Housing benefits to military veterans: Provincial Departments of Human Settlements progress reports

Meeting report

Department of Defence and Military Veterans: Briefing

Mr Max Ozinsky, Acting Director-General, DMV, said that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Department of Military Veterans and the Department of Human Settlements (DHS) had been concluded on 7 February 2012 by the Deputy Ministers of the two departments. This was to provide housing to military veterans (milvets ) based on agreed specifications, to upgrade/repair dilapidated properties of milvets, and to provide them with housing sector skills training. The plan was also to assist milvets with housing-related difficulties based on the merit of each case. A Service Level Agreement (SLA) was signed with all the heads of departments (HODs) of the provincial Departments of Human Settlement, which was aimed at giving effect to the MoU. The monitoring of the implementation of the MoU and the SLA involved oversight by the Portfolio Committee to ensure its effectiveness. To date there had been total transfers R51.76 million, 132 houses had been built, and the remaining balance was currently about R33 million. Provinces without a single delivery included Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and the Western Cape. The DMV’s annual housing target, according to its annual performance plan (APP), was the provision of 1 000 houses. The DHS had committed to assist the DMV with tracking the utilisation of the funds that were transferred to its provincial departments.

Mr Ozinsky said that in Chatty 491, in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, 224 milvets had applied, but only 71 (32%) had been approved on the DHS’s housing subsidy system (HSS). In KZN, 739 milvets had applied, and only 215 (29%) had been approved on the HSS. The reasons for the rejections had included the applicants’ combined household income exceeding the prescribed threshold, and the previous property owner. There were a number of reasons that had been identified for project under-performance, such as:

• Lack of project prioritization at the construction level;
• Random housing projects not informed by demand;
• Non-adherence to the approved floor plan;
• Lack of capacity within the DMV.

The DMV had implemented a number of interventions which were focused on the provision of emergency housing assistance. The DHS and the DMV had agreed to allocate low cost Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) houses to milvets who were destitute in areas where there were low-cost houses without DMV projects. The funding model had been developed with guidance from the National Treasury. The DMV encouraged and provided financial assistance to milvets who wished to purchase  properties that were being sold privately for a value that was equivalent to the housing benefits allowed by the policy. It was focused on the provision of critical repairs to dilapidated properties that were owned by milvets, provided that they had not received a subsidy from the state before. There was now a prioritization of building assistance to milvets who owned serviced sites.

Briefings: Provincial Departments of Human Settlements

Mpumalanga

Mr Speedy Mashilo, Member of the Executive Committee (MEC): Human Settlements, Mpumalanga, said that a provincial steering committee had been established to support and monitor the execution of the programme. The steering committee was composed of officials from the Mpumalanga DHS, the DMV and the provincial South African National Veterans Association (SANMVA). The Department had entered into an MoU with the DMV, which made provision for it to provide subsidies of R110 000 to qualifying beneficiaries. The DMV was expected to provide a list of verified military veterans, and top-up funding of R 78 884 per beneficiary. R13.8 million had been received from the DMV in 2015 as top-up funding, which catered for 173 units. The serviced providers had been appointed in December 2014 to start with the implementation of the programme, but the actual implementation had started only in the 2015/16 financial year.

The Department was building a 50 square metre house, with tiled floors, a carport, kitchen unit, stove and a 30 square metre perimeter fence. The cost of this house was R188 884. In 2016/17, the Department had approved alternative plans, with 60 square metres houses but excluding a carport at the same quantum rates, at the request of some beneficiaries. The Department had contracted all projects in the different municipalities to complete all untouched units. The beneficiaries who had been allocated in 2015/16 financial year were unhappy with the size of the houses, the use of the carport and the size of the fence (too small for their sites). There had been unavailability of sites in Emalahleni and Msukaligwa local municipalities in 2015/16. There was a problem with the unreliable database of beneficiaries received from the DMV, as some identified beneficiaries did not have specific information, such as the name of the province, town or municipality, as well as contact details.

The Department had amended the building plans in preparation for 2016/17 projects which had been supported by the steering committee and approved.  Sites had been made available in Emalahleni local municipality, and the contractor had already been appointed. The project in Msukaligwa local municipality had been put on hold pending the outcome of the legal process currently under way. The database issue had been raised at the last national task team meeting, but no feedback had yet been received. The province had facilitated the process of identifying beneficiaries, and these had been verified against the DMV database for 2016/17. This process was finalised only in October 2016, and construction would therefore resume. The Department was closely monitoring the implementation of the project in order to complete all running projects.

