M Nkoana-Mashabane: Limpopo Local Government and Housing Prov Budget
Vote 2006/07

30 March 2006

Honourable Speaker and Madam Deputy Speaker,
Honourable Premier, Sello Moloto and colleagues in the Executive Council,
Honourable Members of this House,
Honourable Mayors, Council Speakers and Councillors,
Magosi a rena our traditional leaders,
Members of the business community,
Members of the media fraternity,
Distinguished guests, comrades, friends, ladies and gentlemen

Some 50 years ago, in the early hours of a crisp autumn morning, a group of
women started gathering in the emerging shadows of the Union Buildings. The
sounds of a chant reverberated through the Highveld morning. It was a chant
that was to reverberate through the very foundations of the apartheid regime;
it was a chant that said “Wathinti Bafazi, wathint’mbokodo”. That group became
20 000 strong.

They were drawn together by the frustrations of the day, they were drawn by
a need to express those frustrations but, most importantly, they were drawn by
a hope for a better life for their generation and the generations that would
follow.

The Greek philosopher, Aristotle once wrote that “Hope is a waking dream”.
The hope of this nation has been sustained and nurtured through the selfless
sacrifices of the many heroes and heroines of our struggle for liberation. It
is that hope that drove thousands of young children that threw caution to the
wind and took to the streets of Soweto 30 years ago. It was an event that was
to demoralise and confounds an enemy, it was an event that was to inspire an
entire generation and impregnate it with hope.

When we do commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the student uprising of
1976; and when we do commemorate the selfless contributions of those women that
marched onto the citadels of power, when we honour the heroes and heroines of
this Province; heroes like Lawrence Phokanoka; Peter Mokaba; Frans Mohlala,
Mmadinoga; Marie-Stella Mabitse; Peter Nchabeleng; and Martha Motsuenyane; we
must use these occasions to reflect. It must be a reflection that must ask the
principal question; have we indeed given the hope that drove these struggles
and sacrifices the kind of substance that it deserves? We serve as the
vanguards of the aspirations and values of those that have fallen for us and we
cannot afford to waver; lest we be judged harshly by history, as those that
betrayed a dream; as those who betrayed a people’s hope.

Honourable Speaker
We need to build a strong developmental state if we are to overcome the legacy
of the many centuries of colonialism and racism that this country endured. We
need to build a capacitated state able to invest in public goods and services
and swiftly respond to shifting global, continental and domestic development
trends and priorities. This, we believe, needs to be done by strengthening our
system throughout the three tiers of government so that we have shared economic
growth, revenue-generation and a productive investment of resources. Our
developmental state must have the capacity to co-ordinate planning, budgeting,
and implementation of programmes. It must further be able to mobilise
communities and get the public participation through partnerships with all the
relevant stakeholders. All of these efforts, Honourable Speaker, must be geared
at alleviating the needs of the poor, the historically marginalised, women,
children, youth, disabled and the aged.

In his State of the Nation address this year, the Honourable President
declared this era to be the New Age of Hope. Those amongst us that have felt
and lived through every refreshing breeze of change since 1994 know that such a
declaration is not based on a false hope. It is a declaration based on a belief
in our ability as a nation to remain loyal to the values and principles
underpinning our endeavours.

Those principles and values are now etched in a document that was born 10
years ago. It is the Constitution that captures the very essence of our
existence as a nation. It imbibes these values and regulates our conduct in a
manner that continues to marvel the world.

Of all these values, one of the most endearing must be our commitment to a
democratic order. That democratic order continues to be guaranteed by the
knowledge that yet another free and fair election has been delivered to our
country by the Independent Electoral Commission. Allow me, Mr Speaker, to
acknowledge the Chairperson of the Commission, Dr Brigalia Bam, and
congratulate her and her team for making us proud.

More particularly, Reverend Zwo Nevhutalu, the Provincial Commissioner must
be commended for a job well done. The conducting of successful Local Government
Elections was no mean feat. Some 1 094 councillors were elected into 25 local
councils and five district councils. Some 547 wards were contested. Some 21 200
staff were employed. Yes there was contestation, yes there may even have been
attrition, but what we did not have was violence or disruptions. We have all
the conditions that say that we have a Province that expresses its will through
the ballot box and has confidence in a system that is engineered to address its
needs.

