standing issue.
4.1.3.	An assessment of the Community Residential Units (CRU) policy and any potential amendments should be considered and report to Parliament.
4.1.4.	Monitoring and performance evaluation should be conducted to housing institutions such as Housing Development Agency as well as National Home Builders Registration Council on regular basis, because of the overwhelming complaints in most areas where the Committee has visited during its different oversight initiatives.
4.1.5.	Request urgent intervention with regard to Simile flats where the toilets structure is falling apart separating from the main unit structure in Graskop at Thaba Chewu Municipality as this posed a risk and hazard to the lives of the dwellers.

4.2.	To the Minister of Public Works 

Intervene urgently on the following:
4.2.1.	Disaster affected bridges in Thulamahashe at Bushbuckridge Municipality (Ward 29, Kumane and Wisane villages) which were washed away by heavy rains. 
4.2.2.	Disaster affected bridge in eSandleni at Albert Luthuli Municipality.
4.2.3.	Assist in transferring the dilapidating Graskop hostel from the previous government (pre 1994) to the Department of Human Settlements as it poses a huge risk and hazard to the hostel dwellers in an endeavour to intervene and facilitate redevelopment/upgrading as per the Department of Human Settlements’ Community Residential Units policy.

4.3.	To the Minister of Basic Education

4.3.1.	Intervene in roofing of the school in eSandleni at Albert Luthuli Municipality which was blown away during disaster.

4.4.	To the National Department

4.4.1.	Assists the province and the municipality by addressing the issue of temporary relocation units. Emergency housing ought to be for short-term purposes as it offers no real protection against elements yet there were households who had been housed on emergency housing for prolonged periods.
4.4.2.	Upgrade and rectify houses according to the current human settlements specifications. 
4.4.3.	Promote synergy and enhance coordination between municipalities and the provincial department of Human Settlements. 
4.4.4.	Assist the 200 beneficiaries who were approved and later discovered that the land where the project was to be developed is dolomitic in Thaba Chweu municipality as this compromises their right to access state subsidy housing.  
4.4.5.	The Department of Human Settlements as an anchor department mandated with sanitation function should urgently intervene and assist the primary school in Graskop to have access to adequate and sustainable sanitation.

4.5.	To the Province

4.5.1.	Asbestos roofing should be eradicated and replaced with proper roofing system as this is a health hazard to communities (Nkangala District Municipality). 
4.5.2.	Full detailed report on land purchased (R95 million spent in 2008) by the province, how much land has been utilised by each benefiting structure i.e. the municipalities and Social Housing Association.  How big is the land purchased for Mbombela, when and in which specific areas?  
4.5.3.	Ensure provision of adequate qualitative and sustainable sanitation infrastructure to the communities and expand the capacity to roll-out and accelerate sanitation programmes. It is also recommended that greater priority should be given to Amsterdam, Dipaleseng, and Mkhondo municipalities. Urgently communicate with the municipality and make sure that the residents of Rooikopan are connected to sewer. 
4.5.4.	A list of all villages benefited from sanitation provision managed through the Department of Human Settlements during 2010/11 financial year in Nkomazi Municipality should be provided to the Committee.  The report should be forwarded to the Committee within a month after the receipt of the report.
4.5.5.	Names of places where farm worker assistance projects was to be constructed
4.5.6.	Detailed information on how Burn Stone Mine has assisted in building of houses.  How many houses and how much contribution in each house was made.
4.5.7.	Provide a detailed list of jobs opportunities created through housing delivery in the province impact to communities and types of skills transferred.
4.5.8.	Strengthened public participation with the communities and in particular with the traditional leaders. 
4.5.9.	Municipalities need to regularly update beneficiary lists.
4.5.10.	Monitor municipalities and contractors when handing over houses as they are alleged that coercing and bribing beneficiaries to sign happy letters even though houses show defects.
4.5.11.	Ensure that more housing inspectors are appointed as the shortage of such capacity comprises the quality of houses delivered. 
4.5.12.	Provide list of the  projects to be unblocked with plans to unblocked them
4.5.13.	Provide list of informal settlements which would include clear plans and programme on how these would be upgraded or eradicated.
4.5.14.	Provide the report on how the deregistration of beneficiaries was done when the beneficiary could not be found or died before allocation of a house. 
4.5.15.	A detailed report and role of the Mpumalanga Housing Finance Corporation is required.
4.5.16.	Provide written response on how much was spend in addressing disaster affected areas

