Policy and Budget Speech 2010/11 by MEC for Human
Settlements, Madala Masuku, Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature
11 May 2010
Honourable Speaker and Deputy Speaker
Honourable Premier, Mr DD Mabuza
Honourable Members of the Executive Council
Honourable Members of the Provincial Legislature
Distinguished guests
Friends and citizens of the province
We gather here this afternoon in the beginning of the
second year of the current administration. It is exactly a year following the
shift from housing to human settlements, a significant move
aimed at propelling the department to deliver services in an integrated and
sustainable manner
Bakerly and Leigh, 2010:418) in The Planning Local
Economic Development, theory and practice, says:
“The quality of the environment in which people would live and work can have a significant effect on whether an individual chooses to live in one locality or another.” Bakerly and Leigh, 2010:418)
This brings us back to where we started Yann Martel
(2002), whom I once quoted in this house, who elaborated on this notion that:
“People move because of the wear and tear and anxiety. Because of the gnawing feeling that no matter how hard they work their efforts will yield nothing, that what they build up in one year will be torn down in one day by others. Because of the impression that the future is blocked up, that they might do all right but not their children. Because of the feeling that nothing will change, that happiness and prosperity are possible only somewhere else.”
Lapha eNkomazi, Mbombela, Umjindi, Thaba Chweu and
Bushbuckridge. Emakhazeni, Victor Khanye, Thembisile Hani, Dr
JS Moroka, Emalahleni Dipaleseng, Lekwa, Msukaligwa, Mkhondo, Pixley Ka Isaka
Seme nase Nkosi Albert Luthuli.
Sithini isimo sezenhlalakahle? Anjani amanzi, ziyahambeka
izindlela, ugesi wokukhanyisa nokudala amathuba okusebenza ukhona yini? kanti
senzani ngaye, siphila ngani, silala khuphi, sikhonzaphi, izingane zethu zona
zifunda kuphi, kanti futhi zidlale kuphi? Ikhona imithola mpilo?
Sithini kuwena lesisimo esibhekene naso? Sithi mawufakaze
ngaso, noma sithi awubophe umthwalo uhambe ungazi laph’ uyophelela khona?
Yiyo ke ingwadla enkulu esibhekene nayo siwuhulumeni.
Ngisho emakhaya, kusifundazwe noma kuzwelonke ukuthi sizama njani ukuthi impilo
zabantu zenziwe ngcono lapho behlala khona. Senze ukuthi noma kubuhlungu
namuhla, babene themba ukuthi kusasa kuzobe kungcono. Ukuthi ithemba
ngemisebenzi esiyenzayo ukuthi lokhu ekuqoqile izolo na namhla-nje angeke
kusatshalaliswe ngomunye umuntu kusasa. Okwakhiwe ngeke kudilizwe ngumuntu
kusasa. Abantwana bethu banelikusasa eliqhakazile, akekho ozobe bela ilifa
eliqoqwe lakhiwa ngabazali nokhokho wabo. Izwe angeke libuswe nga madlanga
namankentshane, kodwa ngabafazi namadoda aqotho asebenzela imiphakathi
ngokungangabazeki.
It is from this perspective that I dedicate the Policy and
Budget Speech to the late Dumisane Bomber Ntshangase who dedicated his life to
the struggle of South Africa. Bomber was a member of the ANC, SACP, participated
in COSATU and a trained Soldier of the MK. Renowned to many for picking up
struggles of the ordinary people, especially at Mzinoni Township. He was one of
those who exposed the challenges of electricity, water sanitation and the
appalling situations people were subjected to live under the Hostel systems and
work with all authorities to resolve it. He, himself stayed in a hostel and
waged struggles with the other dwellers to get those places to be upgraded into
Comprehensive Residential units they are today. Ran a project there catering for
orphans within the CRU, a well known activist against any form of corruption. At
the age of 47 he was studying with Unisa. A good community member, whose work
deserves to be emulated. The name of Bomber Ntshangase is known throughout the
country through his opinions that he shared without fail in SABC radios, a true
patriot who lived a full life of a revolutionary. He was gunned down and
murdered execution style on 4 May 2010 and Buried Sunday, 10 May 2010 at the
rural village of Mdokwane, Ophongolo, Kwazulu–Natal.
