JL Mahlangu, budget vote 2006/07
23 May 2006
Honourable Speaker and Deputy Speaker,
Honourable Premier, TSP Makwetla,
Honourable members of the Executive Council,
Honourable executive mayors and honourable councillors,
Your excellencies, amakhosi,
Our partners from the private sector
Distinguished guest,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Once again our country has proved contrary to the belief of many analysts
and the prophets of doom who criticised our local government system. Our people
have shown that our democracy has matured and that they have a deep
understanding on how to exercise the power of X. With the unveiling of our new
local government system, we have seen men and women who were previously
excluded from decision making positions being elected to such positions to
improve the lives of our people.
This has been one of the most difficult elections. I am pleased, Madame
Speaker, that our province has once again exercised so much tolerance and
restraint we had no incidences of violence as it has been the case with some
areas in our country incidents which should be condemned in the strongest
terms. Many of us have said many nasty things to each other which had a
potential of dividing our communities as we were campaigning for the largest
number of support for our parties. Now that the elections are behind us, I
would like to plead with each and every citizen of this province to ensure that
we work together for the benefit of our communities especially those who
continue to live in abject poverty.
Let me take this opportunity to thank all our people who despite
unfavourable conditions of the weather went out in their millions to cast their
vote as we were electing new leaders in the local municipalities and once more
for showing confidence in the ruling party. I would also like to acknowledge
the councillors who have left office after the local government elections. You
have been pioneers who have sought to help give every individual access to
water, electricity, sanitation and refuse removal. Your work forms a solid
foundation for all our future work.
Honourable Speaker, allow me to congratulate all our elected public
officials who will for the next five years represent the aspirations of our
people irrespective of their political affiliations. I strongly believe that
you will all stand out and provide the much-needed leadership which our people
desperately need as they continue to strive for a better life. Our sincere
thanks also go to our traditional leaders who have played a major role in
ensuring that our rural people participate in these elections, thank you very
much.
Let me also take this opportunity, Madame Speaker, to welcome our colleagues
from Bushbuck Ridge as they have from 1 March 2006 officially become part of
Mpumalanga province. We hope that together we will be able to steer this ship
for it to successfully reach its shores.
Madam Speaker, our people have spoken before the election they were very
clear on what they expect from our local municipalities. We also have during
our campaigns promised in our election manifesto that together. âWe have a plan
to make local government work better for âALL.â That plan should continue to
deepen and enhance our local democracy and ensure that our people are not just
mere recipients but active participants and drivers of transformation and
development in their local communities. The time has come to put our people at
the centre of development and we must continue to ensure that our policies are
in favour of the poor, as well as integrate the marginalised poor communities
in all our municipalities.
There is no doubt that despite the challenges facing our municipalities,
they have done well:
* More of our people are now having access to clean water and have electricity
in their houses.
* Government continues to promote the interest of children, persons with
disability, youth, women and older people better than before.
* More of our people have access to housing, land and other social services
which they previously did not have access to.
As a Department we have identified key performance areas (KPA) which will
drive the strategic direction of our activities during this financial year and
there is a general consensus amongst all stakeholders in this regard. These
KPAs are a response to all the concerns that have been raised by our people and
they will require our hands on support if we are to have well functioning
municipalities who are in the cold face of service delivery.
These key challenges are the following:
* induction of elected officials and managers
* institutional capacity and municipal transformation
* basic service delivery and infrastructure
* local economic development
* good governance.
Induction of elected officials and managers
After we constituted our municipal councils formally, we conducted an
induction programme for all our new and old elected councillors and
managers.
South African Local Government Association (SALGA) assisted by the
Department was driving the general induction programme which was completed at
the end of April 2006.
Added to that induction programme, each municipality will undergo a
strategic planning session. It is our view that this process will serve as an
in house induction that will set the new strategic direction of our
municipalities whilst at the same time inducting our new elected officials on
the current status of their administration. Thereafter they will know of hand
what the key socio economic challenges are.
The Department in it budget has put an amount of R1,9 million to assist
municipalities with the facilitation of these strategic planning sessions.
