Hansard: Approppriation Bill: Debate on Vote No 31 - Human Settlements
House: National Assembly
Date of Meeting: 08 May 2012
Summary
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Minutes
UNREVISED HANSARD
EPC – OLD ASSEMBLY CHAMBER
Wednesday, 9 May 2012 Take: 458
START OF DAY
WEDNESDAY, 09 MAY 2012
PROCEEDINGS OF EXTENDED PUBLIC COMMITTEE – OLD ASSEMBLY CHAMBER
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Members of the Extended Public Committee met in the Old Assembly Chamber at 16:53.
House Chairperson Mr M B Skosana, as Chairperson, took the Chair and requested members to observe a moment of silence for prayers or meditation.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr M B Skosana): Order, hon members! Before I deal with the Order and call upon the Minister, can I just remind members of some important points, which we need to accept even at the start of the EPCs. This is to remind members that Extended Public Committees, EPCs, are not different from the NA plenary. The rules, decorum, conduct of members also apply in the EPCs. Having said that, I just wanted to read this thing to remind members of what I am saying. These are points taken since 2003, just to guide the Members of Parliament in EPCs and also in the NA. It says, and I read, it is an extract, the House plays a critical role in exercising and upholding the principles of democracy enshrined in our Constitution. Its members are citizens elected to exercise the mandate as representatives of the people who elected them. They are constantly in the public eye and speak for and on behalf of thousand of voters and non voters alike. The public can and do view parliamentary proceedings from the public gallery. They also view these proceedings on television or listen to then on radio. These and related House decorum, and dignity issues require that Members of Parliament pay attention to the manner in which they conduct themselves in the House.
It is in this context that the House constantly seeks to protect itself from physical disruption, disturbance and ultimate destruction. It goes on to say, the rules of debate include a rule that states that no member shall use offensive or unbecoming language, that is, NA Rule 63. unparliamentary language is seen as any remarks or expressions, which are contrary to the provisions in the rules and agreed practice. These include offensives, provocative or threatening language in the House, personal attacks on member, insults and obscene language is allowed. Members have previously been requested to refrain from making provocative gestures of physically threatening on other members.
The rules governing the use of offensive or unbecoming words also apply to quotations. An offensive remark is no less offensive for being framed as a question. Unparliamentary expressions are only applicable with reference to members of the House and not to political parties. Derogatory remarks about members, race, ethnicity or religion are unparliamentary. Hon members, this the reminder I wanted to put just before we start. I hope they will assist us in our proceedings.
The MINISTER OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS (Mr T M G Sexwale):
UNREVISED HANSARD
EPC – OLD ASSEMBLY CHAMBER
Wednesday, 9 May 2012 Take: 458
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr M B Skosana
APPROPRIATION BILL
Debate on Budget Vote No 31 – Human Settlements
The MINISTER OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS (Mr T M G Sexwale): Hon Chairperson, I hope the reading of the right was not meant for me, but for other members of the House. [Laughter.]
Hon Chair, hon members, MECs from different provinces, welcome here, invited guests, comrades and friends, and ladies and gentlemen,
the human settlement sector in South Africa remains one of those challenging areas in the area of social and economic environment. This mirrors worldwide trends as population explosions continue to create an increasing demand within the property market for well located housing.
This Human Settlements Budget Vote occurs within the following context: negative economic performance well below the 7% target of the country and inflation, which at 6%. The essential building materials for housing construction have recorded price increases of above inflation. In addition to the increased price of building materials the building industry is hit by increases in transportation costs, particularly labour inputs.
The price of money as reflected by interest rates is around 9% - a burden upon the working people, particularly the poorest, who are unable to access housing loans, mortgages and bonds.
The unacceptably high levels of unemployment still persist at around 25%, particularly amongst the young people, who constitute two thirds of this percentage.
The construction sector, in which the housing property market is key, has shown marginal improvement of about 2.6%.
Not least of all, is the government fiscus from which the Human Settlements budget of which we are about today, is drawn. This has grown by a mere 10% since the last financial year. This has grown by a mere 10% since the last financial year, while housing demand has increased.
Members of the House in this light, Finance Minister Gordan's call for belt tightening is instructive, and he says, "In harnessing all the resources at our disposal, we have to do more, with less; we have to work smarter and harder". We take these measures to heart within human settlements.
Let's deal with period under review.In our 2011 budget speech we committed to turn the corner around key strategic priorities: accelerated delivery; improved co-ordination; and greater clarity on the severity of the problems confronting the country's residential drive.
The following progress has been made on these commitments: in 2009, we committed to delivering over 200 000 housing opportunities per annum and in that year we achieved our target. In the ensuing years, we came to the realisation that human settlements are more than just a number of units on the ground. There are other key critical drivers, which include land acquisition and infrastructure development.
In 2011, we spent 98% of our budget, which delivered about 180 000 housing opportunities. This decreased figure is as a result of the above-mentioned factors, including low economic performance, inflation, increased building materials and increased labour and transportation costs, but the situation could have been worse.
In addition to these adverse factors, funds have been spent on requisite infrastructure, Geo-tech evaluations, feasibility studies and forward planning. Significantly, over R400 million, and this is said, of the budget, was spent on rectification, unnecessarily, to repair shoddy houses that predate the year 2002, which otherwise could have offered this House, to a budget of last year, 7000 housing units. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that the houses that are being constructed are aesthetically superior and of high quality standard and design.
In the 2011 budget speech, we acknowledged that government cannot do it alone. We called upon the private sector, high net-worth individuals and captains of industry to answer our call, here in the House, "I too can contribute". We translated this call to a campaign called: Each-One-Settle-One.
The department's turn around strategy is now complete. Congratulations to the Director-General Thabane Zulu and his team, for this success. [Appplause.]
In line with the Cabinet's decision for all human settlements related legislation to be located within human settlements, deliberations between the Department of Trade and Industry's, DTI, Minister, Rob Davis and myself around the transfer of the Estate Agency Affairs Act from DTI to Human Settlements has been concluded. We are happy to announce that the President has assented to this by signing the necessary proclamation. This will, indeed fast track our strategy to de-racialise residential areas. At the right time, we will interact with relevant industry players and all other stakeholders. What it means here is that I have to talk with the likes of Wendy Mechanic.
In February 2011, we tabled before the House, the Sectional Titles Scheme Management Act and the Community Scheme Ombuds Service Act. Again, we are happy to announce that the President has assented to these two. Accordingly, we will establish the Office of the Ombuds which will handle dispute resolutions within bodies co-operate within the common property environment.
In line with the Home Loans and Mortgage Disclosure Act, Hlamda, the setting up of the Office of Disclosure is now completed with the appointment of Mr Danny Jordaan as its chairman. He brings with him a wealth of experience associated with the successful hosting of the Fifa 2010 World Cup, which was essentially about infrastructure construction. This office plays an important oversight role in promoting fair lending practices by financial institutions in the housing market. Already, exchanges have taken place between with the Banking Association of South Africa, BASA, and the Independent Regulatory Board of Auditors.
The progress on Outcomes 8, which is a contract between me and the President, has seen a lot of progress. The President and I have agreed that Ministers have got to be … on all the points of Outcomes 8.
The programme of improving property market remains a major challenge. However, the above mentioned progress around the Estate Agency Affairs Act, the Finance Linked Individual Subsidy Programme, Flisp, and the Mortgage Default Insurance, MDI, will go a long way in addressing these challenges.
In the period under review we have created over 76 000 job opportunities. About 50 000 direct, 5000 indirect and 22 000 induced.
The Rental Housing Amendment Bill, which introduces the internal appeal mechanism before a rental dispute can be referred court for review, has recently gone through the House and the NCOP. Its enactment will help ease the financial burden of legal costs on tenants, the majority of whom are working people.
In the period, significant projects were delivered in all the nine provinces; none remains untouched. Lakehaven, KwaZulu-Natal, KZN, Brandford Women's Build project in the Free State; Mazista, in the North West; Seshego, Polokwane in Limpopo; Klarinet, in Emalahleni are major national driven projects. Emalahleni, in Mpumalanga; China Square Project, in the Northern Cape; and the recently launched Jabulani Hostel redevelopment - I said redevelopment not upgrade – in Soweto, which was launched by the Deputy President in the presence of members of the portfolio committee.
The densification of Joe Slovo, where we have been this morning, is progressing well under the authority of the Constitutional Court. w. Last, and by no means least, is Southernwood social housing in Buffalo City, in the Eastern Cape, which makes the Eastern Cape, and I am happy to say the MEC is here, now the leader in the human settlements or social housing programme. [Applause.] Not everything from the Eastern Cape is bad – section 100 education.
With the drive from the National Home Builders Regulation Council, NHBRC, we piloted the building of houses using alternative technologies, including the use of recycled materials. These were used in Blue Downs. You all saw the power station nearby here, the Athlone Power Station - the cooling towers were blown up through the process of implosion – all that rubble has built houses, very good houses in Blue Downs, in Cape Town.
In contributing towards the development of Vision 2030 for Human Settlements, consultative forums with various stakeholders have taken place.
Let's talk about rooting out corruption and maladministration.The new focus in our current investigations is on low cost housing construction contracts. In this regard, more than 50 housing projects with the value of R4, 2 billion were identified to be studied. Over 40 investigations have been completed and 17 are ongoing.
Provinces are participating in the fight against corruption with Limpopo taking the lead. Not everything bad comes from Limpopo. [Applause.] congratulations to the former HOD who is now MEC. Twenty-four contractors have been blacklisted for shoddy workmanship, and these cases and others have also bee referred to the Special Investigations Unit. I want to identify a special organ in the Special Investigations Unit that assists us; they are not tiring in making sure that we after the people who abuse public funds.
Regarding public servants in all three spheres of government who committed housing subsidy related misconduct and fraud, more than 290 have been arrested, over 240 found guilty, and over 220 are facing internal disciplinary action. I say these things with a heavy heart. My job as a Minister is not to be a policeman chasing people around, but … members asking questions about these things, and you always surely, surely, investigations, investigations, what have you done. That's what we do.
Ms Thami Mpotulo, former head chief director of the National Sanitation Programme, was found guilty of dereliction of duty and improper conduct. She has been dismissed. Mr Sipho Mashinini, the suspended CEO of the NHBRC has been dismissed by Judge Myburg of the Labour Court. Ms Vanessa Smith, former SAPS detective and top SIU investigator who was irregularly employed in the NHBRC by Mashinini has had her questionable employment terminated by the Board with immediate effect.
With reference to the Each-One-Settle-One campaign I mentioned earlier, whose objective is to mobilise the private sector to participate in housing provision towards the reduction of the backlog; we again congratulate Anglo Platinum, a leading platinum company – it's a number one - in the world, came fourth and committed themselves to building 20 000 houses for their employees, both in the North West and Limpopo. We opened that beautiful project. [Applause.] Members of Anglo Platinum include members of the working class who affiliated to the National Union of Mineworkers, Num, National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, Numsa and UASA.
It is pleasing to observe that the idea that people should live near the places assisted by their own employers is taking shape. Gold Fields, I know, I used to be a director of this one, and BHP will soon be making an interesting announcement together with us in relation to Each-One-Settle-One.
To date, although the response from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, JSE, companies has not been forthcoming as initially anticipated, there has nevertheless been considerable responses from the private individuals and smaller companies.
Over 22% of enquiries and pledges to Each-One-Settle-One are from individuals who want to build their homes for their own domestics and 15% are from individuals who wish to offer technical expertise.