2009/10 financial year performance
In the previous policy and Budget Speech we indicated that
we will be concluding our housing demand database.
We indicated that in the 15 years of democracy, 143 389
RDP houses were delivered in Mpumalanga alone.
We also set ourselves to deliver 10 547 housing units to
be that year, 4 132 of which were longstanding unfinished houses; 50 units for
military veterans; 142 for farm worker housing; 400 for integrated Residential
Developments at Thaba Chweu and Emalahleni Municipalities.
I am glad to announce that we managed to deliver 8 204
housing units, cleared off the 3 746 of the houses that were reported to be long
standing unfinished, leaving us with 386 that will be finished this financial
year. In the course of the work we discovered another 543 units that were not
accounted for in the 4 132. Making the remainder to total to 910 we also
delivered 34 of the 50 in the programme targeting war veterans
On 18 July 2010 we joined hands with the world and the
nation to celebrate the Mandela Day which teaches us the ideal that each
individual has the power to transform the world, the ability to make an imprint
to the vulnerable.
On this day, we raised our hands in celebration and
renewed commitment to the making of a just society. The beneficiaries of the
celebration who are six families are here with us today.
In our resolve to touch the lives of the vulnerable and
honour the brevity of our mothers, we dedicated the women’s month by
constructing 53 houses in Tekwane North for people with disabilities, orphans,
child headed homes and the aged.
We also planned to build six social and economic
facilities namely, Community Halls and Child Care Facilities, at Mbombela,
Bushbuckridge, Nkomazi, Emalahleni, Govan Mbeki and Mkhondo municipalities. To
this we managed to only finish Mbombela, Emalahleni and Govan Mbeki, leaving the
rest to be completed this year.
We also promised to use the model of rental stock in Steve
Tswete and Emalahleni, the initiating of the BNG pilot in Mashishing and
Emalahleni, as well as the converted hostels into family units at Emalahleni to
draw valuable experiences that will help us forge ahead into the future. The
planned rental stocks were completed and services were put in all the sites that
were planned for integrated human settlements (BNG).
Towards Delivering Integrated Human Settlements
The previous financial year 2009/10, we indicated that we
were going to focus on closing off the previous term approach of settling people
where we focus solely on the top structure. We indicated that we will be doing
this while planning for the implementation of Integrated Human Settlements in
2010/11 financial year.
Our activities and budget for 2010/11 therefore focus on
bringing to reality integrated human settlements in the province.
The Premier has already indicated that the province will
create three examples of Integrated Human settlements. As a department and
municipalities, we have decided to use Thaba Chweu, Emalahleni, Klarinet and
Dipaleseng for this purpose. We are going to partner with financial institutions
and developers to deliver Integrated Human Settlements in the said areas.
These settlements will boast full services like water,
electricity and business sites infrastructure, and accommodate a total of 2 500
households in bonded up market houses, middle income houses, fully subsidized
houses and affordable rental stocks and apartments.
These are three year huge projects that will after
completion deliver infrastructure that will be able to accommodate just over 20
000 households in the three identified areas. The Social Cluster has agreed that
other amenities like schools, sports and culture, health and social service
facilities will be provided in the areas developed to the equate norms and
standards required.
During the course of the next 3 years, 13 more Integrated
Human Settlements shall be initiated. The first three of the 16 is envisaged to
be completed by 2014.
As we implement the concept of Integrated Sustainable
Human Settlements, we are experiencing challenges relating to the availability
of suitable land in Municipalities, access to water and electricity as well as
existing communities which do not comply with the notion of Integrated Human
Settlements. The inadequate budget to respond to these
challenges does not help the situation.
Additional to this is a huge backlog with regard to
settlements of households, which is hovering at about 250 000, and in the
current rate of delivery at about 10 000 for subsidised units a year.