Local government priorities for 2006 â 2011
Madame Speakers, it is proper that as we usher in the new local councils, we
also spell out the local government priorities. It is important that I outline
the following challenges observed nationally affecting local government:
1. poor capacity and inadequate accountability mechanisms
2. poor basic service delivery in some municipalities
3. high levels of poverty, unemployment
4. poor communication between councils and communities. Some councils
non-functional ward committees.
Given such a background of challenges facing our municipalities, Mpumalanga
alongside other provinces adopted the following priorities to guide our program
planning for the next five years of local government:
Priority 1: Mainstreaming and ensuring that every sphere of government
provides hands on support to local municipalities to improve governance,
performance and accountability.
Priority 2: Addressing and structuring governance arrangements of the State
in order to better strengthen, support and monitor local government and,
Priority 3: Refining and strengthening the policy, regulatory and fiscal
environment for local government and giving greater attention to the
enforcement measures.
Madame Speaker, as we ensure the implementation of these priorities in all
our programs our outcome goal is a clearer role definition of both national and
provincial spheres of government in support of municipalities. Our Premierâs
office and sector departments are poised to play a calculated role that will
ensure the achievement of integrated service delivery at municipal level.
Institutional capacity and municipal transformation
Most of our municipalities are still grappling with establishing core
municipal systems where there are they are grappling with implementation. At
the core of these systems is the Performance Management System (PMS). An
assessment done to establish the status qou of the PMS in 2005 indicated that
less than 40 percent of our municipalities have successfully put in place their
PMS. Based on the outcomes of the assessment a programme of intervention has
been developed for the municipalities which are below 60 percent in terms of
the development and implementation of the PMS namely Dipaleseng, Lekwa, Delmas,
Thembisile, Thaba Chweu and Nkomazi local municipalities.
The PMS is a must have for the municipality to function properly and achieve
its desired objective. Every municipality in the province will ensure that
their PMS is developed and implemented in the next 90 days from today and the
Department will provide all the necessary support in assisting the struggling
municipalities.
Each municipality will within the next 90 days ensure that all vacant
position are advertised and skilled people appointed, especially section 57
managers.
The provincial government has successfully completed its skills audit. This
skills audit has indicated that there are some capacity gaps in the provincial
administration. It is equally important that municipalities should also undergo
the same process. Our Department together with Department of Local Government
(DPLG) will develop a competency framework which will be completed by the end
of July. We hope that it will provide a regulatory framework on the
appointment, performance and evaluation of managers in all our municipalities.
Each municipality would then have to budget for a competency audit which will
be carried out immediately after the framework has been developed.
In the interim we will have to do a competency test for each manager before
they are appointed and we shall use the institutions that have been appointed
by the provincial government to assist in this regard. After an appointment of
a municipal manager the municipality must make sure that a performance contract
is signed. These contracts must have clear measurable key performance areas.
Coupled with the appointments we will ensure that the equity plan of government
is adhered to. Presently men even in acting capacities manage most of our
municipalities. We must ensure that there is a fair representation of women in
management positions in all our municipalities.
We are still faced with serious challenges in the area of financial
management. Gert Sibande District Municipality has developed modules to address
these challenges. In order to avoid duplication the Department with Gert
Sibande District Municipality will drive the process of rolling out the
programme which must commence in the next two months. Through this programme we
will ensure that every municipality submits their financial statements on time
to the Auditor-General and making sure that we increase the number of
municipalities who receive unqualified reports. Our congratulations go to Gert
Sibande, Nkangala District, Delmas, Thembisile, Steve Tshwete, Dr JS Moroka who
have for the past three years received unqualified reports from the
Auditor-General (AG). If these municipalities can adhere to financial prudence,
there is no reason why some of our municipalities cannot conform to basic
accounting principles.
It has become obvious that there is poor accountability in most of our
municipalities. Some of the officials have total disregard for procedures, they
have become a law unto themselves. The Department will strengthen its
monitoring capacity by ensuring that the performance of municipalities is
monitored and reports are submitted every quarter. I hope that we shall all be
man enough or rather woman enough to take action against incompetence.
The Department will within the next three months initiate discussions with
the Nkangala District Municipality with a view of establishing an institute to
train municipal managers. There is no doubt that the district has shown a lot
of management expertise and we need to acknowledge that fact and create a pool
of knowledge that could be shared by our province and the rest of the country
including our neighbouring countries. We are working hard to position our
province as a centre of excellence in local government management.
