Honourable Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Provincial Legislature
Honourable Mme Maureen Modiselle, Premier of the North West Province
My Colleagues in the Executive Council
Honourable colleagues in the Provincial Legislature
Members of South African Local Government Association (SALGA)
Provincial Executive Committee
Leaders of various political parties
Executive Mayors and Mayors of our Municipalities
Speakers of our Councils
Councillors
Dikgosi tsa etsho tse di tlotlegang
Acting Deputy Director-General, Mr Motlogelwa and Departmental management
Chairperson of the North West Housing Corporation, Mr Monale and Acting CEO, Mr Letselela
Our Turn key developers and contractors
Our partners, National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC), National Housing Finance Corporation (NHFC), National Urban and Reconstruction Agency (NURCHA), Rural Housing Loan Fund (RHLF)
Leaders of labour movement
Comrades
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Introduction
Honourable speaker, the past month signified the critical history of our country and its citizenry, this month July is even more precious to South Africa, our African Continent and the citizen of the world. Significant in that it is through the leadership of young people that June 16 shall remain forever an imprinted mark in our calendar and hearts. 26 June 1955 in Kliptown, we had ten famous principles of freedom that were adopted by the people of South Africa for all our country and world to know, this became famously known as the Freedom Charter which we celebrate its 54th anniversary this year.
Furthermore, July is made more greater in that it has in itself the day a great man was born and as President of the Republic Jacob Zuma declared, we are looking forward to Mandela Day, a man to whom all of us shall forever remain indebted to for his humanity and above all his inspirational leadership. In Housing, we shall collaborate with our partners and deliver a legacy we shall always remember.
It is from this premise that I want all of us to remember as a way of beginning, what Kouzes and Posner say about the leadership challenge.
"Beyond the horizon of time is a changed world, very different from today's world. Some people see beyond the horison and into the future. They believe that dreams can be reality. They open our eyes and lift our spirits. They build trust and strengthen our relationships. They stand firm against the winds of resistance and give us the courage to confirm the quest. We call these people leaders."
Honourable Speaker, may I cease this moment to table 2009/10 Budget Vote 15 for the department of Housing in my capacity as the executing authority of the department. This new department Honourable speaker draws its mandate unequivocally from the freedom charter and it shall remain our endeavour to live to the aspiration that there shall be houses, security and comfort as adopted in Kliptown in 1955 and as entrenched in our own constitution of the Republic of South Africa. We as a department remain true to that vision where all people shall have the right to live where they choose, be decently housed and bring up their families in comfort and security.
Honourable Speaker, the nation that forgets or neglects its history, soon perishes; allow me therefore to take you through a brief memory lane and its nexus to date. In October 2000, the then Minister of Housing, Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele, described our country's housing policy as being about ensuring homes for the country's poor on a sustainable basis, and at a price they can afford. Such houses, according to the former Minister, must be habitable, located in neighbourhoods offering security, services and access to facilities and jobs.
Most importantly, the former Minister said, the housing policy must focus on creating a wholesome living environment conducive to attracting private investment from both individuals and collectives into the housing sector as investor confidence holds the key to a vibrant housing economy. This, according to Mrs Mthembi-Mahanyele, was the creation of sustainable human settlements!
Nine years later, President Jacob Zuma has given reassurance and formalised this concept with the establishment of the new national Department of Human Settlements. In doing so, the President has described housing as not just about building houses, but as also about transforming our residential areas and building communities with closer access to work and social amenities, including sports and recreation facilities. This undertaking found firm expression and genesis in the Vote Speech of the Minister of Human Settlement, Honourable Tokyo Sexwale as he did on 30 June 2009.
In the province, Premier Maureen Modiselle has established a new Department of Housing, soon to be refocused as Human Settlements, thus taking the housing function away from what used to be the Department of Developmental Local Government and Housing and creating dedicated focus on Human Settlements. I am therefore honoured to have been appointed the first MEC for this department and I am pleased to present the first budget vote for this newly formed department.
Honourable Speaker, housing the nation is one of the foremost challenges facing our country and our province. The challenge relates not only to the enormous size of the housing backlog and the diverse needs of the homeless and others who are inadequately housed, but it also relates to the housing environment which has many weaknesses. Poverty and unemployment make the task even more challenging and so is the challenge of poor delivery by some contractors as well as corruption in some sectors of our society, including those people we have trusted with the responsibility to serve our people.
