Budget Vote Speech for the Department of Human Settlements, presented by MEC Paul Mashatile, at the Gauteng Provincial Legislature
The Honourable Speaker of the House and the Deputy
The Honourable Premier of Gauteng
Members of the Executive Council from Gauteng and other provinces
Honourable Members of Parliament
Honourable Members of the Legislature
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
Introduction
Madam Speaker, once again thank you for the opportunity to address the House on this auspicious occasion. Allow me the privilege to preface my speech by uttering these timeless words from our country’s Constitution: “Everyone has the right to have access to adequate housing”. Today, Honourable Members and esteemed guests, I stand in front of you in this “august” House to outline to you what the Department of Human Settlements have done for my country and what we plan to do going forward.
I am honoured to be presenting this budget vote as the MEC for COGTA and Human Settlements. It is worth noting that my presentation will happen against the backdrop of preparations to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Students Uprisings in June 1976 when our gallant youth of the time took a principled stand against being forced to learn all their subjects in Afrikaans and opted to fight to restore the dignity of our people. We must acknowledge that the freedoms we are enjoying today are in part no small measure due to their patriotic contribution.
Honourable Members, 1994 marked a new era to engage in a journey to restore the dignity of our people. Provision of housing is one of the basic human rights that define human dignity in any civilised society. The ANC government has since 1994 confronted the inhumanity of landlessness and lack of shelter for our people. This has been a defining initiative, once achieved will make South Africa never to be the same again. Twenty one years later, we have provided millions of our people with shelter by building more than 4 million housing opportunities across the country. Gauteng accounts for 1 million which houses approximately 5 million people.
Notwithstanding this significant progress, much more work still needs to be done to achieve the ideal enshrined in the historic Freedom Charter that “There shall be houses, security and comfort for All”. It is against this backdrop that our Department continues to work hard to provide houses to all our people.
Honourable Speaker, a very important shift we are making is to commit to delivering houses and not just housing opportunities. This is an important shift because I am sure that everyone present here today will agree with me that people live and sleep in houses and not in housing opportunities.
Another important shift, based on the Breaking New Ground Policy Framework, and guided by the apt leadership of our National Minister of Human Settlements, Cde Lindiwe Sisulu, is that we will move away from small sporadic projects to clustered, integrated, smart Big Cities - Mega Projects. Big Cities are purposefully planned and developed so that they are completely self-sufficient in providing for the housing, social amenities and economic opportunity needs of the communities. Additionally, the concept of “Big Cities” reinforces the key principles and considerations of spatial reconfiguration, township economy revitalisation and massive infrastructure investment as a means of transforming settlements and cities into productive cities that are inclusive, sustainable and founded on principles of good governance. Our Big Cities will provide mixed housing typologies and security of tenure while fulfilling the principles of integrated development, radical spatial transformation, urban renewal, strengthening institutional capacity and end-user management.
Our settlements and Big Cities will contribute to building the Province as a Gauteng City Region with equal levels of development across all five of its development corridors, as well as the outcomes expected of the GPG’s TMR strategy underpinned by its 10 Pillars.
Honourable Members, I am confident that this strategic shift in the delivering of human settlements will go beyond the provision of houses to our people to improving their overall social and economic lives. Simultaneously the shift allows us address Gauteng’s high in-migration patterns which are resulting in overcrowding, mushrooming of informal settlements, crime, high poverty levels and many other social ills. We have an obligation, whilst providing human settlements to change the face of our province and reflect a society in transition to a better future.
Breaking New Ground – Building Big Cities (Mega Projects)
Honourable Speaker, we are at various stages of planning and implementing at least six (6) Big City developments across the Province. These are Boiketlong in the Southern Corridor, Vaal River City in the Southern Corridor, Fort West in the Northern Corridor, Leeuwpoort in the Eastern Corridor, Lanseria City in the Central Corridor, Alex City in the Central Corridor, Syferfontein City in the Western Corridor Corridor and Savannah City in the Southern Corridor.
In the 2016/17 financial year we have allocated R100 million for the detailed planning phase 2 of Syferfontein City and R100 million towards the provision of bulk infrastructure in Savannah City., Collectively, these Big Cities Mega Projects will yield more than 11 273 houses and 5 689 serviced stands in the 2016/17 financial year alone. The housing yield from our Big City Developments will form part of the 50 000 target of completed houses to happy letter stage, that I have set for the 2016/17 financial year.
Addressing Challenges and Fast-tracking Delivery
In order to address the financial challenges associated with our new approach to developing human settlements, we will establish strategic partnerships with the private sector to implement our human settlement projects including the mega projects. We will also, where feasible, incorporate current human settlement projects into the Big City planning. Given the magnitude of the task facing the Department, we will not move quicker unless we work together with the private sector to actualise the mega projects.