Overall we take the opportunity to compliment all those who have made pledges in recognising that government alone cannot shoulder the burden of providing housing. This is the essence of partnership.
Let's address the entrenched system of apartheid infrastructure. The New Economic Growth Path has identified energy, transport, roads, water, communication and indeed housing as key areas in its strategy to fast-track sustainable growth, employment and equity creation.
This has been further given a boost by President Zuma's establishment of the Presidential Infrastructure Co-ordinating Committee, PICC. This is a major break-through towards reversing the entrenched system of apartheid infrastructure and bad spatial planning.
It stands to reason therefore, that any planning that does not recognise the negative effects of the apartheid system, which effectively was the use of infrastructure, roads, amenities, facilities, residential space, to keep racial groups apart, such an approach rebound to perpetuate apartheid spatial planning within our new democracy. This would be completely contrary to the vision of a nonracial society and, against the philosophy of a developmental state.
The decision to position human settlements therefore, as one of the key drivers of the PICC has made our work of coordinated integration with other departments, particularly those handling the bulk infrastructure, much easier. Effectively the introduction of the PICC by the President means that we are seeing the beginning of the end of government operating in silos.
With regard to sanitation, it which provides the most basic protection to the privacy of citizen, particularly, dignity, is an internationalised programme through the United Nations Millennium Development Goals as agreed to by all member states the United Nation, UN. It stands to reason therefore that in our country, which is a signatory to the UN Protocols around the MDGs, sanitation cannot be less than a national strategic project. There is no logic in South Africa participating in the UN, where sanitation has been internationalised and only to end up localising it hear, in areas such as Moqhaka and Makhaza. It is therefore of critical importance for this programme to be elevated to a national strategic priority programme. In the PICC this programme has been elevated into a national priority issue. Incidentally, this is also one of the key recommendations of the Mandela led Task Team, which will be made public, because I have the report now, within a next few weeks after this Budget Vote.
In developing possible strategies, we have to ask ourselves some questions, one of them is: has the time not arrived to use sizeable established contractors to build our own homes?
This question is posed because when large construction projects take place, like harbours and so on, we bring large companies with their Black Economic Empowerment partners, and yet when we build houses for people who elected us, we live them to the devices of the shoddy workmanship small builders who bring their wheelbarrows, bakkies and shovels. Many of these discredit the actual campaign of empowering people. We are busy with capacity building and I shall talk about that because of … time.
Is it perhaps not time to establish a state owned construction company? We at Human Settlements are exploring this idea together with Public Works. Let us debate it. Let's talk about access to financing.
The Department will continue to support and to find better solutions to issues of affordability through social housing, affordable rental and promoting home ownership.
The President made a commitment during his state of the nation address with respect to Finance Linked Individual Subsidy Programme, Flisp. We are proud to say that we are satisfied that the banks have come on board, Flisp has started and it is going to assist more that 2 million people who are our employees in government, the enter the housing market. We are amalgamating our development by finance institutions, in this case, the National Housing Finance Corporation, NHFC, NURCHA and RALPH are being amalgamated into one financial institution. In that regard, Cabinet is awaiting the relevant Cabinet document to attest to accredit to this.
The budget for 2012 has been increased from R22 billion to R25,2 billion, a 10% increase. The Human Settlements Development Grant, HSDG, for provinces, which provides funding for development has been increased and allocated R15,7 billion.
The Urban Settlement Development Grant has been increased to R7,4 billion.
The Rural Households Infrastructure Programme has been allocated R868,5 million, and that includes development around sanitation.
Social Housing Regulatory Authority has been allocated R2,1 billion for the rental programme. The National Urban Reconstruction and Housing Development Agency are allocated R100 million each to accelerate housing delivery.
To conclusion, in 2009, after having visited the Eastern Cape, Gauteng and all other places, I spent a night in Diepsloot to study how best we can see fast tracking and taking our people out of the misery of informal settlements. I visited and slept in a house of one lady, Ms Mashamaite; it wasn't a house but a shack. I am happy to announce today that Ms Mashamaite of Diepsloot, who is here with us today, no longer has a shack, but has a house. The House should know that. The message we are sending, and we shall keep on sending it to many other citizens in other parts of the informal settlements beyond Diepsloot, is that no matter how long it takes, human settlements will touch your lives too!
IsiXhosa:
Le mini iya kuze ifike nakuwe. Siyabulela. [Kwaqhwatywa.]
Ms B N DAMBUZA / ARM(Eng)//UNH (Xh) END OF TAKE
UNREVISED HANSARD
EPC – OLD ASSEMBLY CHAMBER
Wednesday, 9 May 2012 Takes: 459 & 460
"Old Assembly Main",Unrevised Hansard,24 May 2012,"Take 459 [Old Assembly Main].doc"
The MINISTER OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS
Ms B N DAMBUZA: Hon Chairperson, hon Minister and other Ministers present today, Deputy Ministers, MECs, hon members, honoured guests, Director-General, Mr Thabane Zulu, and your team. The 1994 democratic breakthrough ushered in new conditions, providing a unique opportunity to combine state and mass power, inserving the interest of the people. This is the 18th year, since the ANC as the ruling party attained its control of state power to improve the quality of life and begin to roll back the legacy of apartheid and colonialism.
The following analysis presents the budgetary and policy landscape of the Department of Human Settlements. It seeks to link the department's policy framework to its fiscal responsibilities, while highlighting the relative influence of the objective environment in which both are implemented.
Of equal importance with the budget analysis, is a review of the performance of the department in terms of meeting objectives related to equity and adequacy, particularly in light of the imbalances of the past. A review of the impact of the Human Settlements budget willhighlight whether targets set have been achieved in line with the stated outcomes and policy priorities.
Without doubt, the budget reprioritisation, together with the departmental strategic plan, serves as useful tools for understanding the contribution of the Department of Human Settlements to a national democratic society.
As part of its foundation, the Constitution of South Africa draws attention to the values of human dignity, achievement of equal and advancement of human rights and freedom. Therefore the mainstay of the Department of Human Settlements is to address these values through its legislation, policies and programmes.
The provision of housing to allSouth Africans is recognised as one of the most ambitious projects in the transformational agenda of the ANC. This item in the developmental agenda of the ANC was outlined early in its political history. The Freedom Charter of 1995 outlined the former government to provide decent housing for all South Africans to no avail.
In 2009 Budget speech, the Minister of Human Settlements highlighted that the concept of human settlements recognises the centrality of human dignity. He also noted that human settlements had been part of the global developmental lexicon for many years.
The human settlements developmental philosophy was first adopted at the United Nation's Global Habitat Summit, Vancouver, in Canada, in 1976. In 2002, the World Summit on Sustainable Development was held in Johannesburg. The Johannesburg plan of implementation, JPOI, affirmed the United Nations' commitment to full implementation of Agenda 21, which was held and adopted in Brazil, in 1992.
Furthermore, the JPOI affirmed the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, and other international agreements. The resulting programme of action was premised on the realisation that sustainable development is underpinned by the integration of the economic, social and environmental pillars. Therefore in our nation's quest to achieve sustainable human settlements, we have to consider how the three pillars interact and influence each other.
The 52nd National Conference of the ANC held in Polokwane, in 2007, provided further direction for the achievement of the MDG targets and indicators by 2014, a full year before the actual international timeframe.
The Polokwane resolution also committed the government to promote human settlements that would build cohesive, sustainable and caring communities. The first step in giving effect to shift from the provision of housing to creating sustainable human settlements required President Jacob Zuma to establish a new Ministry for Human Settlements within which the Department of Human Settlements would be housed.
The Human Settlements approach is also in line with the ANC plan to create an integrated and socially cohesive nation and to transform the apartheid spatial framework of cities and towns. The paradigm shift to sustainable human settlements indicates a greater understanding that achieving a comprehensive, integrated and sustainable service delivery, would more holistically address the universal access to basic services, access to transport, economic opportunities and social amenities, including more efficient land utilisation. The approach serves as a radical departure from the mere provision of housing.
The transition to a Human Settlements Framework further gave effect to a response that enabled the reprioritisation of the National Budget towards a greater investment in social infrastructure. Such philosophy is also in linewith the recognition that poverty, inequality and unemployment are deeply intertwined with infrastructure deficiencies.
Furthermore, this paradigm shift from housing to human settlements resulted in a strategic reallocation of the departmental expenditure patterns. The outcome was a change in programmatic foci from houses to settlements patterns and institutional restructuring necessitated by the paradigm shift and the inclusion of a sanitation component inhousing planning and delivery.
Earlier this year, in the ANC January 8th Statement, President Zuma announced that the first step towards greater social and economic development is the reprioritisation of the budget towards greater investment in social infrastructure. While eradicating poverty, unemployment and reducing inequality have consistently been ANC priorities, there is also the realisation of the need to fast-track service delivery and align developmental outcomes for all departments.
Thus, Cabinet adopted an outcome-based approach, which translated into a set of 12 outcomes. This approach encourages alldepartments to review their strategies and plans aimed at achieving the government's transformational and developmental agenda. The intensive focus on infrastructure development is one of the national priorities towards which the Department of Human Settlements is expected to contribute over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, period.
In his 2012 Budget Speech, the Minister of Finance announced that the investment in municipal infrastructure and human settlements will amount to R120 billion in the 2012-13 financial year and is set to increase to R139 billion by the 2014-15 financial year.
The major thrust of the 2012 state of the nation address was the launch of an ambitious Infrastructure Development Programme aimed at reducing the triple burden of unemployment, poverty and inequality. In this respect, the government will focus on four geographically focused programmes and projects.
The relevance to the human settlements sector is the Mthatha Revitalisation Project, which is a Presidential Special Project. The department reported good progress towards improving, amongst others, sanitation and human settlements development. In response to the new found opportunities in infrastructure, the Department of Human Settlements has identified potential investment opportunities which correspond with the infrastructure development nodes identified by the President. Just to mention them, in this respect: Out of the R25 billion allocated to human settlements, more than R1 billion has been granted to the development on the infrastructure nodes in Limpopo and Mpumalanga. Furthermore, the allocations apply to the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal Agri-corridor, the Sishen-Saldahna rail-line expansion and the North West Railroad. A number of priority projects that support infrastructure initiatives include Lephalale, Cornubia and Duncan Village.
It should be noted that the committee has observed that there has been an off-sight on the side of the department in the Northern Cape's Eldorado Park priority project and, therefore, the committee recommends a review on the project. It should be noted that about 97% of the budget of the Department of Human Settlements is dedicated to conditional grants located in the Housing Development Finance Programme. These include the Human Settlements Grant, the Urban Settlements Development Grant and the Rural Household Infrastructure Grant.
It should also be noted that, however, during the previous financial year, the Rural Household Infrastructure Programme experienced several challenges, which could be regarded as having been a learning curve, following the transfer of the sanitation function to the Department of Human Settlements.
The state of the nation address also highlighted the following key strategic objectives pertaining to the department: A subsidy of R83 million will be available to enable people in the gap market; solar geysers are to be installed; and a directive to all government departments to ensure that they meet the target of ensuring 2% of all persons employed in the public service are persons with a disability.
Hon Chairperson, to date considerable progress has been observed towards the achievement of these commitments. A R1 billion guarantee fund for low-income earners who struggle to access housing finance from the banks will come into effect by April 2012.
The creation of such fund was announced in the 2010 state of the nation address, and will be managed by National Housing Finance Corporation, NHFC. This initiative has resulted in the establishment of a Mortgage Default Insurance Fund intended for the working class and lower-income families earning between R3 500 and R12 000 per month.
