Chairperson, national Minister and Deputy Minister, chairperson of the select committee, my colleagues, hon MECs and members of the House, the delivery of integrated human settlements is a multipronged approach requiring the balancing of social, economic and geographic factors. As Minister Sexwale pointed out in his recent 2012 budget speech, there is a large demand for Human Settlements to address the inequalities of the past and limited resources to address this demand. Therefore any attempt to politicise the issue of human settlements would be irresponsible indeed.
In the Western Cape, around 500 000 households are waiting for housing opportunities. After the grant restructuring we can currently deliver around 15 000 top structures per year with our available budget. Compounding this issue is the rising cost of construction, making it increasingly difficult for companies to meet the requirements of tender specifications. Nationally, the rate of housing delivery has decreased due to limited resources and increasing costs.
In response, we have shifted our emphasis from providing houses for a few to ensuring that as many people as possible wait for housing opportunities with access to the basic services of water, sanitation and refuse removal. The Western Cape government's concept of "better together" is simply this: providing people with the enabling opportunities of basic services, or a site with basic service infrastructure, in order to create an incremental housing approach over time towards the goal of a permanent structure. In this way, more people will wait for top structures with the dignity of having basic services, rather than a relative few having a serviced site and a house, and everyone else nothing. As government, we have the responsibility to use the limited resources we have in a fair and efficient manner, so that we may maximise their effectiveness and deliver the best possible services. With this end in mind, the Western Cape department of human settlements has, since 2009, developed and implemented programmes to ensure more effective and integrated service delivery.
The Housing Demand Database Improvement programme is an integrated database system that has been implemented among the 29 municipalities of the Western Cape and co-ordinates and ensures the integrity of data of people waiting for houses. This ensures fair and transparent allocation of housing opportunities and reduces corruption and social conflict.
The professional resource teams are dedicated groups of housing professionals that have been contracted by the department to assist municipalities and the department in the planning and delivery of human settlements projects. These teams address the capacity constraints that so often derail projects over their five-year life cycles. The project management unit is an information technology system that allows for the tracking and monitoring of the hundreds of projects over which the department has oversight and over the entire life cycle. Any blockages are quickly flagged and can be resolved, ensuring the quickest delivery possible.
A study undertaken by the department in March 2011 indicated that since 1994, 86 394 of approximately 250 000 housing subsidy beneficiaries in the Western Cape had not received transfer of the properties allocated to them in 832 housing projects. The department has since appointed a service provider to address this issue and to ensure that people have their title deeds and can live with the dignity and economic benefits of security of tenure.
In his 2012 state of the nation address, President Zuma stated that a R1 billion guarantee fund would be available for people in the gap market, or earning in the monthly income band of between R3 500 and R15 000, to obtain credit to buy houses. The President stated that this fund would become operational from 1 April 2012. Two of our projects, namely Our Pride and Nuwe Begin, already have units available for this market. The City of Cape Town will also deliver in Scottsdene and Pelican Park.
We have arranged a workshop on affordable housing to take place in May 2012. All relevant stakeholders will be invited to clarify the way forward to more effectively service the gap market. The province, together with the National Housing Finance Corporation and major banks, will be rolling out the Finance Linked Individual Subsidy Programme, or Flisp, to assist households that earn too much to qualify for government's free housing. We view the rolling out of this programme as an urgent priority. There are about 2 million public servants, including teachers and policemen, who are currently unable to buy houses, and this market needs to be unlocked. This will also reduce the unlawful buying and selling of subsidised houses at reduced rates, help create communities that pay for their services and create a formalised secondary property market that allows for upward mobility of the traditional beneficiaries of fully subsidised housing.
In conclusion, I am proud of what we have achieved in this province. In close co-operation with the national Department of Human Settlements and the City of Cape Town, the R400 million high-density Joe Slovo housing development is nearing completion and will deliver 2 639 units, which will be formally handed over next month. The Boys Town project in Crossroads will deliver over 1 500 units and the first units will be handed over on 24 May 2012. We have had to negotiate complex social issues, attempts to derail the project, community violence, employment issues and many stoppages to reach this point where the people who need them most are finally ready to receive their houses.
The R219 million Nuwe Begin housing project will deliver 1 200 Breaking New Ground houses and 591 gap-market housing units. The ceremonial handover will be on 28 May. Nuwe Begin is a perfect example of integrated human settlements because it includes social amenities such as parks, libraries and transport. We recently marked the handover of 1 588 units in the Drommedaris project in Paarl, which cost about R113 million. With these successes under our belt, the implementation of programmes to continually improve delivery and the focus on access to basic services for all by 2014, I am confident that we will continue to serve the people of the Western Cape with excellence.
Mr R R PILLAY (KwaZulu-Natal): Chairperson, hon Minister, Deputy Minister, chairperson of the select committee, my colleague, the MEC from the Western Cape, other MECs present, hon members, this is my maiden speech in this House. I believe there are certain conventions regarding maiden speeches and I hope I do not break them. Let me first say that the hon MEC for the Western Cape is not just from my town but from the farm where I grew up too, and he understands that there is almost an ancestral calling that he must "buyel'ekhaya" [go back home]. So, I am sure he will honour that, in more ways than one.
I must, unfortunately, respond to the hon Groenewald, who referred to the case of Nquthu in KwaZulu-Natal. I happen to have been there during the NCOP visit and we did indeed acknowledge the terrible state of that particular project. Let me also point out that I did the research and saw that the project started in 2002. Its original submission was signed off by the then MEC, who happens to have been the DA MEC. [Laughter.] The point I wish to make is that we do not need to point fingers. We need to get rid of shoddy workmanship as a collective. [Applause.]
