M Nkoana-Mashabane: Limpopo Local Government and Housing Prov Budget
Vote 2007/08

10 May 2007

Mr Speaker and Madam Deputy Speaker
Honourable Premier, Sello Moloto and colleagues in the Executive Council
Honourable members of the National Assembly and National Council of Provinces
(NCOP)
Honourable members of the Provincial Legislature
Executive mayors and mayors of local municipalities
Chairperson and members of the House of Traditional Leaders
Our esteemed majesties
Leaders of Chapter Nine and Ten Institutions
Leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) and other political
organisations
Stalwarts and Veterans of our struggle
Leadership of various religious denominations
Women, youth, business, labour and community leaders present here
Your excellencies
Members of the diplomatic corpse
The Malaysian delegation led by Dato Napsia Omar
Members of the media fraternity
Distinguished guests, comrades, ladies and gentlemen
The people of Limpopo

In 1976, October 26, OR Tambo when addressing the plenary meeting of the
United Nations General Assembly in New York said, "The struggle of progressive
humanity for the total and final elimination of the evil system of colonialism
in Africa has entered its decisive penultimate stage. Confidence in the
certainty and imminence of victory is moving the colonised people from Djibouti
on the Somali coast to Cape Agulhas South Africa to attain unprecedented
heights of heroism in the pursuit of that popular outcome."

Some 18 years after this profound and visionary pronouncement, we the people
of South Africa attained freedom and began an immense task of transforming our
country into a non racial, non sexist, democratic and prosperous society.

This year we will celebrate 40 years of the Wankie and Spolilo campaign led
by ANC freedom fighters to liberate South Africa from apartheid and the
Nationalist Party regime.

Honourable Speaker, in this House we have amongst us one of our veterans who
participated in the Wankie and Spolilo campaign as a senior commander, Bra Ike
Maphoto. I am reliably informed that the honourable member recently celebrated
his 76th birthday. We want to take this opportunity to congratulate and wish
him well. We wish all other veterans well; we are in this august house because
of your sacrifices.

Honourable Speaker, we have declared ourselves to be in the midst of the age
of hope. A Christian Saint, St Clement once said, "If you do not hope, you will
never find what is beyond your hope." It is a hope that emerged from the many
struggles of our land, a struggle that was nourished by the dreams of a people
desirous of extricating itself from the bondages of poverty. And as sure as the
sun emerges from the east, each passing day a ray touches the passion that
demands of government to make that dream a reality.

When our people participated in the previous local government elections in
March last year, they emphasised their support for our plan to make local
government work better. In essence they confirmed their determination to enter
into a partnership with our government to eradicate poverty and all other
vestiges of apartheid.

In line with the quest to make local government work better we have
developed a five year strategic agenda for local government. The strategy
focuses on five key performance areas namely:

* building institutional capacity and municipal transformation
* improving basic service delivery and infrastructure
* financial viability and management
* good governance and public participation
* Local Economic Development (LED).

As outlined in the five-year local government strategic agenda, each of our
municipalities must develop Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) aligned to the
Provincial Growth and Development Strategy (PGDS) and the National Spatial
Development Perspective (NSDP).

Honourable Speaker, an IDP is a crucial tool for effective local governance.
It is a strategic plan for development and management of a municipality and
performs three key functions:

* it links, integrates and co-ordinates plans, schemes and proposals for
future development by the whole of government and private sector at a local
level
* it aligns resources and capacity of municipality for the implementation of
plans
* it forms the policy framework and general basis on which future budgets are
based.

All of us should play a meaningful role in the IDP process.

Honourable Speaker, the national assessment of municipal IDPs has just been
completed and it has shown particular areas that require concerted efforts to
improve service delivery, amongst others these challenges include the need for
institutional inefficiencies of our municipalities.

We have conducted IDP engagement sessions in all district municipalities to
support the efforts of developing credible IDPs. We are glad to report that our
municipalities have adopted their draft IDPs and budgets with the exception of
two which are still finalising the process. Accordingly, their budgets will
support the rolling out of these plans. Our plan is to ensure that we improve
on the number of credible IDPs in the province.

