Chairperson, Ministers and Deputy Ministers, hon members, the departmental team, distinguished guests, the ANC vision for social transformation is to create a caring and cohesive society, a society that recognises the existence within it of massive poverty, deprivation and inequality, resulting in unequal access to economic resources and opportunities. Sensitive to this condition, the ANC has committed itself to making full use of available materials and human resources to grow the economy and create jobs such that the poor are cushioned from poverty and deprivation.
The ANC seeks to build a compassionate society in which all South Africans, irrespective of different social and economic backgrounds, identify with the particular hardships experienced by women, children, the youth and persons with disabilities. The ANC also seeks to create a society where all identify themselves as a common people with a common destiny, and all are proud to belong to it. The ANC has the objective of creating a united, nonracial and nonsexist society - a society that is more cohesive.
Access to housing is a basic human right enshrined in the Bill of Rights. There is broad consensus on the fact that human settlements are of central importance to everyone's quality of life and health. Human settlements are also of considerable economic, social, cultural and personal significance. They are a very valuable asset as well. "All people shall have the right to live where they choose, be decently housed and to bring up their families in comfort and security." Provision should also be made for different forms of tenure.
The principles underlining the ANC's housing policy are the following: housing is a right; housing should contribute to social equity; housing is a critical component of development, and community control over and participation in housing delivery is of the utmost importance. The ANC also believes that all citizens of South Africa have a right to essential services such as water, sanitation, refuse removal, electricity, and decent housing appropriate to family and individual needs. The democratic state has undertaken appropriate legislation and executive action to ensure that these basic needs are met in a progressive manner. It is also recognised that this objective will not be easy to fulfil in the short term, but it is one towards which we should strive.
Given the pervasive poverty and the unequal distribution of wealth and land, the ANC's housing policy promotes nonracialism and nonsexism. It also caters for disadvantaged groups such as the very poor, the old and the disabled. All racially biased housing institutions have been replaced with institutions that are nonracial, nonsexist, legitimate and accountable to the people. A uniform housing policy has been introduced to that effect. Hostels are being transformed into family units.
Equity considerations are also addressed, for example redistribution, financial mechanisms and allocation systems. Examples of these forms of redistribution are service charges and rating systems that favour the poor, not the rich; the diversion of military expenditure to housing production; the prioritisation of investment in inner-city housing; and the upgrading of the townships, informal settlements and rural areas as opposed to investments in the middle-income housing areas.
To ensure that women's housing needs are addressed, their full participation and influence in the institutions that control housing must be guaranteed. Gender sensitivity must be a component part of the design and implementation of housing policy, as well as the design of allocation systems and the criteria used to measure affordability.
The provision of housing has been placed within a total developmental framework. This should include economic, transport, health, amenities, recreational, religious, educational, environmental and social welfare considerations. It should also include policies that facilitate access to jobs and the restructuring of the apartheid cities, towns and rural areas. As such, an integrated approach which links housing to transport networks, industry, schools, crches, community halls, playgrounds and so forth, has been adopted. In addition, our housing strategy is based on sustainability in the short to long term. Community participation and control over the housing delivery process is critical to the successful implementation of our housing strategies. The ANC believes that community groups should be able to participate in the design, implementation and management of their settlements. We therefore advocate the introduction of a human settlements policy that encourages and supports community-controlled development initiatives. Furthermore, the ANC believes that organs of civil society must play a major role in human settlements policy formulation. Communities will have the right to organise themselves around settlement issues and strong community-based organisations will be encouraged.
The process towards the move from strictly a housing policy to an integrated human settlements policy has evolved since the 50th national conference of the ANC in 1997. The ANC believes that a single national housing policy, administered through a national Human Settlements department, and the establishment of the Housing Development Agency are assisting in the identification, acquisition and assembly of suitable and well-located land to address the provision of houses and services. Within this single framework, different but complementary policies have been formulated for urban and rural areas, as well as the upgrading of the existing poor levels of settlements and services. The allocation of land in urban and rural areas should not discriminate against people on the basis of race and gender, foster nepotism or other forms of corruption, and should not involve lengthy time delays. Our human settlements policy is more than the delivery of a product. It is a process that contributes to the cultural, economic and social development of the entire society. It is, therefore, part of our strategy to improve people's total living conditions. Human settlements investment is being implemented in such a way as to promote labour-based delivery in the context of acceptable labour practices, and to improve the capacity of small and medium-sized builders in the delivery of settlements.
The concentration of ownership in the building materials sector is a matter of great concern to the ANC. In this regard, the ANC is committed to exploring the use of antitrust and antimonopoly legislation, as well as introducing mechanisms that will make building materials more affordable.