An initial agreement has been reached with some accredited financial institutions to participate in an affordable housing with funding of R150 million to finance the development and sale of 5 000 affordable units. Linked to Mortgage Default Insurance is the Finance Linked Individual Subsidy Programme, Flisp, which aims to improve affordability for the end user. The National Housing Finance Corporation, NHFC, is also using the Government Employee Housing Scheme as a facilitator for the MDI because once new developments for public servants have been located. They will require insurance to back the provision of their housing funding.
The MDI will be developing risk management, audit and monitoring processes. The Financial Services Board will be increasing its oversight on how financial institutions co-operate with their borrowers in future. To date, some of provinces have already signed protocol agreements with the NHFC for the implementation of Flisp. The Eastern Cape Province, for example, has already indicated that it would initiate Flisp through a pilot project of 400 units in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality. Gauteng identified 4000 units in Protea Glen, and 1000 units in Ekurhuleni.
The South African energy economy requires new energy capacity. Projections indicate that electricity demand will outstrip the base load capacity within a few years. Consequently, investment in new capacity is required and it is appropriate to evaluate options and opportunity costs of different supply. Renewable energy technologies offer a quantifiable potential for creating and sustaining new and decentralised employment in South Africa, which can offset some of the employment shedding that is a current trend in the conventional energy sectors.
As human settlements we need a complete reduction in green house gas emissions as this can be indicated by manufacturing processes, or electricity generated by coal. Human settlements should be seen as a department that is cross-cutting in all other departments. Although the South African government has made major strides to improve water supply within the past decade, much less progress has been achieved with regard to sanitation. Major hurdles are the financial sustainability of investments, sanitation technologies, quality, as well as a lack of attention to maintenance.
According to the General Household Survey, the highest proportion of individuals having to do without toilet facilities or having to use bucket toilets, at least, the Eastern Cape has to pull up its socks; Limpopo to follow, Northern Cape and Mpumalanga. However, the portfolio committee has welcomed the initiative by the Minister of Human Settlements on the establishment of the national task team to audit the status of access to sanitation in the country. The report is awaited to this affect. The committee further recommends that sanitation must be a top priority in this country, with a specific ring-fenced funding.
Human settlements have got a most important role to play in curbing the effects of climate change at household level. It is suggested that growing one's own food, recycling liquid and solid wastes, using decentralized energy and water supplies, and generally living green is only possible at a house hold level.
Reducing the cause and mitigating the effect of climate change will take a clustered effort and MPs must play a key role in ensuring that government does not lose sight of the targets, as other issues often compete for attention. During these tough economic times, we need to ensure that climate change mitigation remains a priority. In order to galvanise real action on climate change, there is a need to link up individual effort, value policies and international agreements for climate change mitigation.
The portfolio committee noted with great concern, the appalling conditions under which farmworkers are living, including lack of security of tenure, ongoing evictions from farms despite the promulgation of the legislation to protect tenure security, as well as poor housing conditions. The committee has also observed inadequate collaborative planning, amongst the departments, irrespective of the existence of delivery agreements.
It must be noted that plans to work together are hugely rewarding for all involved and are very much a two-way relationship. With innovative cost-sharing initiatives coming into place to leverage funding to deliver more for less, but at the same time provide best value for taxpayers' money. It is also important to recognise that there are untapped opportunities in the field for closer co-operation between the departments. Such initiatives are essential, given the downward pressure on finances and the rising pressure to meet the increasing demand for service delivery.
The committee also noted with concern the Auditor-General's findings with respect to the departmental performance on the following IT focus areas: IT governance, security management, user-access management, and IT service continuity. These factors pose a risk to the department in general, and the housing subsidy system in particular. Having noted these concerns, the portfolio committee reaffirms its commitment to intensify its oversight mandate. This will include oversight on how the elderly, orphans and child-headed households, and people with disabilities access housing.
I would like to use this opportunity to thank the Minister of Human Settlements and his department for the co-operation. I would also like to thank the ANC caucus, members of the portfolio committee,
IsiZulu:
Sisebenze kahle, zingekho izinkinga,
English:
... the parliamentary support staff, and my family for their continued support and encouragement. The ANC supports the debate. I thank you. [Applause.]
Mrs S MOKGALAPA / AZM MNGUNI/VM & JN (Eng/Zul/ LIM CHECKED) ///tfm/// / END OF TAKE
UNREVISED HANSARD
EPC – OLD ASSEMBLY CHAMBER
Wednesday, 9 May 2012 Takes: 460 & 461
Ms B N DAMBUZA
Mr S MOKGALAPA: Chairperson, the mission of the Department of Human Settlement is to establish and facilitate a sustainable process that provides equitable access to adequate housing for all within the context of affordability of housing, services, access to social amenities and economic opportunities.
This mission resonates well with the DA's open opportunity society for sustainable human livelihood and housing as an integral part of human life. Everybody strives to own a house. Surveys conducted in South Africa indicate that housing is one of the top most important issues that affect all South Africans irrespective of race and status.
Everybody needs a house that they can call a home and be proud of to raise a family in a safe and secure environment. However, this department is faced with countless challenges, which includes unachieved targets, increasing budgets while simultaneously decreasing service delivery targets. This is also emphasised in the Auditor-General's report and the Financial and Fiscal Commission, FFC, report which is attributed to poor planning and implementation of housing and lack of accurate and reliable data.
The DA acknowledges the need for housing, especially for the poor who cannot afford to build houses for themselves. We believe that the government should help those who are vulnerable by providing an environment for them to have access to housing opportunities, while also building partnerships with those who can at least afford to build their own houses by proving incentives and mechanisms. The government needs a paradigm shift form creating dependency towards building partnerships, participation and responsibility in housing delivery.
Bold decisions should be taken to end the cycle of entitlement and introduce a self-help mechanism. A political will is required. We all acknowledge that the existing model of housing delivery is unsustainable and is draining the fiscus. Innovative and alternative means of housing should be explored to meet the ever-increasing backlog of 2,2 million. It is a ticking time bomb. People need sustainable human livelihoods which are of quality standard and have amenities, and are also close to jobs.
The Urban Settlement Development Grant, USDG, which is one of the main grants for urban informal settlements upgrade, is also falling short of its target.
More than 50% of this grant was not spent in the last financial year. R3,5 billion of the R6 billion allocated was not spent. The Rural Household Infrastructure Grant, RHIG, is one another important grant that deals with the rural basic infrastructure and services. Only 20% of this grant was spent in the last financial year. Out of the allocated R257 million only R57 million was spent while rural basic services backlog is escalating. Yet, the budget for this financial year has been increased to R479 million. Urgent plans must be put into place to ensure that this new allocation is spent to deal with rural sanitation backlog.
The breaking new ground's purpose is to ensure that housing provision creates wealth and poverty alleviation while also ensuring economic opportunity for the poor. Measures should be put in place to ensure that the backlog of R1,4 million title deeds is reversed, not only in theReconstruction and Development Programme, RDP, houses but also in the former Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda, and Ciskei, TBVC, states where people have been promised title deeds for 20 years ago and up to date are still waiting and falling victim to scrupulous estates property agents who are involved in corrupt activities. The Minister should prioritise these households.
People are denied economic opportunities if they don't have title deeds. They remain trapped in poverty and are vulnerable to abuse.
The rectification programme is simply a form of fruitless and wasteful expenditure. R930 million is budgeted for rectification this financial year. This amount should rather be used to develop further new houses and not towards fixing the mess of shoddy workmanship.
Last year, the Minister made a call to deal with these contractors who built shoddy workmanship and to blacklist them. We welcomed that but only 24 have been blacklisted. There is much more, Minister, and you know that.
The National Home Builders Registration Council, NHBRC, fails to perform its mandate. I have conducted oversight in two projects, one in Umlazi's B10 in KwaZulu-Natal and another in Bram Fischerville in Soweto, where I was shocked to see people's living conditions as a result of poor workmanship. People's houses are collapsing. They are in sewerage lines and in flood lines. In one house alone they had to spent R30 000 on rectification. It's shame on NHBRC and the department for costing the poor.
The state of the nation address, SONA, has highlighted the massive infrastructure upgrade in human settlement which was promised as priority projects. The department is spending 20% of its budget on these projects.
However, these projects are filled with challenges and battle to get off the ground. The challenges include lack of intergovernmental co-ordination and co-operation; protracted environmental impact assessments, EIAs; town planning processes; land; basic services; bulk infrastructure; incapacity; and poor procurement and project planning. This is unacceptable considering that these projects are prioritised and funded.
Bureaucracy bottlenecks and red tapes are hampering housing delivery. It almost takes up to three years to complete a housing project. This is costly to developers. It costs them 30% extra to get through the process. This is due to chain management inefficiencies and institutional and legislative challenges according to theFinancial and Fiscal Commission's, FFC, report.
The paradigm shift is required in housing delivery as the National Development Plan also highlights the issues of active citizenship and participation. The people should begin to be involved in housing delivery rather than be passive dependant of the state waiting for government to supply. People should be encourages to take joint responsibility with government in meeting housing demands.
We welcome the introduction of the Finance Linked Individual Subsidy Programme, Flisp, as well as the guarantee fund. This is to ensure much relief for the gap market and affordable housing market. However, we will caution that this should not be at the costs of the provincial fiscus. Adequate planning and budgeting by provinces is required.
Lastly, the issue of fraud, corruption and maladministration remains to be major challenges in housing delivery. The Special Investigating Unit, SIU, should be roped-in and congratulated and commended for the work they have done thus far, but much more needs to be done. In one of my oversight visits, at Philippi East, I uncovered a very big RDP scandal. It was alleged that an ANC councillor was selling Reconstruction and Development Programme, RDP, houses at R7 000.
Minister, let me offer you the DA alternative. It says that the DA encourages the championing of self-help mechanisms and moving away from dependency of state. People should be active participants. The government should just be an enabler and creator of an adequate conditions and environment.
We also believe in the people's housing process, PHP. It should be reassessed and reimplemented as it is the viable means of ensuring beneficiary participation and responsibility. This is a viable partnership between government and citizens.
In the process, a densification model should be championed. This must be coupled with proper education and engagement with beneficiaries.
Sustainable livelihoods mean creation of jobs and development of amenities and finding alternative means of housing delivery. For example, the delivery of site and service, mixed integrated settlements and rental bonded and subsidised, alternative building technologies and different typologies that are environmentally friendly and can save energy and water and save development costs.
In conclusion, the DA agrees that there is a need to help the poor. However, the continued dependency on the state is unsustainable. We need to empower citizens to get out of poverty trap and dependency.
We recognise the fact that there is no government that is perfect or that has all the solutions and answers on its own, but where we govern we strive to achieve and provide quality decent services to the people, especially the poor.
Chair, let me share with you what we have done in the Western Cape where the DA governs. Firstly, we have introduced the paradigm shift of involving beneficiaries in housing development opportunities, 35% of the PHPs self-help programme have been successfully implemented; we are promoting security of tenure through effective transfer to beneficiaries, 15% reduction in title deed transfers; we are using alternative technologies to save costs on energy, 15% of the units developed are already energy efficient; 50% of our housing projects meet integration and sustainability criteria; we are pursuing strategic partnerships with the private sector; we have cut down on bureaucracy and red tape to make housing accessible; we have a credible demand database; and we have developed residential incremental densification to provide sustainable dignified human settlement.
We acknowledge our achievements but much more still needs to be done to reach a dream of quality housing for all. I thank you, Chair. [Applause.]
