Government and Housing, Phenye Vilakazi, at a Housing Workshop in
Mafikeng
12 November 2006
Programme Director
Mayors
Councillors
Officials from both local and provincial government
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Let me begin by thanking all of you present here today. It is encouraging to
see your positive response to this important gathering. This workshop comes at
a very critical time in the history of housing delivery in the province.
First, it comes at a time when we have managed to transform our province
from a non-performer to best performer in housing delivery in the country. It
also comes at a time in which we are working towards consolidating the gains
that we have made over the past year.
Your presence is therefore very important in that from now on, we want to
ensure that we bring on board all our stakeholders in housing delivery in order
to encourage them to play their respective roles in the process. That would
call for all these role-players to understand their roles and obligations as
well as their primary mandates.
Over the past year, we have proved that we can, as a province, perform
better in housing delivery. After spending 99,5% of our last year's budget, we
have realised that it is possible to spend 100% every year. We have also
realised that good management systems yield positive results and therefore we
need to keep up with our innovation to improve the services we render to our
communities.
The dawn of a new day in the "age of hope" has indeed come. As the sunlight
beams across the mountains and valleys, mankind tends to appreciate and rejoice
the advent of a new chapter in life. I am therefore proud that a new chapter in
the delivery of houses was completed last year and a new one needs to be opened
this year as we move forward.
In my budget speech last year, I announced that my department was going to
apply a hands-on approach in housing delivery in order to always be abreast
with housing developments in the province. I said this was necessary in order
to be able to monitor housing projects and apply proper interventions in
problem areas on time.
I also vowed to withdraw housing delivery functions from certain
municipalities that had capacity and other challenges. Naledi and Greater Taung
local municipalities became the first to have their housing delivery functions
withdrawn in October last year. They were followed by the Mafikeng local
municipality in December.
Since the withdrawal of these functions from these municipalities, we have
managed to accelerate housing delivery to a pace never seen in the past seven
years. In Mafikeng alone, more than 2 000 houses have been completed while in
Greater Taung, at least six formerly blocked projects are in the process of
being completed.
As we gather here for this workshop today, my department has already spent
about R300 million from this year's budget to build 16 000 houses across the
province. We are confident that come end of March next year, we will have spent
our entire budget to complete no less than 22 000 houses. This is the approach
we want in the province as we accelerate the pace of housing delivery.
We don't want under-spending because that would mean that somebody's
homelessness has been prolonged and that someone's access to a decent home has
been postponed. We don't want anyone's better life to be put on hold,
especially when such postponement could be avoided.
In addition to this, I have decided last month, to withdraw the housing
delivery function from the remaining eighteen local municipalities that were
still performing this function. This implies that from now on, housing delivery
in the province will be done from the department. We will appoint contractors,
monitor the implementation of the projects and handle all aspects of the
projects.
This is in contrast with the way we have been implementing projects in the
past. We have been using municipalities as agents and, in most cases, their
role has been to receive money from us and pay it to contractors, something
that can be done directly and therefore reduce the time taken to pay the
contractors.
I must hasten to say, though, that municipalities will still play a role in
housing delivery such as identifying the housing needs in their jurisdictions
through the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) processes. They will also help in
areas such as identifying suitable land and advising the department on how best
to empower their communities through housing.
I have already communicated this decision to the South African Local
Government Association (SALGA)- North West (NW) and the mayors last month. I
know that some of them were not comfortable with this decision, but I hope they
understand that this is a noble intention and I hope that they will give it
their full support. After all, we were the only province with this kind of
system and we all accept it has created some challenges for us such as
inadequate monitoring systems and quality management.
What will happen from now on is that each municipality that wants to have
its housing function reinstated, must embark on an accreditation process
prescribed by the national Department of Housing. Municipalities who meet all
the requirements will be duly accredited. Automatic accreditation is a thing of
the past. Let me not dwell much on this issue as it is one of the issues to be
discussed at today's workshop, and you will therefore get enough time to
interrogate the process.
Ladies and gentlemen, I also want to remind all the developers and project
managers in the housing sector � especially those who have not yet registered
with the National Home Builders' Registration Council (NHBRC) to do so to
ensure compliance with the rule of law.
All home builders and property developers are required to build properties
in accordance with the set standards and also enrol all new homes so that these
homes are protected by the home builder warranty, which is administered by the
NHBRC. This warranty provides home owners with a five year warranty against
some structural defects.
Another issue that needs our undivided attention is to educate our people
about their rights, obligations and responsibilities around housing delivery.
Many of our people still do not understand the criteria used to allocate
houses. They do not know how the housing lists work, where to go to apply for a
government-housing subsidy and what to do after getting a house.
They need to be educated on their own responsibilities such as paying for
services and taking care of their houses. More importantly, they must be made
aware of economic opportunities around housing delivery.
Let me take this opportunity to wish you well in you deliberations. It is my
wish that this workshop should also discuss methods to be used to inform and
educate our people about low-cost housing in general. It is only when we work
together that we will be able to take housing delivery in the North West to
much greater heights.
I thank you!
Ke a leboga!
Ndza nkhensa!
Issued by: Department of Developmental Local Government and Housing, North
West Provincial Government
12 November 2006
