Good Morning ladies and gentlemen.
I am here this morning to come and address you about the progress made by the department on the Programme of Action of the Gauteng Provincial Government. We have undertaken a number of programmes with the intention to provide sustainable human settlements for the people of Gauteng province.
Our programmes are still aimed at:
- providing mixed housing developments
- eradicating informal settlements
- providing alternative tenure
- urban renewal (URP) and
- (20 PTP) Priority Township Programme.
We are still committed to eradicating informal settlements and formalising them through the provision of basic infrastructure and sustainable human settlements for our citizens. We want to ensure that provision of good houses and sustainable human settlements is a part of the major drivers in developing Gauteng as a Globally Competitive City Region.
Population growth in Gauteng between 1996 and 2001 has been rapid, with the province’s population increasing by a fifth over the period, equivalent to an annualised rate of 3.8 percent.
This accounts for around 35 percent of the total increase in the national population. Recent statistics indicate that there is a decline in the population numbers in other provinces and it is believed that these people are moving into Gauteng which would explain the spike in the population of Gauteng.
Programme Performance
Various programmes have been undertaken by the department to focus on the delivery of houses to communities. We have been able to ensure that From April to July a total of 2 599 stands were serviced and are ready for building top structures. Under the same programmes we have been able to build a total of 5 044 houses in the last quarter.
Informal settlements
The number of informal settlements in Gauteng has grown from 405 in 2005 to 489 in 2009. So they grow both in number and with density per settlement. We have identified 120 for formalisation, While others will be eradicated Through relocation to current projects or new portions of land.
The challenge is finding available and suitable land for relocation purposes. The high cost of well located land is a challenge.
Hostel Development
Improving the plight of people living in hostels remains an important aspect of our work of our work. The main challenge is that people in this category are at the lowest income level. Whilst most do not qualify for give away houses because they are employed, they earn so little that they cannot afford any form of rental. So whatever rental stock we create for them we charge far below the market rate.
The end result is that the rental stock cannot be maintained and serviced through the rates we charge them.
We will continue to explore products in this regard that can be affordable to this category of people and educate our people to establish a culture of paying market related prices for rental stock.
We are concluding installation of internal services and electricity in Mzimhlope, Dube, Meadowlands and Diepkloof hostels. They should be ready for occupation in the last quarter of this financial year with a yield of 944 units. In Ekurhuleni in Buyafuthi hostel we have completed a complex with a yield of 192 units ready for occupation.
We have committed to pay more attention to building the capacity of local government to deliver services to communities on a sustainable basis.
We have managed to adopt a provincial framework on the Local Government Turnaround Strategy (LGTAS) which was adopted by all municipalities. This framework was used to guide municipalities in Gauteng to develop their own municipal specific Turnaround Strategies. During the period under review, we have been able to ensure that all the fifteen (15) municipalities adopt their LGTAS.
We have now entered a critical stage of making sure that the LGTAS is implemented at a municipal level and systems have been put in place to ensure continuous support and monitoring of implementation.
As part of making sure that we contribute to the attraction of the critical and scarce skills in the municipalities, we have through the Executive Council, passed a Strategy on the development of critical and scarce skills in Gauteng municipalities.
This strategy will focus on our capacity to develop and attract skills in areas such as engineering; human resources and finance/Accounting. A number of programmes are already being undertaken under the strategy like the Local Government Accounting Technician Programme, learnership programme on Internal Audit Function.
Through our Revenue Enhancement Programme we continue to pay attention to debt reduction and making sure that municipalities have the necessary systems to ensure an increase in their revenue streams. Various municipalities are in the process of selling their debt books to competent debt collectors to collect what is due to the municipality from business, government and households.
Our work on Operation Clean Audits continues. There is a noticeable change in Gauteng municipalities, which have shown a very significant improvement in the audit outcomes for 2008/09 and we are confident that even with the 2009/10 audits; we will be able to register good results.
This work continues and our focus is mainly on those municipalities that have not achieved clean audits and also making sure that we sustain the good practices evident in other municipalities that achieved clean audits.
Our Community Development Workers Programme (CDWP) continues to play a very important role in bridging the gap between government and communities. CDWs ensure that communities are made aware of the services that government offers and thereby assist communities to access these services.
This programme has also been able to ensure an intergovernmental approach to services being offered to communities. As part of improving the impact of this programme; we have undertaken a study on a CDW model that we will consider as part of improving its effectiveness to communities and government. The study has been completed and recommendations will be presented to the Executive Council for approval.
You may also be aware that as Gauteng, we are the first province to establish Municipal Public Accounts Committees (MPAC). These committees are meant to provide political oversight over the financial affairs of municipalities. The establishment phase was completed in the previous financial year. We have now concluded a study on the functionality and effectiveness since their establishment. We have then on the basis of the findings developed a framework to capacitate these committees and ensure that they are effective in ensuring proper checks and balances are in place in our municipalities. We will continue to provide other capacity building programmes like training to develop Councilors serving in these committees.
Lastly we continue to implement our integrated energy strategy. A landmark project is a 150 mega watt solar power plant that will be situated in Bronkhorstspruit. We are working together with an Italian investor on this project and hope that by end of this financial year we shall have made significant progress in this regard.
Thank you.
For more information contact:
Fred Mokoko
Cell: 082 447 8407