Honourable Speaker, we have made substantial strides in rolling out the
Municipal Performance Management (MPM) system in the municipalities in an
effort to accelerate service delivery. The system is designed to ensure that
all senior officials sign performance contracts and are assessed on a quarterly
basis. It's encouraging to note that 83% of senior officials in the
municipalities have signed these agreements.

Our municipalities have already started to submit their quarterly
performance reports to the Department. We shall in due course table a report to
this House on the state of municipalities in the province.

Honourable Speaker, we are forging ahead with plans to ensure that
organograms of municipalities are addressing the appointment of people with
rare skills such as planning, engineering and financial management. We have in
the meantime in partnership with the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA)
deployed officials who have the requisite skills to enhance service delivery in
our municipalities.

As part of strengthening the capacity of local government to deliver we will
also pursue the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

The Premier's Intergovernmental Forum took a decision to develop and
implement a single integrated financial system for all the municipalities in
our province. Accordingly, we will prioritise the development of a Single
Integrated Financial (SIF) system for all our municipalities.

Honourable Speaker, as part of Project Consolidate we have supported 15
identified municipalities with technical skills for proper planning and
programme management. We have improved the provision of free basic services as
well as ensuring that all municipalities have proper indigent registers.

We have in conjunction with strategic partners deployed 12 technical experts
to various municipalities in the areas of engineering, town planning, finance
and project management. All the project consolidate municipalities are
receiving and implementing the municipal infrastructure grants. Of the 15
municipalities, 11 submitted their financial statements on time compared to
only six the previous year.

Honourable Speaker, we are in the process of documenting best practices
emanating from Project Consolidate in line with our provincial knowledge
management strategy. Two projects have already been profiled in the areas of
public participation and financial viability in Blouberg and Marble-Hall local
municipalities, respectively.

Our focus for the future will be to further strengthen capacities in the
areas of spatial planning, project management, financial management to ensure
sustainability of our municipalities. We are pleased to report that we have
added more capacity in the Project Consolidate team; Mr JNT Mohlala, the
Accountant-General in Treasury has been seconded to our team for two years. His
broad knowledge, leadership and financial management skills will be very useful
in supporting municipalities.

Honourable Speaker, as of March 2007 our municipalities spent 86% of the
R821 million Municipal Infrastructure Grants (MIG) allocation, compared to the
national average of 82%. All our municipalities are now implementing the MIG,
compared to only 15 municipalities in the 2005/06 financial year.

Since 2004 the province has spent 5,5 billion rand from the MIG fund and
this has led to amongst others 140 000 new jobs being created.

In 2006/07 alone, 13 020 jobs were created and thus providing employment
worth R520 million. Out of those employed, 30% were women, 35% were men, 30%
were youth and 5% were disabled. All the above persons employed on the projects
were provided with training.

The province has also implemented projects through the Premier's Emergency
Infrastructure Grant (PEIG) as part of ensuring that we address service
delivery backlogs and we are able to meet the national targets.

Honourable Speaker, water is life. Early this year the honourable Minister
of Water Affairs and Forestry Lindiwe Hendricks joined the honourable Premier
Sello Moloto at a sod turning ceremony for De Hoop Dam. This is a major
development towards enhancing delivery of projects that fall under Accelerated
and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (AsgiSA). The construction of De
Hoop Dam will be a major thirst quencher for our people in Sekhukhune and
beyond. We must also plan in advance so that we derive the many downstream
economic opportunities that will arise with the completion of this dam.
Bagologolo bare "Sikisha dira le molapo, Mphago wa dira ke meets."

Honourable Speaker, as we improve access to water in our province, it
becomes pertinent that our municipalities should put more emphasis and
resources in the maintenance and operations of the water schemes. Maintenance
will prolong the life of the infrastructure. In the same breath we wish to make
a call that all those who can afford to pay for the water they consume must
pay. We shall all strive to save and conserve water.

