MEC Mothibedi Gordon Kegakilwe: Cooperative Governance & Traditional Affairs and Human Settlements budget vote 2019/20

MEC Mothibedi Gordon Kegakilwe delivered budget vote 09 of the Department of Cooperative Governance & Traditional Affairs and budget vote 10 of the Department of Human Settlements at the North West Provincial Legislature

Hon.  Speaker of North West Provincial Legislature
Hon.  Premier of the North West Province Prof. TJ Mokgoro
Hon. Members of the Executive Council
Hon.  Members of the Provincial Legislature
Executive Mayors and Mayors of the North West Province
Speakers of various Municipalities
Chairperson of SALGA
Councilors Present here
Magosi a rona a a tlotlegang
Leaders of Political Parties
Administrator of the Province Mr. Mpanza
Head of Department
Municipal Managers
Representatives from State Owned Entities
Government Officials,
My Special Guests Rre. Simon Silo and Partner, Salvation Silo
Rre Adolphus Mafora and Partner –Rre Silo le Rre Mafora ke badiri mo-lefapheng  ba ile ba tlhopiwa jaaka badiri ba ba matsetseleko mo tirong ya bone jaaka ba bephafatsi.
Members of the media
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
People of the North West Province, DUMELANG!

Introduction

Honourable Speaker, as the world move from silos to integrated thinking, our people are increasingly realizing that as government we are duty-bound to provide them with basic services.

This was unmistakably confirmed by our people during the recent political campaign for the provincial and national elections that proved to be very tough.

Honourable Speaker, what we found as we moved around the length and breadth of our beautiful province, the message from our people everywhere was the same “please help us to have basic services”

As we moved around from door to door we got firsthand eyewitness account of their living conditions. It pains me to say this is in a majority of cases not habitable for any human being to live in.

It is incumbent upon me to remind you what the voters said. They said, their votes are not up for sale nor is the demand for basic services up for negotiation. Their demand, and I think it is a constitutionally legitimate and fair demand, is for the provision of basic services, post elections in order for their lives to change for the better as well.

Honourable Speaker, their demands are commensurate to  what the Honourable Premier Prof Tebogo Job  Mokgoro had raised during his inaugural speech post elections  that:

"It is high time that we roll up our sleeves as elected public representatives, supported by a capable and committed public service, and work towards improving the lives of our people; the same people who demand that we become one with them and not be distant from them"

Today, as I stand here before this august house, I am send, by my political organization - the African National Congress (ANC), as a messenger of the people, who elected it, into power and who must articulate in no uncertain terms what are its wishes, dreams and aspirations.

My political organization has said, I must roll up my sleeves and present this policy statement and budget votes for the two Departments of Cooperative Governance & Traditional Affairs and the Department of Human Settlements for the financial year 2019/2020.

Honourable Speaker, I must also hasten to indicate that, as soon as I took office, we immediately, got into contact with the majority of our stakeholders, if not all. Our intention was to listen to them about what it is that they expect from us and also use the opportunity to share with them our vision for this electoral term or sixth administration.

We did not waste time, during the same engagement, to put it to them, that ethical leadership is considered important, in the way business will be conducted. Our ethical conduct and practices must conform to the King IV Code on Corporative Governance.

The special focus will be within the King Code of Good Practice on the first principle that has to do with leadership. It is for the same reason that the ethical conduct of good governance, will be placed on a high pedestal, in each and every business engagement that we have with them.

We were very unequivocal that as leaders we should individually and collectively cultivate leadership characteristics and exhibit them in our conduct. As leaders, we must in each and every instance, act in good faith with the highest professional and ethical standards available, and in the best interest of our community.

It is my appeal to us as leaders in this house and those who are in the two administrative departments, that we must at all times, demonstrate that we possess sufficient knowledge and expertise within our institutions. This is so that we always respond to the key performance areas of our department with the required level of competence that is expected of us.

As leaders, we should all be willing and ready, whenever expected and required to do so, to answer for the execution of the responsibility that we were entrusted with. Put differently, Honourable Speaker, we must be accountable leadership.