We, together with Municipalities, have decided to be
innovative going forward. We have decided to put more effort on assisting
municipalities to maximize access to land and serviced stands. We shall assist
Emakhazeni Municipality to purchase land at Emakhazeni in Nkangala for Human
Settlements purposes. Additional to this service 6 089 sites in eight
Municipalities, i.e. Steve Tshwete, Emalahleni, Bushbuckridge, Msukaligwa,
Mkhando, Pixley Ka Isaka Seme, Mbombela, Thaba Chweu. .
Further Interventions in areas of special significance
The remaining budget will be used to cater for 8 145
subsidised housing units that will be channeled as follows:
- 3 404 of which will be used to clear off outstanding
projects structured in the old way to deal with upgrading of informal
settlements in municipalities, including Mjindi, Emalahleni, Govan Mbeki,
Dipaleseng, Pixley Ka isaka Seme, Mbombela, Lekwa, Msukaligwa and Steve
Tshwete.
- 1 669 to cater for rural areas with communal land
rights found in Steve Tswete, Thembisile Hani, Nkomazi, Albert Luthuli,
Dipaleseng, Pixley Ka Isaka Seme, Bushbuckridge, Thaba Chweu and Mkhondo.
- 450 to cater for farm worker housing
assistance where there are agreements in the areas of Victor Khanye,
Umjindi, Emakhazeni, Mkhondo and Thaba Chweu.
- 50 accounts for those who applied for the stop gap subsidies from the Municipalities of Victor Khanye, Lekwa and Steve Tshwete only. More popularization will have to be done in this regard because many people are not aware of this housing funding product.
- 522 to assist vulnerable individuals with stands
already, 30 of which are war veterans, 100 are people with disability and 42
individual subsidies to households affected by death of guardian.
- 2 000 is set aside to be build houses using
cooperatives, CBO’s and associations through the People’s Housing Process in
the areas of Nkomazi, Thaba Chweu, Emalahleni, Govan Mbeki, Albert Luthuli,
Bushbuckridge, Victor Khanye, Dr JS Moroka, Thembisile Hani and
Mbombela.
Provision of rental stock and community residential units
The programme of upgrading hostels into Community
Residential Units shall continue at Emalahleni, Steve Tshete, Kwazamokuhle,
Thaba Chweu, Emakhazeni, Lekwa and Govan Mbeki.
We shall continue to subsidize Housing associations in
Steve Tshwete, Govan Mbeki, Mbombela and Emalahleni to assist us in the
development and provision of rental stock to people who need places to stay on
rental basis. Other municipalities are encouraged to facilitate the
establishment of these institutions to assist them to handle rental stock that
we will be developing in all municipalities.
Talking about rentals in the province, we have an average
of 2 000 disputes between private landlords and tenants that need arbitration
every year. We shall continue to fund our rental tribunal to resolve these
matters.
On rectification of the past
We shall finish the remaining long standing unfinished
houses of 910 that remain in the previous financial year as accounted for above.
We shall continue with our task of rectifying houses built
between 1994 and 2002 now having structural defects. The 925 houses that have
already been assessed in Thaba Chweu, Dipaleseng, Emalahleni, uMjindi and Pixley
ka Isaka Seme will be rectified in this financial year.
We shall also rectify 600 houses built pre 1994 that we
have assessed in Steve Tshwete, Umjindi, Thaba Chweu, Mbombela and Lekwa and
found to be unsafe to live in.
As part of upgrading existing settlements, we shall
finally construct the three social amenities that were promised in
Bushbuckridge, Mkhondo, and Dipaleseng.
Honourable speaker, Human Settlements planning and
implementation has lots of challenges. We currently have untraceable
beneficiaries, who create for us a challenge of unoccupied houses all over the
province, resulting in illegal occupations through informal markets corrupt
means. In this financial year we shall deregister 3 360 untraceable
beneficiaries to open a way for other to access houses legally.