Honourable Speaker, in Limpopo we subscribe to the notion that water is life
and sanitation is dignity. We recently held a successful provincial sanitation
symposium to grapple with sanitation challenges confronting our province. We
emerged out of that symposium with a detailed action plan on how our province
will achieve the national Millennium Development Goal of universal access to
household sanitation by 2010.

Our Department is committed to restore the dignity and pride of our people
by accelerating their access to decent sanitation. In pursuit of this goal, we
are busy exploring several technological innovations to address challenges of
sanitation.

Honourable Speaker, water is a scarce resource in our province. Therefore
dry rural sanitation is a relevant intervention in this regard. Our waste is
our wealth. We have no option but to use the best available technologies to
recycle our waste for other economically beneficial practices.

Our Department has entered into a partnership with the Sulabh International
Academy of Environmental Sanitation based in New Delhi, India to introduce the
Sulabh flush compost toilets in our province. This toilet system is renowned
for being eco-friendly, affordable and it uses less water compared to ordinary
flushing toilets. An added advantage is that they are easy to construct by
using local labour. Therefore, their construction will create employment for
our people in the rural areas. We are planning to pilot this project in four of
our municipalities. We will ensure that it's the beneficiaries themselves;
particularly rural women who will build these toilets in line with the Expanded
Public Works Programme (EPWP). For we maintain that development is about
people.

Muthomphei Mulangadzulo, Kha vha ri ndi livhuwe Vho-Trevor Mulaudzi sa munwe
wa tsumbo dzavhudi kha vundu lashu. Vho-Mulaudzi vho vha muthu we a diimisela u
kunakisa mabunga na u funza vhana vha zwikolo u fara mabunga avho zwavhudi sa
vhana vha tshikolo tsha Mbilwi. Mushumo hoyu vho u ita nga u tou funa vhone
vhane.

Currently Vho Trevor Mulaudzi serves as a deputy president of the World
Toilet Organisation. He has been invited by the Minister of Local Government
and Housing in Malaysia, Datuk Robert Lau, to speak about cleaning of school
toilets during their National Toilet Expo and Forum in Sibu, Malaysia in August
this year. Mr Mulaudzi is here with us today. I would like to join the people
of Limpopo is saying salamat jalan (have a safe and successful trip).

Honourable Speaker, our Department is determined to ensure that power supply
in the province is sustainable. Eskom has undertaken to roll out a plan to
enhance its capacity to deliver electricity in the municipalities with effect
from 2007. Currently, we can confidently report that plans are afoot to install
a second power supply line in the city of Polokwane.

We trust that this will support the flourishing growth of both the private
and public sectors.

We have analysed indigent polices of all the municipalities in the province
and conducted free basic services awareness campaigns.

Consequently, we have witnessed a significant increase in collection of
tokens for free basic electricity (FBE) particularly in the rural areas. For
instance, 115 000 out of 160 000 collected FBE tokens within Eskom licensed
areas.

In and around Zion Christian Church Moria City and St Engenas Zion Christian
Church, 1 400 households have been electrified at a cost of R8 million. We will
continue our partnership with both churches in an effort to meet the growing
needs of their annual pilgrimages by investing in infrastructural
development.

Honourable Speaker, we would like to complement Tzaneen for the recognition
they got as the cleanest town in our province last year. This bears testimony
to the fact that Tzaneen has a well planned waste management strategy.

We would like to urge other municipalities to follow Tzaneen's example. We
need to attend to issues of refuse management bearing in mind that community
participation is critical and our dumping sites must be licensed.

Honourable Speaker, our province faces increasing levels of disaster risk.
It is exposed to a wide range of weather hazards ranging from drought to
floods, which can trigger widespread hardship and devastation. The role of the
Department is to ensure that the disaster management Act is implemented and
anchored in the principles of:

* integrated and co-ordinated disaster management
* establishment of disaster management centres
* disaster risk management volunteers as we move towards the 2010 soccer world
cup.

Honourable Speaker, a good disaster management strategy is like an insurance
policy you never know when you may need it. We have established a provincial
disaster advisory forum that is constituted by relevant stakeholders from both
private and public institutions. This forum envisages that all districts of our
province will have their functional disaster management centres by 2009.