Honourable Speaker, our housing policy is firmly rooted in the African National Congress's rallying call as embodied in the Freedom Charter that there shall be houses, security and comfort for all. The Charter identified one of the key areas left by years of neglect, subjugation and control by the Nationalist Apartheid government.
Furthermore, our commitment to house our people is further carried through the RDP document which formed the spirit and philosophy charting new beginnings, a statement of intent on fulfilling the basic needs of the poor and most vulnerable members of our country. Current overview of our delivery and the task lying ahead!
In spite of the significant gains made, we do acknowledge that more needs to be done to meet the housing challenges. However, the building blocks have been laid. We have a structure, vision, policies and a legislative framework in place creating a platform from which all efforts towards accelerating social and economic change within the low cost housing industry have been launched.
Over the past few years, we have also developed mechanisms to deal with the problems and challenges that have developed over the past 15 years of our democracy and the past fourteen years of the existence of the housing delivery programme.
Honourable Speaker and members of the august house, may I re-emphasise that the challenges we had experienced over the years shall be overcome as they should remain lessons of our work, let me qualify this by the words of Robin Sharma, who wrote in his book, "The Monk who sold his Ferrari"
"Every event has a purpose and every setback its lesson; I have realised that failure, whether of the personal, professional or even spiritual kind, is essential to personal expansion. It brings inner growthand a whole host of psychic rewards. Never regret your past, rather embrace it as the teacher it is."
Indeed 14 years, have passed since the launch of the housing delivery programme and since the first brick was laid on the first RDP house in the province, despite some challenges and weaknesses encountered, this government always rose to the occasion to perfect ways of doing its work better. To that extent, I am incredibly impressed by the fact that more than 130 455 houses have built across the province since then, I also feel we should celebrate with the 391 365 people who have benefited from these new homes.
I am also grateful of the hundreds of our developers and contractors who have ensured that we get quality structures out of the R5.4 billion that we have invested in the housing programme in the province. We can only endeavour to do more. For the current financial year, we will deliver yet another 19 000 housing units extending shelter and wealth to an additional 57 000 South Africans.
Our successes were underpinned by the national housing vision, which catered for the country's poor without fear or favour. We are renewing our commitment to a housing delivery that makes use of all available capacity and resources and as a province we are sure the next five years will yield even more positive results.
The underlying philosophy of our housing delivery and the creation of sustainable human settlements entail viewing the housing programme as part of a broader and holistic thrust of the development process for the effective delivery of social services.
I must hasten to say, though, Honourable Speaker that behind our achievements lays the sad story of the effect of apartheid spatial planning on the lives of ordinary people that are still with us. This is the legacy we inherited and a system that left a history that drew and defined human settlements in terms of class, race and the protection of privilege, hence the need to re-emphasise the concept of sustainable human settlements as opposed to the focus on brick and motar only.
The current housing backlog is estimated at 238 000.The current allocation to the housing budget is equivalent to 15 000 units per year. In the final analysis, it means we will need 16 years to eradicate the backlog at an average cost of R900 million per annum translating into R14,4 billion over years. If we combine this with the gradual increase of the housing demand(estimated at 5000 housing units annual growth demand per annum) it means that it could take us more than 16 years or more to reduce the backlog in the province should the housing budget for remain the same.
Housing Planning and Research
In the past fifteen years, housing delivery in South Africa and our province has come to reflect the important changes currently occurring in the country and at international level. Our housing delivery programme has developed to embrace a real commitment to implementing the United Nations Habitat Agenda through national, provincial and local plans of action and policies and programmes drafted and executed in cooperation with interested parties at all levels.
Our programme takes into account the fact that human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development, including adequate shelter for all and sustainable human settlements development, and that they are entitled to a healthy and productive life. The bottom line of our development programmes, therefore, is our understanding and acknowledgement that our communities have needs. And it is our belief that these needs must be urgently addressed if we are to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor.
In our effort to achieve this, we have embarked on a programme to research housing needs, develop and revise policies that will address these needs, develop a plan to address these needs, train officials, councillors and beneficiaries on housing issues and mainstream issues of previously disadvantaged groups into housing delivery.
