Chairperson, it is a great honour to have this opportunity to address this august House today on this Budget Vote. Allow me, Chairperson, to greet the Minister of Human Settlements, the hon Tokyo Sexwale, whom I welcomed yesterday in the National Assembly to this vibrant Human Settlements family.
I also recognise the presence of the Chief Whip and the Deputy Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces. I also welcome in our midst the chairperson of the Select Committee on Public Services, the hon member Pat Sibande. I must also welcome the Director-General of Human Settlements Dr Benny Kotsoane and his team, officials from our department and honourable guests, the Western Cape MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela, and Salga councillor Clarence Johnson.
This Budget Vote takes place as we mark the 54th anniversary of the Freedom Charter, the historic document founded by the people of South Africa from all walks of life. It also takes place as we celebrate the 33rd anniversary of 1976, a watershed year, which marks the heroic action by students of the class of 1976 whose clear message was "Genoeg is genoeg" [Enough is enough] Hence, we welcome the initiative by the Department of Human Settlements in marking this anniversary on 26 June 2009 at Eshowe in KwaZulu-Natal with Youth Build, a programme in which young people build housing units for the elderly.
As we embark on the war against poverty, we reiterate and commit ourselves to the assertions of the Freedom Charter of "housing, security and comfort for all". This developmental state led by the ANC has taken upon itself the translating of these dreams into a reality. As we execute our new mandate, we will be building on the foundation laid by the Breaking New Ground policy.
We are unapologetic in asserting that planning together, budgeting together and co-ordinating together remain the prerequisites and non-negotiables for the realisation of integrated human settlements. We therefore appeal to the National Council of Provinces to help us co-ordinate these complex planning processes.
The department will also be hard at work streamlining funding mechanisms so that housing grants are consolidated into a single grant that responds to human settlement requirements. There is also a need to eliminate unnecessary bottlenecks, contractors must be paid on time and EIAs - environmental impact assessments - must not be delayed.
The provision of homes to our people cannot be the responsibility of government alone. We need the participation of all sectors of our society. Working together, we can do more. The people must be at the centre of everything we do. Beneficiaries must be active participants in the provision of human settlements. As we build integrated human settlements, we must also build a responsible citizenry. I am certain that the NCOP will take a special interest in its oversight role in addressing issues of a responsible society. This country can ill afford the kinds of demonstrations we have recently witnessed in the Western Cape with regard to the N2 Gateway project.
Inasmuch as this government sympathises and understands the people's level of poverty, we certainly cannot promote lawlessness. Services must be paid for, otherwise they will not be sustainable. Who in this House stays in a house or a flat they do not pay for? This is the kind of consumer education we would like the NCOP to help us address. Tenants of the N2 Gateway project have a contractual agreement. They have to pay rent; they qualify as having to pay rent - they are not indigent. There is an issue with subletting, meaning that there are people in those houses who do not qualify - who occupy those houses illegally.
The role of emerging contractors cannot be overemphasised. Unfortunately, they have a tendency to continue emerging ad infinitum. Something must be done to remedy this situation, but we will uproot fly-by-nights in the building industry. We need contractors who are prepared to contribute constructively so that government gets value for money.
We commend the continued contribution made by the financial sector, but more needs to be done in order to enhance this partnership. Of course, we do know that profit margins are low in the low-cost housing environment, but the establishment of the Housing Development Agency will bring about human settlements housing delivery in economies of scale. This will only be realised with the active participation of the private sector, particularly in the rolling out of housing rental stock and bonded houses.
In light of this, there is a need to establish a macro-organisational framework in order to facilitate a convergence of different government mandates for human settlement development. This is underpinned by a set of principles that are necessary for strengthening co-ordination in government.
The priorities of the framework include: to compile a national development plan for human settlements, produce settlement level plans and promote innovative project development; to align funding streams and existing built- environment-related grants; and to ensure, at an implementation level, effective project management and capacity development which must also speak to the issues of monitoring, evaluation and risk management.
In the process of providing proper homes for our people, we will also endeavour to provide community residential units. We will continue to revisit the issue of hostel redevelopment. We also need to promote inclusionary housing, meaning that where there is property development at least 20% of that development should be set aside for low-cost housing.
In response to the government's rural development drive, the department will introduce in the current financial year a rural housing subsidy voucher programme to assist rural households to source building materials for building their own homes or even for incrementally improving their homes.
