Housing in Southern Africa June 2015

Housing Mpumalanga and Northwest, which are the main pressure points. In the Marikana area, there are two human settlement projects being completed that will deliver over 500 units, built on land donated by Lonmin. Anglo American has embarked on a project to provide more than 10 000 housing units. In total, Government has com- mitted R6,3 billion over the Medium TermExpenditure Framework period. Of this amount, Human Settlements contributed R2,1 billion and themin- ing houses a further R3,5 billion. “We will be partnering with Sibanye Gold to build houses on land that they have donated for their workers. We are hoping that this kind of partnership will roll out with all major employers, including government, to build houses for the workers.” “We have spent 98% of our Housing Settlements Develop- ment Grant allocated expenditure for the 2014 / 2015 financial year. We have looked into the spend- ing patterns of the provinces and would like to report that when it be- came clear that Limpopo would not spend its allocation, we re-allocated R559 million. We took a decision at MinMec and allocated R200 million to the Eastern Cape, R200 million to KZN. The remainder of the R159,5 million was ring-fenced for those provinces implementing the Youth Brigade Programme. If we are to deal with the burning issue of youth un- employment, we have to do have sent a national team to assist the Limpopo department to ensure that all administrative infrastructure for Human Settlements is in place, to enable themto increase their produc- tivity in the current financial year.” She explains that after several meetings with Mayors of the metros on the use of the Urban Settlements Development Grant (USDG), in cer- tain metros, the USDG was used for administrative purposes and as an additional income for whatever the Metro might deem necessary. The USDG is a schedule 4 conditional grant allocated to the eight metro- politan municipalities to ensure ad- equate infrastructure development in urban areas, in order to address the urgent need for accelerated human settlement development, economic things differently. For every mega project approved, the re- quirement will be for the employment of a Youth Brigade. We

growth stimulation and to reduce the costs of access to land and ser- vices for poor urban households. “We have approved the policy on the conditions of the use of a conditional grant and the USDG will be used for land acquisition, bulk infrastructure, basic services/ serviced sites and the provision of social and economic amenities that support the provi- sion of human settlements, ie recre- ational facilities, crèches, small

Metro. This has been underpinned by a Cabinet decision and a Memoran- dumof Agreement between the three spheres of government and headed by the Housing Development Agency. We will report to the Portfolio Com- mittee on a regular basis about our progress in the area. An allocation of

R30,9 billion has been made and we will monitor the results. Task Team A Rapid Response Task Team has been created. It will meet with the housing beneficiaries to minimise any conflict and reduce the social distance. Members of the task team are all eminent members of our soci- ety and in each province where they will intervene, they will be joined by the provincial Department of Human Settlements.” Hostel policy “We are restructuring our policy on hostels. We would like to gradu- ally abolish hostels in our towns and hostel dwellers who have lived

business areas, etc. It may not be used for any other purpose and any deviationwould require the approval of the Minister of Human Settle- ments,” said Sisulu. Together with the Ministers of COGTA and Water & Sanitation, Sisulu said, “We have had several joint meetings with Metropolitan Mayors to discuss the matter of ac- creditation, which has the capacita- tion grant attached to it. We have agreed on a course of action neces- sary and will report to the Portfolio Committee on the progress on a regular basis. We have sent an inter- departmental Task Team, consisting of the Department of Human Settle- ments andNational Treasury, and the Departments of COGTA and Water & Sanitation to the NelsonMandela Bay

June 2015