Mrs M A A NJOBE / JN (Eng/Zul/ LIM CHECKED) ///tfm & NN/GC /// END OF TAKE
UNREVISED HANSARD
EPC – OLD ASSEMBLY CHAMBER
Wednesday, 9 May 2012 Takes: 461 & 462
Mr S MOKGALAPA
Mrs M A A NJOBE: Hon Chairperson, It is envisaged that the massive infrastructure ... [Interjections.]
Mr L SUKA: Hon Chairperson, on a point of order: Conventionally, no member must move between the Speaker and the presiding officers and those opposition parties are doing that. Thank you.
THE HOUSE CHAIRPESON (Hon C Mabuza): That's free education hon members. Can we adhere to that? It's not a point of order but that's free education. Some of the members don't know that it's conventional not to move. Hon member, can you please take over.
Mrs M A A NJOBE: I hope that Chairperson you will give me my time which has been taken by confusion here.
It is envisaged that the massive infrastructure development project announced and outlined by the President in the 2012 state of the nation address will among other achievements result in the creation of new human settlements along the relevant parts of the country. It is also hoped that many communities will thus benefit from jobs created and houses built. Hopefully, the success of this programme should consequently lead to a reduction in the number of protests witnessed throughout the country in the past few years.
According to the Trends Analysis and Explanations Report of
Community Protests in South Africa, Gauteng accounted for
31,46% of the protests followed by the Western Cape with
17,05% and the North West with 11,9%. Unfortunately, these protests can be violent in nature resulting in destruction of both public and private properties. Sometimes there is a loss of life. We cannot forget the killing of the late Andries Tatane by the police in 2011, in Ficksburg.
Some of the reasons cited by the protestors are inadequate and poor quality of housing. According to the General Household Survey conducted by Statistics SA, housing delivery is not just slow but the quality is poor. The Financial and Fiscal Commission in its report on the public hearings on housing finance held in October last year, makes similar observations - inadequate and poor quality of houses.
It is indeed, a well known fact that all provinces without exception sit with shoddy poor workmanship where we've all watched with dismay the poorly built houses allocated to the poor by various municipalities. Sometimes it is as if the government is actually condemning the poor to poverty and misery. Reconstruction and Development Programme, RDP, houses in Tarkastad in the Chris Hani District Municipality tell a sad story. In many of the houses no provision was made for toilets. One wonders how such a plan could have been approved. Where the toilets exist they are not connected to the water system. The people of this township including the elderly must go to the nearest bush or hill to answer to natures' call.
It is no exaggeration, hon Minister, that in some settlements such Kubusie, Xholora, Sophumelela, in Amahlathi Municipality in the Eastern Cape, Riverside in KwaZulu-Natal, and many others, the houses are indeed falling apart as observed by the hon Figlan, a former member of this portfolio committee in a question he directed to you, hon Minister. In these places, the infrastructure, such as roads, is either poorly maintained or is lacking altogether. We are talking here about 3 million plus housing units constructed in this way. At what cost to the taxpayer, we may never know.
However, let me be quick to say, as you have indicated, hon Minister, that the poor workmanship of the Reconstruction and Development Programme, RDP, houses built to completion has been identified and acknowledged by the government. That time has come to move away from quantity to quality housing. This is to be applauded, as it creates an opportunity for all South African stakeholders to engage constructively in finding solutions.
The current fully subsidised housing scheme has resulted in dependency on the state to provide housing for the poor. It has also created negative incentives, with corrupt councillors controlling lists of beneficiaries, in order to benefit themselves. The policy has failed to encourage individuals, households and the private sector to invest and participate in the housing market. Occupants of RDP houses cannot claim to be the full owners, as they hold no title deeds to the houses they occupy.
Chairperson, the Congress of the People acknowledges that the concept of creating sustainable human... [Interjections.]
An HON MEMBER: Mind your own business.
Mrs M A A NJOBE: What's so funny?
The TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (Mrs M C Mabuza): Order, hon members!
Mrs M A A NJOBE: Cope does acknowledge that the concept of creating sustainable human settlements has been in the pipeline since 2004. The approval by Cabinet of the comprehensive plan for the delivery of sustainable human settlements indicated a shift in policy from merely providing houses to sustainable housing settlements. However, the process of integrating housing delivery, land use and bulk infrastructure development has been slow. With the outcomes-based approach introduced since 2009, the expectation is an accelerated and improved delivery of outcomes. [Time expired.][Applause.]
Mr K P SITHOLE / /NN/ GC & GG//Mia /END OF TAKE
UNREVISED HANSARD
EPC – OLD ASSEMBLY CHAMBER
Wednesday, 9 May 2012 Takes: 462 & 463
Mrs M A A NJOBE
Mr K P SITHOLE: Hon Chairperson, the IFP supports Budget Vote No 31: Human Settlements; we also commend the Minister and the department for the new development initiative on affordable rental housing in Gauteng, namely, Dube, Mzimhlophe, Jabulani and Buyafuthi, but Minister this is not nearly enough after 18 years of democracy and freedom. People are living under conditions of abject filth at hostels like Thokoza, Alexandra, Benoni, Nancefield, Sebokeng, KwaMashu, Dalton, Jacobs, Wemmer, Unit 17 and Thokoza ladies hostels. They experience living conditions that can only be described as being fit for pigs. There is no budget allocated to this inequality. Why is this not prioritised?
We are further concerned that there is no budget for new affordable rental housing developments. Allocation is provided for their maintenance and repairs only, and this is totally unacceptable. Hon Minister, the promises that you make to the people of this country are promises that we expect you to keep. Last year, you addressed this House and informed us that you were working on a turnaround strategy to address the poor living conditions in our hostels. Where is that strategy? How long must our citizens continue to live in unfit, filthy and degraded living conditions? Our hostel dwellers have been left behind; they seem to have been labelled as a problem that nobody from Human Settlements wants to deal with, and this can only show us that the ANC-led government wants to get rid of hostels.
IsiZulu:
Ngikhumbula-ke ukuthi kwake kwaba nenhlabamkhosi ngo1990 eyathi kufanele kuqedwe amahostela, kusho ukuthi sekuqalile ukufezeka lokho.
English:
They are free of the oppression of apartheid but are now bound in chain by socioeconomic constraints. A large percentage of them are unemployed. The Community Residential Unit, CRU, is not an answer to our unemployed, because 90% of people living in CRU are unemployed. Another problem that occurs is when development takes place in CRU, it displaces the people currently living there. Provision must be made to accommodate these people elsewhere, so as to minimise the impact of their daily living by such development.
Backyard dwellers are fast becoming an acceptable form of residence in South Africa. In most instances, there is massive overcrowding, insufficient sanitation, water, electricity and general unhygienic living conditions. Budget must be prioritised and allocated for alleviation of poor living conditions amongst our backyards dwellers as no part of the Budget currently addresses this matter. Our bulk infrastructure continues to be wholly insufficient and incapable of dealing with current demand placed upon it by our population. There is no budget to address this challenge. Why is that, Minister?
Hon Chairperson, we have more than 2 700 informal settlements in the country, but no formal measurement mechanism to determine the mushrooming of structures and edifices within those informal settlements. No Budget is currently allocated to address this challenge. Why is that, Minister?
Rectification and re-rectification remains a drain on an already tight Budget. Besides the wasteful expenditure, what is the time frame for stoppage of such rectification? When will we take a stand and not pay for faulty, poor and negligent workmanship. The IFP says no more Budget should be allocated for rectification. Quality development the first time around must become the norm and not the exception.
Hon Chairperson, we are 18 years into our constitutional democracy and enshrined in that Constitution is the right to human dignity. How dignified is it when we have to use a bucket as a toilet and relieve ourselves in front of a passer-by. The bucket system is one of the cruellest forms of degradation to our people and must be eradicated immediately.
IsiZulu:
Mhlonishwa, sizabe zenza iphutha uma singathi ungabongi uMqondisi Jikelele, uMageba nekomidi lakhe asebenza nalo ngemisebenzi ayenzile, nakho konke akwenzile ukukhombisa ukuthi uyabalalela abantu, uyabezwa futhi uwuzalo lwaseNdlunkulu. Ngiyabonga kakhulu. [Ihlombe.]
The TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (Mrs M C MABUZA): / GG//Mia END OF TAKE
UNREVISED HANSARD
EPC – OLD ASSEMBLY CHAMBER
Wednesday, 9 May 2012 Takes: 462 & 463
Mr K P SITHOLE
"Old Assembly Main",Unrevised Hansard,09 May 2012,"[Take-333333463] [Old Assembly Main][90P-4-082A][mm].doc"
MR K P SITHOLE
The TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (Mrs M C MABUZA): Hon members, the Table staff in front of me miscalculated the hon Mrs Njobe's time, so I am going to give the hon Njobe three minutes to finish her speech.
Afrikaans:
'n AGB LID: Mooi!
English:
The TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (Mrs M C Mabuza): Hon Njobe, my apologies. [Applause.] Over to you.
Mrs M A A NJOBE: Thank you, once again, Chairperson. The new turnaround strategy of the department becomes a tool to achieve the goal of delivery of Outcome 8. The budget allocation to Human Settlements has increased significantly since 1994, but this has not resulted in increased deliveries. If anything, the backlog remains, and keeps rising annually, from 1,5 million in 1996 to 2,1 million in 2011. The problem is compounded by continued migration to cities and by population growth. This adds to the demand of housing and housing subsidies. With costs increasing every year, this demands higher subsidies if government is to deliver on its promises. Thus, the policy of providing fully subsidised housing is proving unsustainable.
The realisation by the department that the previous mandate of merely providing houses to the poor was narrow and that there is a need to expand the mandate to meet the demands of integrated and sustainable human settlements is very welcome. To meet the expanded mandate, intergovernmental and interdepartmental co-ordination must not only be strengthened, it must be perfected.
Cope notes and accepts the increase in the travel budget for the department, as it is aimed at enabling officials to travel to provinces to effect implementation of programmes and the maintenance of standards.
We support the rectification programme for the RDP settlements, although it is somewhat wasteful. However, we cannot be optimistic of a 100% achievement. Do we know how many houses must be rectified? Do we know their location and the timeframes for completion of the process? The upgrading of informal settlements is a necessity and the opportunity should be used to improve skills development among the dwellers, and to encourage self-build in future.
Delivery of the sanitation programme in the rural areas must improve, both in quantity and quality. The department must promote the Rural Household Loan Fund more aggressively so as to reach all who qualify.
The department should intensify the campaign to encourage investment in human settlements by the private sector, both big and small companies. There are skills among some small companies owned by individuals from previously disadvantaged communities. Mrs Matolengwe of Khayelitsha, who won a United Nations award for her housing project using government housing subsidies, comes to mind. And so does Mr Mpahlwa, for his housing innovation in Mitchells Plain. Also, right at your door, hon Minister, the returned exiles involved in the construction of the ANC village in Dakawa in Tanzania are also very skilled.
There are many more. Let us find them and make good use of them, so that they can participate in the achievements of Outcome 8, to which the department contributes. I thank you. [Applause.]
The TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (Mrs M C Mabuza): Thank you, MaNjobe, for your understanding.
Ms J E SOSIBO
UNREVISED HANSARD
EPC – OLD ASSEMBLY CHAMBER
Wednesday, 9 May 2012 Takes: 463 & 464
The TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON (Mrs M C Mabuza)
Ms J E SOSIBO: Hon Chairperson, hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, hon Members of Parliament, treasured guests in the gallery ...
IsiZulu:
... MaGeba nethimba lakho, umqondisi-jikelele wethu ...
English:
... ladies and gentlemen, I greet you all.