The provincial disaster management forum has tasked the provincial disaster
management centre to enhance co-operation of various role players to establish
an early warning system to avert disasters if possible or act promptly when
they strike.

We are pleased to report that Waterberg district municipality's disaster
management centre in Modimolle is in its final stages of completion and will be
operational before the end of June this year.

We have allocated R4 million to Mopani District Municipality to develop its
own disaster management centre in Tzaneen and it will be completed by early
next year. Our district municipalities will soon be taking delivery of fire
fighting equipments that we recently acquired. This will enable them to respond
promptly in case of any fire emergencies.

Honourable Speaker, we are pleased to report that all 513 ward committees in
municipalities have been established in the province. The Department in
partnership with our municipalities have put a programme to capacitate ward
committees to ensure that they are functional and thus able to forge links
between the community and municipalities. In the quest to ensure good
governance, the Department is in a process of finalising a capacity building
programme together with the South African Local Government Association (SALGA)
to focus on strengthening good governance in municipalities. The programme will
address issues such as development of oversight reports by council,
implementation of the property rates act and other related programmes.

Having successfully launched Inter-governmental relations (IGR) structures
in all the districts, we will be embarking on the second phase, which will
focus on synchronising the districts' IGR forums with the provincial cluster
system.

Honourable Speaker, my councillor and I the national Parliament has adopted
as a theme for this year "Masijule Ngengxoxo Mzansi" (Let's deepen the debate,
South Africa). Our Department in partnership with our municipalities have
responded to this call with an innovative concept that we believe will not only
deepen the debate but live up to our slogan that development is about
people.

We have embarked on a partnership with South African Broadcasting
Corporation (SABC) radio stations, Thobela, Mungana lonene and Phalaphala FM as
well as 10 community radio stations in the province to broadcast a talk show
programme called "My councillor and I." This programme is designed to afford
our people an opportunity to voice their sentiments to their democratically
elected councillors. The campaign will also be rolled out in the print
media.

Honourable Speaker, an informed nation is an empowered nation. We believe
that this radio show is a potent instrument to disseminate developmental
information to our people. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our
media partners, SABC radio stations and community radio stations, local and
national newspapers.

Honourable Speaker, world acclaimed development economists Michael Todaro
and Stephen Smith argue in their book on economic development that, "Increasing
national production, raising levels of living and promoting widespread
employment opportunities are all much of a function of local history,
expectation, values, incentives, attitudes and beliefs and institutional and
power structure of both the domestic and global society as they are indeed the
direct outcomes of the manipulation of strategic economic variables such as
savings, investment, product and factor prices and foreign exchange rates."

Put differently, our municipalities in partnership with the whole of
government, business and other social role players should recognise that we can
never develop if we do not understand the socio political and cultural
dimensions of our communities, existing local resources, our country's
political economy as well as the evolving global political and economic power
relations.

It is imperative to ensure that development in municipalities is in line
with the national spatial development perspective and recognises the principles
of the Provincial Growth and Development Strategy (PGDS), hence the Executive
Council adopted the provincial LED framework that would serve as a source
document for future reference and direction to municipalities in terms of
economic development. This synchronisation shall serve to catapult the
attainment of accelerated and shared growth.

The Department has committed a total of R43 million for LED projects to
benefit local communities, private enterprises and public institutions
including municipalities and parastatals.

We are pleased to report that a total of 45 LED projects which cuts across
all sectors were awarded. Implementation of the projects has commenced and a
total of R15 million has already been disbursed.

As part of strengthening local economies, we assisted 18 municipalities with
their LED strategies and we are currently finalising strategies for the other
12 municipalities. We have set ourselves a target of ensuring that all
municipalities have credible LED strategies by 2008. In an effort to realise
this objective, all our districts have held successful growth and development
summits. Our target for this year is to disburse R165 million.