Basic service delivery and infrastructure
Basic services are a critical necessity in addressing the plight of our poor
people.
The country has set itself national targets that we all need to achieve.
We said that:
(a) all communities will have access to clean and decent sanitation by
2010
(b) all houses will have access to electricity by 2012
(c) there is universal provision of free basic services
(d) no community will still be using the bucket system for sanitation by
2007.
In our case, Mpumalanga has set the end of 2006 as the target date.
We all know that our municipalities have serious challenges of capacity,
especially on technical skills. Most of our municipalities are not doing well
with regard to Municipal Infrastructure Grants (MIG) projects. The Department
has engaged Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) to assist it with a team of
technical experts, which will include engineers and project managers. They will
intervene and assist our struggling municipalities and commence with the most
under spending municipalities. The team will commence on 1 June 2006. The first
team will be deployed at Ehlanzeni District Municipality, Albert Luthuli, Thaba
Chweu and Govan Mbeki municipalities. We commit ourselves to raising the level
of spending to more than 80 percent. R3 million has been set aside for such
support.
Each municipality will in the next two months develop a plan to deal with
the extension of basic services to our people. Our partners from the DBSA have
pledged support in assisting our municipalities in the development of these
plans. The assistance will be co-ordinated from the Department.
Water
Madam Speaker, we have in our previous meetings with municipalities and the
Premier discussed the implementation of the water blue print. The Department
and districts have already started with assisting municipalities in developing
business plans in this regard. In speeding up the process each municipality
must within the next two months ensure that their plans are in place including
strategies to deal with maintenance, water service development plans and plans
for water system. Department of Water Affairs (DWAF) is playing a major role in
this process which will be co-ordinated at our departmental level.
Our province continues to be plagued by an acute water shortage. We will
continue with our programme of providing emergency water by acquisition of
water tankers and placing of water tanks (Jojos) in strategic points in the
following municipalities Delmas, Nkomazi, Msukaligwa, Thembisile, Steve Tshwete
and Mbombela. The Department will spend an estimated amount of R5,2 million for
provision of portable water in the above mentioned municipalities.
We stepped in jointly with the Department of Education to support a school
that experienced water shortages. The two departments provided portable water
to Mbuyane Secondary School in Kabokweni as a short term intervention. As a mid
term intervention we will assist the pupils and educators of Mbuyane Secondary
School to drill and equip one electric borehole with a chlorination system that
would pump water to two ten thousand litre water tanks. This project is going
to cost the Department an estimated amount of R260 000,00.
The Department, Madame Speaker, has set aside a budget of R3,161 million to
assist the struggling municipalities to augment the provision of clean and safe
water.
We are glad to announce that the water pipe line from Cullinan to
Bronkhorstspruit that we announced last year has started supplying water to
Thembisile Municipality from 18 April 2006. This pipeline is providing 20 mega
litres of water per day to the municipality.
Sanitation]
Madame Speaker, the province took the bucket eradication challenge head on.
We have done well with this initiative. Our target for 2005/2006 was to
eradicate all buckets in our province. An initial figure supplied to province
was 22 000 bucket toilets to be eradicated. Upon verification we found that
there were 17 000 bucket toilets as the earlier figure hand included pit
latrines. I am pleased to say that we have eradicated the bucket toilets in
five areas at Gert Sibande District.
We have eradicated more than 16 000 bucket toilets in the formal
settlements. The Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, Buyelwa Sonjica, has
commended the province for aggressively eradicating the bucket toilets. This is
a clear indication that 2006 will mark the total bucket eradication in the
province.
Delmas has been a unique case because of the dolomatic soil in the area
where the Mandela informal settlement is located. The municipality has
purchased portions two and nine of the Farm Witklip. 360 stands have been
allowed on this farm as the rest of the land is unsuitable. Internal services
for the 360 stands have been completed. Construction of the toilets has
commenced and it is envisaged that it will be complete by the end of July 2006.
After this process 360 families will be moved to settle in this area. As this
happens 360 bucket toilets will be eliminated. Council intends to purchase
portion six of the farm Middelburg 231 IR and Leeuport, to develop a further
1500 stands. The application to purchase this land is currently with the
Department of Land Affairs (DLA).
