HUMAN SETTLEMENTS: Critical need for integrated planning
by Greg Nicolson,
2014-11-20 07:01:32.0
RESPONSIBILITY for housing is “unnecessarily complicated” according to the NDP. Local government does the planning, provincial government performs the housing function and responsibility for water and electricity is split between different players.
“In general, human settlements are badly planned, with little co-ordination between those installing water reticulation infrastructure and those responsible for providing bulk infrastructure. Responsibility for housing should shift to the level at which planning is executed: the municipal level,” reads the NDP.
The medium-term strategic framework obliges government to strengthen the capabilities of municipalities over the next five years so housing grants and human settlement-making grants are better integrated. Shifting more responsibility for housing to municipalities is one of the key institutional strategies to improve delivery.
To devolve the housing function to municipalities, the Department of Human Settlements uses three levels of accreditation, says Chief Director of Communications at the Department of Human Settlements, Xolani Xundu. Level one features beneficiary management, subsidy budget planning and allocation, and priority programme management and administration. Level two accreditation means full programme management and administration of all housing instruments. Level three entails the formal transfer of the functions of the administration of national human settlements programmes to a municipality, including financial administration.
Xundu says the six metropolitan municipalities — Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni, Tshwane, Ethekwini, Cape Town and Nelson Mandela Bay — are being prioritised to gain capacity to reach level three and assume the highest housing functions. By 2019 the MTSF wants all these municipalities to achieve level three accreditation.
So far, none of them meet the requirements. Speaking in August, Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said while the six metros had submitted business plans to access the Municipal Human Settlements Capacity Grant, worth a total of R300m, provincial MECs were concerned the metros would use some of the money to pay consultants instead of creating permanent structures to fast-track housing delivery.
In Cape Town, Mayor Patricia de Lille suggested the national department was influenced by party politics in declining to disburse its R50m, but Sisulu insisted Cape Town, like all the metros, had not met the requirements.
Calgro M3’s Fleurhoff housing development on the West Rand meets government’s latest thinking on housing provision – it incorporates housing for all subsidy levels as well as fully privately financed units.
RESPONSIBILITY for housing is “unnecessarily complicated” according to the NDP. Local government does the planning, provincial government performs the housing function and responsibility for water and electricity is split between different players.
“In general, human settlements are badly planned, with little co-ordination between those installing water reticulation infrastructure and those responsible for providing bulk infrastructure. Responsibility for housing should shift to the level at which planning is executed: the municipal level,” reads the NDP.
The medium-term strategic framework obliges government to strengthen the capabilities of municipalities over the next five years so housing grants and human settlement-making grants are better integrated. Shifting more responsibility for housing to municipalities is one of the key institutional strategies to improve delivery.
To devolve the housing function to municipalities, the Department of Human Settlements uses three levels of accreditation, says Chief Director of Communications at the Department of Human Settlements, Xolani Xundu. Level one features beneficiary management, subsidy budget planning and allocation, and priority programme management and administration. Level two accreditation means full programme management and administration of all housing instruments. Level three entails the formal transfer of the functions of the administration of national human settlements programmes to a municipality, including financial administration.
Xundu says the six metropolitan municipalities — Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni, Tshwane, Ethekwini, Cape Town and Nelson Mandela Bay — are being prioritised to gain capacity to reach level three and assume the highest housing functions. By 2019 the MTSF wants all these municipalities to achieve level three accreditation.
So far, none of them meet the requirements. Speaking in August, Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said while the six metros had submitted business plans to access the Municipal Human Settlements Capacity Grant, worth a total of R300m, provincial MECs were concerned the metros would use some of the money to pay consultants instead of creating permanent structures to fast-track housing delivery.
In Cape Town, Mayor Patricia de Lille suggested the national department was influenced by party politics in declining to disburse its R50m, but Sisulu insisted Cape Town, like all the metros, had not met the requirements.
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