Honourable Speaker
We believe the outcomes of the elections were our communities’ show of trust in
the leaders they chose. Honourable Speaker, allow me to congratulate and
welcome the Councillors to this August House and to Team Local Government and
Housing. They must be aware that they are now the true servants of our people.
Their appointment is a testament to their leadership qualities. The confidence
of their communities has now been translated into the leadership positions they
now occupy and we could not be happier. We welcome the influx of such enormous
talents, talents that we would be relying on very heavily. Once again, we say
congratulations and may your talents prevail, talents that must surely
strengthen our governance and help us build better communities.

Honourable Speaker
The following are the key performance areas that our new municipal councils
will have to excel in, if we are to be successful:

* Building institutional capacity and embarking on municipal
transformation
* Improving Basic Service Delivery and Infrastructure
* Strengthening Local Economic Development
* Ensuring financial viability and management and
* Strengthening good governance

We also want to take this opportunity to say to those who did not make it
into municipal councils that you can still play a meaningful role in developing
our communities. You must continue to be servants to the people, you must
remain the loyal soldiers of our people’s development, our people demand that
much of us.

Honourable Speaker
It must be remembered that these newly-elected leaders will serve in the
various municipalities throughout the Province for the next five years. The
responsibility placed upon the shoulders of these leaders is an enormous one.
The Councillors will be called upon to consider various matters, technical and
otherwise. They would be required to operate in a regulated environment that
leaves very little room for error.

Coupled with this is the added responsibility of public office in which
there are more exacting standards in personal conduct.

One of our primary constitutional obligations is to capacitate
municipalities. As a Department, we would like to assure our fellow councillors
that we recognise the fact that it is only with exposure to the appropriate
information that one can face the task at hand with the required confidence. It
is our commitment as a Department to provide the necessary support.

In this regard we have had extensive consultations with the South African
Local Government Association-Limpopo (SALGA-Limpopo) to co-ordinate a training
programme that would render the necessary support. In the coming weeks
SALGA-Limpopo would be conducting an extensive orientation programme, that we
believe, would go a long way in enabling the councillors, particularly the new
councillors, to familiarise themselves with the legislative and governance
environment. We would like to complement and thank SALGA-Limpopo for what we
believe is a concerted effort to ensure that local government works well.

Our experience of the last 10 years has shown us, however, that to render
meaningful support to councillors we would have to be more imaginative, and
certainly more intensive. The Department has decided, therefore, that it would
be allocating resources to a structured programme of training. This programme
will focus on the various office bearers in council. The programme will take
them through the various legislative requirements, develop leadership skills
and to equip our Councillors with the kind of skills that would not only make
them proficient at the job at hand, but also to the demands of the world beyond
the municipality. Needless to say, that these courses will be accredited.

Once again let me say, Honourable Speaker, that our Department is not the
local government sphere. It is the municipalities and its councillors that are
closest to the pulse of our people who are that sphere of government. To
address the many challenges that face us, we will have to constantly engage
with each other, share ideas and carry each other. We do belong to one
government and we are accountable as one.

Honourable Speaker, our efforts to capacitate municipalities must be done in
coordination with Project Consolidate. Project Consolidate, if we remember, is
a national project that identifies nominated municipalities for direct hands-on
capacitating programmes. These programmes involve an integrated approach of the
various stakeholders that have a direct impact on the affairs of a
municipality.

The identified municipalities are those that fall short of certain capacity
and delivery benchmarks. In terms o f the criteria, 14 municipalities were
identified in our Province.

Honourable Speaker, we can report to you that the Project Management Unit of
Project Consolidate in the Province has been established. This has been as a
result of collaboration between our Department, the Department of Water Affairs
and Forestry and the Independent Development Trust. These entities now form
part of the Project Management Unit. Further, a Steering Committee has been
established, involving representatives of each of the affected municipalities.
We have also directly involved the Development Bank of South Africa in the
project.

We can also report to you that the capacity assessments of all the 14
municipalities have been completed. The Department has also collated all the
data from the two Izimbizo held by the President and the Deputy President in
the Province. Based on the data and the capacity assessment reports, Municipal
Action Plans are now completed.

We are now in the implementation phase of the programme and much more
emphasis will be put in during this financial year.

Honourable Speaker
In the coming first quarter of the new financial year, we will be assessing
progress made by Project Consolidate as we enter into its second and final year
so that we can make all the necessary interventions where the needs arise. It
must be remembered that in the past year, we finalised eight Element Action
Plans required in order to make the identified municipalities become
functional. These Action Plans focussed on key strategic areas of interventions
such as service delivery, financial viability, governance, infrastructure
development, organisational development, local economic development and
institutional transformation. These Plans were finalised by special teams,
which were set up to assist municipalities review the implementation plans.

