GCIS PARLIAMENTARY MEDIA BRIEFING
MINISTRY OF HOUSING
10 September 2001
Document Handed Out: Minister’s Media Briefing September 10, 2001 [See Appendix below]
Questions by the media and replies from the Minister, Ms Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele (Q) Is the Government looking at changing its policy and giving land to the people because it seems as if they want land to build their own homes?
The Government will not change policy. Land will be identified and allocated for settlement. The identified land will be upgraded and infrastructure will be put in place for people to live on until subsidies are granted. In the Eastern Cape 23 878 ha of land was made available for resettlement. Other approaches are being looked at to maximise the utilisation of land. Housing is working closely with Land Affairs & Agriculture to assist on different levels.
(Q) How much progress is being made in making land invasions illegal?
The amendments are finished and have to be put before the Cabinet. Hopefully it will come before Parliament this year.
(Q) Will there be penalties for illegal land invasions?
We want to make sure that the relationship between the landowner and the landless is regulated. It is either by invitation or by choice that people settle illegally. The problem that government and owners face is that it takes too long to evict people through the courts. From the police report arising out of the Breddel land invasion we have learnt that there are 3 types of people invading the land. Besides those who are really destitute and need land there are also those looking to benefit financially and use the land commercially. Some people were dragged out of their shacks to come and settle at Breddel. We need a settlement plan that attracts people to areas with infrastructure and economic potential. The penalty will be a max of 2 years in prison or a fine or both. This applies to those inciting land invasions as well as those doing the invading.
(The penalty is proposed in the Prevention of illegal eviction and illegal occupation of land Bill 2001)
(Q) Are the banks buying into the whole system of the National Savings Scheme?
Some banks are recognising the advantages of dealing with the poor. In some countries make huge profits from the poorer people. Banks need to move away from conventional banking and assist the poor. ABSA is on board and we are still negotiating with Standard Bank. PEP bank received the concept with open arms and have registered 100 000 depositors since the agreement was registered. This is a start of a whole new way of looking at people who have been left out of the financial services sector because of their financial position. The culture of saving will result in savings in the economy and people will realise the value of their RDP homes.
(Q) Are you satisfied with the rest of the industry for example the construction industry?
Generally, Yes. But we have got to weed out the rotten apples so that government subsidies will be used properly and the people will receive quality products.
In the Banking sector the move is slow. They are scared of new schemes and of loosing money. Two major banks are on board and we hope others will follow.
(Q) What is the current state of the housing backlog in the country?
A 1996 census showed that 2.5 million units were still needed for approximately 7.35 million people that still needed housing.
Not responding to a question the Minister said that a major problem is the attitude in the financial services industry. People come forward and say that they get no assistance when applying for a loan. The Home Loan Disclosure Act will help put an end to all form of discrimination.
(Q) Will there be a problem in the identifying and allocation of land in respect of the land owned by tribes.
Chiefs have been releasing land for resettlement. Farmers in the Free State have been giving land free of charge and allowing time off in the day for workers to build their own homes which are of a good standard.
(Q) Are we looking at an increased figure than the figure provided in the 1996 census taking into account population growth and other factors?
When addressing the backlog one needs to be aware of the migratory patterns. Each month 20 000 people enter the Gauteng. In the Environment 188 000 housing needs arise each year and this is separate from the current backlog. We therefore adopt a multi-prong approach. For the younger generation housing is provided from rental stock and RDP houses are provided for the older persons. This approach caters for the higher and lower ends of the low-income group. Also hostels were identified as residences and developed into family units. The backlog fluctuates. When we started 4,5 persons per household needed a home now the figure is 3.5.
(Q) Why do we need new legislation? Does the common law not deal with trespassing and can this not be applied to land invaders.
Currently, if land is occupied that law states that if the land has been occupied for 6 months or longer then the owner must negotiate for them to leave. The owner is not protected so there needs to be a balance between the owners and the landless. It is even becoming impossible for the State to uphold the role of law. The new legislation is to ensure that there is no disregard for the law. We are also dealing with a number of issues because part of the Breddel group was people who already had subsidies approved and there were those who never spoke a South African Language. Clearly the Policy is to provide housing for those who are in need of housing and they have to South African citizens.
There were no further questions and the briefing was closed.
Appendix: PARLIAMENTARY MEDIA BRIEFING BY THE MINISTER OF HOUSING MINISTER, SANKIE MTHEMBI-MAHANYELE,
10 September 2001
The government declared this term of office as the phase in which to look into and improve on the quality aspect of housing. This implied that we set up mechanisms of improving the quality of the houses to be built and also assess the impact of our already existing rules and regulations governing quality of the housing stock delivered during the last term of office.