Honourable Speaker, as a province we should learn from best practice models
as we intensify the fight against poverty and underdevelopment. As a
government, both national and provincial, we are exploring the Tunisian and
Chilean models to poverty eradication in an effort to link LED projects that
seek to address this challenge. However, even before we take partnerships with
these countries further, we need to define what poverty is. We agree with the
saying that "if you can't define it, you will never eradicate it." We will be
working with office of the Premier and sector departments to define and
identify poverty pockets in the province for targeted interventions.

Honourable Speaker, assessment of performance of our municipalities has
revealed that municipalities are still grappling with financial management and
viability to an extent that the department has assisted six Project Consolidate
municipalities with the development of revenue enhancement strategy. This will
ensure that municipalities are able to develop credible billing systems and
thus improve their revenue base. In this financial year we shall be focusing on
legislative compliance in line with Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) in
partnership with SALGA.

We have also assisted Greater Tubatse, Musina, Bela Bela, Makhado, Greater
Letaba, Maruleng, and Greater Giyani municipalities with implementation of the
property rates act which should assist municipalities to raise revenue.

Honourable Speaker, the growth and development in many of our municipalities
like Greater Tubatse, Lephalale and Makhuduthamaga (Jane Furse) compels us to
be combat ready and forward looking. We have an opportunity to grow and develop
"new South African towns," while in other municipalities we shall continue to
restructure and re-order spatial patterns to build towns and settlements
underpinned by the principle of inclusion, non-racialism and
sustainability.

In Lephalale we expect an investment of over R33 billion in the coming few
years as outlined in the Premier's State of the Province address (SOPA). We are
working on a strategic plan for bulk infrastructure i.e. water, sanitation,
electricity and waste management while at the same time planning for integrated
and sustainable human settlement which will include houses, schools, clinics
and other social amenities.

All municipalities are finalising their spatial development frameworks which
will serve as a basis for spatial restructuring and development planning.
Similarly the department has put aside a budget of R62 million to address
issues of planning in municipalities. We have thus prioritised Waterberg and
Capricorn districts as well as the provincial growth points to be assisted with
the development of infrastructure investment frameworks, which is critical for
channelling infrastructure investment. Similarly, it is our plan to ensure that
all municipalities have land use management plans by the end of the current
financial year.

Honourable Speaker, renowned Philosopher Khalil Gibran once wrote "work with
love, build a house with affection as if your beloved were to dwell in
that."

The provision of housing in the province is a challenge we are determined to
meet head on. We do this mindful of the fact that we need to dismantle
apartheid settlements patterns and integrate our communities. We agree with
President Thabo Mbeki that integration must happen now.

Our approach is informed by the policy directive, Breaking New Ground (BNG)
delivery plan.

The primary goal of the programme is the creation of Integrated and
Sustainable Human Settlements whereby "new suburbs shall be built where proper
facilities shall be provided for transport, lighting, playing fields, cr�ches
and social centre's." We believe this approach will assist in building a
non-racial integrated society in line with the vision of the Freedom
Charter.

The plan supports the functioning of a single residential market designed to
reduce the duality within the sector by breaking barriers between the first
economy residential property boom and the second economy doom. Furthermore,
Breaking New Ground (BNG) provides for a more decisive intervention in the
space economy.

This shift in human settlement development approach will require a strategic
leadership by the social cluster. It is prudent for the social cluster
departments to integrate their planning and budgets in order to realise our
objectives of pushing back the frontiers of poverty and underdevelopment. In
the quest to ensure that we accomplish spatial restructuring and the
development of integrated and sustainable human settlements, the Department has
acquired the following portions of land:

* 17,9 hectares of land at Bendor Extension 100
* 6,6 hectares of land at Phalaborwa Extension 7
* 500 hectares of land at Lephalale.

We have entered into a partnership with Thubelisha and the national housing
finance to develop these portions of land. We will be building BNG houses,
affordable houses and houses for the higher income brackets. We do this mindful
of the fact that integration is not negotiable. Our people have already started
moving closer to places that offer better economic opportunities. We therefore
urge all our municipalities to negate continuation of new exclusionary housing
developments in their localities.