To ensure that the public is kept abreast of the developments of Project
Consolidate, we will begin monthly updates of the latest developments around
the programme. This should begin in earnest in the new financial year.

Honourable Speaker
To show the good work being done by Project Consolidate, I can cite an example
of a sanitation programme in six municipalities that the PMU is currently
supporting. The PC has been allocated R4m for the construction of toilets for
PHP houses.

There was also a working session held between districts, PC municipalities
and the PMU in March to align programmes in the New Year. The PMU has been
further allocated funding of R1 million for capacity building within Project
Consolidate municipalities for all officials identified in the key strategic
areas. Training will begin in April 2006.

Honourable Speaker
The Honourable Premier correctly identified the fight against corruption as a
priority.

The practises of the corrupt can only serve as a tumour that consumes all
our carefully laden plans for an accountable and responsive government. That we
have the commitment of this government and that measures have already been
taken to fight this scourge is an indication of the seriousness with which this
matter is being approached.

It is in the context of these efforts to rid ourselves of this challenge
that we are meticulously implementing the recommendations of the Task Team led
by Mr Lazarus Mahlangu. The law enforcement agencies are engaged in bringing
the guilty to book.

We have also made the Report public and announced the steps that we have
taken in order to tighten the loopholes that were identified by the Task
Team.

In fact, Honourable Speaker, the investigations that were undertaken are
already bearing fruit. As we said earlier, a contractor who fraudulently
claimed around R4 million for work not done is currently facing a criminal and
a civil claim. We have also managed to recoup some R560 000 from another
dishonest developer. The Department has also disciplined and discharged
officials linked to these contractors.

Honourable Speaker, what we can assure you is that there is a will to
confront this scourge. We are also confident that with improved systems the
room for impropriety will surely diminish.

These systems, Honourable Speaker, we mentioned in our Budget Address of
2005 that we will be setting up as part of laying down a strategic plan for the
Department.

The strategy was developed around an examination of the constitutional
obligations of the Department and an assessment whether the Department was
structurally and otherwise geared to meet these obligations. The Department
engaged the services of specialists to undertake the assessment. The prognosis
simply indicated that the Department, as it was structured, was not an
appropriate vehicle to meet its constitutional obligations. With this
knowledge, the Department commenced with the arduous task of developing a
Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) that contained the necessary measures to
achieve its objectives. This BPR entailed, amongst others, the following
measures:

* A restructuring of the administration
* A capacity audit that literally required an analysis of all the skills in the
department and establishing whether they were appropriately placed
* The creation of a linkage with the University of Limpopo to fill the capacity
gaps and to ensure succession
* The development of a communication strategy that is integrated with the
municipalities of the Province
* Establishing a performance management system
* Establishing a system to monitor municipalities
* The facilitation of the transfer of water functions to nominated
municipalities
* An assessment of the housing delivery programme and an analysis of the
blockages that are impacting on the rate and the quality of delivery
* The development of a policy to allocate houses in the Province. This policy
addresses planning from the municipalities and allocation to beneficiaries
based on the Breaking New Ground policy on human settlements of the national
Department of Housing. A follow on from this process would be to develop a
booklet in vernacular that would be distributed to communities to inform the
public of how houses are allocated in the Province
* An assessment and strategy have been developed to address land use management
that would be inclusive in an attempt to bring all stakeholders in the process
allowing for closer engagements between the Province and municipalities
* The development of a strategy and policy on risk management aligned to the
Public Finance Management Act, to ensure that adequate risks are monitored and
measured to minimise the risk of service delivery failure due to inherent risks
within the Department

This blueprint was presented to the Development Bank of South Africa for its
support.

The Department has not only now received a grant of R3,8 million for the
project, but we are also looking forward to the technical assistance from the
Bank. We must thank the Bank, particularly, Mrs Jeanette Nhlapo, for having
confidence in our efforts.

We are indeed pleased to report to you, Honourable Speaker, that much of the
objectives we sought to achieve are coming to fruition. The changes that ensued
from these endeavours are already beginning to bear fruit. The latent energies
of our staff are now channelled and more purposeful with the result we have an
enhanced imagination and improved productivity. There is still much to do but
the sight of light at the end of the tunnel invigorates us more. Di retwa di
boya mokatong.

Allow me, Honourable Speaker, to use this occasion to mention that we will
be, as of 1 April 2006, strengthening our senior management with additional
strategic appointments.

These new managers will join our recently appointed Head of Department, Mr
Leshabe Rampedi.

Having said that, we must emphasise that there are many challenges that lay
ahead.

