briefing
6 August 2007
Local Government
The rolling-out of capacity building of the local and district
municipalities
The Department of Local Government and Housing (DLGH) together with the
Department of Provincial and Local Government (DPLG) are already implementing
skills programme targeted at mayors, speakers, Section 57 managers, members of
mayoral committees and chief whips. The Skills Programme is linked to unit
standards and a qualification: Certificate in Leadership Development.
The programme is differentiated into four modules which are Emotional
Intelligence, Effective Communication, Problem Solving, Analytical Thinking and
Communal Knowledge Management. A Certificate in Leadership Development at a
National Qualifications Framework (NQF) Level 4 will be issued to those who
qualify. The training was started in March 2007 and will be completed in
October 2007.
About 23 councillors from Gert Sibande and five from Ehlanzeni districts
attended module one of the programme. Councillors from Nkangala District will
be next to attend.
After October 2007, the programme will be continued to upper NQF levels
involving further training programmes.
Payment of municipal services and debt collection
A task team has been established to deal with debts owed by both public and
private institutions in municipalities. The team consists of officials from the
Department of Local Government and Housing, Department of Education, national
Department of Public Works and municipalities. We have found that more than
half of the consumer account is in relation to outstanding rates, which should
have been paid by the national Department of Public Works. About R50 million
has been forfeited by municipalities over the past couple of years due to
municipalities not claiming rates from the national Department of Public Works.
It has also become clear that some departments have paid their accounts, but
their payments were not allocated to the relevant accounts. This has resulted
in accounts accumulating huge debts.
Free basic service
Free basic electricity
There is positive progress regarding access to universal access to
electricity. There are currently 551 649 households that have access to
electricity in the province. A total of 181 331 households do not have access
to electricity in the province.
There are 396 096 indigent households in the province, current free basic
electricity stands at 49%. This translate into Eskom directly servicing 58 826
households and the municipalities directly supply electricity to 134 692
households which is a total of 193 513 house holds benefiting from free basic
electricity. Three municipalities namely Thembisile, Nkomazi and Bushbuckridge
are not yet providing free basic electricity to their residents.
Free basic water
A total of 474 961 households have access to clean and safe water in the
province. The provincial backlog on water supply is 171 586 households for the
province. This is a total reduction of 19,92% backlog from 214 266 households
in 2004. There are currently 396 096 indigent households and 226 716 indigent
households are served with free basic water.
Those indigent households that do not have infrastructure to be served with
water municipalities concerned supply emergency water through tanks as an
alternative measure.
Through the water for all flagship, we hope to address all the water
backlogs by 2010, with the following sub targets:
* Priority A: areas without infrastructure, below Reconstruction and
Development Programme (RDP) standards: 2008
* Priority B: areas for rehabilitation and upgrading: 2008/09
* Priority C: areas for upgrading to a higher level of service: 2009/10
Projects have been identified for specific areas. Available resources have
been mobilised such as Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) and own revenue
from municipalities. The province will also contribute to the funding mechanism
of a collective pool of funds towards the projects the total costs for the
backlogs amounts to more than R2,5 billion.
Sanitation
The provincial backlog on residents who did not have access to decent
sanitation facilities before the bucket eradication project was 385 256
households. This marks a total reduction of 7,34% from a base of 415 758
households in 2005. This figure was further reduced to 261 676 households by
end of 2006. The current figures recorded for 2007 amount to 246 314 households
as a result of the excessive very important person (VIP) toilet provision
rolled out in rural areas. There are plans to reduce this figure even further
in 2007 considering the informal settlements in the Delmas Municipality who
will be assisted with decent sanitation, the housing programme and the MIG VIP
toilets in the rural areas. Municipalities have also compiled plans to deal
with these backlogs.
Service delivery on farms
The task team had its last quarter sitting in Nelspruit on 29 March 2007, at
which several reports regarding service delivery programmes were received from
some government departments, municipalities and other social partners playing a
critical role in rural development.
Farm workers housing assistance
Nine farms constituting 444 farm workers have been identified in Thaba
Chweu, Umjindi, Nkomazi, Steve Tshwete, Emakhazeni, Delmas, Govan Mbeki, Lekwa
and Msukaligwa.
The land has been donated by farmers for farm worker residential purposes.
Service level agreements have been signed with farmers where the land has not
already been transferred to the workers.
The department is in the process of appointing consultants to do the
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) studies, Town Planning, Rezoning and
Geo-tech Investigations.
Once the process is complete and the EIA studies indicate that the farms are
suitable for these projects, the department will then advertise for the
appointment of contractors who will build the identified number of houses per
farm. The construction is envisaged to commence in October 2007 and be
completed by March 2008.
An amount R6,65,000 has been set aside for the construction of the 444 farm
worker units this financial year the units will constructed as follows:
1. G Sibande
Municipality: Number
* Govan Mbeki: 20
* Lekwa: 40
* Msukaligwa: 73
* Totals: 133
2. Nkangala
* Municipality: Number
* Delmas: 30
* Emakhazeni: 72
* Steve Tshwete: 72
* Totals: 174
3. Ehlanzeni
Municipality: Number
* Umjindi: 73
* Nkomazi: 20
* Thaba Chweu: 44
* Totals: 137
There are also 65 housing units being built that are at different levels of
completion in Kaapmuiden in Nkomazi Municipality and 44 in Thaba Chweu
municipality under the Ehlanzeni District Municipality.
