Human Settlements budget scrutinised

THE adjusted budget of the provincial Department of Human Settlements yesterday came under scrutiny by the standing committee on human settlements as members questioned allocations for bulk infrastructure funding to municipalities.

Bulk infrastructure is the public infrastructure by means of which water, sewerage and electricity are generated, collected, stored, purified, conveyed and disposed of, as the case may be, and which connects to the reticulation system, which in turn distributes services to or from end users.

Based on previous committee oversight visits to towns across the province that found allocations to be problematic, both committee chairperson Matlhodi Maseko (DA) and committee member Pat Marran (ANC) wanted to know how the department prioritised bulk infrastructure funding for municipalities.

Responding to the query, MEC Tertuis Simmers said making bulk infrastructure funding available for the provision of housing programmes was not his department’s mandate.

“The Department of Local Government has a specific role in terms of the provision of bulk infrastructure in order to ensure that my department can get on with its work.

“The historical problem with those local government grants is that there will never be enough to ensure sufficient bulk provision for human settlements development, more so for our rural municipalities.”

In their adjustment allocation, the department said they had shifted R500 000 to the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning budget to assist municipalities in conducting housing market studies which are needed to inform the preparation of municipal inclusionary housing policies.

They said that a further R4 million had come from Environmental Affairs and Development Planning towards the funding of the rapid intergovernmental integrated land-use response for Driftsands Provincial Nature Reserve.