Chairperson, hon Minister, Deputy Minister and hon members, let me not dwell on the National Planning Commission and progress regarding the 2030 target date. These have been dealt with. However, on behalf of Cope, I applaud government for its efforts in reviewing the status quo. This was done before and we saw the RDP working. However, we urge the department not to be held up by analysis and to get on with the delivery of quality housing.
Cope welcomes the establishment of the project monitoring unit because poor- quality housing is an insult and a slap in the face of South Africans. Their hopes and dreams are shattered when millions of rands are lost as a result of shoddy work and the collapse of housing projects. In Dutywa, for instance, a housing project dashed the hopes of the Mbhashe Municipality, when the contractor walked off because of shoddy work.
Shack dwellers are frustrated, and this is exacerbated by shoddily built toilets, which are now collapsing. These on-site toilets are also exposed to vandalism. Cope hopes and prays that the existence of the PMU will improve the efficiency of expenditure by the provinces and metropolitan municipalities on the delivery of quality housing and sanitation services.
It is clear in my mind that the sanitation programme has experienced a significant decline during this financial year, given the backlog in rural areas and its challenges in meeting the Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs. The provision of housing was not achieved as planned in the previous financial year. Remember that the Minister announced in August 2010 that the housing backlog could not be eradicated by 2014. What this means is that government will not achieve the MDG of improving the lives of people in informal settlements.
The capacity enhancement programme envisaged by the department should be vigorous and reach out to those municipalities that are not accredited, particularly rural municipalities.
Regarding rectification, I want to appeal that there should be fixed timeframes for this programme. I am raising this not because the Eastern Cape has direction in this regard but because we cannot allow a situation where rectification becomes the norm and a permanent programme in the department.
As a rural boy, and given the prominence of rural development in government addresses, I invite Parliament to closely monitor the implementation of the rural housing loan fund and the integration of the rural household infrastructure grant into the municipal infrastructure grant.
In conclusion, we have looked at both the national and provincial priorities with interest. Regarding rural development, no province may be allowed to be silent about this subject and to in fact be doing nothing about this subject. Hence we welcome the new business planning formats and encourage all provinces to implement the national priorities as such. Let us all remember that ...
... asiyonto yethu le nto siyenza apha. Yinto yabantu baseMzantsi Afrika le. [What we are doing here is not ours. We are doing it for the people of South Africa.] Hence, in the year 1955, we said the people of South Africa, black and white ... Cope supports the Budget Vote. [Time expired.]