Honourable Speaker, let me take this opportunity to thank one of the 'think
tanks' within the property market who believes in the wisdom of integrated
human settlements. In a feature article entitled, "Things are looking promising
for cities' property market," that appeared in Private Property Magazine of Dec
2006/ January 2007, John Loos, property strategist for First National Bank
(FNB) argues that "The increase in traffic congestion in the towns and cities
of our country may ironically be on the brink of providing a solution to this
challenge through driving major changes in living and commuting patterns. It
will do this by raising the desire of an increased number of commuters to
reside within close proximity to their place of work, because time on the road
is costly." We think his analysis is spot on.

Honourable Speaker, according to a report that was tabled at the World Urban
Forum which was held in Vancouver last year, 80% of urban residents in the
developing world live in slum conditions. This government has committed itself
to the eradication of informal settlements by 2014.

Our Department's approach is two pronged. As we embark on a programme of
informal settlements upgrading, we will tighten our municipal by-laws to
prevent the mushrooming of new ones.

Last year we committed ourselves to construct 4 000 houses under our
programme of upgrading informal settlements. We had also set out to build 3 000
houses under the Rural Housing Programme. We are pleased to report that we have
surpassed both targets. Our Department has in fact upgraded 5 369 informal
settlement houses and built 7 241 houses under the Rural Housing Programme.
Being mindful of the fact that development is about people, we shall
furthermore complete 6 000 housing units under Informal Settlement Upgrading
Programme in this financial year. This, Honourable Speaker, represents a
further step in moving towards eradicating informal settlements by 2014.

Honourable Speaker, we are indeed pleased to report that a total 1 018
houses were built through People's Housing Project (PHP). This happened because
of the assistance from the seven Cuban engineers who have been deployed to
provide technical support and training as part of PHP. An added advantage of
PHP is that it creates a platform for intended beneficiaries to acquire skills
in building houses since they participate in construction of their own houses.
Our department encourages people to take charge of their own development
because we maintain that development is about people.

This is but one of the ways in which we are contributing to job
creation.

Honourable Speaker, when we say development is about people, we are saying
our people come first. Our people have waited long enough for good quality
houses and this government's delivery plans will not be hijacked or sabotaged
by anyone with a different agenda than the one that seeks to make the lives of
our people better.

Our Department has terminated contracts of non-performing developers who
failed to meet set timelines. We have replaced them with competent one's who
have a proven track record of meeting timelines. As a result, we have appointed
four big consortiums to complete 8 495 houses under blocked projects this year
costing R331 million. It is encouraging that the contractors have already
completed 300 houses and are on course to meet the timeline we have set for
them.

Our Department will continue to help emerging contractors gain the necessary
skills through our Sakhasonke Programme. We have committed R75 million to
assist Historically Disadvantaged Individuals (HDIs) to participate in the
construction business by building houses for our people. We are convinced that
this will go a long way in adding value to Broad Based Black Economic
Empowerment (BBBEE).

Honourable Speaker, we are dedicated to improve the quality of our
partnership with National Home Builders' Registration Council (NHBRC) and the
DBSA. NHBRC is assisting our Department by training emerging contractors and
also inspecting housing construction in the province for quality assurance. The
DBSA through Siyenza Manje Project has deployed a technical expert Ken
Finlayson to support our department in monitoring housing projects.

Honourable Speaker, we appreciate our private public partnership (PPP) with
mining houses that support the noble idea of integrating human settlements.

The Department and Northam Anglo Platinum mine have signed a memorandum of
understanding (MoU) through which 300 houses are being built for the employees
of the mine. Through this agreement we are providing finance linked subsidies
to qualifying employees who fall within the income bracket of R3,500 to R7,000.
We wish to appeal to other mining houses and private sector institutions to
follow the good example of Northam Anglo Platinum mine by aligning their
corporate social investment with municipal IDPs. We believe that this will be a
meaningful contribution to the fight against poverty and will also create
employment for our people.

Honourable Speaker, last year we expressed our word of gratitude to Mr Karl
Henning of Mununzwu Newco for partnering with us to build houses for his farm
workers. Once again, we would like to applaud Mr Henning for demonstrating
patriotism and commitment to nation building. Our Department committed R4,3
million to build 118 houses through this Agri-village or farm workers programme
at Makhado Municipality. We are pleased to report that a total of 52 houses
have already been complete.

