MECs of Human Settlements
Chairpersons and CEOs of Human Settlements Entities and Institutions
Stakeholders and our Social Contract Partners
Members of the Media

I am accompanied today by the Deputy Minister, the Director General and his team, Chairpersons and CEOs of Human Settlements Institutions.

In April 2016, the world gathered in Pretoria for the United Nations Human Settlements conference in preparation for Habitat III taking place in Ecuador later this year.

The conference acknowledged that what we have achieved since 1994 is a miracle; South Africa is the global leader in integrated human settlements policies and implementation.

About 600 delegates representing 54 countries participated in the Conference. These included seven Ministers of Governments, 50 academics, over 50 NGO’s from South Africa and 52 international NGOs, 62 representatives of Municipalities from various countries and a total of 156 delegates were here to represent their Governments.

The conference adopted the “Pretoria Declaration” which recognises that informal settlements can be addressed through an inclusive approach in terms of policy, financing, spatial design, engagement, participation and consultation.

The Pretoria Declaration will now find its way into the “New Urban Agenda” through a series of international consultations in the run-up to Habitat III in Ecuador.

Two weeks ago, we gathered at Cosmo City in Johannesburg to launch a national community led campaign to celebrate the more than 4.3 Million houses and subsidies delivered since 1994, benefitting more than 20 Million South Africans.

Cosmo City was launched in 2005 with 8 other projects in each province to test a 2004 approved new policy, the Comprehensive Plan for Development of Sustainable Human Settlements popularly known as Breaking New Ground, which is also celebrating 12 years of houses, security and comfort.

The good story for residents of Cosmo City is echoed by residents of the N2 Gateway Project in Cape Town, Olievenhoutbosch in Pretoria, Zanemvula in Port Elizabeth, Cornubia in Durban and many others whose dignity have been restored through human settlements. In Cosmo City alone close to 200 000 people live in security and comfort, as prescribed in the Freedom Charter.

We can confirm that since 1994; 4.3 Million houses and subsidies have been delivered, providing shelter to over 20 Million South Africans, making us number one in the world.

These consist of 2.8 million completed houses, 986 000 serviced sites, and 121 000 social housing units. It also includes more than 360 000 households who took the opportunity to acquire ownership of their previously state owned rental properties, 69 000 upgraded community rental units, and 6000 finance linked subsidies. Government is estimated to have spent over R500 billion for top structures, bulk services, social and economic amenities to achieve this.

We want to say to all South Africans, we did it, we are a miracle, and our celebrations will also take place in all provinces, despite the work that faces us ahead, which we are ready for, we need to celebrate the miracle we have achieved.

We are working towards the achievement of our MTSF commitments of delivering 1.5 Million housing opportunities by 2019.  We remain committed to changing the apartheid spatial planning and developing new cities like Cosmo City where our people stay close to economic opportunities and social amenities.

We can confirm today that after a number of years of decline in our delivery of serviced stands and housing units, for the financial year 2015/2016 we have turned the tide. Our partnership with developers, banks and communities are beginning to bear fruit and we have constructed 153 000 serviced houses, a new record after years of delivery challenges.

We will progressively formalise informal settlements by providing basic services to restore dignity to our people. It is our well-researched belief that as we formalise informal settlements and provide serviced sites to our people many of them will save money and build their own homes.

We agree with the Elders and traditional leaders who continue to tell us that if we make serviced sites available to those who can afford they will build their homes like their forefathers did.

A total of 143 756 households living in informal settlements were provided with access to water and sanitation since the inception of the MTSF on 1 April 2014 up to 31 December 2015.

Nationally, the percentage of households living in formal dwellings increased from 76% to 80% between 2002 and 2014. The rate of provisioning of state‐subsided dwellings surpassed the provisioning of formal dwellings in the private sector between 2009 and 2014, and the percentage of beneficiaries of state subsidised housing increased from 5, 6% in 2002 to 13, 6% in 2014. Informal dwellings in settlements and backyards have decreased from 17% in 2002 to 11% in 2014.

Statistics have shown that the percentage of households living in formal dwellings have increased by 4%, [from 76% in 80% between 2002 and 2014] resulting in people living in informal settlements have decreased by 6%.

The Finance Linked Individual Subsidy (FLISP) is our solution for those who do not qualify for BNG houses, who earn between R3500 to R15.000. The implementation of FLISP has had its own fair share of challenges and is being reviewed to make it easier to implement.

Those likely to benefit from the FLISP subsidy include the emerging middle class among them police, teachers, nurses, mall workers, petrol attendants and many who earn less than R15 000 per month.

We are also considering different proposals on how we can trigger more affordable gap housing for those earning between R150 000 to R400 000. A total of 2 443 households were provided with a FLISP subsidy since the inception of the MTSF on 1 April 2014 up to 31 December 2015.

Delegates at the UN Habitat conference held last month also confirmed that South Africa’s Breaking New Ground policy was the best way to respond to urbanisation, to plan better and also develop affordable rental and social houses for young people who are moving to the cities and for low income earners.