4.6.	To Parliament

4.6.1.	The Mpumalanga based-members of the committee together with the municipality and members of provincial committee in the legislature should conduct an evidence based approach site visit to verify 513 completed sanitation project units in Nkomazi and report to Parliament by January 2012.  

5.	Responses to the Portfolio Committee’s recommendations

5.1	Minister of Human Settlements’ responses
Recommendation 	Response 	
5.1.1.	Request a briefing to the committee with regard to the international treaty signed between China and South Africa relating to the project in Graskop area, Thaba Chewu municipality. 
	The Chinese sponsorship programme target was 400 units but this was later scaled down. The challenges or disagreements were listed as follows:
•	Chinese insisted on bringing their own labourers;
•	Flouting the country’s tax regime and reluctance to be subjected to the country’s labour relations practices;
•	Temporarily importing their own equipment or machinery;
•	Some clauses in the MOU were contrary to the country’s policies;
•	The municipality changed the plan of the project from low-cost houses to rental stock;
•	The labourers were also encountering challenges in obtaining working visas.

In addition to the above-mentioned challenges, the Chinese also had also financial challenges to meet the initial target of 400 housing units, which was reduced to 170 units.	
5.1.2.	A final draft policy that would address the backyard dwellers housing should be presented to the portfolio committee by December 2011 because this has been a long standing issue.	There is currently no policy in place for backyard rental at National level, but there are other provinces that have policies to deal with backyard rental and are piloting it in projects. 
	
5.1.3.	An assessment of the Community Residential Units (CRU) Policy and any potential amendments should be considered and report to Parliament.	The Department is in the process of appointing a service provider to review the CRU policy. The Departmental bid committee has already approved the Terms of Reference thereof.	
5.1.4.	Monitoring and performance evaluation should be conducted to housing institutions such as Housing Development Agency as well as National Home Builders Registration Council on regular basis, because of the overwhelming complaints in most areas where the Committee has visited during its different oversight initiatives.
	There is adequate oversight by the Department over its public entities. These entities have different mandates and therefore some of them will not be visible to the public because the public is not the target market of these entities. For example, HDA provides services to provinces and municipalities, and will therefore market itself to that market.  

The performance and evaluation of the public entities reporting to the Minister of Human Settlements is done on a quarterly and annual basis through the provisions of the PFMA, Treasury Regulations and The Departmental Policy on Public Entities.

Prior to the start of each subsequent financial year, the Department is involved in the strategic planning process of the entities by reviewing all Strategic Plans and providing feedback to the entities. This process is followed by the Department hosting the Strategic Plans Review Sessions where provinces and relevant officials within the Department get invited to discuss and deliberate on these plans prior to the plans being submitted for approval to the Minister. 
Performance is analysed in five parts: 
•	Service Delivery Performance
•	Financial Performance Monitoring
•	Corporate Governance Monitoring
•	Policy Advocacy
•	Risk Management

Subsequently, the Department produces Quarterly and Annual Performance Monitoring Reports for the perusal of senior management of the Department. 
The Department also conducts oversight visits to the entities. These oversight visits are divided into two phases. Phase one comprises of an office visit, where the quarterly performance of the entity visited forms the basis of discussions. The second phase includes visits to projects funded by the Department’s entities or projects that the entities play a critical role in. This grants the Department an opportunity to, firstly, conduct periodic independent review of information as stated in the reports to determine the credibility thereof, and secondly, assist the Department to assess if it derives value for its investment and if impact is indeed made on the ground. 	
5.1.5.	Request urgent intervention with regard to Simile flats where the toilets structure is falling apart separating from the main unit structure in Graskop at Thaba Chweu Municipality as this posed a risk and hazard to the lives of the dwellers.
	The provincial department has commissioned an evaluation of the structural soundness, safety and risk.  The Structural Engineer conducted the evaluation and the report was submitted with recommendations for remedial work. 
	