We believe that some strategy must be developed in the very near future to
address the skills challenge that we face. We will have to popularise the civil
service. Our policies, as sound as they may be, simply cannot be implemented if
we do not have the necessary technical skills - they are the engine room of any
department. We need to develop a core competency of engineers, technicians and
other local government specialists in our Department and municipalities in the
Province. We believe that with a collective governmental strategy; this
challenge will be met.

Honourable Speaker
The Department has always stated that planning must be given the necessary
attention that it deserves. In that light we saw it appropriate, under the
leadership of the Honourable Premier and his hardworking Director-General, Dr
Nelly Manzini, to embark on District IDP Summits in the latter part of last
year. This process, which fundamentally improved relevant stakeholders’
participation, included all stakeholders necessary, and ensured that our
municipalities review their Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) in time so that
when the new councils assume office; programmes geared to accelerating service
delivery would not suffer.

To further ensure the success of the IDPs we will, in the 2006/07 fiscal
year, be assisting in the training of staff within the Department who will
supervise the preparations and pre-assessment of IDPs so that these plans
comply with the legislations and Provincial priorities as stipulated in the
Provincial Growth and Development Strategy.

Honourable Speaker, while there is an overall long-term strategy that is
being implemented for the provision of infrastructure in the Province, the
Honourable Premier correctly decided that immediate interventions had to be
made. An amount of R200 million was made available by the Honourable Premier
for these interventions. The interventions concentrated on the acceleration of
the water and electrification programmes.

We would also like to inform the House that we have already utilised more
than 60 % of the PEIG, which was only made available to us in the last two
months of 2005. We are certain that we would be able to use all the remaining
funds in the coming months.

This is an indication that with an improved administrative structure, much
can be achieved.

Honourable Speaker, we are proud to inform you that we have already opened
the taps at one of the water projects, which benefited from the Premiers
Emergency Infrastructure Grant. The Seswikaneng Water Project in the
Lepelle-Nkumpi Municipality is already benefiting some 700 households who have
been struggling for years to get clean water. We would like to thank Kgosigadi
Matlala and her community for welcoming us with open arms and acknowledging the
crucial role that the Seswikaneng project will have on their livelihood and
development. Another 1 000 families in the municipality have also gained access
to this life-giving source, all thanks to the PEIG. We will be spending R18
million alone in the provision of water in the Capricorn District Municipality.
In Sekhukhune, some R27 million will be spent on water projects. R13 million is
to help the Bohlabela communities’ access water; R6 million is assisting
residents in Mopani; R16 million goes to Waterberg and the Vhembe District will
use R18million from the PEIG for boosting its water provision capacity.

Furthermore, the Department has taken the initiative of engaging the donor
community to forge partnerships. As a consequence, the Council of Theologians
in the Muslim community have already opened six boreholes in strategic areas,
with a promise of more. We wish to acknowledge their presence and express our
gratitude.

We have also switched on electricity for the Magakala-a-Ntwampe villagers in
the Greater Tubatse Municipality. We have to express our gratitude to Kgosi
Ntwampe and the orphaned Thobejane family for allowing us to share their joy at
getting electricity in their home. A total number of 22 027 families in our
Province have already benefited through the Emergency Infrastructure Grant. In
the Waterberg District, we will be spending R6 million; the Vhembe District
received R18 million; projects in Mopani get R18 million while the Sekhukhune
District Municipality gets R25 million. In the Capricorn District, we will be
using R26 million to accelerate our electrification programmes.

This includes the connection of around 1 400 households at a cost of almost
R8million in and around ZCC Moria City and ZCC St Engenas. This is in
accordance with the directive of the Honourable Premier to develop this
important area of our Province and turn it into a mecca for the millions who
make their annual Easter pilgrimage.

Honourable Speaker
We will, in this financial year, be placing more attention on ensuring that
funds earmarked for the provision of bulk infrastructure are actually used. The
Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) will receive more attention and the new
structure that we have set up places more emphasis on the Department in
checking whether this Grant is being spent and where there are problems, the
Department needs to intervene sooner and assist municipalities to spend those
funds, and spend them well.

Honourable Speaker
We stand before this House today to declare to all and sundry that by the end
of December 2006, the Department would have facilitated the spending of more
than 70% of the R821million that were allocated for MIG for the year. This is a
commitment that we make to the people of this Province, mindful that if we fail
more of our people would remain on the sidelines of development. We are in fact
saying that we would by November, have spent, some R600 million on bulk
infrastructure such as water and electricity.