We have asked the Social Housing Regulatory Authority (SHRA) to develop draft regulations and guidelines for the management of our growing social housing and community residential units.

We are concerned that some of them are not maintained properly and we also believe that the management and maintenance of our growing rental and social housing stock can provide opportunities for young black business people who seek to enter the property market. SHRA will complete this process by December 2016.

To fast track delivery and to accelerate change apartheid spatial planning, I am happy to announce that following a public request for submission of prospective mega projects (catalytic projects) we have completed a detailed analyses and short listing of projects submitted by the private sector and by various spheres of Government to be rolled out in the coming three to five years.

These are projects that are guided by our Breaking New Ground policy which we hope will change the face of our cities whilst providing BNG houses, Gap housing, Rental and social housing and serviced sites for the poor and middle class close to places of economic activities.

We call them ‘Catalytic projects’, because they will trigger massive investments by the private sector. Our assessment is that our support, which is estimated at R90 Billion over five years, will trigger about R150 Billion from the private sector. Hundreds of thousands of jobs will be sustained and thousands more created.

The total projects number 101, with 94 ready for implementation as soon we conclude the paper work. All the Catalytic projects in all nine Provinces have the combined value of over R300 Billion, creating and sustaining more than 20 000 jobs in the construction sector and down industries. On May 9, 2016 we will announce the names of the projects, the developers and all other details.

Guided by the PFMA and the Housing Act, the National Department is adjusting itself very quickly to play an assertive monitoring and support role to ensure that the HSDG and the USDG are spent in line with the prescripts.

Working with the Mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay and his team, we have stabilized the finances and developed a pipeline to fast track housing delivery in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro. We have also overhauled the procurement system and have established a reputable database of small and emerging contractors to implement projects. We have asked the National Department, the HDA and the NHBRC to continue to support and develop them into big competing contractors.

To advance our delivery and also support municipalities and provinces, the HDA will complete its transition to a full developer by the end of June 2016. The HDA we envisaged in 2006 was to secure land and prepare it for human settlements. We have tasked the HDA to build capacity to secure land, prepare and where necessary build gap houses of between R150 000 to R300 000.

These houses are targeted at those who earn less than R15 000, our nurses, police, teachers, soldiers and many in this bracket. We also directed the HDA to secure land and ensure that there are affordable serviced sites available for those who want to build for themselves.

We committed ourselves in the 2015 Budget Vote to urgently address the backlog of housing for military veterans and immediately declared the Military Veterans programme a Ministerial Priority Project managed by the National Department. We have been informed by the Department of Military Veterans that the housing backlog for military veterans is 4 909. Today I am excited to announce that we have secured 5 600 houses for military veterans, exceeding and clearing the backlog immediately. What we will embark on, starting tomorrow is the allocation of the houses, matching the database to the province and to the individual. Special arrangements have been made to ensure that we are able to allocate the houses in the shortest time possible.

Now that we have cleared the backlog, a heavy load has been lifted from my shoulders. It hurt me very deeply last year when, on the day of my budget vote in the NCOP, announcing that the Military Veterans programme would become a Ministerial Priority Project, an eminent military veteran passed away in a shack. I take this opportunity to apologise most profusely to this sector for the time it has taken the government to get to this point and to reiterate that none is more special to us than you who delivered us to freedom. As we move forward I hope we can make up for our tardiness in the past and that you will learn how much we appreciate your sacrifice.

We will increase the number of young people who will join our Youth Brigade programme and our aim is to train them to be construction professionals. We are engaging with all companies awarded Catalytic projects to absorb graduates of this programme for the duration of the projects.

The Youth Brigade is currently active at Savanna City Human Settlements Project, N2 Gateway Presidential Project and Nelson Mandela Bay housing projects. By the end of this year we seek to have them in all 101 Catalytic projects. We estimate that more than 1000 youth can be accommodated in the catalytic projects.

The Estate Agency Affairs Board (EAAB) “one learner one estate agent” is also beginning to produce young property experts. In the National Assembly we will be joined by two young people; Mmamokete Tsokolibane from Nom Real Estate who has made over R439 000 in commission and Roberta Setai from Pam Golding Properties in Vereeniging who has earned over R129 000 in commission in less than 10 months since joining their agencies. Without this programme they would most probably be stuck in the vicious cycle of poverty. We urge all companies in the property sector to do the right thing and give our young people an opportunity.

As indicated in our BNG policy we believe that big employers like Airport Company of South Africa, Eskom, Transnet, Telkom and other state parastatals must join mining companies in providing soft loans and subsidies for their employees to build houses or secure rental accommodation close to their places of work.  We also call on big property owners and developers, those who own malls and other places of entertainment to also make provision during the planning phase of the malls and shopping complexes to provide for the young people who are employed to have decent shelter closer to their place of work. The HDA is working with property developers and SHRA will work with big employers to ensure that there are affordable homes, rental stock and serviced sites for young people.

