NATIONAL PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE OVERSIGH VISIT KZN Human Settlements

1. NATIONAL PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE OVERSIGH VISITKZN Human Settlements 30 MAY 2012

2. The Portfolio visited KwaZulu Natal in February 2011 undertook a number of field visits were undertaken with the following observations The department made a number of follow ups sessions and engagements with all district family of municipalities; Progress has been made in a number of projects visited e.g. Ncotshane ,Imbali etc.; Capacity of the department to support municipalities has been enhanced at district level; On going monitoring and support enhanced BACKGROUND

3. EThekwini municipality reported its delivery of housing units from 16 000-23 000, however in the 2011/12 it only managed to deliver 4800 units only; Experienced procurement challenges, led to slowed down delivery, change of administrative leadership changed the delivery pattern of the metro; The R300 million seed funding allocated to housing created some revenue challenges for the metro, which impacted negatively on the delivery; Poor beneficiary management was another problematic area for the municipality ETHEKWINI MANICIPALITY

4. EThekwini accounts for 7,65% of all informal settlements , excluding the backyard dwellers; The in-situ upgrades necessitated the creation of the transit camps to decant households during the upgrade; The metro has used part of the USDG to provide basic services to the people living in the informal settlements; Department continues to support the metro with the eradication of informal settlements through land acquisition and infrastructure support Cornubia is making very good progress even though there are challenges The issue of the transit camps has been addressed with the metro and reviewing other options to decant households during the in situ upgrade ETHEKWINI MUNICIPALITY (CONT)

5. CORNUBIA Cornubia project anticipated to yield 50 000 units has commenced and to date 34 units have been constructed in accordance with phase 1a development plan; There are challenges with the procurement of the other phases which has not impacted upon the continuity of the projects The matter is being dealt with by the city officials and will be resolved in due course

6. BENEFICIARY MANAGEMENT The EThekwini municipality is in the process of developing and formalizing a policy on beneficiary list Management and an allocations policy; The department is in the process of appointing district beneficiary management teams ( application management teams) to be responsible for each district

7. RECTIFICATION The assessment process for the rectification was done in the different districts ; A total of 64 000 units were assessed what took longer to be finalized especially in the cluster such as flats where some renovations may have been done by households; The policy regarding the pre 1994 houses requires some review and clarification; The cost of rectification is limited to up to 10% of the HSDG and competes with other need areas

8. The committee observed that there was limited IGR, The dept. has been holding regular sessions with the district families of municipalities to strengthen the IGR; Department has decentralized its office to all districts to enhance levels of monitoring and support and increased staff for this purpose; Regular sessions with Exco’s of Councils to outline some of the challenges experience; Poor relations between the to tiers of local government continues to impact negatively on the delivery of human settlements Strong relations with NHBRC, SHRA, NHFC, NURCHA, NDA have strengthened the delivery of targets provincially INTERGOVERMENTAL RELATIONS

9. INFRASTRUCTURE A number of projects are affected to a large extent by the lack of infrastructure in the province and this affects the key target areas such as the IRDP and the ISU projects which are ready but cannot take off; The matter of uThukela Water is being dealt with by the National department of Water Affairs with our sister department of COGTA; Lack of effective inter-governmental Fiscal Framework has rendered most of the SIU stalled as districts and Locals battle for MIG funding ; Major IRDP projects stalled due to lack of infrastructure in all major towns undermining the creation of new towns; Electrification also a challenge due to lack of infarstructure.

10. SANITATION Sanitation in major areas especially in the coastal areas are posing a health risk challenges due to the soil issues; This problem is hinging on the unavailability of the bulk infrastructure in the provinces; Department is working very closely with the department of COGTA and Water Affairs to resolve some of the infrastructure challenges in the spirit of cooperative governance; Alignment of the rural sanitation currently run by the IDT to ensure quality services throughout the project.

11. STALLED PROJECTS Shortage of land competition with the private sector for prime human settlement; Large number of inappropriate land allocated by the municipalities and dense informal settlements; Subsidy insufficient for Densification as the approach new is moving densification Budgetary allocations limited per annum Most projects are in-situ upgrades – residents in way of services, slower delivery Capacity especially in the municipality is a problem, the process of recruiting the skilled staff is moving slow but is gaining momentum and the district offices are getting well positioned for support; Timeous availability of bulk services and municipal top-up funding. Lengthy township establishment and planning procedures,

12. LAND MOBILIZATION A number of projects stalled due to land claims and land issues; The department currently engaging with the HDA and working towards the finalization of the MOU; The continued engagement with the rural Development on releasing state land is improving with bureaucracy getting better; The lengthy consultation has opened up the packaging of the farm workers project in the Pongola/ Dumbe municipal areas There are currently eight potential projects in the pipeline for the next financial year The anticipated MOU with the HDA will formalize the partnership and address capacity challenges and will unlock most stalled projects

13. DISASTER MANAGEMENT The department has identified some disaster backlogs from previous years; The process of reconciliation currently underway in all districts to plan for the backlogs eradicated KZN being the most disaster prone area, there is a need for a dedicated funding to clear the backlogs; Competing demands on the budget leaves little funding to address the disasters; Contractors to deal with disaster appointed for the next two years

14. IA PERFORMANCE The department is part of the contract management pilot run by the provincial treasury to enhance capacity for managing IA performance; There has been an increase number of breach and dismissal of Implementing Agents in the past year; The number of arbitration and court cases also increased significant; Newly employed quality Assurance Inspectors has intensified the demolishing and paid more emphasis to quality of houses delivered; The department has worked hard on managing the project timelines such a planning (6 months) and project construction based on 40 units per month; Projects implementation timeframes clearly spelt out in the contracts and all IA’s held accountable

15. HOSTELS As indicated during the oversight visit there has been generally challenges in getting through the issue of hostels; The CRU model has been identified as the most expensive non cost effective model for provision of low cost rental, this is reflected in the low recovery of rentals; EThekwini with the largest number of hostels has now acknowledged the problem and has arranged a two day turnaround strategy workshop on the 4th and 5th of June 2012 The department is currently working with the Mtshezi ( Ikhwezi Hostel) and Mvoti ( Nhlalakahle Hostel) Proposed a survey to be conducted to establish the needs of the people currently in the hostels

16. MONITORING AND EVALUATION Department has established the Monitoring and Evaluation unit that works very close with the national Monitoring and evaluation unit; The monitoring process strengthened across the department for each district; The reporting framework in improving on an on-going basis; Performance monitoring process enhanced internally and it assists in the identification of the challenges and weaknesses; Reporting by municipalities still a problem ; Alignment the human settlements to the corridors and the major nodes in line with the PSEDS and PGDS are still a big problem.

17. Siyabonga