Table 1: Minister of Human Settlements’ responses
5.2	The National Department’s responses
Recommendation 	Response 	
5.2.1. Assists the province and the municipality by addressing the issue of temporary relocation units. Emergency housing ought to be for short-term purposes as it offers no real protection against elements yet there were households who had been housed on emergency housing for prolonged periods.
	The National Department has an Emergency Housing Assistance Programme, which provides temporary assistance in the form of secure access to land and/or basic municipal services and/or shelter.  In terms of this Programme the Municipalities are responsible for planning, implementing the projects, managing the settlements, planning for permanent housing situations, ensure the availability of bulk and connector engineering services, registering beneficiaries, and the provision of relocation assistance to affected persons.
The National department will discuss with the Provincial Department to assist in terms of implementing the Programme. 	
5.2.2.	Upgrade and rectify houses according to the current human settlements specifications. 
	Rectification of houses is implemented following the National Rectification Programme, which is part of the Provincial Business Plan.	
5.2.3.	Promote synergy and enhance coordination between municipalities and the provincial department of Human Settlements. 
	The National Department holds annual joint MinMecs with COGTA with a view to synchronise inregovernmental relations.  The Department will encourage MECs to hold frequent MUNIMECS in order to refine human settlements policies.	
5.2.4.	Assist the 200 beneficiaries who were approved and later discovered that the land where the project was to be developed is dolomitic in Thaba Chweu municipality as this compromises their right to access state subsidy housing.  
	The matter being taken up with Thaba Chweu and the Provincial Department to ensure that alternative land is acquired for the beneficiaries.  The National Department will receive a progress report from the Provincial Department.
	
5.2.5.	The Department of Human Settlements as an anchor department mandated with sanitation function should urgently intervene and assist the primary school in Graskop to have access to adequate and sustainable sanitation.
	The Schools Water /Sanitation Programme was last implemented by the Department of Water Affairs in the 2009/10 financial year before the sanitation function was relocated to the Department of Human Settlements. From 2010/11 treasury did not allocate funding for the programme. The Department is currently in no position to intervene in any other way as it is only implementing RHIP which has a ring fenced budget for identified municipalities. The Department will however engage with the Department of Basic Education in the province to intervene in the matter.  
	
Table 2: National Department’s responses

5.3	The Province’s responses
Recommendation 	Response 	
5.3.1.	Asbestos roofing should be eradicated and replaced with proper roofing system as this is a health hazard to communities (Nkangala District Municipality). 
	Nkangala:
•	There are no houses in the District that were roofed by the Department using the asbestos roof sheets.
•	The units that they are referred to were roofed using the Nutex Big Six by Everite roofing products
•	The province has done an assessment on all the units that were roofed using this product in the Nkangala District Municipality and the rectification process has started.
The Department has completed re-roofing 142 units in Rebone under Dr J S Maroka Municipality, and currently busy re-roofing 100 units in Ramogeletsane also under Dr J S Maroka Municipality and we have an approval from the HOD to appoint and re-roof 175 Units in EMalahleni Local Municipality and 52 Units in Victor Khanye local Municipality in this financial year 2011/12.

The balance of the Units will be attended to in the coming financial year 2012/13 a report with regard to the above is available.
	
5.3.2.	Full detailed report on land purchased (R95 million spent in 2008) by the province, how much land has been utilised by each benefiting structure i.e. the municipalities and Social Housing Association.  How big is the land purchased for Mbombela, when and in which specific areas?  
	See table 4 below 	
5.3.3.	Ensure provision of adequate qualitative and sustainable sanitation infrastructure to the communities and expand the capacity to roll-out and accelerate sanitation programmes. It is also recommended that greater priority should be given to Amsterdam, Dipaleseng, and Mkhondo municipalities. Urgently communicate with the municipality and make sure that the residents of Rooikopan are connected to sewer. 