We have made some strides in the revitalisation of mining towns. We recently handed over 189 rental and BNG housing units in Marikana as part of the revitalisation of mining towns programme. Some of the achievements in this regard included upgrading of informal settlements and provision of emergency basic serves in the North West, Gauteng, Free State, Limpopo and Mpumalanga. We thank all Mining companies that are prioritizing this important human right for their workers. We are also proud of farm owners who have invited us to work with them to find solutions to housing challenges of their employees.

In line with our Social Contract signed in 2005 and 2014 we continue to believe in the public private and community partnerships for development of integrated sustainable human settlements.

Our Department is forging ahead with the realignment of its policies to provide a better framework for the realisation of sustainable human settlements and improved quality of household life. The Draft White Paper on Sustainable Human Settlements is our effort to amend the Housing Act of 1999 and to bring into life all the principles prescribed in the Comprehensive Plan for Development of Human Settlements. When the Act is passed it will provide a foundation for the establishment of viable, socially and economically integrated communities located in areas that allow convenient access to economic opportunities and all essential amenities.

South Africa must take great pride and comfort in our foresight and ground breaking nature of the policies which we have formulated and implemented in the last two decades focusing on infrastructure improvement and development as well eradicating the inequalities in the property market. 

One of the important measures which provide an indication of the long term sustained growth and development of a country is the performance of its residential property sector.

The following set of statistics provides a good and important illustration of what we have achieved as a country thus far:

• Our property markets have since 1994 grown by approximately 1300% since 1994
• The total value of our residential property market is valued at R4.25 trillion made up of 6.18m properties.
• Approximately 2.18m (35%) of the properties are bonded with a value of R2.33 trillion.
• Approximately 4 million properties valued at R1.92 trillion are bonded.
• Almost 79.4% of the 15.602 million households in South Africa live in formal housing as of December 2015.
• A total of 12.9% of households live in informal housing as of December 2015
• About 55.3% of South Africans own their homes and 10.6% partially own their homes meaning it is financed or partially financed.
• A further 21.7% rent the homes they live in whilst 15.3% of households live in a state subsidised house.
• The price of a house in the affordable category (40m2 – 79m2) increased by 9.1% and now averages R417 000.

As more and more people opt for sectional title and community schemes form of housing, harmonizing the operations and the operations of body corporates and homeowners association is becoming an expected challenge that Government must regulate. An ombudsman, for consumer grievances in what was previously an unregulated segment of the housing industry will be formally established during this financial year 2016. The Community Schemes Ombud Service (CSOS) will adjudicate any complaints lodged with it regarding community schemes such as townhouses, flats, complexes, golf estates, retirement villages and homeowners’ associations. It will also deal with other forms of communal living that have a body corporate or management agency governing the common areas of the property. The CSOS has made headway in engaging all stakeholders and has started mitigating a number of disputes in the sector.

In 2014 we indicated that one of our MTSF priorities is to clear the over 800 000 title deeds for pre 1994 houses and after 1994 houses and our indications are that of the over 3 Million houses built between 1994 (including the 350 000 which use to be council rental stock before 1994) there are 800 000 title deeds to be processed. We have declared this a Ministerial priority and in 12 months we have transferred over 100 878 Title Deeds that were registered for ownership by 31 December 2015. These include new delivery as well as the backlog of pre- and post-1994 properties. We have tasked the EAAB to lead with educating our people on the importance of a title deed and to coordinate this important task working with municipalities and private developers.

Housing remains an emotive issue, despite our successes and those who are still waiting for their houses are more prone to express themselves in anger. We have established the NRRTT to create an environment of greater understanding between ourselves and our unhappy communities, and it has worked. We sensed simmering unhappiness in Orange Farm and engaged with the community. We took representatives of the NHBRC and the EAAB to address defective houses and title deeds. The community suspended the three week strike pending our intervention. The golden high way leading to Johannesburg was reopened and schools resumed.

The reasons for the recent spate of service delivery protests are varying as they are various. The following can be deduced from the recent experience of the NRRTT’s intervention in protest areas.

1. Grievances are caused by access to job opportunities that are provided by local projects such as construction of houses, the construction of sewer and other sanitation projects.  

2. Allegation of corruption in relation to the adjudication of local projects has resulted in the aggrieved contractor mobilising communities for their own sectarian interest.

3. Tense competition for political space and territorial fights has seen communities used as cannon fodder in this regard. New political entrants seek to bolster themselves in the eve of the forthcoming local government elections. 

4. In the case of the eviction of the Hawel Road residents in Durban, we have realised that some of the reasons for the non- payment was that those who could not pay had not been properly profiled, as a result there were the very indigent and the child headed families that needed alternative interventions rather than being evicted. In such cases the community protested simple because of what they regard as an injustice of evicting the indigent and the vulnerable.

5. The high unemployment of our people is at the base of all the protests in our country. Local government and its delivery projects have become the main and contested source of employment, livelihood and power. It is thus understandable that capturing the local government space has become the main frontier of struggle at the local level whether within the various factions in the ANC or between the ANC and other political parties. 

In closing, as we celebrate housing delivery since 1994 we would like to convey our sincerest gratitude to all South Africans who made it possible through their finances for deserving households to have a decent shelter over their heads.

I thank you