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Housing
Budget Vote debate 2006/7 in the
National Council of Provinces by L N
Sisulu, Minister of Housing
25 May 2006
Chairperson
Honourable Members of the NCOP
Chairperson, this journey that has
brought us here today has been an
exciting one, but equally, it
continues to provide additional
burdens. But perhaps, this has to be
a way of our life to those of us who
have been tasked with delivery of
the rights of our people. In this
age of hope the spirit of our nation
is yet again coming alive, raising
expectations, making the challenge
harder. But we continue to
rededicate ourselves, because we
cannot fail the people.
Last week I had the honour to be
present at a gathering of the
Shack/Slum Dwellers International
and the Federation of (and Rural)
Urban Poor with representatives from
22 countries, key amongst which were
Malawi, Ghana, India and Brazil.
They had convened the Conference to
deliberate on ways to increase the
potential of partnerships with
governments. Their mission is to
encourage communities to save, thus
enabling themselves to build their
own houses. In this way, since 1995,
with the Homeless People’s
Federation they had built 15 000
houses around the country and
secured land tenure for women in
particular.
In recognising the potential that
they have in helping accelerate
housing delivery I readily agreed to
the partnership and provided the
Federation of Urban (and Rural) Poor
with R185 million to build an
equivalent of approximately 5 000
houses in the provinces of Limpopo,
KwaZulu-Natal, North West,
Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape and the
Free State. We also made commitments
that where we provide land, slum
dwellers would construct the houses
on their own. In turn they made a
commitment to grow their numbers to
ensure that within the shortest
period of time there are no informal
settlements in the country that does
not have representation from them.
At the closing of the Conference an
old friend of the poor, the
Presiding Bishop, Reverend Ivan
Abrahams of the Methodist Church of
Southern Africa also stepped forward
to offer church land.
For me, this was truly an important
moment that I believe would enable
us to deliver not only with an
accelerated pace but to also deliver
with the full participation of our
people in all the important
processes from policy formulation,
planning and actual delivery.
In recent years the influence of
this most important sector in
housing has been rapidly declining.
The result has been an erosion of
institutional capacity in the
housing sector and weakened housing
delivery that reduced capacity for
policy advocacy and community
consultation. I am glad to confirm
that guided by the new strategy, and
thus giving power to the people, we
are now closing that yawning gap.
We are intensifying our working
relationship with community-based
organisations and various
non-governmental organisations to
build a strong and a cohesive
housing sector. These include the
Federation of Urban (and Rural) Poor
(FEDUP), Built Environment Support
Group (BESG), Kuyasa Fund, Utshani
Fund and Rooftops among others.
Additional to this partnership,
through the National Youth
Commission, the youth of our country
responded to the call I made last
year when Parliament convened a
Special Session at the birthplace of
the Freedom Charter, Kliptown. In
Limpopo, specifically in Modimolle,
the National Youth Commission has
mobilised 95 youths out of the total
of 200 that will be needed to
undergo training and development to
acquire skills in the various
aspects of actual construction. They
will soon be joined by youths from
the Eastern Cape at Makana and
Ndlambe Municipalities and the youth
from the Mangaung Municipality in
the Free State and the youth from
Mpumalanga. The programme is a
special programme the objective of
which is to empower the youth.
The initiatives on building
partnerships culminated in
September, again last year, in the
signing of a Social Contract for
Rapid Housing Delivery with 47 other
key stakeholders. The stakeholders
comprised groupings from the
material supply industry, the
banking sector, and professional
bodies in the built environment such
as architects, quantity surveyors
and conveyances, developers, housing
institutions, government
departments, the mining chamber and
Non-governmental Organisations. Each
signatory to the ‘Social Contract’
made a commitment to be a member of
the Plenary Assembly, which was to
establish a modus operandi to review
and monitor progress made towards
achieving the ideals of the Social
Contract for Rapid Housing Delivery.
The first Plenary Assembly took
place on 15 March 2006 to look at
issues such as development planning,
land and legal matters, delivery,
consumer education, capacity
building and communication,
development planning and the housing
supply chain.