As leaders, we should adopt an approach that is eager to involve and work alongside, all our stakeholders. This is much more preferred as part of integrated partnerships, rather than to exclude them whenever it is convenient and expedient for us to do so Fairness, Honourable Speaker is the one constant demand that our people are also asking for. Thus, when we are transparent and open in the way we do our business it helps to promote the principle of fairness.

In turn, fairness helps to bolster confidence. As the Member of the Executive Council, it is important for me that these departments must enjoy the confidence of the people of the North West Province.

The demand for transparency is not only reserved for officials in how they go about their affairs but it is equally relevant to us as governors in how we carry out our responsibilities placed on us by the laws of this country, especially the constitution.

The Honourable Premier, soon after he was called upon to lead the province last year referred to the breakdown in trust between the people of our province and its elected political leadership.

He calls it a trust deficit. This is something that is in urgent need of repair. I have no doubt Honourable Speaker that if we do this, it will go a considerable distance to help restore that trust deficit.

We were raising these characteristics to be part of our daily dealings to expedite service delivery and strengthen good governance. For those who have been entrusted with public office at different levels of government it is my appeal to them that they must embrace these characteristics.

Honourable Speaker, we are presenting this year's budget votes during the month of July, whilst the world commemorate the legacy of our first democratically elected president, our international icon, Dr. Nelson Mandela.  As a gallant fighter for our people he embodied the timeless values such as humanity (ubuntu), goodness, peace and hope.

As we present these budget votes, we commit ourselves to stand by his ideals of a developed, just and equal society. If we were to succeed to his ideals, it means we must pay more attention to local government, which is at the cutting edge to deliver services to our people.

Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs

Honourable Members, Section 152(1) of the Constitution, 1996 stipulates that the mandate of local government is to provide democratic and accountable government for local communities; ensure provision of services to the communities in a sustainable manner; promote social and economic development; promote a safe and healthy environment and encourage the involvement of communities and community organisations in the matters of local government. These constitutional mandates remain our foundation to put necessary systems and controls in place if we were to change the phase of local government in our province.

At the same time, we would not realize these mandates of our constitution if we were to allow these upheavals which have bedevilled our communities to take place in our municipalities.

On the 10th of July 2019, we have witnessed atrocious act of violence in Tswaing local municipality, in particular, Ottosdal, where our municipal offices have been burnt down to ashes. This action cannot be left unchallenged; criminals have taken an advantage over the plight of our people and agitated them.

We denounce this act of violence in strongest terms it deserves and call upon our law enforcement agencies to hunt down these criminals, lock them in jail. In the similar vein,  we have  also acknowledged the challenges faced by our municipalities to deliver basic services to our people.

Honourable Speaker, the department will lead in ensuring that before any municipality is placed under Section 139(1)(b) of the Constitution, we firstly ensure that support is provided in terms of Section 154 of the same Constitution.

There will also be consideration of Section 139 (4) and 139 (5) so that indeed Section 139 (1) (b) becomes a last resort.

To this end, the North West Provincial Executive Council led by Honourable Premier, has invoked Section 139(1)(b) of the constitution and Section 137 of the municipal finance management act (MFMA) to placed  fourteen  municipalities under administration.

The affected municipalities are : Ditsobotla, Ramotshere Moiloa, Maquassi, Kgetleng River, Kagisano-Molopo, Naledi, Mahikeng, Ngaka Modiri Molema, JB Marks, Tswaing, Lekwa -Teemane, Ratlou, Madibeng, and Mamusa.

This decision of the Provincial Executive Council, came as a result of identified serious maladministration, poor governance, and poor financial administration which had a negative impact on service delivery.

To this end, we have appointed teams of experts led by Administrators to turn the situation around in these municipalities. Their immediate tasks are to put systems and controls in managing these municipalities.   

Their special areas of focus as part of their terms of reference will be to strengthen prudent financial management; strengthen governance structures; facilitate recruitment processes of senior management positions.

Furthermore, implement post audit action plan which contained issues previously raised by Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA); conduct investigations and take corrective action on irregular expenditure incurred. And we are confident that they will succeed.

Honourable Speaker, it pleases me to inform this august house that we are appealing the court judgement which nullified our intervention in Kagisano-Molopo. We will not hesitate to take drastic steps against municipalities even if it means we must invoke Section 139(1)(C) of the Constitution.