	Correspondence will be sent to Dipaleseng Municipality to find out the type of settlement and the plans that the municipality has in place (IDP/WSDP) to service the area. Assistance will also be provided to the Municipality to access MIG funding in the next financial year if the area does not feature in the current business plans and technical reports.  
	
5.3.4.	A list of all villages that benefited from sanitation provision managed through the Department of Human Settlements during 2010/11 financial year in Nkomazi Municipality should be provided to the Committee.  The report should be forwarded to the Committee within a month after the receipt of the report.
	Village 	Units 	
5.3.1.		i.	Madadeni Ward 16	50	
5.3.1.		ii.	Mbuzini (Ndindindi) Ward 13	50	
5.3.1.		iii.	Langeloop  Wards 20&23	50	
5.3.1.		iv.	Driekoppies Ward 24	50	
5.3.1.		v.	Mdladla Wards 10&19	50	
5.3.1.		vi.	Mgobodzi Ward 15	50	
5.3.1.		vii.	Phiva Wards 10&18	50	
5.3.1.		viii.	Jeppes Reef (Zone 10) Ward 29 	50	
5.3.1.		ix.	Sebothomas Ward 1	50	
5.3.5.	Names of places where farm worker assistance projects was to be constructed
	Municipality 	Farm name	Units 	
5.3.1.		i.	Nkomazi	Stratmore Farm	65	
5.3.1.		ii.	Mbombela	Various Projects	29	
5.3.1.		iii.	Umjindini	Dixie Farm and Esparado	89	
5.3.1.		iv.	Thaba Chweu	Shega Farm	23	
5.3.1.		v.	Steve Tshwete	Doornkop	32	
5.3.1.		vi.	Emakhazeni	Wyksvlei	50	
5.3.6.	Detailed information on how Burn Stone Mine has assisted in building of houses.  How many houses and how much contribution in each house was made.
	Burstone Development Trust was allocated 100 PHP units for 2008/9 financial year at Dipaliseng Municipality. The CRO promised to add more contribution on top of the subsidy quantum which was R54 650, 00. 
Burnstone mine contributed an amount of R10 000 for each housing unit.
The 100 beneficiaries were approved however one stands was found to be a dumping site and the other was a park. The matter was reported to the Municipality to get alternative sites but there was no assistant and that led the Department to downscale the project to 98 units.

 Facilitation were conducted and the CRO managed to complete the 98 units and all payment for structures were paid including retention .however payment of establishment grant could not be paid because the CRO could not construct the support centre as PHP policy requires.

NB: Houses were constructed according to Departmental specification; no extra funds were contributed to this project by the appointed CRO.
	
5.3.7.	Provide a detailed list of jobs opportunities created through housing delivery in the province impact to communities and types of skills transferred.	Construction – contractors dealing with:
•	Bricklaying
•	Plastering
•	Carpentry 
•	Plumbing
Labourers - Assisting with:
•	Bricklaying
•	Plastering
•	Carpentry 
•	Plumbing
Artisan 
Serviced providers - material suppliers	
5.3.8.	Strengthened public participation with the communities and in particular with the traditional leaders. 
	Presently the Department is interacting with Traditional Leaders in the event of construction of houses. Stakeholder Management Directorate will be interacting with Heads of Thusong Service Centres and the Mpumalanga House of Traditional Leaders in order to be part of the outreach programmes for both institutions.  House of Traditional Leaders is always invited to the events of the Department.	
5.3.9.	Municipalities need to regularly update beneficiary lists.
	The National Department will communicate with the Provincial Department in order to ensure that they update beneficiary lists with the Municipalities.	
5.3.10.	Monitor municipalities and contractors when handing over houses as they are alleged that coercing and bribing beneficiaries to sign happy letters even though houses show defects.
	The National Department will ensure that the Provincial Department enforce strict criteria in the allocation of houses in accordance with the applicable policy.	
5.3.11.	Ensure that more housing inspectors are appointed as the shortage of such capacity comprises the quality of houses delivered. 
	The Department has allocated Inspectors per district to maximise inspections and quality assurance at local level. The allocation per district is as follows:-

