Chairperson, Minister, Deputy Minister and our esteemed guests, over the years the DA has not only acknowledged every South African's constitutional right to adequate housing but strived to deliver housing opportunities to all those within its constituencies. Ninety-three per cent of the Western Cape's R1,7 billion Human Settlements budget is spent on those earning less than R3 500 per month. We have come to realise that housing is a complex issue and that the national government's "one size fits all" approach to subsidised housing is unsustainable and in need of bold reform.
Allow me to highlight some of the concerns I have with the Department of Human Settlements. In the previous financial year the department once again failed to achieve what were unrealistic and unachievable targets. Even the Auditor-General has highlighted the fact that the department's failure to adhere to smart principles has led to poor planning, immeasurable and unachievable targets and rampant underspending.
The department underspent approximately R4 billion of its budget last year. Let me single out the Eastern Cape and Limpopo provinces as two culprits who have failed to spend R578 million of the funds allocated to them.
Informal settlements continue to mushroom at an alarming rate throughout South Africa and the department has failed to reach its upgrade targets. Only 141 923 out of 400 000 households earmarked have been upgraded and over R886 million of the human settlements development grant has been returned to our National Treasury. This is a tragedy, considering the daily service delivery protests we all witness.
The urban settlement development grant continues to be underspent. It is furthermore unable to deal with the basic service delivery backlog in metros. Of the allocated R7 billion, municipalities have managed to spend a mere R2 billion.
The infamous rural households infrastructure grant is another programme that fails to impress. Since its inception in 2009, it has suffered from chronic underspending and claims to have saved R164 million this past financial year, yet there are thousands of people in rural South Africa who are still without basic sanitation. The appointment of six new service providers by the rural households infrastructure grant was too little and too late since the grant will effectively come to an end next year without its purpose being served.
The department's inability to monitor and evaluate its programmes to ensure that the funds transferred to provinces and municipalities are properly spent is a serious and expensive problem. More oversight is needed by the department to ensure that money transferred is actually spent on service delivery. We agree with the Financial and Fiscal Commission, FFC, that the department needs a realistic revision of its targets in line with funding, performance, costs and capacity. We agree.
The Departmental Internal Audit Committee has also highlighted the challenges of supply chain management, the lack of internal controls, the lack of adherence to National Treasury regulations, the ineffective information technology, IT, and data systems and, most importantly, that performance targets are not measurable. Now, the question is: How can the department ask for more funds or reward its employees if it cannot measure their performance?
We agree that the gap market and the Finance-linked Individual Subsidy programme, Flisp, is long overdue and that it is the future of housing in South Africa. However, only 57 applications from all 13 provincial projects were approved in the last financial year, which is unfortunate considering the demand for this service. We would like to see this programme being rolled out and opened to the public and not restricted to its current provincial project-linked implementation.
We acknowledge that over 7 000 hectares of land have been released for housing development. However, we are concerned that the amount of land released has not led to significant housing development on the ground and feel that the Minister should engage the Minister of Public Works on this issue.
Fraud and corruption remain a major source of concern. The fact that there is no corruption hotline to report corruption activities shows your department's lack of commitment to fight this scourge. Supply chain management, especially the awarding of tenders, remains a problem.
Recently the Public Protector has revealed that almost 10% of complaints received by her office were related to corruption and maladministration in low-cost housing delivery. The findings, amongst others, include: disproportionate numbers of procurement contracts awarded to the ANC members; bills received for houses that were not built; municipal inspectors failing to issue occupant certificates; corrupt activities in the allocation of houses to friends and families; shoddy workmanship; the illegal sale of land and houses; and illegal and fraudulent allocation of houses to government and municipal officials.
We welcome the work done by the Special Investigating Unit, SIU, to root out corruption within the department. We are concerned, however, about the recovery strategy as it allows convicted officials to simply sign acknowledgement of debt agreements and continue working for the department. We would like to see this policy reviewed and officials found guilty of corruption dismissed. We would also like to see that the Minister work closely with the Department of Public Service and Administration and the Department for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs to deal with, and possibly blacklist, provincial and local government employees who are found guilty of corruption. Here the Minister must deal with deployees decisively.