The Social Contract brings together
all the sectors so that we could
have a mobilised and cohesive
housing sector. I believe that
through it we will reach the goal of
eradicating all informal settlements
by 2014.
Further, in giving power to people
in this “age of hope” meant that we
must also attend to issues relating
to the empowerment of women. In this
regard, we ring-fenced 30 percent of
each provincial housing department’s
allocation to improve access to
housing projects by women
contractors. In 2005, already, 288
housing development projects to the
value of R1,9 billion were provided
to emerging female contractors.
As a section 21 companies, Women for
Housing too, have been very creative
and active in our housing
programmes. In August 2005 the group
was involved in an initiative with
Habitat for Humanity, and ourselves
and the Gauteng Department of
Housing in constructing 13 houses in
Protea South, Soweto, with 350
volunteers. The project was one of
the most significant components of
WFH's programme for women in housing
construction. It offered many of the
participating members an opportunity
to gain practical experience. The
practical experience ranged from
technical construction skills to
leadership and teamwork skills. A
similar event is being planned for
2006.
I am encouraged by the fact that
despite the limitations they face
with regard in particular to access
to finance and training
opportunities Women for Housing
nonetheless intend to show their
spirit. The challenges that confront
them will however be our focus in
the current financial year with a
view to resolving some of the
problems.
Repeating the trend of the
incredible international support we
had prior to 1994, Honourable
Members would be glad to know that
an Irishman, Niall Mellon, has been
making forays into our country since
2003. He had bought a holiday home
in Hout Bay where he would otherwise
have relaxed and enjoyed his stay
surrounded by affluence and
security. However, he visited some
parts of Cape Town and found sites
of extreme poverty that contrasted
greatly with what he was enjoying as
a tourist. He went back to his
country and recruited 500 volunteers
to build at Imizamo Yethu, near Cape
Town. Last, year, he brought 700
volunteers that included amongst
them the legendary British boxer,
Chris Eubank, to build 120 houses in
two weeks. For Netreg, which is part
of the N2 Gateway Project he
launched a show-house in April. He
has committed to bring in 1 000
volunteers in November who will
build for the Cape Flats and at e-Mfuleni.
To support the initiative we have
made a commitment to provide him
with land. His is a concrete
demonstration of the potential that
can be unlocked by those who have
resources and have the poor at their
heart. I take this opportunity to
sincerely thank Niall and his
volunteers. As South Africans, we
can only be humbled by his most
generous gesture.
Because we would want to see the
escalation and the enhancement of
all these activities implementing
our own part of the Social Contract
we are already reviewing all
legislation that has an impact on
the implementation of the breaking
new ground strategy. In this regard
a study of the relevant provincial
legislation has been completed. This
will now be fed into the Committee
for the Review of Legislation that
is in the process of being
established. Members of this
Committee have already been
identified and their names will be
announced shortly. It is anticipated
that the work of the Committee will
be completed before the end of the
year.
In November last year, MINMEC
approved a policy regarding the Fast
Tracking Housing Solution for People
Living in Areas of Stress by using
the Emergency Housing Circumstances
Programme. Pilots under the
programme will be implemented in
Gauteng, Eastern Cape and Western
Cape. In Gauteng, the pilot will be
in Protea South (Johannesburg
Region), Tsakane Extension 10 (Ekurhuleni)
and Sicelo Shiceka Extension 5 (Sedibeng).
The Eastern Cape’s will be in
Klipplaat in the Ikwezi Municipality
that was hit by a tornado in
February 2005 that caused severe
damage to a number of houses in the
area, some of which have to be
re-constructed while others need to
be repaired. In this province 57
houses have already been completed
and 12 houses are in various stages
of completion. Chairperson, last
weekend we had a Presidential Imbizo
in Taung in North West Province,
where we had to witness with our own
eyes the enormity of the challenges
we face in dealing with the
emergency housing challenges as a
result of the flooding. None of us
sitting can be able to withstand the
kind of situation faced by those
people. I have instructed my
Director-General and Officials to
work in collaboration with the
Province and that municipality to
urgently find a solution using this
programme.