Our response to water and other basic services challenges
Water scarcity, water pollution and overuse of ground water resources
are survival issues in many countries and regions, and many hold that this
problem is even more critical than the threat of climate change. Mpumalanga is
affected by all of these.
More so we know that the water which underpins development and growth
is a limited resource. In order to support the economic growth we require to
address poverty in the Province, concerted action and dedication will be
required to ensure that we optimally utilize our available water to meet the
demands of all sectors equitably.”
In the previous year we have not done so well in
addressing water and electricity challenges in our Municipalities due to the
administrative processes of the transfer of function from one department to the
other. The responsibility has been dully transferred, while
we still suffer capacity and resource challenges.
Working together with Water Affairs, Rand water, the
Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs and
municipalities, we initiated the process to analyse the challenges faced by
municipalities in the provision of sanitation services and clean water to
communities. This process will be completed in the second quarter of this
financial year 2010/11. This will allow the development of a structured plan for
the district municipalities, province, and national to assist the municipalities
as water services authorities.
In the meantime, municipalities continue to do their level
best to provide this service to communities through various means, including
water tanks and jo-jo tanks. For this reason the province will add to the most
stressed Municipalities water tankers and 75 jo-jo tanks. The department will
also assist municipalities to eradicate the water services backlog in at least
20 settlements by the end of this financial year.
2010/11 financial year budget proposal
I therefore present the budget of R 1 197 494 000 for the
Department of Human Settlements (Vote 13) as outlined below:
Programme | Allocated Amounts 2010/11 R’000 |
---|---|
Administration |
R 88 433 000 |
Housing Needs, Research and Planning |
R 70 652 000 |
Housing Development and Implementation |
R 1 031 868 000 |
Housing Assets Management |
R 6 541 000 |
Total |
R 1 197 494 000 |
Honourable members, the budget of R 1 031 868 000
allocated for our Programme three; Housing Development and Implementation,
includes an amount of R 975 863 000 which is mainly focusing on our core
mandate, Integrated Human Settlements delivery.
The amount of R 6 541 000 is transfers to the four housing
associations namely, Greater Middelburg, Mbombela, Govan Mbeki and eMalahleni
Housing Associations. Their role is to support the department in delivering on
rental and affordable stock.
With our strengthened machinery and cooperation shown by
all partners within the industry, this budget will see the delivery of 9 616
houses in the current financial year. We are resolute that these funds will be
spent as planned and as prudent as possible to deliver the much needed shelter
to our communities.
This budget will go a long way in helping the department
to master rules of the game, to deliver quality sustainable Human Settlements.
Conclusion
May I take this opportunity to extend my profound
gratitude to my colleagues in the Executive Council, the chairperson of the
portfolio committee on Human Settlements and Co-operative Governance and
Traditional Affairs Honourable SPD Skhosana and the rest of the members, the
HOD, Mr David Dube and staff.
Let me not forget to thank the municipalities, especially
the mayors and the councilors designated responsibility to guide us on the needs
of the society. I know that we agreed to allocate resources
proportional according our demand data base. Due to our internal capacity
challenges within both of our institutions, it has since proven to be a
challenge, but we promise to rectify this in the coming years.
My special thanks to the Premier who has given me a
responsibility in a department that exposes me more closer to our communities’
real challenges. I learnt one thing Speaker and the Premier that our people
never cry while braving these conditions. I have seen them all without fail cry
only at the end when at last they hold that key, open the house switch on the
light and open the tap and see water running out. They say the tears are for
those who are still in the queue enduring those unbearable conditions and wonder
when they will also taste this fruit of freedom that they now have in their own
hands.
These are the humble people who have never destroyed
anyone’s property or vandalise or set ablaze any public institutions or
building. They are grateful for the little our resources can do, but vigilant
against those who seek to abuse them and participate in activities to undermine
service delivery.
“Together we will Do More” in developing sustainable integrated human settlements.
Ngiyabonga
Issued by Department of Human Settlements, Mpumalanga Provincial Government