Water provision
Continuous efforts to improve sanitation and water supply to schools in
rural areas have received a boost following another collaboration being
concluded between DWAF and some of our social partners. This collaboration
provides financial resources to increase water supply in rural villages. Ten
rural schools situated in villages facing water shortages have been identified
for installation of manual borehole system.
These schools are as follows:
1. Gert Sibande
* Remhoogte Primary School
* Wazana Primary School
* Lethle Primary School
2. Nkangala
* Madibone Primary School
* Semonate Combined
* Landela Primary
3. Ehlanzeni
* Phambanisa Priamry School
* Ndlaphu Secondary School
* Magcekani Primary School
* Nembe Mhlaba Primary School
This was a National project and all Provinces were allocated 10 schools
each. Funding is provided by ABSA Group and Department of Water Affairs and
Forestry (DWAF). Households around the schools where these boreholes are sited
will also benefit.
Labour services
A total of 814 labour related complaints were registered at local Labour
centres of which 615 cases were within Ehlanzeni District. The inspection
services of the Department of Labour conducted inspections. A total of 765
complaints were resolved at labour centres. The complaints lodged relate to the
following Labour Acts:
* Basic Conditions of Employment Act
* Occupational Health and Safety Act
* Unemployment Insurance Fund
* Compensation of Injuries and Diseases Act
* Employment Equity Act.
The complaints that were not resolved at registration services are referred
to inspections services for investigations.
During the year under review, the inspection services of the Department of
Labour had conducted a total of 1 042 inspections, broken down as follows:
* Gert Sibande: 77
* Nkangala: 518
* Ehlanzeni: 447
The compliance levels are respectively at 71%,60% and 53%. Three hundred and
eighty eight notices were issued in response to non-compliance as corrective
measures ranging from undertakings, contraventions, and improvements to
prohibitions.
Farm schools electrification
Of the five schools placed on Eskom's electrification programmes for
2006/07, only one has been completed. The project on one school was cancelled
following closure of the said school by the Department of Education due to
dwindling pupil numbers. Investigations regarding feasibility for rolling out
electrification on other farm schools are being conducted.
Establishment of traditional councils
The Regulation for the election of 40% members of the Traditional Councils
as contemplated in Section 28 of the Mpumalanga Traditional Leadership and
Governance Act, 2005 has been publicised in the Provincial Government Gazette
number 1446. Newspaper notices have been placed with Sowetan and the
Mirror.
The Regulations are for the election of 40% of the traditional councils
relating to the processes of the establishment of 59 traditional local
councils. Sixty percent membership of traditional councils will be selected by
the Traditional Leader, 40% will be elected by the community under that
Traditional Leader.
A map indicating the general boundaries of Traditional Councils has been
sourced from the Demarcation Board and the Department of Land Affairs.
Together with South African Local Government Association (Salga)
(Mpumalanga) a Task Team was formed to drive the reconstitution of traditional
councils.
Publication of the Ingoma Bill
The Department of Local Government and Housing has published the Ingoma Bill
2007 in the Provincial Government Gazette. The public can now make their
written comments or submissions on the Bill. Members of the public and all
stakeholders can obtain copies of the Bill from the Department of Local
Government and Housing and from all municipalities in the province. After all
the comments have been received and consolidated they will be taken back to the
Executive Council who will then table it in the Provincial Legislature.
The Ingoma Bill seeks to:
* regulate the holding of the Ingoma within the province
* to provide for the prohibition of forced attendance of Ingoma
* to provide for the implementation and monitoring of health and safety
standards at an Ingoma.
Members of the public have until 13 August to make their written submissions
on these bills
Housing and technical services
As part of trying to improve our housing delivery, we are also implementing
some of the resolutions that were raised during our last housing indaba last
year. Some of the resolutions we have implemented include the following:
* Registering all housing projects with National Home Builder Registration
Council (NHBRC). We have done this; however there are still challenges with
rural projects.
* The department has engaged NHBRC to implement its capacity building programme
for emerging contractors.
* The department has identified land for housing development from the private
sector, how ever such land and the pricing thereof remains a major challenge.
The other resolutions continue to be implemented on an ongoing basis
Rental housing
A site has been identified for the construction of rental stock in Thaba
Chweu project. This site is not serviced and the business plan has been
appraised. For this financial year we will also constructing rental stock in
Govan Mbeki. We are currently identifying land for these units. This rental
stock will assist us to ensure that we provide good and decent accommodation
for those people who want to rent next to centres of economic activity. In the
next financial year we will also be building rental stock in Diplaseng,
Mkhondo, Emalahleni, Mbombela and Steve Tshwete
Conclusion
Over the past week the province has been faced with fires that have ravaged
many parts of our province. We would like to thank all the stakeholders who
have worked with us as we battled to put out these fires. We would also like to
thank the different stakeholders who have donated human relief to all the
people fire fighter who were fighting these fires and those families that were
affected by the veld fires.
We have begun a process of conducting an assessment of the damage done by
the fires. The processes is lead by the department, and all sector departments
are also doing their assessments, these assessments will then be consolidated
by the department to give a provincial assessment report.
Enquiries:
Simphiwe Kunene
Cell: 082 413 3931
Issued by: Department of Local Government and Housing, Mpumalanga Provincial
Government
6 August 2007