Our success in quality control has enabled us to gain confidence in terms of improving our stock. I want to mention that we have successfully implemented the Housing Consumers Protection Measures Act aimed at maintaining the norms and standards and therefore protecting the housing consumers through the National Home Builders Registration Council.
Our Housing Act makes provision for the establishment of this body as a consumer protection body to maintain and to improve quality in home building. The NHBRC has been specifically tasked with improving quality and consumer protection in the subsidy housing market as well as in the mortgage bonded market.
Our quality assurance in this regard is designed to provide a quality assurance system on the basis that a good, well-built home is the best form of consumer protection - prevention is better and cheaper than cure.
Our homeowner protection strategy provides for the Council to enrol the home builder; to direct the home builder to building quality standards as prescribed in the Red Book; the home builder, on the other hand, enrols each house built with the NHBRC, supplying the soil classification and any relevant engineering certificates relating to foundation or other structural design; the NHBRC then carries out spot check inspections to assist the home builder to comply with the norms and standards.
If there is a dispute between the developer and the housing consumer, that dispute is referred to the NHBRC who in turn intervenes and assists in making the developer accept responsibilities. The final step in the circle is a fund for the rectifying of major structural defects which is a safety net coming into effect where a home builder is unable to meet his structural warranty obligations to the housing consumer.
Since the inception of the NHBRC in 1996, the council has registered 9 465 builders and enrolled more than 120 000 houses. The Council has enrolled only 5045 complaints and a majority of them have been solved amicably with the affected developers. The Council has deregistered only 365 (or 3,9 %) of the developers due to their failure to meet their obligations. This small percentage of defaulters is an indication that a lot of developers fully subscribe to the prescribed building norms and standards and according to our observation; most sub-standards are as a result of lack of proper supervision by the developers and the relevant government officials.
In order to enhance the idea of adding quality to our housing products the Department has designed the following strategies, which will be implemented as a matter of urgency:
* Savings-linked subsidy scheme
The Department is going to introduce a new category in the housing subsidy scheme, which will target those people who have already saved sufficient money through our recently-launched National Savings Scheme in order to ensure that people are able to complement the housing subsidy to make their structures bigger and better. The Savings Scheme is also expected to unlock financial assistance from the banks for the people who are currently being denied access to additional housing finance by the banks.
* Regulation of mud-houses
Our study into the housing structures of the rural areas has revealed that a majority of mud houses in the rural areas need to be reinforced and consolidated to make them more resistant to natural disasters. The Department therefore aims to regulate the building of these so that they comply with certain norms and standards that we deem suitable for a proper living structure. Over and above, this will also assist us in extending our housing subsidy to cover this category of housing in the near future.
The proposed norms and standards include the following:
* That the suitability of the soil to be used in the manufacturing of earth bricks be approved and confirmed by municipalities or Provincial Housing Departments through acceptable testing * All thatched roofs will have to be undertaken on the basis of the current Guide for Good Thatching Practice developed by CSIR, and * The floors of all the houses will have to be at least 150 mm above ground level and water must be shed away from the building.
This is one strategy of tackling the housing backlog, which includes some of the poorly built rural mud houses we are trying to improve. We believe that the backlog has been put under control because of the innovative ways that we have initiated in the past and for us to totally overcome it, we have to continue exploring new ways and approaches to housing delivery.
* Medium density housing
The Department has identified medium density housing as one aspect of adding quality to our housing products. This will call for the implementation of the multiple units per site development approach which will not only solve the problem of land for housing, but will also change the landscape altogether. Within the 1,194 million houses that we have built to date, only 33 000 units were medium density. 100 % of this stock has proved to be of better quality and the maintenance thereof has not proved to be difficult as the beneficiaries are also involved in the management of their structures.
Social housing has proved to be one of the most effective strategies of implementing medium density in that the beneficiaries are also involved in the management of the houses and therefore help in keeping them in good condition. We recently held a social Housing Conference aimed at exploring the possibility of using the medium density housing to accelerate housing delivery in general. The conference resolved, among others, the following:
* The formation of a social housing federation within the next six months that will become the umbrella body for all social housing associations of which we currently have 25
* To look into ways of maintaining the quality of houses built without compromising rental affordability for our beneficiaries or target group, and
* To clearly define our target group in the medium density category so that the poor remain our focal point.
* PHP projects
Self-building has proved to be one of the most effective strategies in producing quality housing. The majority of the 22 849 houses that have been built by the Department and the Homeless Federation of South Africa through the People's Housing Process are of good quality and most of them are bigger than those delivered through pure subsidy grants.
The Department has been striving to speed up the process of releasing the 100 000 subsidies committed to this programme and to date we have managed to allocate 59 144 of these to the qualifying beneficiaries.