Honourable Speaker
We must also stress that we will be working extra hard to make sure that a
significant portion of the R821million to be spent on Municipal Infrastructure
Grant (MIG) is largely implemented under the Expanded Public Works Programme
(EPWP). Our target is to raise our EPWP programmes within the MIG to 30% from a
current base of zero. This will allow for an increasing number of our low
skilled workers especially women to gain employment and skills. This, we
believe, is in line with the aim of creating jobs and fighting poverty. It is
also in line with our PGDS.

We will at the same time continue emphasising that the MIG programmes are
aligned to the municipalities IDPs so that our infrastructure supports our
Provincial strategies.

While we are busy with the spending for the financial year, we are also
placing focus on planning for projects which we will roll out in the 2007/08
financial year. If we do not work in this manner, Honourable Speaker, we will
forever be forced to delay implementation of our infrastructure programmes as
we will be planning when we should in fact be delivering.

Honourable Speaker
The provision of universal access to free basic services remains the
cornerstone of our service delivery programmes targeted toward the poor. To
this end, we are going to be ensuring that municipalities finalise indigent
policies and make sure that proper indigent registers are administered. To
ensure that these policies are of benefit to those they are intended to help,
we will, throughout the year, conduct District campaign awareness so that
people know about these important services. Equally, we would want to ensure
that those who can afford services do, indeed, pay for those services.

Honourable Speaker
We believe that the Province will be pleased to know that we, as a Department,
will now be playing a more active role in the roll-out of our Local Economic
Development (LED) programme. Significantly, we will strengthen our
international and local partnerships in order to ensure that local economic
growth and development programmes are in line with the PGDS and the Accelerated
and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (AsgiSA). We must carry out this
task mindful of international trends that show that the biggest employers in
many developed and developing countries are not the big corporations but rather
the small businesses located in communities and serving the specific needs of
those communities.

Honourable Speaker
We have in the past year spoken at length about the formalisation of rural
villages into proclaimed towns. The Department has in the past twelve months
held meetings with stakeholders and boundaries about the proclamation of Jane
Furse into a town with new boundaries. All that is left is the finalisation of
the plans for the establishment of a town and the township register is expected
to be opened in the second half of the financial year. The town of Burgersfort
will be looked at for expansion, with extensive plans being submitted in the
latter part of the financial year.

Also in this fiscal year will be focusing on the extension of existing towns
in Giyani, Vuwani, Motetema, Seshego and Tubatse. The programme will be greatly
informed by a needs analysis of the municipalities and priority will be placed
on fast-tracking the extensions in line with the PGDS and the Integrated
Sustainable Rural Development Programme (ISRDP).

Honourable Speaker
The Honourable President and the Honourable Premier have stated on numerous
occasions the need for Provinces to support municipalities in order for this
sphere of government to meet the mandate of building better communities. For
us, this call was apt as one. We will, Honourable Speaker, be spending some R13
million on implementing the Provincial Capacity Building Strategy at
municipalities. Special focus will be placed on Project Consolidate
municipalities. This will see the training of officials in key skills necessary
to deliver quality services to our communities. This includes training and
mentorship for communicators within municipalities. This communications
training will take place twice a year per District.

We will also assist in the development of functional Performance Management
Systems in all 30 municipalities in our Province. Above this, we will help
facilitate monthly, quarterly and annual reports of performance in our
municipalities. This will certainly strengthen municipalities in the way they
function and manage their personnel.

Moreover, the Department will also continue supporting municipalities in
setting up effective information technology (IT) systems. This includes
providing IT technical advisory support for all municipalities. The Department
will invest R11 million in orders to facilitate the implementation of the
Municipal e-governance plan.

Honourable Speaker and Members
As part of our endeavours to enhance the disaster-readiness of the Province, we
will, at a cost of R2 million be developing a disaster risk management plan.
Its implementation phase is expected to be by the beginning of 2007.

We will also be assessing the capacity and functions of our fire services in
the coming fiscal year. R10million will be used to buy new equipment which will
be delivered to municipalities in 2007.

Honourable Speaker
To further ensure that we are disaster-ready in 2005 we provided funding to the
Waterberg District Municipality to set up its own Disaster Management Centre
(DMC) and its construction is near completion. The Centre will soon be
operational. In the coming financial year, we will give the Sekhukhune District
Municipality R6 million and the Mopani District Municipality an amount of R4
million for the building of their own disaster management hubs. We will also
work to align the DMCs with other emergency services which are provided by our
sister departments, like the Health Department.

The DMCs will allow the districts to be able to react faster when there are
disasters and also put in place measures, which will soften the impact of
disasters in the event that they do occur.