We have about 143 projects that are currently in the construction phase in KwaZulu-Natal. I can't say yet that all 143 projects are progressing at the right pace and delivering the right quality. That is a challenge for all of us.
We welcome the budget presented by the hon Minister as yet another example of the decisive commitment by our government to face the challenge of transforming the lives of our people, especially the poor. The hon Minister's budget speech did not shy away from the challenges and gave very clear direction for the short, medium and long-term vision of the department.
Hon Minister, your statistics on inflation and other economic data are very instructive. The other side of the argument, as you pointed out, is that if we use our budget wisely and effectively, together with our total infrastructure spend, we can make a massive contribution to not just stabilising our economy but also strengthening it and taking it to new heights. We in KwaZulu-Natal are ready to support you in achieving that objective. Indeed, we must collectively commit to making this effort so successful that we will create a powerful argument and Treasury will be unable to resist our request to increase the budget significantly in future years.
We acknowledge the very significant increase in the quality of houses being built. We endorse the policy changes that made this policy. Policy must continue to be dynamic and evolving. Perhaps we can improve in this regard by consistent and capacitated research.
I call for a much more dynamic relationship with our universities - we should have dedicated institutes or at least departments of applied human settlement studies. How much research material do we have on the political economy of informal settlements, on the influence and power of shack lords, or on the vested interests that develop within informal settlements and affect the viability of the solutions we propose? I believe this body of research or expert opinion will be critical also to a more successful presentation of our arguments when dealing with court challenges to our policy frameworks.
The recent Blue Moonlight eviction judgment, which compels municipalities to budget for emergency housing to provide for illegal occupants, is a case in point. Let me be very clear that we subscribe most passionately to equality before the law, which is a principle of our Freedom Charter; the separation of powers, which is a key principle entrenched in the 2006 Constitution; and the independence of the judiciary, which is also a principle contained in the Constitution.
However, the debate about judicial activism versus judicial restraint is a legitimate one and as old as the history of legal jurisprudence itself. There is substantial international experience of these debates in the most advanced democracy. In fact, in the USA currently, health reform plans are being subjected to vigorous attack through judicial processes. There is also a huge public debate that will have an impact on these decisions. In fact, it has been publicly stated that the judiciary may be divided along the lines of judges appointed in the conservative Republican era versus judges appointed in the Democratic era.
The point I am making is that we need to locate these debates correctly and not look at this debate as undermining the fundamental principles. So, there is nothing wrong with the debate, but let the debate be informed. That is why I propose a dedicated effort to do proper research so that objective evidence can be placed before our courts on what the issues are on the ground that inform policy.
We support the principle of the urban settlements development grant, which was properly and scientifically contemplated. I think some of the practical matters need attention, because the money goes directly to the metros and there is a gap in the provinces' ability to exercise proper oversight over that money. It is a bit difficult to plan properly on the provincial side if there isn't that co-ordination and sharing of information - perhaps that is a matter that needs attention.
Also, the municipalities use what is called section 36, which the law provides for dealing with certain cases of urgency or emergency where you need a justifiable case not to follow normal procurement processes. I think that sometimes we throw out the baby with the bath water. Because of the abuse of section 36, which is not right, a fear arises and the delivery process gets paralysed, because we don't want to use section 36. However, until the pipeline of planning is well established, we may need to use it to get our delivery on track in certain municipalities.
I want to briefly mention a project we have in KwaZulu-Natal, called Operation Sukuma Sakhe, which is located in the premier's office. It seeks to use antipoverty war rooms in each ward, bringing together all local stakeholders to identify the most deserving cases of poverty - among other aspects of human settlement. Through that transparent method we are able to identify deserving cases. The community agrees and when it is done there is no argument about unfair selection of beneficiaries. We are able to efficiently direct resources to those who are most in need. Currently, we are building about 600 homes in that particular programme, and I think it is going to increase exponentially. It might be useful to study this programme for possible replication in other provinces.
Hon Minister, with regard to your suggestion of using big companies to build houses, I think it is a worthy and legitimate debate. Our smaller contractors might have certain legitimate fears, which would need to be assuaged. But, certainly, I think there is a case for some pilot projects to see if the economies of scale that this would bring could not give greater impetus to our delivery.
I am personally very excited about your Each One Settle One campaign. The figure that you've given regarding the 22% of enquiries from people who want to build homes for their domestic helpers is an exciting one. In addition to the logistics of mobilising resources, I think this initiative can make a powerful contribution to social cohesion, and I want to encourage you to do that.
With regard to the Sectional Titles Act, I think this is timeous. In fact, in eThekwini there is a case before court at present where body corporates are not functioning. The allegation is that there are people who wait, then they go in and become administrators. This is organised - in fact, the accusation is that this is a syndicate. They then increase the levies on the grounds that they are going to do all kinds of repairs. People default on payment because they can't pay the high levies. The administrators then sue those people, have them evicted and bogusly sell their flats - and then they buy those flats. If you look at the players involved, there is a commonality in the players at each level. So, the serious allegation before court at the moment is that residents complain that they don't have the means to fight, and this law will add great value.
Chairperson, it seems I am out of time. There were a number of other points I wished to add, but I am sure there will be further opportunities. In conclusion, hon Minister and the department, let me assure you of our full support for your Human Settlements Vision 2030. I think it is inspiring and it's all about planning - long-term planning, as articulated by the National Planning Commission. We wish you and the department all the best. [Applause.]