When the ANC set out its vision for a nonracial society on 8 January 1912, we did not know how long it would take to achieve it. What we knew was that we would not rest until these ideals were realised. Any solution to the crisis of apartheid needs an approach which rises above narrow interests, and harnesses all our country's resources. A roof over one's head and reasonable living conditions are not a privilege. They are a basic right for every human being.
Key to rolling out government programmes and to ensure the tracking of its successes and priorities is to fast-track immediate, quantifiable deliverables, according to agreements that are in place with the President of the country. The ANC-led government has taken the lead in reorganising and renaming the housing department the Department of Human Settlements. The ANC government is no longer just focusing on providing houses. It is focusing on creating human settlements. We are focused on how best to settle our people, for, if they remain unsettled, we, ourselves, may not know peace. As one Afrikaner industrialist put it, "If your neighbour is hungry, you cannot sleep."
The concept of human settlements may be a new one for many South Africans, but it has been part of the global developmental lexicon for many years now. It was first coined at the United Nations Global Habitat Summit in Vancouver, Canada, in 1976. It gained ground at the World Summit on Sustainable Development at the Sandton Convention Centre in 2002, and it informed the adoption of several resolutions on human settlements and housing at the 52nd national conference of the ANC in Polokwane, in 2007.
How best can residential deracialisation be achieved to erase the negative impact of apartheid spatial planning? This refers to the yawning gap between Johannesburg and Soweto, Durban and Umlazi, Pretoria and Mamelodi, Cape Town and Khayelitsha, and so on. Since 1994, approximately three million housing units have been distributed to people in our society, particularly to the poorest of the poor. Consequently, the amount of land parcelled away together with these housing units is estimated at more than 76 000 hectares. Thus, how best can the strategy of land redistribution through human settlements be enhanced at the same time as housing opportunities are accelerated?
As for state access to increase urban land for housing, the Reconstruction and Development Programme, RDP, made an ambitious call to break up land monopolisation, which was, to some extent, addressed through the Development Facilitation Act of 1995, and other institutional mechanisms. However, given constitutional property rights, and hence the difficulty of land expropriation, the limited taxation of municipal land and intense opposition from higher-income, prospective neighbours of Provincial Housing Board applications for well-located settlements, most housing projects were peri-urban in character, on the outer edges of existing settlements.
The geographically remote location of most post-1994 settlements pushed up the cost of infrastructure, but because land costs were less expensive and acquisition procedures usually easier, far-flung locations were favoured by developers. Rural people have specific concerns around housing, such as tenure forms on trust land, the relationship with the commercial agricultural sector, inadequate or nonexistent bulk infrastructure, farmworkers housed on the farms, the legacy of apartheid removals and resettlements, access to land, and land claims procedures and processes.
In rural areas, problems of ensuring full property and home ownership rights for women are likely to be greater. While the ANC-led government has implemented a number of initiatives to address the scourge of poverty, unemployment and inequality in South Africa, it has to be acknowledged that these can only be achieved if integrated service delivery remains a priority. This means that rural areas should receive equal attention. We should, however, note that reference to a rural area does not necessarily imply only villages, but also includes rural towns.
The human settlement motive forceis Outcome 8, which informs both the Minister and the government whether activities and programmes are progressive to address the issues of Outcome 8. Outcome 8 is clear and specific with regards to the deliverables mandate that drives the output that still has to be achieved. Key amongst other measurable interventions is the provision of affordable rental housing stock that are of high quality to lower income families.
The outcome is of critical importance for various reasons. Firstly, it is a requirement of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Secondly, it is core to human dignity, social stability, and a key enabler of health, education and social cohesion outcomes. Lastly, it also serves as a catalyst for economic development and job creation. Ultimately, the outcomes of the national effort around human settlements must be seen in the context of social development and transformation, as well as meeting the objectives of rolling back underdevelopment. To have a house is to have a social asset, in that it provides a social safety net for family members. It contributes towards citizenship-building, by offering the resident household an address and linking them in the with local government system and around housing units, neighbourhood consolidation, and providing access to all sorts of other social benefits, including networks, community support and so on.
Housing is a financial asset in that it can be traded or be used as something against which mortgage finance can be accessed.When traded, the value of the transaction contributes towards a household's actual worth and can then be reinvested in better quality or more appropriate housing for the families' individual circumstances. It is an economic asset when it is used to generate income, either through renting out a portion of a house, using it to sell services and goods, or for manufacturing.
The obvious value of a title deedis that it protects rights to a property and records changes in ownerships. Title deeds also provide individuals with an address, recognising the owner as being part of the municipality, enabling the owner to secure loans and to pass it on to family members when they die. Consequently, the failure to provide title deeds to these beneficiaries means that they are being denied a critical point of entry into the formal property market. The Jabulani Hostel redevelopment project is the most recent successful community residential unit housing project development, developed by the Gauteng Department of Local Government and Housing in partnership with the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, Nedbank as the financial institution, and Calgro M3 as the main contractor.
I would like to conclude by emphasising the fact that democracy means more than just the vote. It must be measured by the quality of life of ordinary people. The ANC supports the Budget Vote. [Applause.] [Time expired.]
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS / /Robyn//Unathi – Zulu & Mia /END OF TAKE
UNREVISED HANSARD
EPC – OLD ASSEMBLY CHAMBER
Wednesday, 9 May 2012 Takes: 464 & 465
Ms J E SOSIBO
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS: Chairperson, hon Minister, MECs present here today, hon Members of Parliament, chairperson of the portfolio committee hon Dambuza, Mme Mildred Ramakaba-Lesiea former Member of Parliament and of this portfolio committee, councillors present, distinguished guests, Director-General of Human Settlements Thabane Zulu and the entire Human Settlements team, I greet you all this afternoon.
Allow me, Chairperson, to dedicate this speech in the year of celebrating 100 years of selfless struggle in memory of the first Minister of Housing, the late Comrade Joe Slovo. May I also pay tribute to the late Minister for the Public Service and Administration Comrade Roy Padayachie, the former Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Comrade Sicelo Shiceka, and Member of Parliament Comrade Florence Nyanda. May their souls rest in peace. We send our heartfelt condolences to their families.
The first 18 years of the democratic South Africa have been very successful. Although challenges remain, the government has laid a sound foundation for socioeconomic development. The vision for the first two decades of freedom is encapsulated in the following pillars: the building of a united, democratic, nonracial and nonsexist society; the deepening of our democracy, the culture of human rights and people's participation in changing their lives for the better; meeting the basic needs and developing human resources, fighting crime and combating corruption; and building the economy and creating jobs.
It is against this background that, as the Department of Human Settlements, we believe that there is a need to double our efforts in order to fast-track the housing delivery process. Delivery of housing cannot be the responsibility of government alone. We need all stakeholders onboard. Hence, we created the Youth Build, Women's Build, Each-One-Settle-One, and now we are embarking on the Veterans' Build.
The Department of Human Settlements recognises the role played by the youth in the struggle to bring about democratic South Africa. It is our belief that the youth is critical in the transformation of our society. It is about time that the voice of young people not only be heard but also be counted. As a result of this, we have the Youth Build every year, where we call upon young people to partner with our department in building houses for the most vulnerable sector in our society, namely the elderly, the sick, people with disabilities and child-headed households. Youth involvement sends a bold step that they want to be part of the process that changes the South African landscape for the better.
Through this programme, youth volunteers have built many houses. Many of these young people have been absorbed within the housing market after completion of the programme. The department commends these young people for their selfless effort, putting the interest of their communities first by dedicating their time in helping others. More young people need to come onboard and assist the department in the execution of its mandate of providing sustainable human settlements. We encourage young people to establish their own construction companies. The National Urban Reconstruction Community Housing Association, Nurcha, has been established to help emerging contractors. Nurcha has also secured R120 million to assist emerging contractors. The Department of Human Settlements extends an invitation for more dialogue and more action by the youth. This can be in the form of volunteerism, as mentioned earlier, streams of study, as well as taking jobs in areas that will enhance human settlements. Some of these young people have heeded the call and taken bursaries that the department offers in the built environment, and many have since graduated, provided much needed skills in different provinces.
We have also had the Youth Roundtable where the Minister met with recognised formations, such as those represented in this Parliament, to discuss issues of human settlement and developmental issues around the youth. Provinces were called upon to convene youth summits where the youth, in response to Human Settlements' call to action, will present interventions that they can bring to develop this country.
On the issue of the Veterans' Build, the department has concluded the process of rolling out this programme. In its attempts to empower women, the Department of Human Settlements created a Women's Build programme, which takes place on a yearly basis. All provinces are urged to initiate Women's Build. So far, responses have been very positive. In provinces such as the Free State, we handed over beautiful houses built by women. This province allocated 1 956 houses to women contractors. [Applause.] Last year in August, the Women's Build was held in Brandfort, in honour of the role played by our struggle icon, Comrade Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Malibongwe!
We thank women from all walks of life who continue to partner with us in housing the nation. As government, we will continue to support, capacitate and link them up with Nurcha, if they need start-up funding as emerging contractors and with the National Housing Finance Corporation, NHFC, if they are involved in the gap market.
"Old Assembly Main",Unrevised Hansard,09 May 2012,"[Take-333333465] [Old Assembly Main][90P-4-082A][mm].doc"
Allow me to congratulate the South African Women in Construction, SAWIC, for the successful conference held in Durban. We welcome its elected president, Ms Nompumelelo Pakade. SAWIC and Khuthaza are the prominent organisations which organise women in construction sector.
We were in Kimberley in the Northern Cape where we saw members of SAWIC doing very good work, building quality houses. They are in charge of relatively large projects. China Square is one of the outstanding projects in which they have completed 500 houses. They are also involved in the Soul City project, rectifying 1 000 badly build units by a man contractor. [Applause.] I am also told that there are three projects under a woman contractor in Springbok which I'll be visiting soon.
In Gauteng, SAWIC members are working jointly with the Human Settlements provincial departmenton an enterprise development programme, where SAWIC will empower emerging women contractors with skills through the experiential learning programme. The department will give projects in accordance with their experience, with clearly defined objectives, from entry to exit points.
Despite this evidently good work done by these women, they still face lots of challenges.
In December we held a women economic empowerment roundtable discussion with women in the construction sector. The outcome emphasised the following.
Firstly, fast-tracking of the 30% quota to women contractors.
Secondly, integrate the quota in the planning process of the provinces, linking it to the Human settlement Development Grant. All provinces are to do forward planning that includes the implementation of the quota.
All provinces should implement a MINMEC decision of allocating 1 956 units to women contractors, as part of women economic empowerment and also as part of celebrating the historic march of 1956.
With regard to public-private partnership, we had a successful partnership initiative with a number of stakeholders. The beautiful houses built in Mazista, Skierlik in the North West Province on land donated by a farmer demonstrate that we still have many South Africans with good hearts. [Applause.] These houses were handed over by the Premier of North West, Ms Thandi Modise, and the Minister of Human Settlements, Comrade Tokyo Sexwale. In Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal at Emnambithi Municipality, the Minister of Mineral Resources, Ms Susan Shabangu, the mayor and I handed over quality houses built by the mining company. In Limpopo, in the Vhembe district in Ngombane, SAWIC women, local women in the area and I manufactured bricks and built houses for the poorest families. This process was spearheaded by the then Deputy Minister of Public Works, Ms Bogopane-Zulu.
In Orange Farm the ward councillor and I handed over houses built by Habitat for Humanity and Federation of the Urban and Rural Poor, Fedup, through the People's Housing Process, PHP.