Honourable Speaker
The provision of adequate housing and decent shelter remain a major challenge
for the Province. Based of the Task Team Report, and other management
observations, the Department has embarked on a review of the different housing
programmes and is currently implementing a turnaround strategy to deal with the
matter.

We have decided to form a Project Management Unit (PMU) with immediate
effect. It will function to ensure that delivery takes place immediately while
strategies are being developed and implemented. This PMU will consist of
specialists that will be partners to the officials of the Department with the
express objectives of expediting service delivery and transferring skills to
the Department.

Equally, we have restructured the units in the Department responsible for
housing and through the skills audit we will be placing officials where skills
will be utilised more productively.

The new housing strategy reinforces the vision of promoting the achievement
of a non-racial, integrated society through the development of sustainable
human settlements and quality housing. The specific objectives of the strategy
are:

*·Accelerating the delivery of housing as a key strategy in poverty
alleviation
* Utilising provision of housing as a major job creation strategy
*·Ensuring property can be accessed by all as an asset for wealth creation and
empowerment
*·Leveraging growth in the economy
*· Combating crime, promoting social cohesion and improving quality of life for
the poor
* Supporting the functioning of the entire single residential property market
to reduce duality within the sector by breaking barriers between the first
economy residential property boom and the second economy slump
*·Utilising housing as an instrument for the development of sustainable human
settlements, in support of spatial restructuring

Honourable Speaker
To ensure that we make true the promise of building integrated and sustainable
communities, the Department is proud to announce that through a groundbreaking
agreement between SALGA and the national Housing Department, municipalities
have agreed to a moratorium on the sale of land. Under the deal, municipalities
will first offer land to the Department before proceeding to sell it to other
players in the industry. This will allow us to build affordable housing for our
people in the towns of our Province close to where they work. This, we believe,
will greatly speed up our programme of de-racialising and integrating our
communities.

Honourable Speaker and Members
As we deal with the implementation of the current projects we are acutely aware
of the many unfinished housing projects, as well as those whose quality needs
to be rectified. These include blocked projects and those projects currently
being implemented under PHP. We are engaging the national Housing Department,
donor funding organisations, and the Provincial Treasury to secure funding in
order to deal with these accumulated backlogs.

As we have said before, we have put in place systems and mechanisms to
ensure better capacity so that, when we move forward, we build quality houses
within sustainable communities.

One of our goals as a government is to have a shack-free Limpopo by 2014.
This year we will be conducting a study on migration patterns in order to
develop a database on informal settlements. By the end of the financial year,
we will have a report on spatial trends and this will allow us to tackle the
issue of shacks in the Province head-on.

Honourable Speaker
The demarcation of suitable sites is an important part of the Department’s
programme of building sustainable human settlements. But this task is very
difficult to undertake without the complementary spatial analysis and
monitoring. We will be strengthening our work with the Planning and
Co-ordinating Unit within the Premier’s Office in order to improve our spatial
planning. We are currently closely working with the Department of Economic
Affairs, Environment and Tourism in order to align the Provincial Spatial
Rationale with environmental legislation and strategy. This is necessary so
that the environmental impact is taken into cognizance by our spatial
developmental programmes.

Honourable Speaker
In our Address to this House last year, we had raised the concern that land was
used in an unplanned fashion. It is for this reason that we embarked on a plan
to improve and use management in order to build sustainable human settlements.
We have, accordingly, proceeded with the demarcation of sites. We have made
substantial progress in this regard. We plan to demarcate a further 33 000
sites in the 2006/07 financial year.

More than anything, Mr Speaker, ours is a task of promoting orderly
settlements where all residents are close to the amenities such as schools,
clinics, police services and recreational facilities. We believe that we need
to continue to stress that our government will not tolerate those who illegally
occupy land. We are in agreement with our people that the need for land close
to their areas of work cannot be overstated.

But, we cannot, as a responsible government, allow for anarchy and the
exploitation of our people by those individuals who realise the vulnerable
situation our people find themselves in.

Honourable Speaker
We have said that we are no longer just building brick and mortar houses as a
Department. We are now Breaking New Ground in housing and Building Sustainable
Integrated Human Settlements. This simply means that we will no longer be
driven by the urge to build for the sake of building houses. We will rather be
building communities which have access to all the relevant services.

Honourable Speaker, the challenges around housing are public knowledge. We
would like to assure the House and our communities that we are turning the
corner in this crucial programme.

