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The success and failure of governments can be attributed to their ability to execute service delivery tasks on the ground. This invariably means that national imperatives are distributed to provincial structures, which are to execute them by working closely with their respective municipalities. Glitches in the work flow only serve to frustrate the people of South Africa and hamper timeous service delivery.
The Gauteng department of human settlements is tasked with the unique mandate of working with some of the biggest municipalities in the country.
Multiple-party municipalities make for a dynamic working relationship, however, the department has always prided itself on its ability to champion service delivery for the people.
It is in the light of the above-mentioned that continuous complaints from the mayor of the City of Johannesburg (COJ) over housing budget cuts have been treated with the utmost urgency. It is, however, worth mentioning that as a provincial department, our mandate is to assist municipalities in utilising budgets fully so as to ensure housing services are delivered to our people.
For Mayor Herman Mashaba to allude to the budget reduction being gazetted unexpectedly is misleading and does not paint an accurate picture of what transpired between the city and the department.
It speaks nothing of perpetual attempts to solicit explanations from the COJ as to why it was failing to meet contractual obligations with the stipulated initial budget of R249 091 122.
It is well-documented communication between the department and COJ that major developers have been left financially exposed and have been forced to seek intervention from the national department of human settlements. Developers such as Calgro M3 are owed amounts to the tune of R380 000 000 and have been consistent in their pursuit of this outstanding balance as of November last year, with a letter written to the director-general human settlements. They are committed in ensuring that housing delivery is not compromised, however, they seek reimbursement for work done and the COJ continues to drag its feet.
Mayor Mashaba has sought assistance from the SA Human Rights Commission and written to President Cyril Ramaphosa regarding the reduction of funds from an expected R240 million to R66 million. He is well within his rights to seek these avenues, however, the issue would’ve been resolved speedily with the cooperation of the mayor, which has not been forthcoming at times.
Prior to the revised gazette, in August last year at the three-day lekgotla, a municipality analysis indicated that the COJ had outstanding redemptions of R382 854 894.
Calgro is currently owed more than R300 million for infrastructure by the COJ, which is an amount equal to that which was reallocated to other performing municipalities within the province.
This reallocation put the electrification of the South Hills project in Fleurhof at risk, which placed the department in a position of having to possibly hand over homes without electricity. These are the results of incompetent spending by the COJ and they inevitably fail the very people that are meant to be uplifted.
It is important to stress that the budget is set in accordance with municipal business plans upon adoption by council, but the onus is on the city to ensure that the business plan is executed.
Failure to do so has National Treasury implications, as the mayor is aware, and unfortunately those implications negatively impact housing delivery, which results in the inability to effectively serve the poorest of the poor and fulfil the departmental mandate to provide adequate housing.
A redress imperative is of utmost importance in this regard.
A task team was set up following the lekgotla in April last year, which resolved to assist the struggling city. This, again, was a clear indication of the baselessness of the claim that the revised gazette was unexpected and came as a shock.
As a result of the COJ’s failure to meet the financial obligations of the Riverside View Mega Housing Project, the province had to intervene and pay for the units to have them released to their beneficiaries.
This was an obligation that was meant to be met by the 2017/2018 budget and yet the city failed to honour it without an adequate explanation. It would’ve been aligned to a business plan, yet it was provincial intervention and commitment to serve the people of South Africa that delivered the houses to people.
The revised gazette requires a consultative process between all stakeholders, including the provincial department and the city. It is a stocktaking platform that assesses what has been done and what is likely to be completed within the financial year.
The Johannesburg region was requested to make inputs for the November gazette last year, but the COJ failed to produce full redemption claims. The reduced gazette was a result of this process and not a sudden occurrence.
The COJ declared a dispute over the gazette and the national department requested that the provincial department and the COJ convene an urgent meeting to resolve the matter speedily.
The provincial department, despite outstanding redemptions, again assisted by agreeing to transfer additional funds for the South Hills project as there was a developer on the ground with a valid contract to be honoured. Other projects were implemented through a tripartite agreement and not via funds being transferred to the COJ directly.
Failure to carry out municipal business plans lets our people down and increases the housing backlog. Gauteng remains the province that has built the most houses in South Africa, however, this status is threatened by municipalities that fail to appoint contractors and fall short in honouring contractual obligations with appointed developers.
Another important point to emphasise is that despite different political affiliations, the province and municipalities should ferociously pursue service delivery goals for the benefit of our people.
The budget has been increased and now it rests solely on the COJ to utilise the funds accordingly. The department retains an open-door policy and is willing to assist in capacitating the COJ to avoid situations that lead to major developers being owed hundreds of millions.
Moiloa is the MEC for human settlements in Gauteng