In this manner, we want to re-engineer our focus on policy development and implementation, research, coordinating housing delivery in an integrated manner, promoting housing as a central deliverable within IDPs, plan and coordinate capacity building in the province, monitor housing performance and promote and integrate the needs of the vulnerable and marginalised groups in human settlement policy.
Currently, every municipality in the province is expected to have a housing chapter in its IDP that details the housing needs and priorities as well as readiness on available land where these houses can be constructed.
I am pleased, therefore, to announce that we are gradually making inroads towards this. So far, thirteen municipalities have developed credible housing sector plans, while three are in progress and five will be assisted by the province to have their plans developed by the end of the year, owing to their capacity constraints. This will complement our efforts as envisaged in our already completed Multi Year Housing Delivery Plan as well as Informal Settlement Upgrading Plan.
As an attempt to create a sustainable environment for housing delivery in the province, we have joined hands with the National Department of Human Settlements to assist students financially in housing delivery related studies. Ten students from the province have been granted scholarship by National Department of Human Settlements for studies in this regard. These students together with the five that were given scholarship in 2008 will be joining the department through our housing projects during holidays for practical training and exposure to the housing environment.
We are also improving the networking capability of our emerging contractors by developing Provincial and District Steering Committees for Housing Consumer Education and Emerging Women Contractors. These structures are functional and our aim is to empower them to become vibrant and dynamic with dissemination and sharing of information and support for one another.
Housing Performance, our quest for sustained delivery
Honourable speaker, the quest to improve the lives of our people through eradication of poverty and provision of housing to the most needy of our communities remains a priority for the department. We are reiterating our commitment to provide shelter to the most destitute families in our province.
In the financial year 2008/09 the Department built and completed a total of 14 945 housing units accommodating over 45 000 residents in the province. The completed houses encompass a house, the provision of clean running water and sanitation facilities at different levels.
Honourable speaker, to illustrate our seriousness about service provision to our people, we redirected housing subsidies from those municipalities that were not ready to implement housing projects, to those municipalities that were ready and were at an advanced stage with land acquisition, preparation and development. We will continue to engage municipalities as our partners to ascertain the need and the state of readiness to implement housing projects thus creating job opportunities to the jobless and creating sustainable human settlements.
To further ensure that the department is in a better position to implement its mandate to the fullest, acting within the confines of policy framework, an additional external capacity was created. To that extent, a dedicated Programme Management Unit (PMU) was established as an intervention to enhance project management, contract administration, monitoring and evaluation, building inspections, financial accounting and processes re-engineering, with a major emphasis on quality control and skills transfer. This intervention commenced effectively in January 2009.
Honourable Speaker, my predecessor had reiterated our government's commitment to the development and empowerment of women as participants in the mainstream economy within the construction and built environment. We remain steadfast and recommit ourselves to ensure realisation of this noble objective. We have developed a database for "Women housing turnkey developers" only; setting out measures to attain 30% targeted women owned and managed turnkey developers.
We also acknowledge that this objective has its own attendant challenges and consequences given the long history of a male dominated sector and systemic marginalisation of women in general. I must point out, though, that this attempt to empower women does not in any manner infer that we shall tolerate fronting, poor quality houses or poor service delivery. We shall act with the necessary sensitivity and caution as well as support, yet utmost firmness and without fear or favour. Against all these background, I wish to inform this august house and reiterate our commitment that 30% of the housing conditional grant will be set aside to cater for this sector of our partnership. Already 6 000 units are under construction by women developers.
Honourable Speaker, our human settlements programme incorporates rental housing for those housing consumers who are mobile and do not necessarily want ownership of their housing. Prior to 1994 there was no special focus in providing rental house for the poor except to confine those with that need into the single sex and poorly managed hostels.
The democratic government then introduced the following policies and Acts to address rental housing in the country:
* Rental Housing Act, 50 of 1999
* Breaking New Ground August 2004
* Social Housing Policy in June 2005
* Social Housing Act, 16 of 2008
We therefore established the first Rental Housing Tribunal in the province in 2001 to provide for the facilitation of sound relations between tenants and landlords. This mandate has been implemented ever-since, with a number of cases increasing.