Honourable Speaker, the Freedom Charter says "there shall be houses and
comfort for all." Mindful of this, last year we undertook to protect our people
by registering pre-emptive rights which will help us to endorse each low cost
house. The rationale behind this endorsement is to help us avert the selling or
attachment of Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) houses before the
expiry of eight years of ownership. Effectively plans are afoot to proclaim the
Limpopo Housing Development Act in this regard. This Act will also help us to
abolish the Provincial Housing Board and replace it with the housing advisory
panel. Furthermore, it will help us to establish a housing rental tribunal
which will handle rental disputes.

Honourable Speaker, the PGDS outlines a target of raising the satisfaction
level of our citizens from 34% to 80% by 2009 in housing delivery.

As a response to this and in an attempt to enhance our accessibility to our
people, we have launched a departmental housing consumer call centre (0800
Ntshebele). We have already received more that 10 000 calls from people within
and outside the province. We are heartened by the success of this project in
assisting us to resolve queries of our people on housing matters.

In fact, due to some of the enquiries we got through this call centre, it
became apparent that the department needed to embark on a normalisation project
of verifying occupants of RDP houses across the province. If you don't own it,
hand it over, if you are renting, know that it is illegal.

Honourable Speaker, last year we alluded to substantial progress made in the
demarcation of sites in all the municipalities. We have undertaken to further
demarcate 33 000 sites. We have further committed R20 million in this financial
year to realise our objective of demarcating 11 000 sites and installing
services on 2 400 sites.

Honourable Speaker, we have also committed R25 million in the current
financial year to finalise survey of 87 layout plans and obtain general plans
that are approved by the office of surveyor general. In pursuing this goal, we
have also adopted a refined framework to guide our site demarcation to
accomplish the objectives of our BNG.

And in so doing, our site demarcation has prioritised the provincial growth
points, municipal nodal points and areas that are earmarked for housing
development that will enhance integrated human settlements.

Honourable Speaker, last year we explained that we have a plan to cater for
those who do not qualify for RDP houses by virtue of earning beyond R3 500 per
month. We are on cause with the construction of 100 houses under both credit
and project linked schemes. This construction is taking place in Belabela. It
has already benefited 100 young people with construction skills transfer under
National Youth Service (NYS) programme.

Honourable Speaker, We are pleased to announce we have been able to spend an
amount of R648 million out of R651 million to build 12 610 housing units in
line with our BNG programme. By implication, this has assisted us to put a roof
over 70 000 people. This achievement further provides testimony to the fact
that we are working hard to demonstrate that in Limpopo development is indeed
about people.

Honourable Speaker, the previous apartheid regime made it impossible for
most of our people to own their four roomed houses by subjecting them to a
ridiculous 99 years lease agreement over their properties. Our democratic
government has brought about change to this appalling situation. We have made
steady progress in our commitment to give back title deeds to our people under
discount benefit scheme.

Honourable Speaker, the following represents some key issues in the delivery
of housing during 2007/08:

Housing budget: R651 million

* the Department has set aside R318 million for the upgrading of informal
settlements
* three hundred houses will be built under housing finance linked subsidy to
the tune of R7 million
* we shall service 2 400 sites for development in terms of phased development
approach to the cumulative value of R38 million
* 8 495 housing units will be built as part of unblocking of blocked projects;
R331 million has been budgeted for this process
* through the discount benefit scheme we have set aside R8 million for the
transfer of 3 000 properties
* the Limpopo Housing Act was passed this year in the legislature and therefore
we need to develop policy guidelines for the implementation of the Act
* we will continue with awareness campaigns to further popularise our Housing
Consumer Call Centre's toll free number (0800 NTSHEBELE).