Last Thursday I visited a Vulindlela enhanced PHP project in Msunduzi Municipality in the rural area of Pietermaritzburg. Their target is to build 25 000 housing units in five years. They have to date completed 6 000 units.
It is an in-situ upgrading which rebuilds dilapidated mud houses across nine wards. It has created lots of job opportunities. The participation of Amakhosi and the local community structures display a good example of a nation at work.
We have lots of PHP projects across the country that need lots of support from provinces and municipalities. We reiterate that provinces must set aside 15% of their budget allocations for PHP-related projects. We also encourage the creation of housing co-operatives. This is an area that also needs more attention on our side.
Allow me to congratulate capacity building within the Department of Human Settlements, especially when it assists the weak municipalities across the country. I had a first-hand experience of this good work when I was called upon to grace the occasions during the World Aids Day celebration in December in Beaufort West in the Karoo region, and also celebrating Human Rights Day in Oudtshoorn, more especially its ability to harness community participation.
With regard to informal settlement upgrading, there is a direct relationship between informal settlement formation and poverty. We have to accept urbanisation as an essential and indeed, a positive trend, as it presents growth and development opportunities that need to be harnessed. One has to take into account that the lack of effective planning is the major cause of the formation of new informal settlements.
We need planning that anticipates urban growth and housing demand. Government cannot upgrade informal settlements alone but in partnership with all actors. However, government works with international and local actors towards the context-specific solution in order to address informal settlement upgrading and monitoring.
Our current polices of informal settlement upgrading are aimed at addressing the correlation between poverty and informal settlement. This is done in the context of poverty reduction, income and employment generating activities by combining urban development policies with social policy measures.
We have in many instances partnered with community-based organisations and nonprofit organisations in many informal settlements. Our objective is to empower informal settlement dwellers during the process of informal settlement upgrading. We don't want them to be passive recipients of service delivery, but they must also be part of the solution. Ours is the people-centred people-driven democracy.
As the Department of Human Settlements, we have up scaled the financial support in informal settlement upgrading, by giving accredited city metros the Urban Settlement Development Grant. This grant promotes integrated development planning to empower cities and towns to manage urban growth and development.
It may be used for land acquisition or land redevelopment, provision of basic infrastructure services for poor households, including the installation of bulk services. It may also be used for the upgrading of informal settlements.
Our objective with this grant is to transform the current townships into sustainable human settlements. Cities have to be creative in order to achieve this goal.
As I have said earlier, informal settlement upgrading cannot be done by the Department of Human Settlements alone. We need the support and collaboration of our sister departments.
With regard to the expenditure on the Urban Settlement Development Grant, USDG, the February analysis of the expenditure performance against the total allocation of USDG shows that eThekwini Municipality is the municipality with the highest spending rate of 50,1%, followed by the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality at 39,8% and Buffalo City Municipality is at its lowest at 16,4%.
Of course, this differs from the month of January where eThekwini Municipality was first, in terms of spending rate at 56,5%, followed by Ekurhuleni at 44,3%.
What must be borne in mind is that the USDG allocation is four times more than the Municipal Infrastructure Grant, MIG. This clearly indicates that metros were not ready to spend this grant.
With Buffalo City and Mangaung showing that they were not able to spend their grant, they were advised to apply for rollovers.
The biggest challenge is not necessarily the capacity of metros to spend, but rather the alignment in terms of their budget cycle with ours. Secondly, they don't have an alignment between the operational budget capital budgets. I'm happy that the Ministers Top Management forum, Mintop, has agreed that the department, through the Programme Management Unit, PMU, establishes a team including the department's entities to assist the metros with this challenge.
With regard to international relations, the Department of Human Settlements has strengthened its relations with Cuba. Our visit to Cuba to recruit more Cuban engineers is a case in point. We also attended the conference of the African Ministerial Conference on Housing and Urban Development, Amchud, held in Nairobi as well as the Governing Bureau meeting held in Rabat, Morocco.
We also paid a visit to the Netherlands as part of our standing agreement between the two nations. We expect Netherlands to visit South Africa in November this year.
Our visit to India in January this year provided us an opportunity to meet with the Indian Minister of Housing, thereby strengthening the India-Brazil-South Africa, Ibsa, co-operation on human settlements. The Brics Summit held in India, where the South African delegation was led by President Jacob Zuma, strengthened the long relations between the two countries.
It was an honour for Human Settlements to be included in the delegation and we are looking forward to the Brics Summit in South Africa 2013.
In conclusion, as the Department of Human Settlements, we are excited about the Govan Mbeki Human Settlements Awards, which are currently taking place across the country.
The Eastern Cape's one was more blessed by the presence of our icon mama [mother] Epainette Mbeki at the age of 96. It was indeed a great honour.
These awards are aimed at celebrating excellence in Human Settlements and are named after our struggle icon, Govan Mbeki, who stood for all that values that sustainable partnerships represent namely, unity, strength, equality, nonracialism and nonsexism, especially his spirit of sacrifice and selflessness.
The national awards will be held at Gallagher Estate, Midrand on the 31 May 2012. I thank you.
Mrs C DUDLEY / Mia & src / END OF TAKE
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"Old Assembly Main",Unrevised Hansard,09 May 2012,"[Take-333333466] [Old Assembly Main][90P-4-082A][mm].doc"
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS
Mrs C DUDLEY: Chair, hon Minister, what the ACDP is hearing on the ground, is that project preparation is still very weak and is generally not funded. This means that all upfront technical and participative work to ensure that human settlements and housing projects are viable and appropriate is inadequately done.
Municipalities do not have the capacity or funding to do this in-house and they can't readily access preparation funding from their provincial departments. This funding would greatly assist in capital cash flows, risk management, limiting wasteful expenditure and reducing corruption by ensuring clear project specifications and requirements before implementation commences.
Lead in times are also said to be underestimated with preparation needing to commence well in advance of capital expenditure, government it has been suggested, needs to get ahead of the game to generate bankable project pipelines which make effective use of increasingly scarce and heavily subscribed capital budgets.
Funding or grant instrument problems are expected in most municipalities with regard to the rapid rollout of basic services for informal settlements. Currently, the only grant which is well suited to this is the new Urban Settlement Development Grant, USDG, which is only available from Treasury to Metros. Other municipalities cannot access this funding and must rely on the Upgrading of Informal Settlements Programme grant, which comes from provincial housing departments.
Unfortunately, this instrument does not work in practice; it envisages land acquisition occurring on phase one which is not practical given how long land acquisitions usually take, the budget of around R3 000 allocated for basic services is too small, and it does not provide preparation funding including for all important community engagement.
The Upgrading of Informal Settlements Programme, UISP, must be made more flexible and accessible, or the USDG must be expanded to other municipalities, or a new treasury grant is required.
Currently, special needs housing, for orphans and vulnerable children, those affected by HIV/Aids, aged, abused women and children, etc is not adequately provided for despite significant and long standing programmes dating back to 2001. To date there is no clear direction from the department or a dedicated subsidy instrument. A clear directive from theNational Department of Human Settlements, NDHS, or Treasury that provincial departments must utilise a specified amount of their housing budget for special needs housing is required.
The ACDP feels that this special needs housing responsibility should not be assigned to the Department of Social Development, as has been mooted, as it does not understand housing issues or have the capacity to deal with them.
Currently cities like eThekwini are compelled to start building double story attached low income housing to optimise scarce land and promotes more efficient and sustainable urban form. As the housing subsidy is fixed it does not accommodate the significant cost premium of densified housing which typically costs 1,5 to 2 times the usual subsidy amount.
Lastly, there is concern that the rural housing programme is unsustainable and a poor investment of scarce housing subsidies. While some rural housing is appropriate around rural nodes and where there are indigent households in special need, the main rural human settlement needs are not top structure but basic infrastructural services like water, sanitation, basic road access and key social service, especially education and health care.
The ACDP will be supporting this Budget Vote, we are very aware that people are not happy and a lot still has to be done. Thank you. [Applause.]
Mr I S MFUNDISI
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Mrs C DUDLEY
Mr I S MFUNDISI: Hon Chairperson and hon members, there is consensus on the existence of huge backlog in housing. But human settlement is not only about housing, it's about holistic livelihoods of the people. Even if we were to meet the required number of houses, houses on their own do not translate to descent livelihood. Without schools, playfields, clinics, community halls, etc, human settlements' mandate would not be achieved.
Section 26(1) of the Constitution of the Republic states that everyone has the right to have access to adequate housing. It is the government's duty to take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of this right.
That Mrs Grootboom died even before the Constitutional Court order to provide her with shelter was never realised, is an indictment that will haunt the government for a long time to come. To make up for this, government should put up good houses that will enhance the dignity of our people. We complained in the past about the incommodious matchbox houses that were 'goed genoeg vir hulle' [good enough for them] that were built by the then government, but nowadays we notice a sprawling settlements of tin houses and decrepit contraption across the South African landscape.
We note that the issue of sanitation has been brought higher on the priority list by government. Let us hope that in the near future no residential place in this country will still be using buckets for night soil removal.
IsiXhosa:
Abantu bakruqukile yimigqomo engathuthwayo xa kuqhankqalazwa okanye kunemicimbi. Kuyafuneka ukuba izinto zilungiswe zibwe kwimo efanelekileyo.
English:
Consideration has to be given to providing serviced sites so that those able to build can do so. It is a common sight nowadays to have a two-rise building dwarfing RDP houses in a place originally meant to serve the poorest of the poor. They would have satisfied people if they would have built the type of houses they would like to have where they want to.
In conclusion, while the UCDP supports the Budget Vote, the department should be awake to the corrupt practices among the ranks of some of those dealing with housing as evidenced by what happened when Ga-Rankuwa and Mabopane were incorporated into Gauteng. We hope that the ombuds offices as announced by the hon Minister will be
handling these issues. To this effect the national housing has my letter on that and I'm sure he will be interfacing and interacting to discuss the matter. Thank you. The UCDP will be supporting the Vote.
Mr R B BHOOLA
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Mr I S MFUNDISI
Mr R B BHOOLA: Hon Chairperson, let us be reminded by the state of the nation address that our hon President said that the poor must be given preference. The delivery of homes is crucial to address poverty and homelessness rural families still continuing to live in shacks, temporary housing and mud homes.
Whilst we acknowledge the great strides that the country has made more has to be done to address the backlog in housing.
Hon Minister, the MF notes our areas that the issue of integration has already taken place in the new projects and we must ensure that integration is reflected. All communities must be however, given a fare share of the beneficiary list.
Is there a guideline for a consistent nonracial allocation and what policy underpins for provinces to achieve a nonracial society?
The MF welcomes the housing subsidy of R83 000 but what we are not clear are the agreements with the banks to make this policy work. It is important to know what the target is and have the banks committed themselves for this current financial year.
If the bank has a tight credit policy this will not work and it must be mindful of the fact that people are blacklisted would be sidelined and there must be a programme, for indeed for debt rehabilitation. This will deal with giving people homes and it will also deal with stimulating the economy.
The issue of shoddy workmanship must be given great attention. The synchronisation of three levels of government is of utmost importance. The national, provincial department and municipalities all have building inspectors and they undoubtedly must do their work.
Contractors and officials who are doing things wrongly must know that they will be out and that there will be people watching them all the time. This will serve to deliver the correct quality. Also the proper quality of material is important as to what level of national checks and standards are proposed to ensure that the standards can stand the test of time.
We must take heed of the Menasha report in eThekwini municipality which has paralysed the delivery process and indeed people must be held accountable.
However, it is important to move swiftly and put it behind us and the main focus must be delivery marching forward. And we must recognise the positive attitudes of the MEC of KZN, Ravi Pillay in this process.
