20 September 2007
Gauteng residents will see a fast tracked, massive and accelerated housing
delivery in the next two years leading to the next term of the new
government.
This was announced by MEC for Housing in Gauteng, Nomvula Mokonyane, who
addressed the meeting of Housing practitioners and politicians from all
municipalities in the province.
The two-day meeting was held in Bela Bela in Limpopo and its objectives were
to look at the state of housing delivery in the province and to develop plans
for completing housing delivery for the remainder of the government term of
office.
In her speech to the meeting Mokonyane said: "We need to integrate work done
by Gauteng Provincial Government and municipalities and the latter should
cluster their work to fast track service delivery. And that attention needs to
be paid to the cost of doing business with government".
She further informed the meeting about the resolutions taken at the recent
Gauteng Cabinet Lekgotla about the need for officials in the province to work
together including looking at the protests that took place in Gauteng.
An assessment was done of all the projects that are being implemented in the
province by all municipalities and progress thereof.
The meeting also dealt with the issue of all projects and programmes that
were addressed by the MEC in her 2007/08 Budget Speech such as the flagships
projects in Cosmo City, Doornkop and Olievenhoutbosch.
Other sources of funding from the private sector will be raised to fast
track housing delivery. The department has already spent 60 percent of its
total budget. It is expected that more projects will be delivered in the next
few months until 2009.
The meeting also affirmed that government housing programme will continue to
seek more innovative ways to confront problems and challenges that we are
facing in the delivery of houses and other essential services to
communities.
The emphasis would now be based on establishing partnerships with
communities and building capacity for them to take charge of housing
development. In moving forward the meeting emphasised that the main focus is to
continue making sure that we have a sustainable human settlement process able
to achieve housing with secure tenure, within a safe and healthy environment,
and the development of integrated communities.
The meeting also discussed in detail, issues relating to how to improve the
housing delivery process from project planning to project implementation. The
process has now been shortened and improved the turnaround time without
compromising on compliance and quality. This new innovative way will remove
unnecessary delays being experienced by our beneficiaries and service
providers.
On corruption, the meeting reinforced current initiatives to stamp out
corruption both internally and externally. These include taking disciplinary
actions against officials and laying criminal charges against developers
engaged in fraud.
The meeting also discussed in detail the recent protest in Gauteng and
concluded that there are underlying circumstances and there is no doubt that
some disgruntled political individual and groups are using ordinary citizens
for their own political benefit and advancing their own agenda through the use
of mass protests.
One of the critical observations made is that there is not enough
communication and dialogue between government structures and local people in
order to share information on plans to improve and fast track service delivery.
Considerable efforts therefore will be dedicated towards improving
communication as well as consultation with all stakeholders at local level.
The meeting resolved on the following:
* to implement recent Cabinet Lekgotla resolutions and ensure that Gauteng
becomes a better place to live in
* to fast track and accelerate housing delivery in the province and change the
Spatial Development Framework for Gauteng in line with the Breaking New Ground
Housing strategy
* ensure housing delivery realises job creation and eradicate poverty
* Continuous support and mentoring of the SMMEs and ensure that we improve on
payment process
* accelerate the issuing of title deeds to the rightful owners thereby
promoting homeownership
* target 50 percent of the total budget be allocated to women contractors and
developers by 2009
* de-link subsidies from individuals and build according to need
* committed to meet the targets set by government on eradication of informal
settlements 2014 and formalisation thereof by 2009
* ensure turnaround time in the process of township establishment is improved
and this process would be piloted in certain municipalities targeting the three
metros in Gauteng.
The Gauteng department and its municipalities remain committed and focused
and will forge ahead with its objectives of accelerating the delivery of
quality houses and thereby fulfilling the mandate bestowed to by people of
Gauteng.
The Gauteng Department of Housing is highly committed to work with the
people of Gauteng to find solutions to the problems of housing and we are
working tirelessly to speed up delivery and ensure that we reduce the housing
backlog in our province.
The MEC urges Gauteng residents and stakeholders to work closely with her
department and government to help accelerate housing delivery in the
province.
The assurance that we give our people is that if delivery has not happened
in your area it will soon happen as it did in other areas where people waited
patiently.
We are also coming to your community. What we humbly ask for from our people
is cooperation and understanding as we strive to deliver on our mandate. Above
all, it is also the responsibility of the law-abiding citizens to protect and
preserve the assets provided by the state.
For more information contact:
Aviva Manqa
Cell: 083 600 3830
Mandla Sidu
Cell: 083 602 6169
Issued by: Department of Housing, Gauteng Provincial Government
20 September 2007
