Portfolio Committee applauds improvement in housing delivery

The apparently inadequate bulk infrastructure came under the spotlight from Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements during its recent visit to Mpumalanga.

The committee which visited the province as part of its oversight programme on government’s work bemoaned bulk sewer and water infrastructure challenges at a few projects in Govan Mbeki and Steve Tshwete Local Municipalities. The visit was to assess programmes and progress on the implementation of comprehensive integrated human settlements projects in the province.

Led by chairperson, Ms Nocawe Mafu, the committee held various meetings with officials from the department and five municipalities to engage on state of service delivery in the municipalities. After the meetings, committee members visited various projects; amongst others, Breaking New Ground (BNG), Informal Settlements Upgrading, Serviced Sites and Integrated Residential Development Programme projects at the city of Mbombela, Thaba Chweu, Govan Mbeki, eMalahleni and Steve Tshwete Local Municipalities. Central to the inspections was to assess progress made in the construction of houses, coordination and management of the beneficiary list and incorporation of backyard dwellers into the provincial housing data base and inroads made in the issuing of title deeds.

Members of the Parliament’s Portfolio Committee during their visit to eMalahleni. The committee visited five municipalities to engage on state of service delivery. (Photo provided)

Addressing the entourage, Ms Mafu stated that the purpose of the visit goes far beyond oversight, but in essence is to look at the challenges facing the department in delivering services to the people and that the committee seeks to promote and enhance intergovernmental relations and co-operative governance principles in the delivery of human settlements services. The impressed Ms Mafu said that as a committee they did not mean to come and police the department and municipalities but to offer support:

“Remember the budget for human settlements for provinces comes from the national department which we must oversee as the portfolio committee. So when we do oversee we then also need to follow the money allocated to provinces to see if it still carries out the purpose it is meant for,” she highlighted and noting that despite a few challenges picked up there has been a lot of improvement since their last visit in 2015.

Spending a day with the committee, MEC Speedy Mashilo mentioned that the improvement comes after the department had a number of meetings with municipalities in the form of road shows where they were checking even the beneficiaries list in making sure they are compliant with the department’s policy. The allocation of houses is biased towards senior citizens, people with disabilities, orphans and child headed households.

“We welcome the input of the portfolio committee. The bigger challenges that we are facing are lack of bulk infrastructure and illegal invasion of houses, but we are working closely with municipalities to ensure that rightful beneficiaries get their houses” charged Mashilo.

The vigorous visits concluded by requesting the department to instantly compile a comprehensive report on the state of bulk infrastructure in municipalities which affects human settlement delivery in the province.

It appears that such a challenge is a common feature in some parts of the country. The committee has a constitutional mandate to conduct oversight of all organs of state including national, provincial and local governments.

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