Housing Development Agency Amendment Bill: deliberations

Meeting report

Since the Chairperson was delayed, Ms B Dambuza (ANC) was elected as acting chairperson. She asked the State Law Advisor to continue going through the proposed amendments.

Preamble
Ms Ngema noted the change in ‘acknowledging that there are serious problems and hindrances towards the realisation of housing for all there is a need to accelerate service delivery on housing and source the required skills’.

Definitions
Ms Dambuza suggested that ‘Director-General’ and ‘developer’ should be included in the definitions.

Mr Nkululeko Ntwana (Parliamentary Legal Advisor) commented that terms that did not appear in the Bill should not be defined.

Clause 23  Staff of the Agency
Ms Ngema noted that in Clause 23(1), they had changed the ‘Chief Executive Officer’ to the ‘Board’. The Department had changed ‘overseen by’ in 23(5) to ‘reporting to’.

Clause 24 Funds of the Agency
Ms Dambuza referred to Clause 24(f) and the fees for services rendered based on cost recovery. She asked if it would impact on the rates charged by municipalities.

Mr M Dlabantu (Deputy Director-General: Department of Housing) replied that they had anticipated a situation where the municipality would voluntarily ask the agency to do work. The municipality might employ the agency to do certain parts of the development, in doing so the agency would be required to cover its own costs. There would be no added burden on the municipality. The agency had to derive the appropriate income to perform its functions. In the subsidy there was provision for management costs.

Ms Dambuza asked whether it was possible to reflect the Municipal Income Grant (MIG) funding. 

Ms Ngema pointed to Clause 24 (g) that referred to subsidies granted by the state. She suggested that perhaps it should be ‘subsidies and grants granted by the state’.

Ms Dambuza asked the Department to clarify the situation with regard to land acquisition and the developers. The agency would acquire land, from a Land Affairs grant, the agency would prepare the land and contract the developer on a subsidy level and that would be the end. After development, it would be handed to the beneficiaries.

Mr Dlabantu replied that the agency, where required, would access the money for the acquisition of land. This could happen through the Land Affairs grant.  Provinces were also given the ability to purchase land on their own. The province would probably use that entity because of the long processes involved with land. The agency had to be operating to promote mixed development.

Clause 26 Tabling in Parliament
Ms Dambuza said that in the definitions there were some omissions. 

Clause 27 Delegation of the Minister
Ms Dambuza noted that the Director-General of Housing was given authority. She was not certain about this clause.

Mr Dlabantu responded that a definition clause might have to be inserted.

Clause 30 Intervention by the Minister
Ms Ngema noted that the only change was in 30(1) where ‘difficulties’ had been changed to ‘difficulty’.

Ms Dambuza asked for further clarification on the word ‘may’ in Clause 30(1). She felt that ‘may’ should be changed to ‘must’.

Ms Ngema replied that the term ‘may’ gave discretionary powers to decide whether or not to take action.

Clause 31 Regulations
Ms Ngema said in 31(1) the ‘Minister of Public Service and Administration’ would be omitted because it did not serve a purpose.

Ms Ngema noted that ‘Portfolio and Select Committees on Housing’ would be inserted in 31(2). 

Mr Dlabantu asked if there was a reason why there was a specific mention of the Committees as opposed to using ‘Parliament’.

Mr Ntwana replied that it had been a request from the Portfolio Committee to make specific mention of the Committee. However he thought that since both Houses would be involved, the term should be ‘Parliament’. Ms Dambuza agreed that ‘Parliament’ was the relevant term.

Ms Ngema replied that it would be changed.

Clause 32 Dissolution
Ms Ngema noted that ‘may’ would be changed into ‘must’ because it could leave loopholes that would destabilise the agency.

Mr Ntwana replied that there was no discretion in ‘may not’. It was quite clear.

Ms Dambuza decided that it should be left as is.

Discussion
Ms Dambuza asked if it was possible to include specialized skills because the agency would provide highly specialized skills.

Mr Dlabantu replied that specialized skills could be accommodated on the basis that it attracted the correct skills.

Ms Dambuza asked if community participation and the enforcement of quality norms and standards should also be reflected in the Bill.

Mr Dlabantu replied that the drafters would amend the Bill to be in line with what was discussed in the previous meeting.

Mr M Khauoe (ANC) asked if the Bill would cover the issue of rural land acquisition.

The Chairperson responded that it would be dealt with in Clause 5.

Ms Dambuza questioned why the Purpose of the Act would be after the definitions and not at the beginning.

Ms Ngema replied that there might be areas in the Purpose of the Act that would require definition.

The Chairperson read the motion of desirability that it the opinion of the Committee that legislation was desirable to adopt the Housing Development Agency Bill 2008 so as to establish a development agency, to provide for its functions and powers and to provide for the matters connected therewith.

The Committee agreed with the motion.

Due to time constraints of the meeting, Ms Ngema proposed that the Legal Advisors compile a document with all the finalised amendments and then present it to the Committee at its next meeting.

The Chairperson accepted the proposal and adjourned the meeting.