KwaZulu-Natal

Mr Elijah Cele, Manager: Special Project Management, PDHS, KZN, said that before the establishment of the DMV, the KZN DHS had provided 121 milvets with houses through the normal subsidy programme for households earning less than R3 500 per month. Since the inception of the new policy prescripts and regulations from the DMV, it had embarked on a consultation process with the KZN provincial SA Military Veterans Association (SAMVA). The consultations had finalised a strategy and way forward to fast track milvets’ housing in the 2014/15 financial year and over the medium term expenditure framework (MTEF) period. Since 2014, the department had budgeted for 120 military veterans per annum, at R164 169 per military veteran. To date, R11 million had been received from the DMV for the top-up funding of R78 000 each for 150 units in 2013-2015. KZN’s total military veterans human settlements development grant (HSDG) budget for 2016/17 to 2018/19 was R134 million, for a total of 530 military veterans.

Mr Cele said that the KZN department and the SAMVA-KZN had jointly convened a military veterans housing workshop. This had been held on 27 and 28 September 2014, at which military veterans’ housing policy, budget, beneficiary prioritization and house size, were deliberated. A number of resolutions had been taken and implemented from 2014 to date, and these included:

• A joint KZN Human Settlements and SAMVA-KZN steering committee had been established and consultative meetings were held quarterly;
• Only military veterans verified on DMV’s database would qualify for the ‘top up’ funding from the Department of Military Veterans;
• Military veterans who were older than 40, disabled, sick or unemployed would be prioritised for the special package of a 50m² house;
• SAMVA leadership demanded that their construction companies be directly involved in the planning and construction of their houses, applying the principle of “nothing for us without us;”
• There were 12 construction companies owned by military veterans, with Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) grades ranging from 1 to 6.
• They had proposed the appointment of Point Above Consulting Services to be the implementing agent, who would sub-contract to the smaller companies
• Point Above had a CIDB grade of 6, and its CEO was also a military veteran who had a civil engineering qualification. 

A project was being implemented through the Enhanced Peoples’ Housing Process (EPHP), and military veterans would be involved in the construction of their houses. Ithala Development Finance Corporation, a public entity, had been appointed as the accounts administrator for the implementation of the EPHP project. The appointed service provider, Point Above, served as the technical resource organization, in line with the EPHP, and the KZN DHS remained the developer of the project. The priority list of military veterans to receive the houses amounted to 223 approvals -- approved on both the HSS and DMV data-bases. A total of 875 applications had been received and processed by the implementing agent and 223 military veterans had been approved on the HSS. 20 serviced sites in Umkumbaan and six in Savanna Park had been subjected to feasibility and detailed planning. The house plans and designs for Umkumbaan and Savanna Park had been approved, and National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) enrolment for these sites was being finalised. The Permission to Occupy (PTO) certificates issued to 171 military veterans in Msunduzi required sub-division and other planning activities. The PTOs issued to three military veterans by the Amakhosi in the Illovu, Umgababa and Amanzimtoti sites were undergoing planning activities.

Mr Cele said a number of challenges were still being experienced. These included the fact that most military veterans wanted their homes built in urban areas, but there was a shortage of serviced sites, or sites close to bulk infrastructure. KwaDukuza, Ray Nkonyeni, Msunduzi, Dr Alfred Duma and eThekwini had promised to release serviced sites in order to offset this challenge. The milvets were concerned about their houses being built in high income areas due to the high property rates, and there were now plans to secure sites in townships where the rates were lower. There was also a concern that military veterans without Defence Force numbers were not considered for top up funding from the DMV, and the DMV was being engaged by the Defence Force to resolve the challenge.

Free State

Mr M C Monyela said the DHS and DMV had signed an MOU committing both parties in 2015/16 to the construction of 220 houses for Free State milvets. A provincial interdepartmental committee had been established, comprising the office of the Premier (milvets’ desk), the provincial government DHS, SANMVA and the provincial DMV. A strategic partnership had been forged with Departments of Agriculture, Economic, Small Business Development, Tourism and Economic Affairs (DESTEA), and Correctional Services for the greening of the milvets’ housing programme (instant lawns, vegetable gardens and trees). The overall strategy with greening the houses was for milvets to maintain and view their houses as valuable assets.

30 houses had been completed in Lourier-Park, Mangaung Metro, and consumer education conducted for milvets on their rights and obligations. The indigent policy of the metro was also implemented. The province had appointed the main contractor and subcontractors for milvets’ companies to gain practical working experience. It had created a number of job opportunities for military veterans and communities where housing projects had been implemented. A military veterans’ community liaison officer from the MVA had been appointed. There had been involvement by engineers, Free State human settlements project managers, the NHBRC and municipal Inspectors in the milvets’ housing programme, covering enrolment, inspections, quality assurance and certification. 50 serviced sites in Hillside View had been allocated by the Mangaung Metro for military veterans’ housing units, and construction had commenced in this prime area, which had a bus rapid transport (BRT) system, a shopping mall, and was close to institutions of higher education and the Department of Home Affairs.