The state must play a significant role in the provision of finance to low- income human settlements programmes. While market relations are an essential component of a mixed economy, the ANC does not believe that the market is able to adequately address the human settlements needs of all South Africans.
Therefore the ANC supports the provision of subsidies to facilitate access to basic and essential services and settlements. We advocate the restructuring of the housing finance and subsidy system so as to target those who are needy. That includes universal access to basic services such as water and sanitation. Postponement of infrastructure investment for the provision of urban water and sanitation can lead to much greater costs in the future.
Quite a number of people are still with no improved sanitation facilities. Therefore investment in clean water and sanitation can provide economic returns because outlays for relatively small initiatives may be used to avert the much larger costs associated with urban crises. It is imperative, therefore, to introduce efforts aiming to improve sanitation and clean water and these should be carried out simultaneously in rural areas.
As far as I'm concerned, estimates and expenditure on these programmes will have to double over the next five years.
Into ke leyo ethetha ukuthi esi sabelo kufuneka sithi xhaxhe ukuhlangabezana neemfuno zokuhlaliswa nokuzinziswa kwabantu ngokugqibeleleyo nangokusulungekileyo. [That means this allocation should be increased to fulfil the requirements for absolute and proper human settlement.]
The ANC welcomes the progressive step, outlined in the state of the nation address by President Zuma, of transferring the sanitation function to the Department of Human Settlements. The ANC also believes in ensuring that the provision of sanitation is kept in line with the delivery of housing units in human settlements. The ANC also believes that this will play a vital role in job creation for rural communities. The youth will benefit in the process.
In his state of the nation address, President Zuma also indicated that R1 billion would be made available as a guarantee fund to facilitate the delivery of affordable housing.
Mphathiswa siyakucela ukuba uqinisekise ukuba ibhodi iyasekwa ukuze ikwazi ukuhlola isebenzisana nawe. [Minister, please ensure that a board is established that will monitor and work closely with you.]
The portfolio committee believes that consultative processes are already under way to facilitate the use of funds, but we would urge the department to ensure that a very clear policy, with user-friendly implementation guidelines, is drafted to facilitate the structure and use of the guarantee fund.
The concept of human settlements is not a new concept. At the 2002 national conference of the ANC a call was made to expand the provision of housing to include social housing, people's housing processes, and appropriate housing for rural people, including the development of agricultural villages to ensure proper living conditions for farmworkers. The conference went on to resolve that the acquisition of state land, as well as the making of deliberate interventions to reverse apartheid settlement patterns and develop nonracial human settlements, had to be speeded up. As part of the integrated approach, the new Ministry of Rural Development and Land Reform - working together with the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, and the Ministry of Human Settlements - will have as one central task the development of rural economies so that sustainable communities in rural areas can benefit equally from the theory of human settlements. In this context, agrarian reform that links human settlements to land redistribution, the development of co-operatives, support in agricultural programmes for the rural masses, and the production of food will be brought in so as to bring about food security in these rural human settlements. This will also address the migration of the rural masses to urban areas, which distorts both social and economic development in the rural areas.
The concept of human settlements is based on the premise that housing provision should promote the building of integrated and sustainable communities. The finalisation of the Land Use Management Bill in line with the concept of human settlements will be an indication that active steps are being taken to ensure that human settlement formation does not perpetuate apartheid spatial planning and the marginalisation of the poor from economic opportunities, as well as social and cultural amenities.
The concept of human settlements was set off on a strong path by critical resolutions passed at the 52nd national conference of the ANC. Areas that were taken into consideration were the following: adoption of a central planning approach for directing resource allocation; distribution and overall co-ordination of a response to human settlements; restructuring of funding mechanisms and consolidation of all housing-related grants and funding streams; and acceleration of land acquisition through a dedicated housing development agency.
The resolutions went on to state that there should be housing cover for veterans of the struggle. A policy for military veterans has already been approved. Military veterans - single veterans too - now have priority access to both the normal subsidy and the social housing subsidies. A list of military veterans needs to be finalised and the SA National Defence Force is now working towards implementing the decision of Cabinet to achieve a broader programme that will include job creation. This is a work in progress and, as the portfolio committee, we look forward to the SA National Defence Force fast-tracking this process.
The Department of Human Settlements has identified mega projects which have been elevated to national priorities. These projects include the N2 Gateway in Cape Town, Zanemvula the in the Nelson Mandela Metro, Lerato Park in Sol Plaatje, and Klarinet in Emalahleni. These projects promise to deliver thousands of houses in sustainable ... The ANC supports the Budget Vote. [Time expired.] [Applause.]