Picture: The RDP housing project/Generic
By OBAKENG MAJE
The Minister of Human Settlements, Mmamoloko Kubayi said they will soon have a revised framework to guide municipalities’ administration of national housing programmes. Kubayi said the Revised Accreditation Framework for Municipalities to Administer National Housing Programmes (2023), will ensure municipalities’ progressive capacitation to perform the delegated functions without compromising delivery capacity in the short term.
The framework received resounding support and was approved on 15 September 2023 following a presentation tabled at the meeting between the Human Settlements Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi, Deputy Minister Pam Tshwete and provincial MECs of Human Settlements (MINMEC).
“MINMEC is a quarterly meeting between the Ministry and MECs of all nine provinces. The meeting is also attended by mayors, MMCs and representatives from the South African Local Government Association (SALGA). This is a big step towards the creation of objective criteria for accrediting municipalities with a clear accreditation process timetable.
“Allowing municipalities to progressively build implementation capacity bolsters our long-term objective of creating a fully enabling environment for our municipalities to be self-sufficient in Human Settlements delivery. This way, we are capacitating them while ensuring that we reach our targets,” she said.
Kubayi further said the implementation of the 2012 Accreditation Framework, was faced with several implementation challenges encountered in some of the provinces. She added that the 2023 Revised Accreditation Framework is introducing among others, the programme-based incremental approach, wherein municipalities are to be accredited for implementing a programme or mixture of programmes that are relevant to their capacity and priority needs.
“Another major intervention in the Revised Framework is the role of intermediate city municipalities or secondary cities, which are considered crucial catalysts for more balanced and dispersed growth across the country.
“MINMEC also agreed that the title deeds programme must be prioritised through several interventions, including embarking on weekly roadshows to issue the 234,757 available title deeds nationally,” said Kubayi.
She said the discussion focused on the turnaround time by municipalities to declare townships, with an agreement to collaborate on cross-border demarcation, particularly as it impacts the title deeds rollout programme. Kuyai said the issuing of title deeds across provinces is an apex priority for the department.
“As part of efforts to clear the backlog, the municipalities were urged to refrain from storing them in their offices but to continuously make deliberate efforts to give back dignity and ensure that people become rightful owners of their homes.
“The department has been incorporating the issuing of title deeds with housing handovers given the urgency by the government to significantly unlock economic benefits. MINMEC received a report on the current fiscal environment and reflected on the response by the Human Settlements sector,” she said.
Kubayi said while the sector understands and supports the effort by the Minister of Finance to stabilise the fiscus, MINMEC emphasised the need to find a balance between service delivery priorities and fiscal consolidation. She said the sector has so far had a mix-bag of performance during the Medium-Term Strategic Framework period (2019-2024).
“The meeting learnt that so far from a target of 300,000, the sector is at 69,5% delivery with 208 358 fully subsidized houses on the ground. This is no mean feat in the face of budget cuts the department has faced. About 172 066 serviced sites have been delivered from a projected number of 190 437.
“First Home Finance has surpassed the 20,000 units mark as targeted in 2019. To date, there are 22,035 units that have been delivered. The current delivery is against the budget cuts the Department of Human Settlements has faced over the years,” said Kubayi.
She said they are making inroads in ensuring that they bring more people into the housing market thereby assisting the so-called “missing middle” with home ownership. Kubayi said, however, that for the current financial year, concerns were raised about provincial spending, wherein provinces are urged to deliver in accordance with their business plans or face redirection of funds to performing provinces.
The Guardian 