In the Western Cape two sites in
Cape Town Metro area, namely Bardale
in Mfuleni and Happy Valley in
Oostenberg have been identified. In
the Eastern Cape, at Nelson Mandela
Metropolitan Council we saw how
people have been trapped in extreme
conditions at the Soweto on Sea area
whereby when the rains come down
they really find themselves
literally on sea.
The banking sector has been
mobilised to support the initiatives
to break new ground in housing
delivery. Negotiations with the
banks on the release of the R42
billion that was pledged for this
purpose were concluded last week.
But apart from that banks are on
their own initiating and supporting
various others projects some of
which, such as Olievenhoutbosch in
Gauteng, have already been launched
and are making tremendous progress.
After concerns were raised last year
by Honourable Members about the
credibility of the housing waiting
list I resolved to ensure that the
matter was attended to. As reported,
last year, an audit company was
appointed in this regard. The task
of auditing the list has now been
concluded and I can proudly claim
that the waiting list for Cape Town
has been successfully audited. We
have marked out the criteria with
the communities and the website for
this is up and running. You, as
Members of Council of Provinces,
would be called upon to help your
constituencies verify their details
on the site and ensure that those
who are not registered are assisted
to do so.
With the steps that we have taken I
am satisfied, Madame Speaker, we can
confidently speak about realising
accelerated delivery starting this
financial year.
The provinces are delivering. In the
2005/06 financial year we saw an
increase in the actual number of
houses that the provinces delivered.
In this regard Chairperson, spending
by provinces has improved. Provinces
have in total spent 95% of the
Integrated Housing and Human
Settlement Development Grant
allocated to them for the 2005/06
financial year, plus roll-overs from
the previous financial years. In
fact, three provinces spent 100% of
their respective budgets. With the
exception of Free State province
which spent 75% of their budget, all
provinces spent in excess of 80% of
their allocations.
In Gauteng, the National
Homebuilders Registration Council
conducted forensic audits on the
rectification programme of Gauteng
Department of Housing of
approximately 7 203 subsided houses
constructed during the 1994 to 2002
years. The pilot project commenced
in October 2005 and ended in March
this year. It focused in townships
of Lakeside (4,013 housing units),
Braamfisherville (3 000 housing
units) and Thintwa (190 housing
units). A process has now been
undertaken to rectify the houses.
Last year, the Housing MinMec
embarked on a process of reviewing
the allocation formula in a manner
that would reflect the principles
and objectives of the new “Breaking
New Ground” policy. We ensured that
the new formula recognises the
changing dynamics in human
settlement patterns and movements in
our country. Some of the factors we
have now introduced relate to the
recognition of the migration
patterns, the rural housing needs
component and the alignment to the
National Spatial Development
Perspective principles. We also
recognised the need to ensure we in
housing can collectively prioritise
key development projects that can be
determined, funded and driven by the
Minister, within the spirit of
Co-operative Governance, so as to
achieve maximum effectiveness in
dealing with some of the monumental
challenges that we find our selves
faced with from time to time, such
as some of the emergencies cases we
have to deal with, as well to be
able to test existing and guide on
future policy development.
In order to particularly provide
support for the implementation of
the comprehensive plan, the
department will be restructured with
a view to creating expertise in the
fields of programme and project
management, monitoring and
evaluation and capacity building.
Therefore, Madam Chair, we will
establish separate units in the
department to support provinces and
municipalities with, for instance
informal settlement upgrading and
the development of social housing.
We are also looking towards
expanding the existing
capacity-building unit within the
department, which will focus on
supporting housing consumer
education as well as the municipal
accreditation programme.
Being greatly encouraged by the
improvements we have in the areas I
have mentioned as well as the
initiatives that we have undertaken,
may I now announce the following
budgetary allocations for our
provinces:
Eastern Cape
R761,994 000
Free State
R522,601 000
Gauteng
R1,757,667 000
KwaZulu-Natal
R1,048,376 000
Limpopo
R521,331 000
Mpumalanga
R421,002 000
Northern Cape
R104,774 000
North West
R613,405 000
Western Cape
R598,800 000
Total
R6,349,949 000
In you we have champions of the poor
who as no one else understand the
journey that we have taken and the
reasons thereof. This moment, too,
must belong to you.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Housing
25 May 2006 |