At Moqhaka Municipality, ten houses were to be built, and six were at the completion stage. At Ngwathe Municipality, six houses were to be build, and five were at wallplate level, and the military veterans’ project pipeline was in place.

Challenges included the fact that milvets did not have their own serviced sites to enable speedy housing construction, and programme implementation was dependent on municipalities providing serviced sites, but some municipalities provided sites without infrastructure for services. There was also a challenge in the fact that most non-statutory force members -- the main programme target group -- were not captured on the DMV database, and this impeded speedy programme implementation. The Housing Subsidy System (HSS) verification of milvets was cumbersome – housing subsidy application forms, capturing forms on the system, HSS searches on beneficiaries’ employment and property status, and HSS findings. There were plans in place for the finalisation of the military veterans’ database, the alignment of the HSS process with the military veterans’ qualifications criteria, and conclusion of the amendment of the Military Veterans Act.

North West Province

Mr Phihadu Motoko, HOD: Local Government & Human Settlements, North West, said the DHS had signed an SLA with the DMV on 16 October 2013. It had received a budget for additional costs (top-up) from the DMV for improved housing assistance. This budget was also to fast track housing delivery to military veterans, and given the vastness of the province as well as the current state/situation of milvets, the approach had been to allocate work to contractors who were on site and were already implementing projects for the Department.

A total 62 applications had been received and 17 approved, with 45 declined, under the project at Mafikeng Ext 39. The budget for the project was around R5.5 million, and so far R1 million had already been spent and nine units delivered out of the targeted 25. For the Ramotshere Moiloa project 48 applications had been captured and 18 approved, with 30 declined. The allocated budget for the project was R21 million, and 60 units were planned to be delivered. The construction for the project had not started because of the lack of confirmation of available land as yet from the municipality. It was highlighted that applications were being declined because applicants were not meeting the qualifying criteria, had previously benefited, or did not appear on the military veterans’ database. The Department still needed to deal with the fact that the household income of some military veterans exceeded the threshold to be a beneficiary.

Mr Motoko said that the Department had identified a number of challenges, which included:

• Unavailability of suitable land with serviced stands for construction;
• Unavailability of bulk services in other areas proposed for development - rural areas and villages;
• Untraceable identified members (provided contact details not in use);
• Municipalities and military veterans’ associations rejecting the utilisation of priority lists from the DMV, saying they excluded other members.
• Most of the beneficiaries failed searches – houses had been repossessed by the banks and others had lost properties to their spouses during divorce processes still registered in their names. 

The Department had introduced interventions to offset these problems. These had focused on engagement with municipalities to assist to assist with the unavailability of land, and with districts and local municipalities to plan for the provision of bulk services. There were also plans in place to engage SAMVA in tracing other members through their associations, and this was precisely to deal with untraceable identified members. The Department had sought the intervention of the DMV and the national DHS to include them on the database. A list has been forwarded to both Departments. A decision had been taken to compile report that would be forwarded to DMV and NDHS for intervention, and to request the registrar of deeds to deregister the beneficiaries from the deeds register. In view of the above challenges, the Department was drafting a recovery plan which would be discussed with the DMV with a view to unblocking the identified challenges. The Department would be resuscitating the Ramotshere Moiloa (Luthuli Detachment) project.

Eastern Cape

Mr Daluhlanga Mpendu, Housing Administration and Facilitation: Human Settlements, Eastern Cape, said a total of 43 military veterans were housed at Wells Estate through a project-linked subsidy, and nine military veterans had taken occupation of their homes in Mayfield, Makana. Individual beneficiaries had been assisted with housing using the individual subsidy route, such as the Mgabela family in Tsholomnqa, the Twebe family in Dimbaza, the Hina family in New Brighton, the Qalani family in Zwide, the Merile family in KwaZakhele, and the Jack family in Uitenhage. There were sound relations with key stakeholders, in particular the provincial military veterans’ steering committee.

Challenges included military veterans who earned above the threshold, and those who had previously benefited, being rejected by the HSS. This was a policy bottleneck, so the Province was engaging with the DMV and DHS to find solutions. There was also a challenge of dependents of deceased military veterans, who were not considered at present. The DMV had undertaken to review the policy to include the dependents. Despite all the challenges, the Eastern Cape was committed to the roll-out of the military veterans’ assistance programme in the province. Resolution of the policy bottlenecks was key to realising this commitment.