Rental housing information officers handling rental disputes are currently located in Madibeng, Rustenburg and Matlosana municipalities in order to ensure that complainants do not have to spend their meagre and hard earned income to travel very far to lodge their cases. Information officers provide advice to disputing parties on reaching solutions to rental housing. We implore upon other municipalities in applicable areas to do likewise.
In the last financial year, we embarked on robust marketing in Tlokwe, Matlosane, Rustenburg and Brits and in the last financial year, 157 cases were disposed by the department through Tribunal. During this financial year we will continue with the mandate of ensuring conflict resolution in the rental housing sector.
We will target six municipalities for awareness campaign with emphasis on rural municipalities and around farm workers in particular. We inherited the legacy of hostels from the apartheid government. We used Hostel Redevelopment Programme to deliver 760 family units. Now the new Community Residential Units addresses challenges and quality of the outputs. During 2008/09 the Department collected rental housing data within all municipalities to have a clear picture of the existing rental stock. Analysis and interpretation of the data will result in a Community Residential Strategy which will enable us better planning.
Though cautious of the current economic trends in general and on mines in particular, progress is registered on our pursuit for Private Public Partnership (PPP) to realise diversified dissent housing options for our mine workers and their families through various housing programmes in Rustenburg areas in particular.
Honourable Speaker, All informal settlements have been identified, with sixty six nodes spread within the province. From preliminary findings, Rustenburg Local Municipality has the highest concentration of informal settlements, especially around the mines. The department is considering best options arising from our work in the Informal Settlement Upgrading Plan. The plan will provide the strategic framework for the upgrading of these informal settlements. This exercise will provide a structured approach in tackling this mammoth task of eradicating informal settlement. The initiative inter alia involves investigations pertaining to the viability of potential upgrading projects in identified informal settlements, and, it will culminate with a list of prioritised projects.
North West Housing Corporation
Honourable Speaker, consistent with the pronouncement by the honourable Premier during her State of the Province address, efforts are afoot to give finalisation into this long outstanding matter. We are currently looking at certain compliance issues to ensure due diligence, which includes finalisation of the placement of remaining staff. So far, we have already absorbed 54 former employees of the Corporation with 41 still outstanding. We are also in a process of repealing the North West Housing Corporation Act, to bring its existence to a logical end.
Honourable Speaker, we are aware that there are consequential challenges to which we must explore innovative and best models to retain the confidence of investors and creditors of this Corporation. We also need to determine, as we shall, the strategic approach as it relates to the assets, long term projects and core services the Corporation sought to implement. We will soon retreat to a strategic session to chart a way forward for the newly established department and take into consideration issues I have raised.
Expenditure trends and progress
In the financial year 2008/09, the department was allocated a total conditional grant of R985, 764 million (nine hundred and eighty five million, seven hundred and sixty four thousand rands) including the rollover of R89,662 million (eighty nine million, six hundred and sixty two thousand rands) for 2007/08 plus additional funds received during the year to the amount of R18,360 million(eighteen million, three hundred and sixty thousand rands) for inflationary adjustment to the housing grant, which bring the total budget of housing fund for the past year to R1, 004,124 billion (one billion, four million, one hundred and twenty four thousand rand).
We spent R952, 082 million (nine hundred and fifty two million and eighty two thousand rands), which is 99,99% and could not spend R41,620 (forty one thousand, six hundred and twenty rands) which has to be rolled over to 2009/10 financial year. Although I do not condone under-expenditure, this is a remarkable achievement considering that our province is among the top spenders in terms of performance.
During the financial year 2008/09 R52 million (fifty two million rands) was transferred from the total Conditional Grant allocated to the North West Province to the Northern Cape Province as part of the cross boundary close out projects.
Honourable Speaker, let me point out that we still face challenges in our housing delivery programme, the biggest and notable challenge and threat to the development of sustainable human settlements remains the funding for bulk infrastructure, this funding is not provided for in the human settlement conditional grant but however remains critical for the success of the integrated housing programme.
Other challenges include the complexity of the National Housing Policy, delays experienced with the Deeds Office with the registration of transfer, delays caused in respect of the transfer of land and township establishment, unreliable cash flow projections from some developers/project managers.
