National Assembly welcomes plans to upgrade informal settlements
The Department of Human Settlements has identified the upgrading of informal settlements as one of its priority delivery areas and has ring-fenced a budget of R10 billion for this purpose over the next three years, reports Sakhile Mokoena.
Presenting the department’s budget vote for debate in a National Assembly miniplenary, the Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation, Ms Lindiwe Sisulu, said growing informal settlements in urban areas is the department’s biggest challenge in its efforts to provide shelter to indigent households. The challenge is exacerbated by the influx of undocumented migrants from neighbouring countries. “The need for housing our own people is long and growing with 2.2 million households still living in informal settlements. And when you consider migrants from neighbouring countries also seeking employment, then you can understand the nightmare we have to deal with year in and year out.
“We will overcome this problem in time, which remains a constant nightmare made worse by the fact that we continuously receive undocumented migrants from neighbouring countries seeking employment. We spend a great deal of our time to resolve this problem,” she said.
In the 2020 budget statement, the Minister announced an allocation of R4.6 billion for
provinces and metros for the upgrading of informal settlements. This year, provincial upgrades are planned for 679 informal settlements, while 344 informal settlements will be targeted in metropolitan municipality upgrades.
“Over the next three years, about R10 billion has been ring-fenced to accelerate the upgrading of informal settlements countrywide. The rapid growth of informal settlements in all major cities and towns, which I reflected on earlier, has necessitated a review of funding frameworks,” said the Minister.
Her department has created a dedicated Upgrading of Informal Settlements Grant Funding Framework to address this challenge. The Minister also called for urban state land to be released for social housing to allow working people to stay closer to their places of work.
The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation, Ms Machwene Semenya, commended the department for a renewed focus on the upgrading of informal settlements, and the introduction of the informal settlements upgrading partnership grant. “This grant will go a long way in the upgrading and formalisation of informal settlements over the medium-term. It is worth pointing out that the grant will deliver 180 000 stands with access to municipal services to our communities across provinces and metropolitan areas,” said the committee Chairperson.
Ms Semenya was also pleased with the department’s plan to collaborate with provinces and municipalities to upgrade informal settlements and provide affordable rental housing, among many other programmes. “This is evident in the fact that around 97% of this budget vote will be disbursed through transfers and subsidies to province and municipalities and other entities. We accept that this is a plan and it has to be implemented and we will be there as a Portfolio Committee overseeing the implementation of this budget vote,” she said.
She also called on the department to accelerate the issuing of title deeds and to support the provinces and municipalities to maximise the use of the Provincial Emergency Housing and Municipal Emergency Housing grants, so as to prevent land invasions.
Ms Emma Powell of the Democratic Alliance was sceptical about the department’s plans to upgrade informal settlements, saying in the past the department had failed to meet its own targets. “During last year’s budget speech, you promised to replace 1 174 shacks with proper houses in Duncan Village; less than half were completed. Our government takes money from formal housing to fund vanity programmes like the South African Airways. You can’t claim to care about ordinary people,” said Ms Powell.
Declaring her party’s rejection of the Department of Human Settlement’s Budget Vote, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Member of Parliament, Ms Rebecca Mohlala, accused the government of failing to address the problem created by apartheid spatial planning. “27 years after democracy, our people still live in shacks, far from their places of work, with unreliable public transport. Cadre deployment is the order of the day while people are languishing in dilapidated informal settlements,” she said.
Ms Mohlala also called for transformation of the Estate Agency Affairs Board, and urged the Minister to create “a conducive environment for black people to be drawn into the value chain”.