Madame Speaker, as you are aware there was a typhoid outbreak in Delmas last
year. I am happy to report that the challenge and outbreak is controlled. Water
is safe to drink in Delmas. As part of our turn around strategy we have
connected the C field borehole to the main reservoir. Previously the C field
borehole was supplying water directly to Delmas West residents from the dosing
plant. This did not give the water enough contact time with the chlorine which
caused a risk for contamination and increased the risk of stomach ailments.
Both the Departments of Local Government and Housing and the Department of
Water Affairs each contributed R1,25 million for the connection of the water
pipe. We will be officially handing over this project to the community of
Delmas before the end of June this year.
As part of the long-term plan and heeding the 1993 report we are looking at
the possibility of connecting Delmas to the Rand Water Supply. The important
and critical challenge, however, is to raise R100 million needed for this.
I would like to thank the following departments who worked with us during
the typhoid outbreak in Delmas; Department of Water Affairs of Forestry,
national Department of Health, Department of Provincial and Local Government
(DPLG), Department of Agriculture and Land Administration, the provincial
Department of Health and Social Services, the Nkangala District Municipality,
Council for Geoscienceâs, the Premiers Office, Ekurhuleni Municipality,
Department of Health in Gauteng, the South African Defence Force (SANDF), Kumba
Mine and the media for covering every event of our intervention.
Free basic services
Honourable Speaker, to enhance the delivery of Free Basic Services (FBS) by
municipalities to poor households a provincial task team has been established
comprising of SALGA, municipalities, Department of Local Government and Housing
(DLG&H), DPLG and DWAF. This task team will support municipalities with the
provision of Free Basic Water (FBW). Almost all municipalities in the province
are currently implementing the FBW policy although only four municipalities are
not successfully implementing the policy. These are Albert Luthuli, Nkomazi,
Thembisile and Dr JS Moroka municipalities.
The provincial task team on FBW is in the process of assisting the four
municipalities that are struggling with the FBW process to identify the
challenges and come up with solutions that would make sure that the FBW policy
is successfully implemented in the current financial year (2006/07).
The Department is in the process of appointing professional service
providers that will conduct an assessment for the provision of free basic
services to registered labour tenants in farm areas. The Departmentâs objective
in this regard is to make sure that all municipalities provide services to
registered labour tenants. The service provider must do a feasibility study,
research and assess if municipalities have adequate capacity to provide
services to these people. The Department will then be in a position to come up
with a support strategy to assist municipalities in terms of rolling out this
program.
Integrated Development Program (IDP)
We are now at the end of the cycle of the previous council IDP process. A
lot of experience has been gathered around how best we can develop more
credible IDPs. To strengthen the IDP process and the alignment of our planning
system, the Department will host a Provincial Integrated Development Planning
Summit. This summit seeks to find consensus on how best we can mobilise our
resources and address some of our developmental challenges in the province. The
IDP summit will take place before the end of August 2006 These IDPs will chart
the course of planning for the next five years. All municipalities will by the
end of July 2006 have completed their IDPs.
We have already seen how co-operative planning can work well as we were
implementing the sanitation programme around the eradication of the bucket
system. Our co-ordinated efforts have proved that we can jointly achieve the
objectives we set for ourselves.
It has been very clear that our people clearly identified issues around
water, sanitation, electricity, roads, housing and job creation as the main
areas of concern. We will together with all our social partners seek ways of
mobilising resources to address these concerns. We hope that this summit will
clarify the main strategic issues facing our province especially our local
municipalities. We believe that the process will bring our municipalities more
closely to our people and increase trust.
Baseline data
We noticed during the Presidential Imbizo towards the end of last year that
there were serious challenges around the accuracy of statistics about resident
and households without access to services. To address this challenge the
department is organising a stakeholder seminar to try and find a common ground
in addressing our baseline data. The main objective of the seminar will be to
have an accurate picture of the different service levels that exist across our
municipalities. The seminar will take place before September 2006.
Disaster management
The Department has produced a plan for the establishment of a provincial
disaster management centre. For the construction of this centre we need an
amount of R36 million. We have made a submission to the provincial Treasury in
this regard. We are confident that our request will reach a favourable
consideration. We will start construction of the centre as soon as the
availability of funds is confirmed.