On the flipside, it’s communities who bear the brunt of non-performance by these municipalities. I have had the privilege of meeting community members from Maquassi Hills who came to my office to tell me that they want the intervention to continue.

Hon Premier, sadly, they got involved in a car accident on their way back home from Mahikeng. Two of them passed away, one of them was a former councillor, Kenosi Steven Kgaodi and William Sehemo. May their souls rest in eternal peace and rise in glory – we send our deepest condolences to the bereaved families. We wish those who sustained injuries, a speedy recovery and they are: Ncedile Moloso and Lebogang Maritsi.  Communities of Lekwa Teemane and Ratlou are  also in support of the intervention.

Honourable Members, the areas of concern that led to the regression in audit outcomes are, lack of financial records as a result of inadequate record management, non-compliance with Supply Chain Management Regulations, non review of Annual Financial Statements before submission, non implementation of consequence management and increase in UIF & W and not being investigated as required by Section 32 of MFMA.

Honourable Premier, this point is further emphasised by the Western High Court judgement yesterday which imposed a two years imprisonment sentence on a former Municipal Manager of Oudtshoorn Municipality for ‘deliberately failing to implement the supply chain management policy of the municipality and for not taking reasonable steps to prevent irregular expenditure arising from the irregular appointment of a service provider and authorisation of irregular payments to the same service provider”.

Honourable Speaker, this in tandem with what Katlego Kate Evens Modise has said through our official facebook page

"Kindly convey the message to the MEC that I wish him nothing but great endeavours and we hope all matters of local government will be attended to and those who have misused state resources will face the music we need clean government"

Thanks Katlego, the MEC will not hesitate to invoke Section 106 of the Municipal Systems Act to investigate any municipality without fear or favour  where  there is a believe that there is maladministration.

We want to ensure that municipalities are accountable and transparent on how they spend even the last cent in their coffers because these are public funds that they are spending, we will invoke Section 106 investigations in Madibeng, Ditsobotla, Kagisano-Molopo, Ramotshere Moiloa, Maquassi Hills, Ratlou, Lekwa-Teemane, Mahikeng Local Municipalities and Dr. Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality.

Revenue Management and Enhancement Programme

Honourable Speaker, we are proud to indicate before this august house that,  we had managed to assist the following municipalities with the development and implementation of simplified revenue plans:   Kgetlengrivier, Mamusa, Maquassi Hills, Tswaing, Lekwa Teemane and Ramotshere Moila. We believe that, revenue is a key factor in the lives of our municipalities to provide basic services. 

In this financial year 2019/20, we will continue this trajectory to prioritized financial management of our municipalities. Amongst others, we are going to improve and strengthen municipal capacity to deal with revenue management enhancement Initiatives. We are targeting ten (11) municipalities; Kgetleng River, Mamusa, Maquassi, Tswaing, Madibeng, Lekwa Teemane, Mahikeng, Ramotshere Moiloa, Ditsobotla, Naledi and Matlosana.

Honourable Speaker, to put more emphasis on the financial support to municipalities, we have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Department of Finance to  give effect to the framework of cooperative governance as stipulated in Chapter 3 of the Constitution.  The MoU clarifies the roles of the two departments, i.e. Provincial Treasury will take a lead in financial management issues as outlined in the MFMA and the Dept of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements will take lead in all governance and service delivery matters as stipulated in the Municipal Systems Act and the Municipal Structures Act, 117 of 1998.

Because our municipalities are not performing well in terms of collecting revenue and credit control.  Furthermore,  debt collection policy is not enforced, legal actions are not taken against defaulters; municipalities are unable to bill all its customers due to lack of metering because water and electricity meters are very old which affect billing integrity.

In addressing these problems, we are going to undertake the following revenue management enhancement initiatives: Appoint a service provider to assist municipalities to align valuation roll to the billing system; monitor and support the implementation of credit control and debt collection policies through forums and one on one engagements with municipalities; appoint a service provider for customer data cleansing and billing integrity in four municipalities. We will also be monitoring and supporting our municipalities with corporate governance, administration and public participation in accordance with statutory requirements.

We have supported twenty (20) municipalities within the context of Section 154 of the Constitution. In this financial year, we are going to support eighteen (18) municipalities to strengthen its administration. By so doing, our municipalities will be in position to plan in providing basic services.