Another challenge in KZN is the way our land is situated very hilly and it is very much complexes and costly to build homes and this must be taken into consideration and built into the policy framework.
A key difficulty is that how do we control and manage increasing informal settlement. How effective is the land invasion units? What kind of research and intelligent work is going into the problems of those that are shack lords? Who even bus people to occupy a piece of land because they are charging them monies to do this act of land invasion?
There is no tight action taken against these people who make a lucrative business based on illegal activities. If action is taken against them people will be reluctant to buy material and build if it's going to be demolished. It must not appear as if they have a free licence to do so.
The demand to address those that are living in transit camps and informal settlements is high and if the budget is not made available the poor undoubtedly will continue to live under difficult circumstances. The MF will support the Budget Vote. [Applause.]
Mr J M MATSHOBA /NN / END OF TAKE
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Mr R B BHOOLA
"Old Assembly Main",Unrevised Hansard,09 May 2012,"[Take-333333467] [Old Assembly Main][90P-4-082A][mm].doc"
IsiXhosa:
Mr J M MATSHOBA: Nqanga nentsiba zayo! Sihlalo, mandiqale ngondoqo. Umbutho wesizwe i-ANC, unyawo zabezolo, uyaluxhasa oluhlahlo lwabiwo-mali.
English:
The human settlements institutions have been established to facilitate the specific housing and housing-related needs of the market in addition to the role played by the provincial government and municipalities.
Land question and sustainable human settlements in South Africa have been the cornerstones of the Department of Human Settlements. Forced removal of African people under colonialism and apartheid resulted not only in the physical separation of people along racial lines, but also in extreme land shortages, insecure land rights and poverty of the majority of black people. As a result, the country has seen mushrooming of informal settlements.
However, the most noted cause of informal settlements is high migration from rural areas by people who are in search of job opportunities and better living conditions than what is available in the rural areas.
The march towards sustainable development in South Africa is taking many facets of people's livelihoods and search for multi-dimensional solutions to many problems. Thus, any discourse on sustainable development must take the land question into consideration since land is at the centre of a number of complex and very much integrated facts from social, political, economical and environmental facts of development.
For the complete realisation of sustainable human settlements in this country, a policy, Breaking New Ground, was promulgated in 2004, with the vision to reflect a change in policy from the provision of housing to the creation of sustainable human settlements. It marks the initiative to integrate previously excluded groups into cities and give them access to the socio-economic benefits that cities can bring.
The Department of Human Settlements instituted Housing Development Agency, HDA, whose mandate, role and function are defined in the Housing Development Agency Act, No. 23 of 2008. the HDA has been mandated to identify, acquire, hold, develop and release state and privately owned land for residential community purposes and creation of sustainable human settlements.
It is of paramount importance for this House and the nation as a whole to know about some of the achievements of the Housing Development Agency. In terms of the performance delivery agreements signed between the President and the Minister and further elaborated in the delivery agreement signed between the Minister and the director-general, the HDA has identified 6 250 hectares of well located state-owned land and buildings for human settlements development.
The birth of democracy in South Africa escalated urbanisation and population growth in the cities. On the other hand, it lifted sanctions on South African cities as places for all, for development and creation of wealth. Approximately, one fifth of all South African households comprising of 2,3 million households rent their primary dwelling.
I would like to draw your attention to the following. The demand for all types of housing is high, particularly rental accommodation – location, quality and high rates of mobility. The demand for rental housing is estimated at some 100 000 units per annum in the middle- to lower-income groups. Rental housing provides access to affordable, well-located accommodation for those who choose not to, or may not be able to, purchase property. Rental housing plays a critical role for those who cannot access housing finance. It allows greater flexibility and mobility.
As a leading economy of the Southern continent and the main moving power behind the New Partnership for Africa's Development, Nepad, South Africa is trying to respond to the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, in ways that few other nations in Africa are even considering as yet. Goal 7, Target 11, addresses the spread of shack housing among the world's poor by 2020, have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers.
The demand for housing is substantially growing as the population grows, as families migrate to urban areas, and as existing housing conditions deteriorate. Since the introduction of Social Housing Programme in 1998, more than 42 000 rental housing units have been developed using the Institutional Subsidy Programme.
The National Rental Housing Strategy which was approved in 2008 sets the delivery target of 100 000 rental units by 2012. This will comprise of 75 000 social housing and 25 000 community residential units. The Affordable Rental Housing Programme is one of government's initiatives to address the housing backlogs. The objective of this programme, which has an urban focus, is to increase the rate of affordable rental housing delivery to 300 000 units a year by 2014.
Social Housing Act, No. 16 of 2008, was promulgated on 1 September 2009, and has established the Social Housing Regulatory Authority, SHRA. The mandate of the SHRA is to invest in social housing and be able to regulate the sector. The vision was affordable rental homes in integrated urban environments through sustainable institutions. SHRA aimed to integrate the Minister's vision people should be able to live, work, play and pray in their own areas, which implies social, economic and spatial restructuring. SHRA's social housing projects embodied the vision of the Minister.
I would like to commend the national Department of Human Settlements for their efforts on the amendment of the Rental Housing Act of 1999. The Act was initially amended in 2007 and further amendments are in process. The Bill is before parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements, and the amendments are envisaged to be completed in due course.
The issue affecting rural communities are very close to my heart as one of the people whose origins are in rural areas. The Human Settlement development should not only take place in urban areas. Hence, the government has taken a decision to roll out programmes that would assist communities in rural areas to also realise the better life for all that the ANC has been promising.
In line with the promise made during the elections, in his inauguration and in the state of the nation address, President Zuma made a successful visit to the Limpopo province. He officially launched the multi-billion rand comprehensive rural development at Muyexe village, one of the three poor villages identified as pilot projects. This project was followed by many others that government has earmarked for developments. This clearly shows how serious government is about creating a better life for all in this country. The Department of Human Settlements has got a number of housing subsidies that allow people to have access to housing and adequate shelter. Among these subsidies is the creation of Rural Housing Loan Fund, RHLF, and it has been in existence for almost 12 years.
The mandate of the loan is to make loans available to low-income households in rural areas to build or improve their houses. Many people in rural areas remain unemployed or on very low income and we are faced with rising food and energy costs. Low-income earners use a large portion of their income to pay for transport, leaving little disposable income.
Let me also acknowledge the existence of the National Home Builder Registration Council, NHBRC. Established in 1998 in accordance with the provisions of the Housing Consumers Protection Measures Act, No. 95 of 1998... [Time expired.] Thanks!
IsiXhosa:
Ndiyabulela! [Applause.]
Mrs P C DUNCAN /Mosa/ END OF TAKE
UNREVISED HANSARD
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Mr J M MATSHOBA
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C/W J M MATSHOBA
Mrs P C DUNCAN: Chairperson. Please allow me to welcome our Provincial Minister, Bongi Madikizela, I am very proud to have you today. Chairperson in the DA we say, the time has come to honour our past and own future, and in the spirit of this, I wish to quote my colleague, Stevans Mokgalapa when in response to the Sona said:
A home must reflect the health and happiness of the family it
shelters. A home that falls apart or sips rain through story
nights is uninhabitable and unfit. It falls short of our
vision of all South Africans living in a home that they are
proud of, South Africans deserve better.
When we say South Africans deserve better, we mean that delivering quality houses for all should be an integrated approach across governmental departments. Human Settlements is but only one department that ensures the realisation of building sustainable human livelihoods. While it plays the most significant role, there should be a joint approach to housing delivery. This includes a commitment from the Department of Public Works not to delay the release of land and the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs to speed up the Environmental Impact Assessment, EIA, processes.
It is therefore the responsibility of the whole of government to work together and adopt an integrated approach to deliver quality, sustainable human settlements for all. The bulk of the resources continue to be within all other departments in the different spheres of government, nongovernmental organizations and the private sector, and it is crucial for these resources to be pulled together to realise the vision of achieving social and economic freedom.
Chairperson, South Africa celebrated its 18 birthday as a free and democratic country, however, freedom still has a different meaning to many of us, and it remains to be an uphill struggle especially for the poor, for whom social and economic freedom is still a dream. Our women, children, youth, persons with disabilities and older persons- the most vulnerable majority in our country, still continue to battle to get a taste of social and economic freedom, while a small minority enjoys it.
So I wish to remind the Minister of Human Settlements, Mr Tokyo Sexwale and his department, our Director-General, DG, Mr Zulu, that as custodians of the housing sector, they are obligated by the Constitution of our country to provide access to adequate housing to all our citizens. The Department of Human Settlement, in their overview of their strategic plan, informed the portfolio committee that they are in the process of revising this plan which was informed by Outcome 8 and the estimates of National expenditure
While we acknowledge and understand that such a revision is important, and like with most Ministries, they are also preparing a turnaround strategy projected to take place as from 1 April 2012; we only hope that this process must not be used as an escape to account on targets not reached in the financial year under discussion and as highlighted by my colleague today.
There are a number of entities whish are funded by the Department of Human settlements to optimise skills base, for an example, affordable housing. The department must ensure that capacity exist within the department itself; to monitor, evaluate and ensure oversight over these entities, instead of being over reliant on these entities to carry out the mandate of the department.
It is of utmost importance that these entities have the capacity and resources to assist the department to achieve their mandate. All too often are entities established at the cost of the taxpayer's money with no tangible outcomes?
The National Commission Framework is specific when it refers to Human Settlements. Where development happens, a paradigm shift is needed to change the spatial landscape and patterns of South Africa, which continue to marginalise the poor. Municipalities and provincial governments currently have in place spatial development frameworks to identify and ensure that land is specified and utilised optimally for development suited for purpose. It is disappointing to note that there is no National overarching spatial development framework in the National Department of Human Settlements, to give effect to the strategic objectives of theNational Development Plan, NDP, on spatial development.
The Integrated Development Plans, Chairperson knows that I like to talk about IDP process level at local government plays a vital role in the identification phase for the need of housing. The department must be cognoscente of the importance of this process because it contains fundamental information about the needs of housing sanitation, basic infrastructure and socioeconomic demographics
Chairperson, in the Western Cape where the DA governs, hon Minister Madikizela, one of our strategic objectives is to expand on consumer education programmes for municipalities. This includes an outreach initiative on the part of the Province to ensure that beneficiaries are aware of their rights and responsibilities as both home owners and tenants.
We often hear and even know of cases where people sell, in particular their RDP houses, and very often for next to nothing I believe that through education, people will start to understand that the economic value of their assets is, and make better and more responsible decisions. Further to note that house is a step towards achieving economic social freedom.
Unemployment continues to be one of the major challenges in our country, and we must take note that without anyone in a house not having a job, that it will leave our poor powerless. This, Minister, I had an opportunity yesterday to bring under your attention. Lastly, I wish to thank our Portfolio Chairperson, Mrs Dambuza, for her strong leadership within the committee, setting the pace for robust discussions and interrogation on the performance of the Minister and his departments, you are a true activist for the rights of all our people. Thank you.
Ms D E DLAKUDE
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Mrs P C DUNCAN
Ms D E DLAKUDE: Hon Chaiperson, hon Minister and Deputy Minister, hon members, members of the Human Settlement family led by the DG hon Zulu, South Africa, like other countries, is faced with rural development challenges. International development practitioners argue that for development to be effective, one of its central elements has to be community participation. South Africa has acknowledged, through the rural development of the Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Strategy, ISRDS, that the success of development would be enhanced by local community participation
Numerous rural development initiatives have been undertaken in South Africa. These includes: policy developments, programmes as well as strategies. Unlike in many other African countries, rural development in South Africa is influenced more by politically motivated experiences than rural-urban economies. Rural development was and is still influenced by segregationist policies created by the apartheid era.