Accordingly, we will be spending R521 million in this BNG programme in the
2006/07. This will allow us to use R388 million to build 13 268 houses and the
remaining R133 million will be used to acquire land for some of our social
housing programmes – such as the historic agreement we have with mining
companies. A special word of thanks must be mentioned here to Anglo-platinum
and the Sunflower Housing Corporation for responding speedily to our call and
agreeing to building a total 2 000 housing units in several municipalities,
including the Greater Tubatse, Mogalakwena, Thabazimbi and Polokwane
municipalities. We must also express our deepest thanks to other mining houses
who have agreed to assist us in providing social/rental housing for their
employees. We will also use parts of the R133m to build crèches, community
halls and other recreational facilities in the areas we will be developing.
Some of the R133 million will support the building of emergency housing as and
when the need arises.

Last year, Honourable Speaker, we went around the Province and engaged the
youth and people living with disability on issues pertaining to our work. Those
workshops have proven very useful and we will be implementing the suggestions
made to assist us take our mandate forward quicker. This includes the building
of houses which are friendly for those who live with disability. We will use
some of the R133million to make the necessary structural changes to our houses
where necessary.

Honourable Speaker
We are certain that this House will be pleased to know that we have already
finished allocating developers for the new financial year. We have also
finalised our beneficiary list for the new financial year. So, our contractors
have no excuses whatsoever but to start building when the new financial year
begins. We do this bearing in mind that effective planning is the only way we
can conclude building houses for our people in the financial year of
allocation.

We will spend R134 million constructing 4 000 houses under our programme of
upgrading informal settlements.

A R100 million will go towards building 3 000 houses under the Rural Housing
Programme. This is in line with building houses for our people where they
live.

We will also use R26 million to build 800 houses under the People’s Housing
Process (PHP). This is a programme that is municipality driven and where
communities have a larger say about the type of structure they want.

A further R50 million will be used to complete 1 500 housing units under the
social/rental stock. This is to provide decent shelter to those who do not want
to permanently stay in towns but are forced to be in town for work purposes and
on a temporary basis.

Honourable Speaker
We have put aside R6.7 million for the building of 200 housing units in an
historic Agri- Village project. This pilot project will be housing farm
labourers in decent shelter and close to their areas of work. This is also in
line with Breaking New Ground and ensuring that indeed housing is provided for
all citizens of this country especially the most vulnerable.

R33.5 million will be directed at building 1 000 housing units under the
Project-linked scheme. This is for green-field programmes which are mainly in
the urban centres. Those who are earning above R3 500 per month and thus do not
qualify for RDP subsidies will also be catered for. Some 500 houses for that
income group will be supported with subsidies from the Department under the
Credit-linked Subsidies programme.

This will cost the Department R16.7 million.

Furthermore, R700 000 will be spent on completing a Provincial Geo-Tech
database. This will be connected with the Department’s GIS and help areas
without Geo-Tech Reports.

Honourable Speaker
A few weeks ago we were at the Westernburg Hall in Polokwane at a handover
ceremony for title deeds of beneficiaries of the Discount Benefit Scheme. The
joy we witnessed on the faces of the old people who have paid rent for many
years was simply indescribable. We recall the heartening statement by one of
the title deed recipient Mama Rosie Stander – who is also one of the first
residents of Westernburg – who said she was overwhelmed at receiving her title
deed after so many years of renting. Mrs Stander is among us today. Also among
us is the grey-haired old man, Oupa Gabriel Knight, who attended the ceremony
but was unable to get his title deed.

We want to say to him, ons het ‘n belofte gemaak dat ons die papiere by Oom
se huis sal bring – en se ons weer vandag dat ons sal die belofte na
gemaak.

Honourable Speaker
We have about 2098 assets that we need to give back to our people. Progress has
been steady as tracking rightful owners and cross-checking their data with that
of the Registrar of Deeds can be long and complicated. However, we are
confident that we will meet the goals we set for ourselves. In advancing that
programme we will, this year, be giving back 2 672 assets to their rightful
owners under the Discount Benefit Scheme.

To protect our people who are in renting properties in our Province, many
will be glad to know that we will be developing and implementing rental housing
regulations by March 2007. Public hearings on the matter will be held in the
next three months, where our people will make the necessary inputs. We will
also be registering pre-emptive rights of the Department where each low-cost
house will be endorsed to avert the selling / attachment of RDP houses prior to
the expiry of eight years of ownership.

We will also, together with the national Housing Department, be embarking on
Consumer Awareness Education programmes on owners’ rights and duties so that
the sale or illegal rental of these units is prevented.

Honourable Speaker
We will continue to assist emerging contractors gain the necessary skills
through our Sakhasonke programme. This is to provide the contractors with the
requisite skills so that they are able to meet the challenges of building
proper houses in habitable areas.