In addition, all our municipalities will be supported in ensuring that they appoint qualified and competent officials, at all levels. We will have to bring irregular appointment to halt with immediate effect.

Honourable Speaker, I must emphasize that, irregular appointments will not be tolerated and it will not happen under our watch. We are sending a strong message to all our municipalities in this province to immediately refrain from making such appointments.

Honourable Members, whilst we recognize the fact that municipalities have to appoint competent people. Equally, it is also our responsibility to ensure that performance management systems (PMS) of our municipalities are institutionalized and strengthened.

To this end, eighteen municipalities have been supported to institutionalize the PMS. In this financial year, we are targeting to support ten (10) municipalities with PMS to monitor their performance against predetermined standards with the context of integrated planning.

Integrated Development Planning (IDP)

Honourable Members,  our municipalities  have enjoyed undivided  support from our department   to develop  Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) through public participation. These IDPs reflect the aspirations of our people.

Furthermore, IDPs remained a strategic planning instrument to provide integrated basic services within the context of service delivery budget implementation plans (SDBIP). Thus far, we have supported all municipalities with the development of legally compliant IDPs. We can confidently put it on record that, our municipalities are implementing their 2017-2022 IDPs and have tabled them for adoption for the 2019/20 financial year. 

There has always been a complaint from municipalities that during IDP process, our provincial departments sends junior officials who are unable to add value. The  department moving forward will ensure that MECs sign off names of officials who will participate in IDP processes at municipal level.

Provincial Infrastructure Grant

Honourable Members, the Provincial Infrastructure Grant (PIG) is intended to eradicate backlogs especially in rural municipalities as per the adopted Provincial PIG Framework.  Its main focus is on water and sanitation with priorities in addressing sewer spillages and replacing old asbestos pipes.

Through PIG we will deal with common challenges faced by our province, namely:  high sewer spillages; high level of water leakages leading to high water losses; vandalism and theft; stoppage of projects by communities and business forums demanding 30% of work; and poor revenue collection.

Our communities are hungry for service delivery.  They want electricity, clean water and decent sanitation. As at the end of municipal financial year, out of twenty-two municipalities, only eight municipalities were able to spend 100 % of the MIG allocation. With the current intervention and the deployment of experts to municipalities, we should be able to register a remarkable improvement.  MISA has been part of us in visiting municipalities and we have agreed that the skill within MISA must be used to the maximum. Our appeal to municipalities is to prioritise water and sanitation infrastructure projects.

In this financial year, we have prioritized the following municipalities with regard to issues of water and sanitation: Kgetlengrivier ; Maquassi Hills; Ramotshere Moiloa ; Moretele ; JB Marks, Naledi  and Ditsobotla.

Disaster Management

Honourable Speaker, in as far as disaster management is concerned,  we have facilitated, co-ordinated, supported and monitored Disaster Management and Fire Rescue Services in our  municipalities and in all provincial government Departments.

We are grateful to announced that we have empowered all of our provincial departments with regard to the implementation of disaster management plans.

This journey will continue this year , in ensuring that  the province implements the integrated Disaster Management Strategy where all Provincial Disaster Management activities are  under one roof in order to prevent, mitigate, prepare and respond rapidly and effectively to disasters.

Traditional Affairs

Honourable Speaker, we give the highest honour and pedigree to our traditional leadership as a province. As government, we believe, we cannot accelerate development in our villages in particular without the involvement of our traditional leadership. 

Back in the days, before the system of local government was introduced in South Africa. Our people were entirely depended on our traditional leadership to provide development and leadership.   

We have taken a decision to deal decisively with issues affecting the smooth operations of our traditional leadership. To this end, we are currently reviewing the North West Traditional Leadership and Governance Act to address gaps which have been identified. The purpose of this exercise is to align Act 2 of 2005 with Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Bill which are at an advanced stage.

We remain steadfast in the development of policies and standard operating procedures for implementation in all traditional councils. This will improve governance, administration and compliance.

Furthermore, in line with the section 35 of the Traditional Leadership and Governance Act, we are going to conduct a skills analysis of members of the traditional council and provide a training programme. As we speak, skills audit is underway to identify skill gaps which will inform the training programme. 