We are, however, putting proper systems in place to deal with these challenges. We want to address the issue of good governance and capacity constraint at municipal level, which negatively affects housing delivery. We also hope that the appointment of the Programme Management Unit (PMU) will relieve the Department of capacity problems.
Towards accelerated service delivery
Honourable Speaker, as part of our immediate mandate, we will proceed to implement the following:
* Completing the transfer of 20 000 houses to beneficiaries in the current financial year, thus creating an asset and wealth to our beneficiaries of the housing programmes.
* Hand over additional 10 000 title deedsof North WestHousing Corporation stock to occupants.
* Unblock the municipal legacy housing projects.
* Explore Partnership agreement with the Development Bank of Southern Africa and ABSA with Housing Corporation to ensure diversified and comprehensivehousing tenure systems on well located vacant land.
* Expand Social Corporate Responsibility by Developers to donate 20 additional houses to Child-headed families and other vulnerable households. In this regard, our woman turn-key developer, Mologadi A Nape had already led the pack by donating two houses which have already been handed over and occupied by the two families in Ga-Moeka village in Moretele Local Municipality. Both Toro ya Africa and Metro Projects are completing five houses each and we shall hand them over as part of our women's month activities. We hope the rest follow.
* We will fast-track and implement the 1800 subsidies set aside to be done in Partnership with Mining Houses in Rustenburg.
* Rigorous improvement of the Inspections and ensuring quality houses in all projects.
* Collaborate with National Department of Human Settlements to eradicate all legislative or any other barriers that impedes the achievement of enhanced and quality human settlements.
Honourable Speaker, I hereby present the departmental budget Vote 15 for the Department of Housing.
The proposed budget for the department of Housing is as follows:
1. Budget per Programme
Administration: R83 861 million
Housing Needs Research and Planning: R9 213 million
Housing Development Implementation Planning and Target: R1 107 839 billion
Housing Asset Management: R13 145 million
Total: R1 214 058 billion
2. Budget per Economic Classification
Personnel: R67 202 million
Transfers: R1 100 055 billion
Administrative: R19 874 million
Stores: R3 687 million
Professional Services: R6 914 million
Goods and Services: R15 495 million
Equipment: R831
Total: R1 214 058 billion
Let me conclude by expressing my profound appreciation to the committed staff of this department, albeit, linear and in transition, in particular I want to thank the acting Head of Department for his continuous support and effort to lead this team, without their commitment and dedication, we will not be able to meet the needs of our people.
I would also like to thank the African National Congress and the Premier for having accorded me the opportunity to lead this department, I am under no illusion that the task lying ahead is insurmountable, however as Winston Churchill records:
"Sure I am that this day we are masters of our fate that the task that has been set before us is not above our strengths that its pangs and toils are not beyond my endurance. As long as we have faith in our own cause and an unconquerable will to win, we will not be denied victory."
I am looking forward to the Premier and Colleagues in the Executive Council and Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee and members of this Honourable House to offer great support, guidance and encouragement to enable us to deliver on our mandate.
I also thank all our Partners, National Department of Human Settlements, Municipalities, mining houses, dikgosi tsa rona, developers and other professionals, National Homebuilders Registration Council (NHBRC), National Urban and Reconstruction Agency (NURCHA), National Housing Finance Corporation (NHFC), Rural Housing Loan Fund, the winding down Thubelisha, Cuban Government, Departmental Officials for their continued commitment and support, Indeed, together we shall do more!
My heartfelt thanks goes to my family, in particular my mother Catherine, my two sons, Tshepiso and Monaka and my fiancée Pat Mohono for understanding the challenge I undertook and for assuring me their utmost support. To all of you, you are the reason why my everyday is enlightened with hope and commitment and vigour to attain more.
May I then extend an invitation to all of you as stakeholders and role players to the second Provincial Govan Mbeki Housing Awards which shall be held on 31 July 2009 at Rustenburg Civic Centre to honour, appreciate and share as well celebrate best practices in the Housing and Built environment in our Province.
Honourable Speaker, as indicated above, I am now pleased to present this budget vote 15 for Department of Housing for appropriation by the august House.
Ke a leboga!
