TO:          NEWS EDITORS AND JOURNALISTS

FROM :   THE DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING

DATE:     12  JUNE 2006 

 

 

 

The Housing MINMEC, a forum of the Minister of Housing and the MEC’s today made drastic changes in the way that the N2 Gateway Pilot Project is to be implemented. The Forum decided to remove the city of Cape Town from the project responsibilities with immediate effect. 

 

At its quarterly meeting in Gordon’s Bay, Cape Town, MINMEC noted the following:

 

  1. It was unfortunate that the mayor chose to communicate her concerns through the media. This was in breach of the spirit of the Intergovernmental Relations Framework Act, 2005 which provides that all spheres of government must co-operate with each other and settle disputes between them.

 

The Mayor made media statements only 2 days after she and her representative had absented themselves from a scheduled M3 meeting of which she was an important part. The M3 meeting was a forum where issues relating to the N2 Gateway pilot project would have been discussed. This is one of the platforms where Ms Zille could have raised her concerns rather than in the media as she elected to do, thereby fuelling speculation and undermining the credibility of the project based on ill-informed conclusions.

 

This also happened only a few days after the Minister of Housing had addressed parliament on the same matters raised by the Executive Mayor, where she explained the processes followed regarding the project and invited the Auditor General to audit the project – long before the mayor made public pronouncements.

 

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This was a culmination of a particular trend where concerns were raised with the media rather than within the set structures where they could have been explained. It had accordingly become quite clear that the sole purpose behind this was not co-operation between the three spheres of Government, as expected in terms of the Constitution, but rather an attempt to seek publicity at the expense of the pilot project.

The MINMEC viewed this as a breach of trust on the part of the City and decided as follows in the best interest of the project  :

 

  1. Declared a legal dispute against the City.

 

  1. Remove the City from any further responsibilities of the Project beyond what they are constitutionally responsible for;

 

  1. Restated the constitutional and legal position, that housing is a national and provincial competency where municipalities have no mandate of building houses, except if they are accredited. In this case, the decision that gave the City of Cape Town this responsibility, was on the one hand to explore inter-governmental arrangements between the three spheres of Government, and on the other hand to test the applicability of Breaking New Ground Strategy on a pilot basis aimed ultimately building the capacity of the City for the purposes of housing accreditation, and replicating the experiences to the rest of the country. Municipalities are, however, still required to do the planning, planning approvals, provide infra-structure and support the process of housing delivery;

 

  1. The N2 Gateway Project is a national pilot project where provinces sacrificed portions of their budget to make a financial commitment to the N2 Gateway project;

 

  1. Welcomed the completion of Phase 1 of the Project which delivered 705 apartments style units in Joe Slovo;

 

 

  1. Endorsed the announcement of the Minister that the Project would be run along private sector lines, by the national service provider, Thubelisha Homes;

 

  1. Houses completed would be allocated by the Western Cape Province at an appropriate time;

 

  1. The city of Cape Town should direct any allegations regarding the project to the Auditor-General;

 

 

END