Discussion

The Chairperson pointed out that the problems that were being experienced by all the provinces that had presented were similar. The main issue was on the reliability and incompleteness of the database, and the question of land availability in the municipalities.

Mr S Esau (DA) said that the issue of SAMVA and the policy regarding the rollout of houses needed to be resolved as a matter of urgency, with a particular focus on how SAMVA was getting involved in the process. There was already a problem with the housing policy and the way of building houses in terms of the national policy, and it looked like there were deviations that were needed to be addressed. There had been an indication from the Department that 4 490 people were in the pre-approved list for housing. It was clear from the presentation of the provincial departments that they were not happy with this list, including SAMVA. It would be important for the Committee to be given detailed information around the actual reasons for the objection to the pre-approved list, as this was an impediment to delivery.

The presentations had given the Committee a good idea about what had been happening to various provinces, and it had been said that some of the funds had not been spent for good reason. However, the unfortunate part was that if the money was not being spent and was lying there and not being rolled over, then it was returned to the revenue fund, and the DMV and military veterans were the ones that would ultimately suffer the greatest loss. The Department was quite correct that there was a need for coordination between the provinces in order for money to be shifted to those that were working and achieving their targets in order to prevent the situation where money would be returned to the revenue fund. The indigent policy was still posing some problems, and this was precisely because the application to the policy was subject to the provinces and local government, and there was a different policy regime for the DMV. The vetting should take place at the DMV, which should provide all with a list of information so that the provincial departments did not encounter problems with regard to the lack of contact numbers or information about residential addresses.

Mr Esau said it was reported that a large number of military veterans had been rejected because of an inaccurate database. The statement that the database was 90% accurate was incorrect, and this should be an important priority to be resolved by the DMV. Those military veterans that had been historically deprived of benefits should be put on the priority list. It would be important for the Committee to know about the process that was to be followed on the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) military veterans. It was unclear if policies were already in place for those new military veterans who had served under the SANDF so that they could also access pensions and medical aid, and were entitled to housing subsidies. The Department should adopt the approach of preventing the problem from continuing, and deal with the existing backlog.

He urged that there should be a concerted effort to ensure that there was an Information Technology (IT) system in place that would identify those who deserved to be on the database, and those who were not supposed to be there. There were people who had tried their luck to benefit for housing subsidies while already owning a house, and this was already happening with RDP houses. The priority of the Department should be to give services to those who were most deserving of the benefits while removing those who were trying to defraud the system, and this could also be done by working together with the Department of Home Affairs (DHA). In relation to the issue of the “top up”, the Committee would like to know if the 631 military veterans included those who had moved out of the military services of the SANDF. The Committee should be briefed on the matters surrounding the Certified Personnel Register (CPR).   

Mr B Bongo (ANC) appreciated the fact that MECs from various provinces were also present at the meeting, as this showed that the grievances of military veterans were being taken seriously. The picture that was painted by the presentations that had been made showed that all the provinces faced challenges. The Committee had decided to setup this meeting because there was a sense that there was lack of commitment from various provinces in dealing with challenges that were faced by military veterans. The DMV was always getting qualified or disclaimer audit opinions on the basis that the money that had been sent to the provinces was unspent. There should be a standardisation of systems in place between the DMV and DHS to ensure smooth delivery of service to the military veterans, and this should particularly be the case in terms of money that was being given to the provinces. It looked as if the Department was getting closer to solving the problem of unreliability and incompleteness of the database. The DMV should reconcile the database on the number of military veterans in terms of what had already been done, as this would assist in improving the accuracy of database.                                                                                            
He emphasised the indigent policy could deal with the challenge that had been identified by various provinces, where the military veterans were concerned with their houses being built in high income areas due to high property rates. The reality was that military veterans were complaining about a lack of service delivery. This was always evident when the Committee was conducting oversight work, and this was especially the case in KZN. The Department had been created to deal with the dignity of military veterans and at this particular moment, the military veterans out there were despondent and this despondence was not resonating well with the Committee and the ruling party. It seemed like there was an unwillingness to deal with some of the challenges that were being experienced by military veterans in KZN. The situation on the ground for military veterans was very bad, and the Committee was now at the point where Members would also need to personally intervene on these challenges. The matter of lack of land availability was a political issue that needed to be elevated at the political level by engaging mayors.