The Department has also taken a decision to reposition the Gauteng Partnership Fund (GPF) to play a greater role in attracting investment to address social housing and GAP housing challenges. The GPF will, through strategic and sustainable partnerships with the private sector and donor or funding institutions, leverage additional revenue to deliver the set targets. We will ensure that each Project is specially packaged for targeted fund-raising activities. Towards this end, I have established the Transformation Task Team comprising of representatives from the Department and the GPF to establish a suitable governance structure that would maximise its impact. This Task Team will be reporting to me by August this year.
The Department will also work closely with our government’s Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) to ensure that we respond to the impatience of a long wait by our people.
The repositioning of the GPF is in line with, and will complement, Minister Sisulu’s announcement in her Budget Vote Speech delivered on the 19 May 2015 to the National Council of Provinces, regarding the consolidation of the NHFC, RHLF and NURCHA DFI’s into the Human Settlements Development Bank (HSDB) or the Housing Bank, which will have offices in all the nine provinces. The HSDB will offer bridging finance to small contractors, finance building loans for those who will purchase serviced sites and will help the department finance mortgages for those in the gap market.
At an implementation level, I have strengthened the capacity of our Project Management Office which comprises of department officials and external professional expertise to ensure fast-tracked delivery of this financial year’s 50 000 target.
To address blockages to delivery at a municipal level, I will strengthen current intergovernmental initiatives and engage with political representatives of this sphere on the development of a municipal level fast-tracking short term road-map with tight timeframes to remove blockages.
In addition, through the intervention of the Provincial Department of Human Settlements the Urban Settlement Development Grant (USDG) and the Human Settlement Development Grant (HSDG) allocations have been aligned to our mega projects initiatives to ensure effective and better coordination. This alignment means that the provision of bulk infrastructure for human settlements and the construction of these settlements should happen as a seamless process.
Land availability still remains a challenge and we are hoping to unlock it through the implementation protocol signed with the Housing Development Agency (HAD) to identify and hold land for development Following this agreement, we are working in tandem with HDA in the big city developments.
Beneficiary Management System
A central focus in this financial year will be to bring our beneficiary administration system in line with our commitment to a people-centred development approach which includes addressing the numerous complaints we have received about the system. One of our interventions is the introduction of a biometrics system aimed at curbing fraud and corruption in the allocation of RDP houses and that will enable the allocation of stands and title deeds to approved beneficiaries on approved projects before construction even begins and the re-engineering of the customer centre. We will ensure that our beneficiary administration and management processes contains credible, reliable and secure data. We are at the final stages of procuring this beneficiary management system which will be piloted and rolled out in this year. The systems security functions ensuring transparency throughout the process linked to the housing value chain; consistent communication to beneficiaries to give updates of their application status, allocation and final security of tenure through tittle deeds matched to the initial applicant.
Human Settlements supporting the Gauteng Green Agenda
Madame Speaker, the Gauteng Provincial Green Agenda Initiative is part of climate change mitigation. Through the delivery of sustainable human settlements, Gauteng is making inroads to reduce CO2 emissions while improving the lives of citizens.
We are opting for high pressure solar geysers as part of the Department’s specifications during construction as part of efforts to reduce reliance on Eskom supplied power. These solar geysers are being installed on all new subsidized houses. Our Department’s specifications further specify the installation of roof insulation in order to increase the thermal quality of houses as roof insulation helps keep houses warm in winter and cool in summer further reducing reliance on coal burning generated power.
It is envisaged that the in mega projects, social amenities will be self-sufficient in terms of power generation with roof top solar energy generation with rain water harvested and reused as a water saving measure.
Our Department remains committed to the Province’s green agenda and has made it mandatory for housing products to support this agenda. We plan to reinstate the use of Alternative Building Technologies (ABT), now referred to as IBT (Innovative Building Technology) in the construction of houses. Research is also on-going on alternative building technologies not only to improve energy efficiency but also to fast track housing delivery.
Community Residential Units
Madame Speaker, our Department initiated the Hostel Redevelopment Programme in 2007, with the objective of eradicating single gender hostels, which were built in the 1950s to accommodate the migrant labour system of the day.
The five hostels namely: Diepkloof, Dube, Jabulani, Meadowlands and Orlando West were selected for a pilot project under Community Residential Units (CRU) programme. This phase has a yield of 1427 units across the five hostels.
We have already entered into an agreement for the administration and maintenance of hostels to be carried out by municipalities and the City of Johannesburg, for instance, have appointed JOSCHO to commence with the screening of qualifying beneficiaries for allocation both in the CRU and the low-cost houses (RDPs).
Conclusion
Madame Speaker, Amilcar Cabral teaches us not to claim any easy victories, but what my department has achieved since the advent of democracy, challenges notwithstanding, is by no means an easy victory.
A total of R5, 871 166 000 has been allocated in this current financial year to the Department of Human Settlements. The HSDG allocation amounts to R5, 022, 669 000.
We commit to deliver the 50 000 housing units during the current financial year and victory in the establishment of Mega Cities in this great province is most certainly within sight. Furthermore, as we move steadfastly into the year 2016 and beyond, the Department of Human Settlements will provide a clear indication to the people of Gauteng that indeed, “A promise made, is a promise kept”
I thank you all!
