Chairperson, hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, hon MECs, hon members, comrades and friends, I want to believe that all of us seated here are aware that since the ANC assumed the responsibility to govern South Africa, Parliament has passed tremendously progressive policies geared towards the eradication of the legacy of apartheid. Paramount among policies and Acts passed by Parliament is the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, which enshrines the Bill of Rights for all citizens.
In terms of section 26 of the Constitution, "Everyone has the right to have access to adequate housing". The state, through its departments for local government and housing, must take reasonable measures within its available resources to achieve the progressive realisation of this right. We have moved with the utmost speed and decisiveness to ensure that access to housing becomes an integral part of our national quest and commitment to reduce poverty and improve the quality of life for the people of South Africa. We made this bold undertaking because we are well aware that our nation and communities have suffered indelible damage from the long years of apartheid settlement and preferential treatment.
Part of turning the Department of Human Settlements into one that ensures quality human settlement services to the people is the improvement of construction across all nine provinces. While materials are quality controlled and tested by Agrment South Africa, the lack of standardised quality constructions remains worrying. The amount of money lost by government to rectify badly constructed houses keeps on growing. Something must be done to deal with this challenge.
We have ensured that the provision of housing finds clear expression in our Constitution, policies and legislation as a promise to our people that we remain committed to providing them with decent housing and preserve their dignity. Today we can say for sure that the ANC government has taken reasonable steps in the realisation of the goals of the Freedom Charter and the Ready to Govern policy document, which were incorporated in the final Constitution of South Africa.
The transition to a human settlement framework has been a major step in responding to the growing need to prioritise the national Budget towards greater investment in social infrastructure. It provided us with the opportunity to rally our national resources to ensure that our people have decent houses with amenities, which are guaranteed as inalienable rights in our Constitution. This policy shift towards sustainable human settlement is the expression of a new national approach that says integrated services would address basic needs more holistically than the provision of individual housing.
The Human Settlements Budget Vote clearly shows that the ANC government is truly at work with all hands on deck to house our nation and dismantle the legacy of apartheid spatial settlement. Part of improving the quality of life of our people lies in the size of the houses in which they live. We have to ensure that we improve the sizes of the bedrooms, kitchens, toilets, bathrooms and lounges of houses and that they are all standardised.
This Budget Vote shows that the department has responded to the call made by President Jacob Zuma in his state of the nation address early this year, when he announced investment in municipal infrastructure and human settlements to the tune of R120 billion in 2012-13 and R139 billion in 2014- 15. You will recall that in 2010 President Zuma also announced that homeowners struggling to secure housing finance because they earned between R3 500 and R9 000 would benefit from a R1 billion guaranteed fund. This fund would be geared towards incentivising private banking to create products to assist government efforts to meet the housing demand. The Department of Human Settlements reviewed countless proposals for implementing the fund and opted for the mortgage default insurance, MDI, service.
We are happy that the MDI will reduce poverty and inequality by increasing the affordability of homeownership. It will enable the department to meet the growing demand for human settlements by enabling qualifying beneficiaries to access mortgage finance in the form of a deposit that will minimise the risk of default and, subsequently, of the loss of shelter. Plans are currently under way to make the MDI available to 600 000 households by October 2012.
The transformation of Human Settlements means that the department is responsible to deliver sanitation as part of the provision of houses. This means that the need for specialist engineers has increased. We emphasise the need for the Department of Human Settlements, with the Departments of Higher Education, Basic Education and Public Works, to develop pipelines through which our youth and women can be developed to be specialists who, in future, can assist with the provision of sanitation and other key aspects that make up human settlement.
The department continues to play an important and strategic role in the creating of job opportunities in line with the country's New Growth Path. In 2010-11 the department created close to 40 000 jobs through its national sanitation programme. More than half of the beneficiaries were young people - a key target group for poverty alleviation, particularly in the context of the high rates of unemployment among the youth.
In terms of the department's budget programme on housing planning and delivery support, it exceeded its plans to create 200 jobs. In respect of skills development, 281 previously disadvantaged learners were awarded scholarships to study towards a qualification in human settlements. Furthermore, training programmes that reached 998 councillors, officials and community members were conducted.
The department has developed several models for forecasting the number of potential jobs that could be created over the medium term. It is estimated that under particular conditions of low economic growth, the department could generate between 400 000 and 500 000 jobs. Fewer jobs would be created in a high economic growth climate - probably between 300 000 and 350 000.
To bring more women and youth into the sector, the department has incubator projects focused on these crucial policy matters. Related to this, the department's Social Housing Regulatory Authority creates, on average, up to 100 jobs per project, thus reducing poverty. Part of our issue with standardising the quality and size of houses relates to the need to ensure that entities that report to the Minister should work harder on bringing more youth and women into the sector. We urge the department, in its work with other departments, to influence entities such as the Construction Industry Development Board to ensure that existing female contractors are improved and gain higher grading on the contractor register.
It is anticipated that over the medium term, 7 500 new work opportunities will be created through 75 human settlements-related projects. New agents who will deliver human settlements for the department are expected to generate 150 jobs over the medium term.
This Budget Vote is a clear expression of the continued commitment to work tirelessly towards our goal of building a better quality of life for our people. Two broad themes of performance will be ... [Time expired.] The ANC supports the Budget Vote.