NKANGALA DISTRICT
•	1 x Acting Director
•	8 x Project works Manager
•	3 x Inspector
•	1 x Project Manager ( Project Management Unit)
•	1 x Engineer
•	4 x Cuban Professional

GERT SIBANDE DISTRICT
•	1 x Acting Technical Director 
•	3 x Deputy Director working as project works manager
•	9 x Project works manager
•	1 x Professional Engineer
•	1 x Project Manager (PMU)
•	3 x Technical Inspector (PMU)
•	3 x Cuban Professional

EHLANZENI DISTRICT
  1 x Director
•	4 x Deputy Director
•	10 x Project Works Manager
•	3 x Inspector (PMU)
•	1 x Project Manager (PMU)
•	1 x Engineer
•	4 X Cuban Professional

SITE INSPECTION PROGRAMME

•	Depending on the number of approved projects in the district, the department distributes projects equally to Inspectors in all local municipalities.
•	Inspectors and Engineers are expected to be on site 3 days in a week.
•	NHBRC and Municipal inspectors also assist in monitoring the delivery quality projects.

5.3.12.	Provide list of the  projects to be unblocked with plans to unblocked them
	The blocked projects:
•	Matsulu Railway Infill in Enhlanzeni District, Mbombela Municipality with 350 planned units and 281 completed to date. 69 units are outstanding; the project is still blocked due to illegal occupants, legal proceedings are underway to evict the illegal occupants.  
•	Kameelrivier in Nkangala District, Dr J S Maroka Municipality with 1000 planned units.  Nothing has been constructed to date and the project still blocked due to land ownership dispute. Legal proceedings are being followed to unblock the project.
	
5.3.13.	Provide list of informal settlements which would include clear plans and programme on how these would be upgraded or eradicated.
	Number of Informal Settlements in the Province
1.	Nkangala Region: 
46 Informal Settlements
38130 number of Households

2.	Gert Sibande Region
65 Informal Settlements
34727 number of Households

3.	Ehlanzeni Region
13 Informal Settlements
5151 number of Household

Overall there are 124 Informal Settlement in the whole Province and 78008 number of Households

Plans for upgrading Informal Settlements
The Informal Settlement Directorate has developed a Checklist which indicates areas to be attended and role players in reaching the desired goal of upgrading the Informal Settlements.
The Checklist has been populated to Mr Aubrey Matshekgo from National Department of Human Settlements under the GIS Spatial and Non Spatial Information around November 2011. 
The National Office is happy with the initiative and the office is invited to the meeting that will be on the 23rd of March 2012 in Goven Mbeki Municipality to finalise the Checklist in the presence of all prioritised Municipalities.	
5.3.14.	Provide the report on how the deregistration of beneficiaries was done when the beneficiary could not be found or died before allocation of a house. 
	The names of affected beneficiaries were advertised in National Newspapers and Municipal Notice Boards.  The beneficiaries were called to a meeting and those that confirmed their willingness to keep the houses or stands were allowed to do so, those who did not come forward were removed through Court processes where a directive was issued by the Court to serve a Rule Nisi in all the last known addresses and the Court confirmed that the final approval to deregister the untraceable beneficiaries.  
The list of the beneficiaries approved for deregistration was submitted to the Office of the Registrar of Deeds, for cancellation and de-registration.	
5.3.15.	A detailed report and role of the Mpumalanga Housing Finance Corporation is required.	MHFCo was expected to secure funding for integrated human settlements but unfortunately the institution was not able to secure the funds.
	