We are proud to indicate that the following traditional offices are complete and ready to be handed over: Batlharo Ba-Ga Masibi, Barolong baga Phoi and Batlhaping baga Maidi. We are finalizing the necessary logistics to this anticipated handover.

It is incumbent upon every traditional council to set a proper administration for its area of jurisdiction to cater for the needs of its residents. In the process it must create posts and appoint suitably qualified staff to manage the day to day affairs of the traditional council. They are accountable to Kgosi-in-council for the performance of their work. The salaries of the said staff must be paid from the coffers of the traditional council.

In the event a traditional council is unable to engage its own staff, the matter must be escalated to the Head of Department for intervention. Such intervention may take the form of secondment of government employees appointed in terms of the provisions of the Public Service Act, 1994, to the affected traditional council. This carries with it that a traditional council office may consist of traditional council staff and seconded government employees.

Over the past two decades traditional council have fallen on hard times. As a result they are unable to provide their employees with decent salaries, pensions and medical benefits. Upon reaching pensionable age, they leave the service without a penny. The Department will in due course seek ways and means of improving the conditions of service of traditional council employees. 

The construction and renovation of traditional council offices started in the 2003/04 financial year. Based on the nature and extent of the need, it was estimated that the project will continue until the 2030/31 financial year, but that seems like a distant dream due to dwindling funding. 

During the current financial year, the department will be able to deliver offices for...

Maintenance of the said offices buildings ought to take place every seven years, while routine maintenance should be carried on as and when the need arises. Owing to budgetary constraints, the said newly constructed offices are not maintained as stipulated. Therefore, they are faced with prospects of not seeing through their 50 years lifespan.  

On 15 June 2016 the Provincial Government appointed a Commission of Inquiry to probe claims and disputes related to traditional leadership. To that end, claims and disputes in respect of the Bakgatla Ba Kgafela, Batlhako Ba Leema, Bapo Ba Mogale I and Bapo Ba Mogale II came under investigation by the Commission.

Parties to the dispute were afforded the opportunity to appear before the Commission to state their cases. Reports of the Commission were ready by 30 April 2019.

Plans were in place to release the Bapo Ba Mogale I Commissions report on 05 May 2019, in Bapong. Unfortunately, on the 4 May 2019, one of the claimants successfully applied to the High Court to stop the Premier from releasing the reports. The Provincial Government is currently in court fighting the order.        

Many of our traditional communities that are endowed with mineral wealth are beset with problems relating to mismanagement of funds and assets entrusted to their traditional councils. In the end the Provincial Government is beholden to intervene in accordance with the legal prescripts.

In the recent past, we have been inundated with complaints by communities under the Bakwena Ba Mogopa and Bakubung Ba Ratheo Traditional Councils. Allegations levelled against the said traditional councils and their leaders, are viewed in a serious light.

The Hon. Premier is left with no option, but to invoke the provisions of section 10 the North West Traditional Leadership and Governance Act No. 2 of 2005. The said traditional council will be placed under administration to allow in depth investigations to establish the whereabouts of community finances and assets.

It is held that the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act No. 41 of 2003 does not provide for the creation of new head-menship/head-womenship positions. As a result, in 2015 the CoGTA MinMEC imposed a moratorium on the creation of new head-menship / head-womenship positions.

The net effect is that, the provincial governments are not allowed to entertain applications for creation and recognition of new headmen/headwomen. The moratorium does not affect filling of vacant positions of existing dikgosana.

Human Settlements  

Honourable Speaker, His Excellency the President of the Republic of South Africa Hon. Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa raised one of the critical priorities in his State of the Nation address in June this year. That, as a country we must focus on “Spatial integration, human settlements and local government".

This is tandem with what the National Development Plan vision 2030 envisages. This fundamental document inspires that we embrace these following critical overarching principles of spatial justice, spatial sustainability, spatial resilience, spatial quality and spatial efficiency.

Honourable Speaker, in pursuit of accelerating housing delivery, we do so guided  by the Red Book which guides us on human settlements development by providing guidance for settlements formation, addressing qualities that should be sought after in our human settlements and provide guidance how that can be achieved.

