MINISTRY MEDIA BRIEFING
SOCIAL CLUSTER: PROVINCIAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT, AGRICULTURE AND LAND AFFAIRS, HOUSING, PUBLIC WORKS AND WATER AND FORESTRY MINISTRIES
The Minister spoke, amongst other issues, about rural development and urban renewal; addressing poverty through speeding up housing delivery and issues of agriculture.
Questions
Q] A journalist from Business Day newspaper asked Minister Sigcau to give details of the role of the private sector in the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) given the fact that the programme was proposed as a partnership between civil society and private sector. She asked if there would be tenders that the public sector could bid for.
A] Minister Sigcau replied that the private sector (i.e. the Business trust) is working together with the government on these programmes. One of the things that they are going to do is to facilitate learnerships and internships within the business sector. The government remains committed to working with the private sector through the PPPs. Emphasis would be placed, where possible and without compromising the project, on the fact that part of the work must be labour intensive.
Q] Mr A Sparks (The Star) remarked that, notwithstanding the good policies that have been formulated, service delivery has been an ongoing problem for government from the onset. He asked the Ministers as to how they are going to ensure that there is service delivery.
A] Minister Mufamadi responded that the issues of service delivery and incapacity, particularly at local government level, has to be addressed in context. We had a situation wherein the government had to take steps to ensure that those sectors of the society had all along been receiving services continue to receive them. There are also millions of South Africans who in the past have not received those basic services but have since had services extended to them. This must mean that there is some capacity that was unleashed to ensure that services are extended to such sections of the society. He acknowledged that some municipalities do not have adequate capacity. Hence the task of capacity building should be seeing as an ongoing one. He was also quick to warn people not to generalize since some municipalities have the capacity to deliver services. There is a need to establish a trouble shooting unit that will work with struggling municipalities so as to assist them in improving their capacity.
The Minister added that the government has, following the election campaigns, discovered that services are being delivered but consumers are not paying for them. There is a need to come expedite the crafting of policies for indigent people so that one does not have a situation wherein services have been delivered but payment is forthcoming.
Minister Sigcau added that the Department of Public works and National Treasury have come up with a toolkit for guiding entities as to proper planning of projects. A memorandum of understanding would be signed shortly so a cover the roll out of the toolkit to all provinces and municipalities. The roll out would be accompanied by extensive training.
Q] A journalist from Volksblad newspaper asked the Minister of Agriculture for the Minister’s comment on the acceleration of land reform and restitution.
A] Minister Didiza drew the media’s attention to the deadline (2005) set by President Mbeki for the completion of land restitution claims. The government is confidant that it is possible to meet the deadline given the fact from 1994 to March 2004 the government has already settled more than 48 000 claims. This gives an indication that by 2005 the Department would have completed the task. Moreover, in terms of the analysis and validation of the claims, the government already knows which claims are valid and which are invalid. Most of the remaining claims involve large agricultural land. It is important that those communities that would receive such land should be able to continue with the farming enterprise. Partnerships should be formed to ensure that the communities are able to retain and use the land effectively. This gives an opportunity to existing landowners to work together with their new neighbours.
Another challenge revolves around areas where there are claims of mineral deposit. There is a need to find a way of balancing the interests of those who are rights holders and the interests of the communities which were forcibly remove from the land in question. The Department of Agriculture is working together with the Department of Minerals and Energy in trying to find a mechanism that allows for mineral development continue but at the same time have benefits accruing also to those communities.
There is also a challenge of balancing nature conservation with the interests of the communities. The Department has been able to balance these interests by ensuring that nature conservation continues and that the communities are involved in the management of those areas.
Price escalation in the land market is another big challenge with regard to land restitution. The government is trying to find ways of dealing with this challenge. The government is also working with industries since companies own some of the land. For instance the government is working with the Sugar Association in Kwazulu-Natal. The Inkezo Foundation, which is specifically aimed at releasing around 70 000 hectares for land reform, has been setup.
The Department, for this year, has committed itself to focus labourer-tenants claims. There are labour-tenants communities in various provinces whose tenure is not secured and there have been claims of abuse by former commandos. There are about 20 000 of such claims. The government would this year be able to move with speed to resolve these claims in order to create better farming environment and livelihoods for the communities concerned. The Department would continue to deal with issues of eviction.
With regard to land reform for agricultural development last year the government was able to acquire about 377. This indicates that the government can start settling those people who are interested in entering into the agricultural economy. The department has this year budgeted R200m towards support programmes.
Q] A journalist from Independent newspapers noted that the government would in the next three years spend R14,2 billion to help people to have access to basis shelter. She asked the Minister of Housing as to what she envisages to do.
A] Minister Sisulu replied that President has given the Department a deadline of three months to deliver to Cabinet a plan on human settlements. The Department will be able to deliver this in two months.
Q] A member of the media observed that some municipalities would be accredited to be developers. She asked if this is part of the original policy or a shift. She proceeded to ask the Minister to provide the rational for the shift.
With regard to the rental houses strategy, she asked if the Minister would like to see a significant percentage of people moving into rental housing or if the thrust of the policy would be towards having people own their own properties.
A] The Minister replied that there is no policy shift. The government has realized that there are people who move to urban areas and live there because that is where they work. Such people own houses in places where they come from. The possibility of owning another house bear where they work is not open to them given the low wages that they earn. However, such people can afford to rent a house. Hence the Department seeks to introduce rental housing to cater for such people. Emphasis would still remain on having people their own houses.
With regard to the accreditation of municipalities the Minister replied that there is no policy shift but a continuation of the original policy.
Mr Lembede (GCIS) thanked the Minster and the media and adjourned the briefing.