Honourable Speaker, we would like to take this opportunity to thank our
developers for responding to our call for assistance whenever we do. At their
own cost, they built houses for 13 destitute families in a very short space of
time. Indeed these actions show 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 and underdevelopment. We challenge other contractors to also join in
this programme so that we are able to reach more vulnerable families in the
province. Our housing programme can only be accelerated if we work in this
manner.

In an article titled, "Talking stops, action begins" on 4 March, The Citizen
newspaper wrote about the Premier's imbizo which the Minister of Housing
attended in the Moutse area last year in October.

As part of the imbizo we visited Mme Leah Phora who lived in a dilapidated
one roomed house which she shared with her children.

Upon seeing her situation we immediately committed ourselves as a Department
would build her a house. To quote the Citizen newspaper, "In March this year
she finally received a two bed roomed house with a kitchen and sitting room,
after having lived in unacceptable conditions for many years." Mme Phora is
here with us today.

I'm also pleased to see Koko Emmy Matlakala, a 78 year-old who resides at
Mentz Village, next to Moria. Instead of a dilapidated structure that she used
to call home for herself and her grandchildren, today she is a proud owner of a
4-roomed quality house.

Honourable Speaker, I must mention that we have allocated a contingency
budget to build 82 emergency houses during the current financial year to deal
with emergencies.

Honourable Speaker, last year we committed ourselves to complete the arduous
task of developing business process re-engineering aimed at assessing the
appropriateness of our structure, recruiting people with requisite skills to
carry out our mandate and finally, auditing existing skills within the
Department and systemic blockages to service delivery.

I am delighted to report that we have carried out this exercise to its
successful conclusion. Consequently, our department has acquired the requisite
staff to assist municipalities to deliver services and to support them in their
quest for the establishment of integrated and sustainable human
settlements.

In an effort to strengthen our capacity and expedite service delivery, our
Department has signed a MoU with the University of Limpopo to train our
officials to address capacity gaps. In this financial year, officials from
municipalities and our Department will undergo training in sector specific
disciplines.

We will strive to inculcate the culture of service excellence by
implementing the Batho Pele programme with a view of improving on service
delivery, client satisfaction and resolution of clients complains. We will also
be assisting municipalities to achieve 100% compliance on Batho Pele
principles.

Honourable Speaker, we have in terms of our turnaround time put measures
that will enable us to pay our customers within seven days at most after
submission of necessary documentation.

The budget expenditure capacity of our department has been capacitated to
respond to the challenges of service delivery. We have employed skilled
personnel to enable the department to deal with quality spending.

Our budget will thus look like this for the year 2007/08:

Summary of expenditure estimates 2007/08 fiscal year
Per programme: Local Government and Housing
Programme 1: Administration R132 358 000
Programme 2: Housing R730 967 000
Programme 3: Local Government R98 164 000
Programme 4: Development and Planning R83 248 000
Total budget estimates for 2007/08: R1 044 737

Summary of expenditure estimates 2007/08 fiscal year
Per economic classification: Local Government and Housing
Current payments: R372 149 000
Compensation of employees: R 195 206,000
Goods and services: R176 943 000
Transfers and subsidies: R654 146 000
Households: R653 678 000
Provinces and municipalities: R468 000 000 (gratuities)
Payments of capital assets: R18 442 000
Building and other fixed structures: R5 828 000
Machinery and equipment: R11 006 000
Software and other intangible assets: R1 608 000
Total economic classification: R1 044 737 000

Honourable Speaker, in conclusion as we continue with the transformation of
our country and pushing back the frontiers of poverty, we must build on the
foundations that we have laid which were not there when we took over in 1994 to
achieve faster progress towards a better life for all.

We have gathered here today to renew our pledge in a national partnership to
better the lives of our people. We commit ourselves to continue to learn
together from our advances and challenges, to find the right solutions to
problems together.

The Department of Local Government and Housing and our municipalities will
strive to work in partnership with all our stakeholders and partners to make
local government work better for our people and intensify the fight against
poverty. Together we must, we can and we will.

I thank you!

Issued by: Department of Local Government and Housing, Limpopo Provincial
Government
10 May 2007
Source: Limpopo Provincial Government (http://www.limpopo-dlgh.gov.za/)