Hon Minister, apartheid laws and policies are largely responsible for insecure tenure rights that the majority of South Africans experience today. The Group Areas Act41 of 1950 and its succeeding Acts, resulted in people being evicted from their homes without compensation, and being relocated to remote, racially defined areas that deprived them of work and educational opportunities. More homes were demolished than built.
The apartheid government had grossly unequal approaches to housing for each racial group. Subsidy schemes were racially divided, poorly targeted and inadequate funding. Black residential areas were exposed to growing housing shortages, lack of resources, poor or no infrastructure and poor service delivery, resulting in substandard and very inadequate housing for black people in South Africa.
Although some people in the House think that we must forget about our past experiences, and focus on the future, but the legacy of apartheid is still with us, and is a constant reminder of what it is that we need to do as the ANC-led government to restore the dignity of the majority of South Africans.
Hon Chairperson, South Africa's historical policies meant that the majority of South Africans "Old Assembly Main",Unrevised Hansard,09 May 2012,"[Take-333333469] [Old Assembly Main][90P-4-082A][mm].doc"
had no right to own land, water rights, property, and we were also not human enough to have adequate infrastructure and were restricted to move from rural to urban areas.
The post apartheid era in South Africa ushered a wide range of legislations and policies that are aimed to guarantee, promote and protect the rights of individuals to adequate housing and sanitation. The plight of vulnerable people, mostly women, children and people with disabilities are receiving a serious attention from the ANC-led government.
Hon Chairperson, our president, in his state of the nation address, announced the huge campaign of building infrastructure nationwide, which will boost the level of economy in the country. This announcement is an indication that the ANC-led government will move mountains to ensure the restoration of dignity of all South Africans to create a nonracial, nonsexist democratic country.
South Africa should take this opportunity to develop and establish new towns, cities and townships. The multibillion rand investments throughout the country on ports, rail, roads and many other developments is going to create many job opportunities for the majority of South Africans, especially those in the rural areas.
Hon Minister, the Department of Human Settlements will not win the battle against mushrooming of informal settlements if rural areas are neglected, because people move from rural areas to seek job opportunities in the cities and some move to these areas because they think they are better than the others.
In his written response to the NCOP, President Zuma acknowledged that there were funding challenges within the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme. And, that insufficient co-ordination across government spheres was frustrating efforts to improve these communities. However, various projects focusing on enterprise development, basic services and agricultural development were in varied stages of implementation.
The provision of social and economic infrastructure in the 23 district municipalities, which are experiencing the largest backlogs, is one of the strategic projects contained in the infrastructure development plan adopted by the Cabinet and the Presidential co-ordination committee. Hon Minister, there is a need to look into the funding model and policies regarding budget allocation to address to the huge backlogs, especially in rural areas. We cannot continue to follow the apartheid pattern of allocating budget. We need to change this so that we can transform our country.
During our oversight visit to the Free State, we visited an Agri-Village called "Diatalawa", which means "falling apples". Diatalawa was originally an apple farm. The ANC-led government, through the Department of Human Settlements in partnership with the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, made it possible for the former farm labourers to become new owners of the farm. It has beautiful and spacious houses, cattle and chicken run.
Building of schools, clinic and construction of roads were also in the pipeline. This, hon chairperson, is the kind of transformation we need to see in the country, as it is correctly captured in the Freedom Charter that the land shall be shared among those who work it. [Applause.]
Let me applaud the Mpumalanga Province, for implementing its Comprehensive Rural Development Programme. Seven Municipalities benefitted from this programme. Nkomazi, Bushbuckridge, Mkhondo, Thembisile, Dr J S Moroka, Pixley ka Seme and Albert Luthuli, all these municipalities have 960 units each. When dealing with rural development, there is a need to bring industries to these areas. For example, in the eastern part of Mpumalanga, there are sugarcane farms and two mills. The sugar is refined 400km away from where the sugarcane is produced. Why not have those factories next to the sugar cane mills? This would create job opportunities to the people of that area.
The provincial subsidies of R83 000 for people earning between R3 500 and R15 000, will ensure that professionals in the rural areas will be able to access housing finance from an accredited banks. This is a step in the right direction of ensuring a better life for all.
Hon Minister, the Department of Human Settlements has a huge task of ensuring that the injustices, inequalities of the past are addressed, and the dignity of our people is restored. As we applaud the department for ensuring that the majority of vulnerable people are settled accordingly, there is a need to ensure that quality houses are built to avoid rectification of newly built and rectifying the rectified houses. Hopefully, we will see the National Home Builders Registration Council, NHBRC, more in action during this financial year.
Siswati:
Sengicina nje, Ndvuna lehloniphekile, umuntfu unelilungelo lekuhlala lapho afuna khona. Bantfu basemakhaya, ngisho le etabelweni, abangaphocelwa kuya emadolobheni ngoba bafuna imphilo lencono. Ematfuba emisebenti akaletfwe nasetindzaweni tasemakhaya. Umuntfu akayewusebenta khashane ngobe atsandza, hhayi ngobe aphocelelwa simo.
Tinsita atitfolakale ngalokufananako, njengoba nemalungelo ayafanana. Kute umuntfu lonemalungelo lancono kunewalomunye. Siyati kwekutsi tindzawo tasemakhaya atifani, kepha leto letingakhona kutfutfukiseka, asiyibone intfutfuko ifika. Siyabonga, Ndvuna, kwekutsi naloluhlelo lwetindlu tangasense, letiletsa sitfunti nekuhlonipheka kubantfu ngisho etabelweni, lutawuhamba kahle njengoba litiko lakho lisetfulele emhlanganweni welikomiti lelibukene nekwakhiwa kwetindlu.
English:
Hon Minister, I just want to say these few things to the two hon members who had never set foot in the committee. I just want to thank them for supporting the Budget, but ... [Time expired.] [Laughter.] The ANC supports the Budget Vote.
THE MINISTER OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS / E.K.S. & ///tfm/// END OF TAKE
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Ms D E DLAKUDE
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The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr M B Skosana): Hon Minister, you didn't use all your time in the beginning. In fact, you have six minutes to respond. You may take the floor.
The MINISTER OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS (Mr T M G Sexwale): Chairperson, I thought you were gong to say that there was a miscalculation you have to give me another 30 minutes. [Laughter.] As usual, Minister had to read their first inputs at the speed of a Ferrari. Those of you who were reading very fast I can't speak that fast because you must get as much as possible. Read the full text because I did jump some of the things which are unnecessary for reading as detailed.
I say this because it is important that when you come to fire a question as the debate commences around human settlement we should do so with an understanding that it must an informed debate.
Hon members, I always leave this House to Cabinet with a sense of satisfaction particularly from the portfolio committee around the knowledge that people don't play political football with housing. My portfolio committee, I'm your member in as much as I'm your pawn person within the Cabinet. The portfolio committee, which is a multiparty committee, is a very constructive one. There is political point-scoring and I accept that there is no cheap political point-scoring. There is a feeling that all of us are committed to provide for our people, and I welcome that. [Applause.]
Second point is that I have heard a number of good suggestions here which I believe that we would respond to them as the debate progresses. I want to say that we will commit ourselves to the title deeds in particular. It is unacceptable that people remain without title deeds in certain situations. Confusions comes as a result of members of the family sometimes jostling around as to who should get the title deed.
I'm happy to say that we will be working quite closely with Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma of the Department of Home Affairs with the new smartcards - the Identity Document, ID, cards that she has brought to the fore. It is foolproof and it is going to assist us to be able to follow up who owns houses, where and so on and as well as to detect fraud.
Ma Njobe, as the mother here we respect that. You have been very strong on sanitation. I want to say that it's has been the central theme to people here around. Sanitation is a form of infrastructure. As I said, we are a signatory of the United Nations where sanitation is internationalised. It is simple good manners that this asset which is required for dignity must be a nationalised topic in South Africa. I'm happy that the Presidential Infrastructure Co-ordinating Commission, PICC, under the President has accepted that it's an issue that is central.
The committee of Winnie Mandela will be reporting quite soon and I've said it should table its report before the portfolio committee. It has already had interactions with the Deputy President, Kgalema Motlanthe. I have heard her side and I'm studying even further the recommendations of that committee and I think we're going to turn the corner in that area because it's a low hanging fruit. These are toilets and the first dignity must be given to our people around that area.
Hon Sithole, thanks for raising the question for hostels but we are doing something about this. You should have been at Jabulani Hostel as I invited all of you. Jabulani and Dube hostels were improved. These are our first-class residential areas today. It came as a result of another member of IFP whom you have replaced, Baba Nkosi. He was my guest at Jabulani Hostel. He is the one who instigated that we should do this thing, and I respect that. We are taking the message also from you. Sir, please find time and visit Dube and Jubulani where I come from. [Applause.] We are listening to you as you want to bring change to the lives of our people.
Hon Sosibo and the House also, I want you to follow this example we are not just talk about housing as amatshotshombe [shacks.] Actually it's an asset. It's an asset and I want to hear the language of capital, asset, equity which make sure that when people have to trade them do so at the right time knowing that they can now participate in the property market as well as the financial market- not prematurely. That's what this House does.
What has been raised is that, of course, we cannot continue to give houses freely all the time. The only reason we do so is because we cannot turn our backs against our people; those South Africans who are in an unfortunate position; and those who have fallen through the cracks. It's simple not easy that we turn our backs but we hope that we will work very strongly so that the economy turns around. I said that the economy is performing at around 3%. We all know the number.
South African economy should have been by now at 7%. This means that we are having or experiencing negative economic growth. It should be at 6% by the year 2000. It is now 10 years later but we are still lingering around at 3%. There is a negative there. When jobs are available as a result of a good performing economy we will have the possibility therefore of people turning those jobs. There is nothing like a long live job. It's a job for something so that people can have an asset. The first basic asset that we all require is a house. It's not a car, watch, furniture or BMW.
I have heard all the issues that have been raised here. I want to say to hon Mokgalapa from the DA that I think we are going to be after Mrs Steyn. He's a very robust Member of Parliament but you are making mistakes. The things that you said which come the DA are good, and we agree with all of them. I agree because you took them all from my last year's speech and I thank you for that. [Laughter.] [Applause.]
As for the Western Cape which is supposed to be held against the ruling party we welcome that it's a good competition. I had a moment to share this morning with the premier, the good premier and our boss here in the province but I was carefully as to whether she is looking at me the same eyes of Zwelinzima Vavi. [Laughter.]
We are working very well. In the Slovo Project we are spending R400 million and is watched by the Constitutional Court. He's coming up very well and he shows how the three spheres of government can work national, provincial as well as local. Although Mayor de Lille was not there. We appreciate the efforts and the work. I was with your other lady. I love these two ladies. It conveys the fact that the Minister was here, she snubbed me but nevertheless I recognised the input that she is making. This project is getting very far.
Please members, visit it. Those of you who saw it it's a first- class world project and it's happening right before us. Those shacks are going away. At the end of the day we will give dignity to their people and do away with that eyesore which we see there.
My last point is to thank everybody, Chaiperson. All people who participated, portfolio committee, leaders of various parties here, members of the Human Settlement team under Zulu, of course it's full house here thanks, to the people. It shows that people are interested in this subject
Debate concluded.
The Committee rose at 19:44.
The House adjourned at 19:10.
GC
END OF TAKE
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