5.3.16.	Provide written response on how much was spend in addressing disaster affected areas
	•	In the financial year 2011/2012 the department is responding to various emergency situations as follows:

•	Number of units to be reconstructed: 403
•	Budget allocated: R 10 835 732.00
•	Number of units completed:184
•	Number of units in progress:35
•	Expenditure: R 5 869 302.47
		
•	A further disaster struck the Ehlanzeni District in January affecting all 5 Local Municipalities, damaging infrastructure and homes to the extent of 284 homes. The Department is responding to the 284 units with a budget of 
R 18.4 million. The units are set to be constructed in three months.	
Table 3: Provincial responses to recommendations

5.3.2. Full detailed report on land purchased (R95 million spent in 2008 by the Province, how much land was utilised by each benefiting structure i.e. the municipalities and Social Housing Association.  How big is the land purchased for Mbombela, when and in which specific areas?

The following portions are in Friedenheim in Mbombela in an area next to Kamagugu Suburb:

Properties Purchased	Price paid	Broken down Properties	Registration Date	Property Size (Hectares)	Status	
ENHLANZENI						
Portion 98 of the farm Friedenheim  282 JT	 R 5 987 000.00 		2008/06/06	4.8787	Registered Mbombela Municipality
	
Friedenheim  282 JT 12 hect (Portions 99,100 & 140)	R10 578 308.45 	 Portion 99 	2008/06/25	5.0747	Registered Mbombela Municipality	
	 R 6 758 761.18 	 Portion 100 	2008/06/06	4.8714	Registered Mbombela Municipality	
	 R 4 417 487.41 	 Portion 140 	2008/06/03	1.9626	Registered Mbombela Municipality	
White River X 71	R11 000 000.00 	 Holding 18 		2.5857	Registered Mbombela Municipality	
	R16 000 000.00 	 Holding 19 	2008/06/05	4.7041	Registered Mbombela Municipality	
	R  8 500 000.00 	 Holding 20 	2008/05/13	4.7041	Registered Mbombela Municipality	
	R  6 500 000.00 	 Holding 96 	2008/05/20	4.5146	Registered Mbombela Municipality	
GERT SIBANDE						
Portion 32 of the Farm Zondagsfontein 124 IS (Kinross)	 R 9 690 000.00 		2008/05/20	38.1184	Registered Govan Mbeki Municipality	
Portion 130,131,132,133 of the Farm Winkelhaak 135 I.S (Evander)	R  1 904 558.82 		2008/06/30	4.6891	Registered Govan Mbeki Municipality	
NKANGALA						
Erf 9204 Middelburg X 18	R  4 200 000.00 		2008/06/10	0.6620	Registered Steve Tshwete Municipality	
						
Table 4: Land purchased with R95 million in 2008 by the Province

5.4.	The Minister of Public Works and the Minister of Basic Education’s responses

Letters have been sent to both Ministries, the Department is awaiting responses to the issues raised by the Portfolio Committee.

6.	Conclusions 

6.1. Recommendations made to the Minister of Human Settlements were responded to.  There are other recommendations like the intervention with Thaba Chweu Municipality regarding the bad state of toilets in Simile flats, which is being taken up with the Municipality and the Province to ensure that urgent intervention takes place.

6.2. Recommendations made to the National Department were also responded to, and noted where noting was required.  In terms of 200 beneficiaries that were approved in Thaba Chweu Municipality, and later discovered that the land where the project was to be developed is dolomitic, the matter is being taken up with the Province and the Municipality to ensure that alternative land is acquired for the project.

6.3.	Recommendations made to the Provincial Department were also responded
to, and noted where noting was required.  In other recommendations like blocked projects, legal proceedings are being followed to evict the illegal occupants and to resolve disputes associated with land ownership.

6.4.	In terms of Recommendations made to the Minister of Public Works and the Minister of Basic Education, letters have been sent to both Ministries, the Department is awaiting responses to the issues raised by the Portfolio Committee.

7.	Recommendation

It is recommended that the Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements notes the report with responses to the Portfolio Committee’s recommendations.

__________________________					________________
Mr T ZULU									DATE
DIRECTOR GENERAL
DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS