Chairperson
Minister Lindiwe Sisulu
Chairperson of the Human Settlements Portfolio Committee, Hon. Nocawe Mafu;
Honourable Members of Parliament and all honoured guests;
I greet you all this afternoon.
Allow me also to greet the senior managers of the Human Settlements led by Director-General Thabane Zulu including Chairs and CEOs of our housing institutions.
Chairperson, in this important debate we pride ourselves of the progress we have made in this journey towards integrated, sustainable and quality homes. The increase in numbers in terms of houses built across South Africa shows our determination to meet the target of 1.5 million houses by 2019.
To ensure youth participation is implemented in Human Settlements programmes, the department hosted a National Youth Summit together with the Department of Small Business and the Presidency.
The summit was attended by leadership of youth formations and stakeholders targeted at empowering the young people. The call was made to youth to actively participate in the implementation of social contract for development of sustainable human settlements.
At the end of the summit a National Human Settlements Youth Award was signed and also the National Human Settlements Youth Brigade was launched the following day.
Youth Brigade programmes objective is to galvanise more than 10 000 young people in the construction sector and to provide them with skills and also capacitate them into running their small businesses. The idea is to absorb the young people on mega projects across the country.
I am very glad that the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) has been assigned by the Department of Human Settlements to implement the programme for establishment of youth brigades. This was done in March 2015. An MoU has also been signed with the sector education and training authority (SETA) and the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) in May. These 10 000 youth will be trained by the NHBRC. This year their target is 2 000 young people.
An artisan programme has also commenced in conjunction with the Department of Higher Education and various further education and training colleges.
Chairperson, we are glad to report that SETA has entered into contract with the Estate Agency Affairs Board to fund the batch of 906 placements in respect of One Learner One Estate Agency youth programme. This will facilitate the placement of the 906 learners with host employers. We are proud to say that Remax was part of this process.
Women
Women and youth are a pillar in any society in the world and by empowering them we radically change our economic environment. By creating skilled employable and self-sustainable individuals.
The Department of Human Settlements is working on a range of measures which are geared to support women in human settlements and emerging contractors in the housing sector. These measures will look at addressing issues such as access to bridging finance, credit, lack of skills and lack of supportive institutional arrangements within human settlements value chain. Inability of women contractors to access the 30% set aside in provinces.
NHBRC has trained 20 women. These women were trained by the Gordon Institute of Business Science. I had an opportunity of meeting these courageous women on the International Women’s Day. Minister directed NHBRC to add 80 women for training. This training affords women an opportunity to develop business leadership and entrepreneurial skills. This event was also attended by Mr. Gqwetha, Managing Director of Nurcha.
We will continue to partner with SAWIC and other women in building of houses. Women’s Build has been successful in creating awareness on the critical role played by the women in housing construction. All provinces must embark on this programme.
PHP
Enhanced People’s Housing Programme – EPHP is aimed at creating an opportunity for ordinary citizens to partner with government. In this programme there is demonstrable evidence that the communities do not want to be passive recipients of government delivery but they want to be active participants. They want to be the change they want to see in society.
People are encouraged to save and build houses for one another. The houses that are built through PHP are of good quality and much bigger than what government provides. It is unfortunate that not all officials encourage this route as it is perceived to be slower that the developer driven approach.
Minister, I think there is a need to fast track the Human Settlements Cooperative Policy as a response to governments call for establishing, supporting and partnering with cooperatives in the delivery of services. Vulindlela has demonstrated that it can be done.
What is most important about PHP is that houses are never sold. There is no confusion about the allocation criteria. It builds social cohesion. That is why we promote active
participation of beneficiaries in building of houses through EPHP.
Building houses for military veterans is a demonstration of the fact that our freedom was never free. Hence this government will never forget those who have contributed immensely in bring about this democracy we enjoy today.
Military Veterans
I am more happy to report that last year Chairperson this department handed over a house to Mama Kotane in Fleurhof and also to other veterans.
The provision of houses to military veterans is spearheaded by the Department of Human Settlements and the Department of Military Veterans. We had a Military Veterans Indaba in Durban 2014.
The call we are making is that the building of housing for our veterans should lead to economic empowerment of military veterans. Those who are still able to participate in the building process should be trained and empowered.
There are active projects in 8 provinces which are in various stages of implementation which are expected to yield 2 129 houses of which 709 will be delivered this year.
In August last year we had housing consumer education in form of a memorial lecture in memory of Nomkhosi Mini. It was very well received by the family, the community and the veterans.
Through this we were able to connect our struggles and the housing backlog particularly the 1913 land Act.
Notwithstanding the impressive delivery gains which have been achieved. There is widespread acknowledgement that much more can be achieved to accelerate human settlement delivery. In a manner that harnesses the creative abilities and skills of ordinary citizens. Despite the coherent policy framework which is embodied by the Breaking New Ground approach. There is also significant work done to develop models of best practice for more effective project and programme management.
The National Development Plan maintains that “It is impossible to develop and maintain a sustainable human settlement in a participatory way if communities are disorganized and fractured if they have little confidence in their municipalities”. It is therefore critical that managers and practitioners in the human settlement sector in the three spheres have capacity to ensure that communities are capacitated to participate in the development of their communities.
These managers and practitioners must be able to setup systems and transfer skills to these communities for the nurturing of active citizenship and enhanced citizen capabilities. It is paramount that this new cadre of civil servants must adhere to the highest level of integrity and that they are committed to serving the community. He or she must have culture of a cadre who is willing to go the extra mile in serving the needs of the community.
The protest that we are having in our communities speaks to the issue of social distance and alienation of ordinary citizens.
The triple challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality demand a state which is capable of playing a transformative role and developmental role. A key requirement of capable state with effectively co-ordinated institutions is well-trained and appropriately skilled public servants who are committed to public good and capable of delivery consistently high quality services to all South Africans.
Lack of capacity in the human settlement sector has been identified as an area of weakness that needs focused attention in line with the departmental shift from housing to human settlements. It is for this reason that the department developed a strategy which places professionalisation of the sector and technical skills development in human settlements as one of the key interventions identified to develop capacity.
It is for this reason that the department has embarked on an aggressive capacity building programme for its officials at the three spheres of government in partnership with institutions of higher learning. We are excited about the progress we are making at Nelson Mandela University. The Department of Human Settlements and the University of Wits (School of Governance) has partnered in the development and implementation of a certificate programme targeted at housing officials whose main responsibilities were around project management, housing planning, service delivery and policy development. I had an opportunity to attend one of their graduations.
We are also in partnership with the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) whose model is work-integrated learning. It is an educational model that combines classroom learning with practical experience in the work place. Students participate in PHP housing in Khayelitsha and go back to classroom and vice versa.
As government we are proud of the fact that the institutions of higher learning are able to play such a critical role on the area of human settlements.
International
Chairperson, we are pleased to announce that the African Union has established a specialised Technical Committee of Ministers. The last meeting was held in Brazzaville, Congo. South Africa is a member of the Bureau. Our goal is to ensure that Africa adopts a charter on Human Settlements.
We attended the UN Habitat Governing Council in Kenya in April 2015. One of the major outcomes of deliberations is the adoption of International guidelines for territorial and urban planning. Plans are advance in preparation for the UN Habitat Conference III in Ecuador in 2016.
We are continuing our work with our international partners such as UN Habitat, Cities Alliance, IBSA, Cuba, Denmark and Netherlands to learn from their best practices.
Enquiries:
Ndivhuwo Mabaya
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