This centre will be fitted with state of the art equipment that will
position the Department to strategically be able to deal with any disasters.
The centre will also be linked to the national disaster management centre
system. As part of the provinces preparations for the 2010 it will be
imperative that we have this disaster management centre operational earlier
than 2008 enable us to participate in the dry run of 2008.
We are also working with municipalities to strengthen their disaster
management capacity. We are all aware that this is where disasters strike and
it is important to ensure that they are up to the challenge. As part of
strengthening disaster management through out the province we will be holding a
provincial disaster management conference before the end of October 2006.
Local economic development
The economic divide between the municipalities that predominantly serviced
the white areas and those that are made mostly of the former homeland areas
continues to exist. The municipalities that are made up of areas that were
previously homeland areas and are characterised by being deep rural continue to
be confronted by issues of poverty and unemployment.
The need to strengthen local economic development has become more serious
than ever. We all need to look for possible innovations to address economic
growth in our communities. In that regard the two districts Gert Sibande and
Ehlanzeni district municipalities will in the next three months finalise their
local economic development strategies. We will call upon Nkangala District
Municipality to support these two districts. The Department has already begun
facilitating meetings with the districts to finalise the process.
During the course of this year the Department will establish local economic
development (LED) institutions in the form of LED agencies at districts and in
some municipalities. The establishment of the LED institutions have been proven
as a best practice model in countries such as Germany. These LED institutions
will enable the district municipalities to have enough infrastructures which
will implement LED programs on behalf of the district municipality. The
Department will promote investment on LED initiatives through engagements with
stakeholders such as DBSA, IDC, NDA and Harmony Mines.
We are currently involved with the private sector and Small Enterprise
Development Agency (SEDA) discussing about how best we can establish business
development centres that will closely work with our municipalities to empower
and assist our people who are emerging entrepreneurs or have aspirations of
entering the economic arena of our country.
We are all excited, Madam Speaker, about the World Cup that is coming to our
shores. We must also be equally excited that it will bring economic benefits to
our country especially our province. We must as matter of urgency establishes
institutions that will jealously ensure that our people benefit from these
economic opportunities especially in the areas of accommodation, transport and
the upgrading of infrastructure.
The Department together with municipalities will do their best to support
the Youth Economic Summit that will be reviewing progress on the Provincial
Growth and Development Strategy (PGDS).
Good governance
We have said that we need to put our people at the centre of service
delivery. We need to strengthen all our communications points. In this way we
shall be deepening democracy in local communities. The Department will during
this financial year Implement 10 Multi Purpose Community Centres (MPCCs) in the
province. This will strengthen access to services especially in the most rural
areas of our provinces. Each municipality will assist the Department in
identifying empty underused buildings that could be converted to MPCCs and
budget funds to assist in establishing or renovation.
Over and above the initial training offered to new councils, training on
code of conduct of councillors, financial management and political oversight
will ensure that we increase the level of good governance of our
municipalities.
Community participation
As part implementation of the three priorities for the next five years in
local government, we want to increase the level of our community participation.
On 11 April 2006 our first group of community development workers graduated in
the province. 299 community development workers (CDWs) graduated and have been
deployed through out the province. The CDWs will strengthen local organs and
assist us to ensure that government services reach our people. We will begin a
process of recruiting CDWs for Bushbuckridge shortly.
The province has established all 330 ward committees in the three districts.
What we need to do now is ensure that all these ward committees are
strengthened and made fully functional. The Department together with each
municipality will support the administration of these ward committees. The
Department has begun rolling out a programme called âTraining the Trainerâ.
This programme focuses on training municipal officials on Community Based
Planning (CBD). The officials will then train ward committee members and ensure
that ward committees are very successful in their programmes. There will also
be a national training programme for members of the national ward committee
task team on CBP.
Each councillor will hold at least one public meeting in their ward per
quarter. Each mayor will develop a programme to conduct Municipal Izimbizo
assisted by the, Municipal Speaker and will interact with every ward committee
in his or her municipality.
Cross boundary
We all know that we have now done away with cross boundary municipalities.
We are slowly beginning to do away with the myth that the change of provincial
boundaries will disrupt the lives of the people who reside in the affected
areas. These people will continue to receive their services as they have been
doing, irrespective of which province they are in.