I am happy to announce that there is a newly appointed council of the National Home Builders Registration Council, NHBRC, chaired by Ms Granny Seape. It is critical that the NHBRC focus on issues of quality and strict adherence to building norms and standards as spelt out in the Revised National Housing Code. It must also make its presence felt in all provinces so that all human settlement projects are registered with the NHBRC.
This entity must be able to address the complaints of the housing consumers timeously. Failure to do this results in the payment of huge sums of money to fix structural defects that would have cost less had the matter been dealt with appropriately. The inspectors must inspect houses at all stages of housing development, especially at the foundation level. We call upon all provinces to beef up the inspectorate and ensure that more inspectors are trained. Prevention is better than cure and always saves costs.
We welcome the establishment of the Housing Development Agency, HDA, launched in March 2009, which will assist in fast-tracking the delivery of integrated human settlements. In the main, the HDA will primarily support the provinces and municipalities in the acquisition of land. This support will be delivered through implementation protocols developed with all parties within an established intergovernmental relationship framework. Our objective is to do away with unnecessary bottlenecks in order to fast-track human settlement delivery.
UMongameli welizwe obekekileyo uJacob Zuma kwiintetha azenzileyo apha e Palamente ubeke phambili ukubaluleka kolwakhiwo lwamakhaya. Ukhuthaze onke amasebe ukuba asebenzisane, ahlangabezane ekufezekiseni amaphupha oluntu. Eli sebe ayilosebe nje lezindlu, lisebe elijongene nazo zonke iimfuno zokuhlala kakuhle koluntu ukwenzel' ukuba amakhaya akhiwe kwiindawo ezikufutshane nempangelo.
Sithi makusetyenziswane, sihlaba ikhwelo kuye wonke ubani- oosomashishini abasakhasayo, kuSanco nakubo bonke abahlali ukuba eli sebe lizimisele ukusebenzisana nabo bonke abantu, eli sebe likhokelwa nguMphathiswa uTokyo Sexwale.
Mawethu, sithi huntshu kubantu abakha izindlu ngenkqubo ye-PHP, sifuna ukuyixhasa ngakumbi le nkqubo. Lo rhulumente ukhokelwa yi-ANC uyakhathala ngakumbi ngabantu, uthi abantu baya kulawula. Masisebenzisane mawethu silwe indlala. (Translation of isiXhosa paragraphs follows.)
[The hon President of the country, Jacob Zuma, in the speeches he made in Parliament has stressed the importance of building homes. He encouraged all the departments to work together, and to help each other in achieving the dreams of the people. This is not just the department of houses, but the department that caters for all the needs related to human settlement so that houses are built closer to the workplaces.
We are saying let us work together; we invite everybody - the upcoming entrepreneurs, Sanco and the community at large. This department is committed to working with everyone and it is led by Minister Tokyo Sexwale.
Hon members, we congratulate the people who build houses through the PHP programme, and we would like to support this programme more. The ANC-led government cares more about the people and says, "The people shall govern". Let us work together to fight hunger.]
This Ministry is committed to making sure that the Breaking New Ground pilot projects identified in all provinces go ahead as planned. We will also ensure that there is in situ upgrading of informal settlements in all provinces. The time has come for all peace-loving South Africans to join hands with the Team Human Settlements on its journey to make sure poverty will be history. I thank you. [Applause.]
Ms L HLONGWA (KwaZulu-Natal): Chairperson, once more, we are grateful to be given an opportunity to say a few things with regard to the Minister's budget speech today.
Sifisa ukuqala ngokubongela uNgqongqoshe neSekela lakhe ekuqokweni ezikhundleni ezibaluleke kakhulu. NjengeKwaZulu-Natali sizobasekela kakhulu ekwenzeni isiqiniseko sokuthi loko okushiwo usomqulu wokhetho lombutho wesizwe uKhongolose kuyafezekiswa kuleminyaka emihlanu ezayo. (Translation of isiZulu paragraph follows.)
[We would like to start by congratulating the Minister and his deputy on being elected to such important positions. As KwaZulu-Natal, we will support them in ensuring that what is contained in the ANC manifesto is achieved in the next five years.]
KwaZulu-Natal is a rural province, but a province with great potential to develop into a haven in South Africa. Human settlement development is again at the centre of government under the leadership of the hon President, His Excellency J G Zuma.