Our take in this call, is to implement integrated and sustainable Human Settlements through accelerating housing opportunities and ensure security of tenure to our people in this province. We will be doing this within the context of spatial integration as prioritized by his Excellency President Ramaphosa.

The Human Settlements Development Grant and the Title Deeds Restoration Grant is one billion, nine hundred and eighty five million, hundred and forty eight million (R1 985 148b)

Honourable Members, in this financial year, we will turn our province into a construction site. We have put aside an amount of five hundred and ten million and forty six thousands (R510 046) to build 2383 units and to service 1346 sites across all the municipalities in the Bojanala Platinum District.

With regard to the Dr. Kenneth Kaunda District Municipality, we have put aside an amount of four hundred and eighty eight million, seven hundred and sixty five thousand (R488 765) to build 2360 units and 2360 serviced sites across all the municipalities in the district.

Dr. Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality is set to benefit 1973 units and 2660 serviced sites with an amount of four hundred and elven million, hundred and fifteen thousand rand ( R411 115) across the district and for Ngaka Modiri Molema district, we have put aside an amount of four hundred and seventy one million, nine hundred and thirty three thousand rand ( R471 933m) to build 2979 units and 830 sites.

Service providers have been appointed for a total of twenty (20) projects worth eight hundred and ninety seven million, four hundred and thirteen thousand rand  (R897 413 m) have been adjudicated and five (5) of those projects will be assigned to designated groups.  Madam Speaker, we want to confirm that in this financial year, not less than 2000 housing units will be allocated to these groups.

Hon Members, we are also confronted with a serious problem of invasion of our properties, we had our members of the community from Marikana invading the Community Residential Units (CRUs) which are now managed by Rustenburg local municipality. The same invasion also happened at the CRUs that are managed by Mahikeng local municipality.

Between the Department, Social Housing Regulatory Authority (SHRA) , Rustenburg and Mahikeng municipalities, respectively, we have to resolve on the issue of illegal occupation of these unit and deal with this tendency by members of the community, once and for all.

The same phenomenon applies to land that could otherwise be used for both human settlements and industrial activities. In Mahikeng, I have established a committee that will deal with land invaders in Mahikeng Townlands, which includes what is know as Mosiane View, Airport View and most recently East Top Villages and other areas constitution Mahikeng Townlands. We need to apply proper principles of land management and acquisition if we are serious in establishing sustainable human settlements, with access to amenities that will better our people’s lives.

Blocked and incomplete projects

Honourable Speaker most of the projects got blocked during the tranche payment period where municipalities acted as implementing agents for housing development. Other reasons were due to the following ; lack of funding for expensive dolomite stability investigations, lack of land suitable for development and other settlements located on private land, other projects were left incomplete during the afore-mentioned period and lack of adequate feasibilities necessary to unblock. 

National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) as a home building regulator has been tasked to conduct integrity assessments on structures, HDA as a human settlements entity acquires both public and private land for development where appropriate.

The following projects will be unblocked in this financial year ; Letsopa in Ext 1 & 2  Madibe, Letlhabile Block I, G, F,E, Kagisano-Molopo, Taung, Matlosana and Kanana Ext 13.

Land Parcels

Hon Members, One of the seven prioritised of government is spatial integration, human settlements and local government and through land acquisition programme, we will continue to facilitate the provision of integrated bulk services.

The department through the Provincial Disaster Management Centre, has established a management task team comprising of amongst others: Dept of CoGTA (National), Dept of Public Works, SANRAL, Council for Geoscience, NHBRC, affected municipalities and Midvaal Water Company. 

Hon, Premier, in addressing the issue of dolomite in areas of Khuma, the department has identified land parcels in Palmiefontein and for JB Marks to address housing needs, we have identified Elandsheuvel.  The applications for both relocations have since been sent to the Housing Development Agency (HDA) for assessment.

Honourable Speaker, for this financial year, we will acquire land as follows: Oukasie in Madibeng, Pardekraal Portion 39 and 184, Paardekraal Portion 148, Mbeki Sun in Rustenburg, Driekant farm in Tswaing, Waterkloof Hills Estate (land purchase)Portion 9 of the Farm Boschoek 103 and Portion 7 of Farm Bultfontein 259 We have done this with a sole purpose of continuing our journey of bringing about integrated human settlements for our people. 