Government will not neglect its responsibility towards the people. A number
of municipalities have now been incorporated into either our province or our
sister provinces:-
* Metsweding District including an area of Sokhulumi in Thembisile now falls
within Gauteng
* all municipalities within Sekhukhune District now fall within Limpopo
* Bohlabela District Municipality has been disestablished, with Bushbuck Ridge
now part of Ehlanzeni in Mpumalanga and Maruleng municipality now part of
Mopani District in Limpopo.
An interim arrangement has been reached with regards to sharing of assets,
staff, liabilities and other matters of Bohlabela District between Mopani and
Ehlanzeni district municipalities. We have agreed with my counterpart in
Limpopo that all transitional arrangements will be finalized by 31 May
2006.
We will continue to provide our municipalities with the active hands on
support that they need. Under project consolidate we will mobilize additional
resources both human and material for this purpose.
Traditional leadership and institutions
Madame Speaker, Amakhosi, our traditional leaders are a very important
component in our governance structures. We have a history of a good working
relationship with them. We are also encouraged by the willingness shown by the
traditional leaders to participate in matters of development and we will
continue to look at platforms to further engage with them.
This legislature has passed the Mpumalanga traditional leadership,
Governance Act, 2005 and the Mpumalanga Provincial House and Local Houses of
Traditional Leaders Act, 2005. The Premier has also signed them into law. We
will be embarking on workshops to educate and conscientise traditional leaders,
councillors, ward committees and community development workers on these
acts.
The Department has drafted the Ingoma Bill, 2006. This bill seeks to
regulate the traditional practice of holding an ingoma in accordance with
applicable customary law and practices within the province. This bill will be
submitted to the Executive Council (ExCo) for approval for its publication. We
hope it will be promulgated this year.
The Department will assist as part of implementing the provincial as well as
the National Act on traditional leaders, to roll out implementation of this Act
and finalise the establishment of traditional councils.
Housing
Madame Speaker, housing delivery continues to be one of the major challenges
facing the Department. Perhaps because itâs a service that is very close to the
hearts of our people, they feel the impact when we fail to deliver this
service. As a Department we remain committed to the pledge made by our fellow
countrymen 41 years ago when they boldly declared âthere shall be housing,
security and comfort for allâ.
During the 2005/2006 budget debate I stood in this House and informed you of
the decision we had taken to complete more than 17 000 houses which formed part
of the blocked projects in the province, by March 2006. These projects
backdated for more than five years. Another problem that affected these
projects is that they were approved at different quanta. When they were
unblocked constructors could not complete the projects because the risen cost
of building was above the quantum approved. Of course we also had some
unscrupulous contractors who abandoned projects given to them.
Madame Speaker, what we had not envisaged were the challenges and practical
implications of this decision. Some of the major challenges that we had not
reckoned with was the lack of capacity in the Department officials involved in
colluding with contractors to defraud government the high vacancy rate in the
Departmentâs technical section and the long time taken to cancel contracts of
non-performing contractors and appoint new ones. We were also challenged by the
fact that a bulk of our target was to be delivered by our emerging contractors,
who are still hindered by lack of access to funding and material supplies. As a
result we had delivered only 13 491 by the end of March 2006. I must hasten to
add that this is a good achievement for these contractors. We will complete the
remaining 3 593 by July 2006. Once again DBSA will assist us in seconding a
team of experts to strengthen the Department in this regard.
We will unveil a programme of Rental Stock that will provide housing for
those people who do not want to buy but are willing to rent want to be closer
to their work places and will ultimately return to their homes, mostly in the
rural areas. We will build rental stock housing in Mbombela, Govan Mbeki and
Steve Tshwete municipalities. As the Department continues to turn around
housing delivery in the province we continue to encounter unscrupulous
contractors who will stop at nothing to tarnish the image of the Department and
stifle the good work. I must warn these contractors that we will return fire
with fire, we will leave no stone unturned in ensuring that the long arm of the
law deals with them.
