https://www.polity.org.za
Deepening Democracy through Access to Information
Home / Speeches RSS ← Back
Close

Email this article

separate emails by commas, maximum limit of 4 addresses

Sponsored by

Close

Embed Video

DA: Tandeka Gqaba: Address by DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Human Settlements, during the budget vote debate on Human Settlements, Parliament (03/05/2016)

DA: Tandeka Gqaba: Address by DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Human Settlements, during the budget vote debate on Human Settlements, Parliament (03/05/2016)

4th May 2016

SAVE THIS ARTICLE      EMAIL THIS ARTICLE

Font size: -+

Minister, with regards to your promise of delivering 1.5mil housing opportunities during your term of office. I will today focus on the Informal Settlements upgrading Plan. According to this plan Minister you promised to upgrade 2200 informal settlements and 750 000 households (which is a half of 1.5mil housing opportunities) households would be provided with basic services.  The department also identified 444 informal settlements plans to be developed. Currently, the Department has planned to conduct feasibility studies in 500 informal settlements; 9 human settlements upgrading plans developed; 175 000 households upgraded into phase 2.

I must stress our disappointment Minister that most of the ANC led municipalities did not have a plan for the upgrade of informal settlements. It became clear Minister that some of the municipalities do not take your call seriously.

Advertisement

Minister as the DA we would like to express our concerns on issues related to lack of bulk infrastructure in Dark City, Zithobeni, Kliptown Informal Settlement and parts of Mamelodi and whether there were plans to deal with this.  Projects were said to fail due to the absence of bulk infrastructure, it was not clear Minister why that is the case, the Committee requested that this issue be unpacked for better understanding.

We would like to know Minister, which informal settlements were to be cleared or upgraded and what were the plans for the area called Setswehla informal settlement. The issue of Slovo Park informal settlement  though is subjudice but it seems there are no clear plans on how to deal with the court judgment which ordered both the City of Johannesburg and the Province to upgrade the informal settlement.

Advertisement

Minister, the City of Cape Town has done a study to assess all the Informal settlements across the Metro and has come up with a detailed report on the informal settlements that are upgradeable and those not upgradeable, the challenge facing the City of Cape Town is the land that the National department needs to release. The following pieces of land Minister the City is waiting for National Department to release but unfortunately the National Department is not willing to engage:

  •     Wingfield
  •     Youngsfield
  •     ERF 1117 on N7
  •     Bokaap

Land identification and acquisition are Strategic Plan Priorities in line with the MTSF. It is concerning that there is no budgeting for land identification and acquisition in most municipalities. In other municipalities, this function falls in another department Human Settlement has no control over.  This poor planning has severe implications in terms of service delivery.

The Committee was concerned about the role of the Housing Development Agency in the identification of suitably – located land for human settlements. This was because some provinces were struggling to identify and acquire land owned by other sister Departments such as Public Works and Defence. I am asking you, Minister to intervene with your counterparts to accelerate service delivery. I must commend, though, the work done by HDA in other provinces to assist in terms of accelerating housing delivery.

Minister, the issue of Title Deeds is still a serious issue. According to the Department  plans, 900 000 title deeds backlog still to be eradicated. The issue of title deeds, especially in KZN, was raised as a matter of concern as the targets were not to reflecting the existing backlog. This was an indication that the issue was not a priority for both the metro and the province.  It became clear Minister that this important task is not taken seriously by other Municipalities. I would like to commend the City of Cape Town and the WC Provincial government for excelling in this area. It is important to note that the according to the report from National Department of Human Settlements, the City of Cape Town is leading in terms of title deed eradication because where the DA governs, it governs well.

EMAIL THIS ARTICLE      SAVE THIS ARTICLE

To subscribe email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or click here
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here

Comment Guidelines

About

Polity.org.za is a product of Creamer Media.
www.creamermedia.co.za

Other Creamer Media Products include:
Engineering News
Mining Weekly
Research Channel Africa

Read more

Subscriptions

We offer a variety of subscriptions to our Magazine, Website, PDF Reports and our photo library.

Subscriptions are available via the Creamer Media Store.

View store

Advertise

Advertising on Polity.org.za is an effective way to build and consolidate a company's profile among clients and prospective clients. Email advertising@creamermedia.co.za

View options
Free daily email newsletter Register Now