Title Deeds

Honourable Speaker, title deeds is a legal document that proves ownership of a houses and once a title deeds is in your possession, no one outside the family can claim ownership over the house.  Clearing the backlog of title deeds will also eliminate the illegal and unregulated sale of government-subsidised houses and those owned by the North West Housing Corporation (NWHC).

Honourable Speaker, in providing security of tenure and confirm property ownership to our people. In this financial year, we transfer a total of 4913 title deeds to new home owners. In addition, 8750 of pre-1994 and 7886 of post-1994 title deeds will also be transferred to their rightful beneficiaries. 

Mining Towns

Last year we spent eight hundred and fifty million eight fifty seven thousand rand (R859 857m) on revitilisation of distressed mining communities and serviced 600 sites and build 2443 housing units. For this year, we have set aside six hundred and seventy one million, eight hundred and twenty five thousand rand (R671 825m) on 1586 serviced sites and 3197 housing units specifically to alleviate the pressure on the mining towns in Madibeng, Matlosana, Rustenburg, Moses Kotane and Kgetlengrivier municipal areas. This year, we will spend a total of R1 970 147 716 95 on 7396 serviced sites and 9685 housing units.

Military veterans

Honourable members, we have budgeted to spend twenty million, nine hundred and twelve thousand rand (R20 912m) on houses for military veterans in this current year. Thirty nine (39) houses were completed in 2018/2019 under this programme. To date, 12 of those houses have been completed whilst 14 will be completed in Huhudi by the end of next month. We have already verified 34 military veterans and procurement for construction of their houses will commence soon.

Programme

R'000

 

Administration

223 161

Two hundred and twenty three million, one hundred and sixty one thousand rand

Local Governance

50 417

Fifty million, four hundred and seventeen thousand rand

Development And Planning

129 704

One hundred and twenty nine million, seven hundred and four thousand rand

Traditional Affairs

136 452

One hundred and thirty six million, four hundred and fifty two thousand rand

Total

539 734

Five hundred and thirty nine million, seven hundred and thirty-four thousand rand

Mmusa-kgotla you will be pleased to know that in our response to a call to empower women and to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the women’s march to the Union Buildings, we will allocate 1956 housing units to women contractors.
Honorable Speaker,  allow me to outline the departmental budget vote 09 of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs allocation for 2019/20  per programme as follows:-

Programme

R'000

 

Administration

110 370

Hundred and ten million, three hunred and seventy thousand rand

Housing needs, planning and research

40 623

Forty million, six hundred and twenty three thousand rand

Housing development

2 065 522

Two billion, sixty five million, five hundred and twenty two thousand rand

Total

2 216 515

Two billion two hundred and sixteen million, five hundred and fifteen thousand rand

In conclusion, I wish to take this opportunity to thank Premier Prof TJ Mokgoro for his esteemed leadership to provide the necessary support for these departments whenever one engages with him.   

I also want to thank the African National Congress, the only organization which has proven itself to be the liberator of the people of South Africa for having entrusted me with this responsibility.  

My colleagues in the Provincial Executive Council, thank you for your support in matters affecting these two portfolios. The Chairperson and entire Portfolio Committee responsible for these two portfolios, thank you very much to make us better departments for your robust oversight function.

All our stakeholders, thank you very much for your support and cooperation on matters affecting our portfolios. House of traditional leadership, thank you very much also for your support and cooperation.

The Accounting Officer, Mr. Phihadu Motoko and staff members of the Department thanks very much for continuing with the implementation of mandates of these two portfolios. The entire family members and relatives thank you very much for your support. Special thanks to my beautiful wife and my beautiful children for understanding the nature of my work which requires of me to serve the people of our province.

As I conclude Honourable Speaker, allow me to borrow from Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o an award-winning, world-renowned Kenyan writer and academic who wrote:

“Our lives are a battlefield on which is fought a continuous war between the forces that are pledged to confirm our humanity and those determined to dismantle it; those who strive to build a protective wall around it, and those who wish to pull it down; those who seek to mould it and those committed to breaking it up; those who aim to open our eyes, to make us see the light and look to tomorrow and those who wish to lull us into closing our eyes"

"Let’s grow South Africa together"

Let’s grow North West together!

I thank you.

Province

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