Regarding rectification, I have conducted nationwide oversight visits and was also part of the oversight commission that unearthed shoddy workmanship. Dodgy contractors who do not deliver are bailed out by the government's rectification programme, wasting taxpayers' money in the process. We need to hold contactors accountable by recouping the funds, blacklisting these contractors and making them pay for rectification, not government. Poor workmanship is corruption. Almost every year R1 billion is wasted on rectification.
Sanitation remains one of the biggest shames of this government and department. Twenty years into our democracy there are still people using the bucket system, pit latrines and open-air defecation. It is still the dream of 2,2 million South Africans to have a toilet. When will people's dignity be restored? The government failed to eradicate the bucket system by 2007 and will fail again in 2014. In the meantime, people's rights are being violated and they are being forced to use the bush, plastics - some even get electrocuted while relieving themselves, and others, like the residents of Moqhaka, are charged for sanitation services they have never received. By the way, there are still open toilets in Moqhaka.
Here are the facts on sanitation in South Africa: Over 4,8 million South Africans still use open-air defecation and the bucket system; over 1,92 million people use the bucket system; 2,7 million have no access to toilets at all; and 1 million use other means that we don't know. One thousand deaths are caused by seven water-borne diseases at an annual cost of R8 billion to the Department of Health. According to the World Health Organisation, WHO, worldwide parasitic worms infect more than 1 billion people and 1,8 million children under the age of five years die every year.
Some streets in the Northwest, for example, are literally flooded with sewage and there are reports that communities with over 2 000 people share two toilets. Minister, people are literally dying from lack of adequate sanitation and it's time you do something about it.
Dry aerobic sanitation is cost-effective, provides healthier and safer environments, and it can save water. There are many alternatives that the department can explore. However, it seems that there is a lack of political will within your department.
Again, sanitation is the Minister's legacy. We are still awaiting legislation from your department regarding the mandate of sanitation and want to know how many more people should die, children get sick or Human Rights Commission recommendations and reports be brought to the government before you will act on this important national issue? The Human Rights Commission is in effect doing your job, Minister.
I would like to point out some of the accomplishments in this complex issue. In the Western Cape we lead the country with 99,1% of households having access to piped water and 96,9% having access to toilets.
The amount of toilets in the City of Cape Town informal settlements have more than tripled, from 10 000 to 34 000, over the past six years, ensuring access to sanitation for over 88%. [Interjections.] The allocation for the Peoples' Housing Process, PHP, in the Western Cape has increased from 25% to 40% in 2012-13 provincial human settlements budget. [Interjections.]
The DA agrees with the National Development Plan on the need to have inclusive development by ensuring that the apartheid spatial patterns are reversed. We need effective urban development and co-ordination of planning for housing provision and infrastructure support for bulk and basic services. That's why we support the need for a paradigm shift and the adoption of innovative alternative housing options, not the current one- size-fits-all policies.
The DA's alternative proposals are the following: We need smart settlements that should be developed for energy efficiency and environmental sustainability; site and services should come with incremental top-up structure that is supply-driven; we need to encourage self-help building mechanisms; we need to have consideration of different forms of tenure and incentives other than ownership; we need to look at the rental option; and we need to provide housing vouchers that ensure accessibility and affordability.
Poor planning and lack of capacity, alignment, co-ordination, infrastructure and intergovernmental relations, IGR, are some of the departmental issues prohibiting public opportunities to housing access.
During a recent visit to my constituency, I had a public meeting in an informal settlement called Tswaing View, where one of the community members said: "We were promised a better life in 1994 when we voted for the ANC, but we live under inhumane conditions like this with no water, no electricity and no toilets. The ANC has let us down."
This, Minister, is an outcry from the people of South Africa who feel that government does not care about them and has neglected them. They still dream of the better life they were once promised. And where the Minister has failed to deliver on those promises, we will surely hold him accountable. I thank you. [Applause.]