Mr N Khoza (EFF) agreed that it was true that all the provinces had similar challenges, but those challenges would need to be dealt with by the DMV. It would need to relook at the governance structure so as to include other government departments or stakeholders in the delivery of services to the military veterans. In relation to the issue of scarcity of land, there would be a need to include the chiefs and the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, as there was a lot of available land that could be utilised for building houses for military veterans. The DMV would need to get involved in assisting all the provinces, not just by giving them money and leaving them on their own. It was true that the database of military veterans was inefficient and unreliable, and there were a lot of people who were on wrongly on the database, and this was usually detected when the verification was done. There were also those who were not on the database, but were eligible to be there. The Department would need to come up with a better way of conducting verification of the database, as this would improve service delivery for military veterans. There had been a general improvement from the Department and provinces in terms of the acceleration of delivery of houses to the military veterans. The reason the Committee had called the meeting was to instil the importance of taking action in assisting military veterans in order to deal with their grievances. 

Mr Ozinsky responded that the Committee should understand exactly where the problems on the issue of the database were, and how they were linked to the delivery of houses. There was a database that did not affect the delivery of houses and there were about 71 000 names on it, and it consisted of those who had left the SANDF, those who appeared on the CPRs and those that had been added from the SANDF, and the few that had been added from the non-statutory forces, since they were not on the CPR. There were approximately 30 000 applicants that had not been added to the database, and these were individuals who were not considered to be military veterans until they were verified. The only citizens who were considered to be military veterans were those 71 000 on the database. The DMV was unable to provide money or any assistance to people who were not on the database. It was indicated that KZN was building houses for “military veterans” who were not on the database and this was not done in accordance with the law, as these were not considered to be military veterans.

Mr Ozinsky added that 90% of the military veterans that were on the database had been verified, and this figure should be 100%, but there had been a process of adding people on the database that the Department was not happy about. It must be made clear that only a subset of those on the database would meet the criteria for housing. The complication in the provision of housing was the fact that it was difficult to tell at the moment about the number of people on the database who met the criteria for housing, so a second verification would need to take place. There was agreement that 4 990 of the 71 000 military veterans met the criteria on the benefit for housing provision. The DMV was constantly engaging the DHS on the need to work on the 4 990 military veterans that were supposed to benefit to housing provision. It was indeed true that the contact details of most military veterans might not be accurate, and this was something that would be dealt with by the Department.

The Department was targeting to build 1 000 houses in the current financial year and it would would identify from the 4 990 the 1 000 veterans that should be getting houses in this year. The process of identifying the people who would be benefiting could take a week, although it was hard to tell the exact timeframe at the moment. This was an important process, and the Department was committed to the delivery of those houses.

The Department had taken a management decision on ways to deal with the database in general. There was a team of DDGs and the head of Information Technology (IT) to make recommendations on sorting out the database issue, and this included how to secure the database and put the database in a format that would be easily used by the Department, and to interconnect the database to other government departments. It must be taken into consideration that it was very complicated to add another 30 000 non-statutory force members into the database, as it would leave a lot of questions on the criteria that were being used to add military veterans to the database. There should be a clear policy and process in place that would ensure that the people on the database were those that met the criteria to be there. There was a general feeling that the military veterans who would be added into the database 22 years later would be a very small percentage of the 30 000.

Mr Ozinsky said that the applications that the Department had received were coming from SAMVA, and therefore the Department would need to convince SAMVA that there were no people who had been fraudulently added to the database. Housing delivery was purely focused on those deserving individuals who were on the database. SAMVA would need to be brought on board when the Department was deciding on who was going to be a beneficiary for housing, but the main bodies that were dealing with housing delivery must be able to make the final decision. The Department should not allow interference in this process to the point that it derailed service delivery, and people were forced into the database for housing delivery.

The Department also had a responsibility to ensure that the procurement by various provincial departments followed all the procurement guidelines stipulated in the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) and Treasury regulations. What remained a concern to the Department was the money that had been distributed to the provincial departments. A large amount of funds had been given to provinces with a certain expectation and targets in place. The Department was particularly disappointed that most of the provinces had not met those targets. It must be emphasised that the Department should have coordination with the DHS in order to overcome some of the challenges that had been flagged by the provinces.

The Chairperson indicated that the Committee might have to conduct oversight on completed projects and go on site where the military veterans were working. The Committee might also call SAMVA to make a presentation in terms of the challenges in the delivery of housing, to ensure that there was a clear understanding between SAMVA and the Department. SAMVA had been established by the Military Veterans Act, and therefore it should be clear as to their role within the Department. The amendment to the Military Veterans Act had been in the pipeline for very long time, and a number of provinces had been raising issues in regard to it, as it was regarded as an impediment to service delivery. The Committee would need to call on the Department and the Minister in order to brief Members on the progress that had been made in amending the Act. 

The meeting was adjourned.