This year, 40 contractors will benefit from the programme.

We will further work with our national Housing counterparts, to seek
alternative technologies of housing our people. To get best practice on these
matters, we will, through the national government, be engaging our
international partners including, India, Brazil, South Africa (IBSA)
Commission.

Our people will also be happy to know that we will be setting up a housing
toll-free number before the end of June. This will allow for people to raise
issues on the problems they encounter in housing and provide us with adequate
information so that we can intervene timeously.

At this juncture we would like to thank Ntlaletseng Contractors, MPPJ
Developers, Fikile Contractors and Try Developers for responding to our call
for assistance. At their own cost, they built houses for five destitute
families in a very short space of time.

These included families from the Molemole; Polokwane; Greater Tzaneen,
Greater Letaba and Thulamela municipalities. Indeed, these actions showed that
our people, specifically our housing stakeholders, are realising that the duty
of housing our people belongs to all of us. It is also saying that, together,
we can push back the frontiers of poverty. We challenge other contractors to
also join in this programme so that we are able to reach more of our vulnerable
families in the Province. Without the involvement of these contractors,
Honourable Speaker, the Seanego orphans and Mama Chokoe, the mother of Sello
Chokoe, would still be without proper shelter. Our housing programme can only
be accelerated if we work in this manner.

Honourable Speaker
In conclusion, I want to pay my special respects to two of our special
beneficiaries who have made my work worthwhile even when I feel the mountains
are too high to climb. I want to acknowledge Koko Maphote Thobejane, the
95-year old recipient of one of our houses in Fetakgomo. When I saw the smile
on her face as she opened her house in February, I knew that we had certainly
entered into the Age of Hope.

The other woman who has made an impact in her community and in my heart is
Mama Beka Ntsanwisi. Mama Ntsanwisi has put her own personal challenges aside
and extended her hand of love to the many orphans, the sick and the vulnerable
in our Province who are struggling everyday because of poverty. Through her
organisation, Mama Beka Ntsanwisi Projects, this remarkable lady has been
helping care for the sick and even bury those who are poverty-stricken. She
also builds houses and provides counselling for the poor. To help her in this
honourable and humbling job, we have accepted the honour to go into partnership
with her and build 50 houses to assist the needy in our Province. We feel this
is the least we can do to show our appreciation for the sterling work. To her I
would like to say, u tivekile andaku pfuneta van’wana.

Endla tano na mundzuku! (You have placed other peoples’ needs before your
own. May you do the same tomorrow?)

Lastly, I would like to thank Mr Karl Henning of Mununzwu Newco for his
immense assistance to the Department. Mr Henning is a commercial farmer and we
have entered into a partnership with him in order to build 60 PHP houses for
farm workers in the Vhembe District. We want to say that we appreciate the
patriotism and commitment of nation building that Mr Henning has shown. We call
on other commercial farmers to take a leaf of Mr Henning’s book and also
realise that this country belongs to all of us and it will take all of us to
build it into what we want it to be.

Honourable Speaker
Our budget, will thus look like this for the year 2006/07:

Summary of expenditure estimates 2006/07 fiscal year

Per Programme: Local Government and Housing
* Programme 1: Administration - R106 599 000
* Programme 2: Housing - R604 777 000
* Programme 3: Local Government - R47 775 000
* Programme 4: Development and Planning - R75 007 000
* Total budget estimates for 2006/07 - r834 158 000

Summary of expenditure estimates 2006/07 fiscal year

Per Economic Classification: Local Government and Housing
* Current Payments
* Compensation of Employees - R158 591 000
* Goods and Services - R131 297 000
* Transfers and Subsidies
* Households - R523 175 000
* Provinces and Municipalities (gratuities) - R10 590 000

Payments of Capital Assets
* Building and other fixed structures - R1 194 000
* Machinery and Equipment - R8 811 000
* Software and other Intangible assets - R500 000

Total economic classification R834 158 000

Honourable Speaker
One of the stalwarts of our liberation and rightfully, South Africa’s first
democratically elected president, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela once said: “After
climbing a great hill, one finds that there are more hills to climb”.

I believe that this is a correct assessment of our Department, one year
after I assumed office. But the fact that we have climbed this great hill which
has yielded so many positive results simply asserts that even the hills which
we are to meet on our way there will be success, there will be development.
There will be a hope that ours was not a struggle in vain.

I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Local Government and Housing, Limpopo Provincial
Government
30 March 2006
Source: Limpopo Provincial Government (http://www.limpopo-dlgh.gov.za)