The delivery of decent houses to our people requires a co-ordinated effort between the provinces and the municipalities, which in this case is minimal due to power struggles. We noted from the Minister's speech that in order to have human settlements a new approach needs to be adopted. A paradigm shift beyond housing is needed, and our understanding, as KwaZulu-Natal, is that we need more of a political will first, then implementation.
We are, however, proud to stand here and salute the previous MEC, Comrade Mike Mabuyakhulu, on being the first MEC to pioneer the slums clearance Act in line with the Millennium Development Goal of eradicating slums by 2014. Although the department was challenged in a court of law by the shack- dwellers who perceived the move to be unconstitutional, we are very aware that shack lords were behind some of these shenanigans in that they made money out of poor people.
Our task as the provincial government is to defend the poor and better the lives of all. As we said at our 2007 conference, we are advancing towards a caring society. We have no intention of chasing these people out of their homes, but we have an obligation as government, as prescribed in our Constitution, to restore dignity through decent shelter.
The province has ventured into a new approach of public-private partnerships to enhance service delivery and supplement the current government programme, and we are happy to hear from the Minister's speech that he supports this initiative.
A classic example is that of Eshowe, which the Minister has referred to, where about 76 houses were built by our youth for elderly people. This is really what is espoused in the Freedom Charter and we are very grateful that you came down to our province to hand over these projects to needy families. We appreciate the R150 million allocated to disaster management relief for the province, because in the past we have had unprecedented disasters that we had not planned for, which claimed lives and resulted in the current overexpenditure we are servicing as a province.
The province, with its limited budget, is committed to the delivery of quality housing by ensuring that, prior to handing-over functions, the houses are subject to various quality tests to try to minimise the exploitation of government resources by unscrupulous businesspeople. We want to hold the creators of the workmanship accountable for their actions, and we shall not delay in acting against corrupt people, either as builders or in the department itself.
We want to request the Minister to hold an indaba with all the stakeholders, at which housing matters are ironed out, because shack dwellers think that if we build houses for people, we are taking away what is theirs. We are saying, as the province of KwaZulu-Natal, that local government must be brought to the party, so that we iron out the issue of waiting lists, where we see councillors selling houses, and those councillors, most of the time, are in cahoots with department officials. We want this to come to an end.
The province of KwaZulu-Natal recently launched the rural housing development project in the northern part of KwaZulu-Natal to accelerate decent housing. This project is being contested by traditional leaders who perceive this as a means to create townships in their areas of jurisdiction. Once again, we want to advise the Minister that maybe there is going to be a need for him and his colleagues in the Department of Co- operative Governance and Traditional Affairs to meet and develop a workable plan, so that we avert this challenge before it spills over into other provinces.
Siyafisa Mhlonishwa Ngqongqoshe ukuthi uselekelele lapha KwaZulu-Natali sinabantu abaningi abaxhamula ekwakheni izindlu kodwa asibazi ukuthi bangobani. Sifisa ukuthi usinike uhlaka lwabantu abakha izindlu ... (Translation of isiZulu paragraph follows.)
[We wish, hon Minister, that you could assist us in KwaZulu-Natal; we have people who benefit from building houses, but we don't know who they are. We wish that you, Minister, could give us a database of people who build houses ...]
... in terms of gender, age and demographics, for us as the ANC to gauge if we really are denting unemployment and bringing about work redistribution.
The province is currently pioneering a project with regard to an accredited military veterans' policy in line with the ANC's Polokwane conference resolutions to provide shelter to these families, who, in hard times, fought for us to attain this democracy we boast about today. Although we are facing a challenge in this area, as a province we are not going to despair.
We are facing a challenge in the area of hostel redevelopment to recreate new human settlements for families. This programme is moving at a slower pace and it needs more funding. We, therefore, want to plead again here that in future we be allocated more money towards this project for us to realise the Freedom Charter's vision.
In conclusion, the province is currently embarking on the enhancement of the research unit to explore other alternative building practices which are both cost-effective and ensure quality, especially at this time of recession. We hope to have collected information in this regard at least by the end of this year, so that, when we start next year, we will have this programme ready for implementation.
We feel that we need to emphasise that money allocated to housing as a vote in our province is not enough. Therefore, this hinders us from building more decent human settlements over a five-year period. But we are very grateful for what we have been allocated. In this term, we have committed some money to the training and development of both women and the youth to encounter the economic downturn and for them to be able to create jobs for themselves. We welcome the budget by the Minister and we wish you well. Thank you. [Applause.]