The Department recently opened criminal and civil cases against four
contractors who have fraudulently claimed money from the Department and yet no
work or insufficient work had been done. We have also instituted civil action
to recover more than R400 000 that was fraudulently claimed by these
contractors. We are aware that for any misconduct to happen the perpetrators
must get help from within the system. We have found officials in the Department
who have colluded with corrupt contractors. Three officials have been expelled
and three are on suspension for this unbecoming behaviour. The Department will
be establishing a special housing inspection unit. This unit will conduct
sporadic spot checks on all housing projects to do the following:
* assess the quality and ensure that it is in line with South African Bureau
Standard (SABS) standards
* ensure that work that has been done is in line with money paid
* ensure that before any retention money is paid the work is done
satisfactory.
Madam Speaker, we will also continue to monitor closely the quality of the
houses. We will not compromise where we find that the houses built are of poor
quality those houses will be demolished and rebuilt at the contractorsâ
expense. On a quarterly basis we will be able to give statistical figures of
the houses built and the houses demolished and how we are going to address any
shortcomings as far as housing delivery is concerned.
In an attempt to accelerate housing delivery in the province the Department
will be visiting and interacting with other stakeholders and housing agencies
such as the Gauteng Province and the housing development agency in Botswana.
This will help us address problems of housing delivery in terms of the breaking
new grounds strategy which will create a middle class by creating habitable
human settlements in areas with higher economic development potential in the
province. This delivery process will address the needs of the middle-income
earners who are not accommodated and catered for by the other housing delivery
instruments.
This year we will embark on an extensive programme to upgrade informal
settlements in the province. Surveys conducted by the Department indicate that
there are 140 informal settlements in the province. We will begin this
programme by piloting it in three informal settlements in the following
municipalities, Emalahleni, Mkhondo and Mbombela.
We will be signing memorandums of understandings (MoU) with these three
municipalities. The MoUs will deal with in situ upgrading of informal
settlements. The Department will provide grant funding that will enable the
municipalities to fast track the provision of security of tenure, the basic
municipal engineering services and the inhabitants to take charge of their own
housing development. In terms of the MoU the municipality will amongst others
ensure the availability of bulk and connector engineering services provide
basic municipal engineering services, provide materials, assistance and support
to facilitate the in situ upgrading projects.
During the first and second quarter we will be busy with designing human
settlement development plans concept and layout plans and installing
infrastructure. From October 2006 we will commence with the construction of 350
houses in Emalahleni, 750 houses in Mkhondo and Mbombela as part of the
informal settlement upgrading programme.
Once again this year we will hold our Provincial Housing Indaba. We will use
this gathering to look at ways of dealing with the current housing challenges
facing the province. We will also use this indaba to sell our new housing plans
and strategy for the year, with special emphasis on the breaking new ground
strategy. This summit will be held before the end of July 2006.
Madame Speaker, last year we pledged that we would begin the progress of
accrediting municipalities with the capacity or potential to implement the
housing programme. We have assessed the capacity and potential of some of the
municipalities. For 2006/2007 we have identified Emalahleni Municipality to be
accredited to perform amplified housing functions. We will continue with the
assessment of all the other municipalities and we hope to be able to accredit
at least four municipalities.
The housing backlog is continuing to grow. Currently the backlog is 260 000
houses. We will continue to fight to reduce this backlog. For the 2006/07 we
will build 12 940 units and we will transfer 5 500 units.
Subsidy quantum
The subsidy quantum has been increased from R31929 to R36 528,00 as from 1
April 2006.
Conclusion
On 5 December 2000 when we started the new democratic local government
dispensation, we said we were beginning an un-chartered and unprecedented
journey of a transformed back to back system of local government. A journey we
were not aware where it would lead us to. This year in March we began a second
term of our democratic local government system. This time we are wiser we have
learnt a lot of lessons we are well aware of the challenges, sharp curves,
pitfalls and dangers that lie ahead. We dare not stumble as we will have no
excuses for failing our people.
Madame Speaker, l would like to extend my sincere gratitude to my family for
their continued support to the members of the portfolio committee, the Head
Department Ms GN Sibeko and her management for their continued support and
dedication and the communities of the province for their continued support
towards making local government work better.
I now table the budget for the Department of Local government and Housing
and accordingly request the House to approve the amount of R625,770,000
including conditional grants.
I thank you!
Issued by: Department of Local Government and Housing, Mpumalanga Provincial
Government
23 May 2006
