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7 June 2007

Local Government and Housing
Honourable Speaker,
Honourable Premier of the Western Cape Province, Mr Rasool,
Provincial Cabinet colleagues,
Members of the Parliament,
MECs from the Northern Cape and Eastern Cape,
Chairpersons of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) Select Committee on Finance and Local Government,
Chairperson of South African Local Government Association (SALGA),
Executive Mayors and Mayors,
Head of Departments,
Municipal Managers,
Partners in Local Government and Housing,
Invited guests,
Comrades and friends,
Ladies and gentlemen

1. Introduction and previous year's commitments

On 24 May 2006, I delivered to all present what was a Maiden Budget Inaugural Speech. Mr Speaker, I concluded that Budget Speech by making significant commitments that had to be achieved in the course of the financial year 06/07. We stand here today to honestly reflect on those commitments. Perhaps before we reflect progress, allow me to remind you what those commitments were:

We said:

* We will deliver at least 16 000 houses and 18 000 serviced sites.
* We will develop an implementation plan for providing basic sanitation for all, and roll out at least 10 percent of that plan.
* We will relieve the stress in Site C, Khayelitsha through de-densification and upgrading.
* We will develop a shared services programme together with municipalities
* We will establish youth units in all five district municipalities and in the metro
* We will take another 250 Community Development Workers (CDWs) through to graduation.
* We will work together with South African Local Government Association (SALGA) Western Cape to provide a comprehensive councillor development programme.
* We will roll out a special leadership programme for women councillors.
* We will provide a training course in sustainable human settlement planning to Project Consolidate municipalities.
* We will assist identified Project Consolidate municipalities with the appointment of their municipal managers.
* We will see an improvement in the Auditor-General's reports on municipalities.
* We will see significantly improved municipal integrated development planning (IDPs) and Local Economic Development (LEDs) and they will be aligned with provincial and national strategies and policies.
* We will have a municipal monitoring system in place and an even more efficient department.

As we sit here this afternoon, I am happy to report to you that in the main we have surpassed what we set ourselves to do. Allow me to give you the progress on the above starting with housing, planning and development, local government, disaster management and fire brigade services.

On Housing:

Honourable Speaker, I stood here last year and made commitments to this House, I therefore think it is proper that I give this House feedback on those commitments. I am comfortable in the knowledge that many of the initiatives that I committed to in my inaugural budget speech have been realised and are bringing comfort, security and dignity to thousands of citizens of the Western Cape. One of my leading commitments centred around an initiative to attract additional funding for human settlements to our province, the basis of which was to demonstrate capacity to responsibly spend the entire housing conditional grant at an accelerated pace.

I can report that my department accomplished this three months before the end of the financial year, spending the entire grant allocation of R598 million by the end of December 2006. This achievement has instilled the necessary confidence in us and we were rewarded with a further allocation of R372 million from the National Treasury towards the N2 Gateway development. Responsible financial management guided us in the spending of this money that was received late in the financial year and we were able to spend a further R177 million by the end of March 2007.

Another of my commitments towards overcoming the housing backlog was to deliver 18 000 serviced sites and 16 000 houses based on an overall plan that was aimed at attracting an additional amount of R150 million. Both of these targets have been exceeded by 543 and 42 respectively.

On planning and development

Honourable Speaker in my 2006/07 speech I committed that we will develop an implementation plan for providing basic sanitation for all and roll out at least 10 percent of the plan. I am proud to announce that we earmarked the Upgrade of Informal Settlement Programme as a tool to assist in delivering on this commitment and we have done so. We have to date approved 27 Upgrading of Informal Settlements Programme (UISP) projects and have spent R299, 7 million in the 2006/07 financial year to provide services and access to water for 37 334 beneficiaries.

This programme enables an incremental in situ upgrade of informal settlements which allows us to dignify our people's living conditions and provide basic services with minimum disruption to the already formed community networks whilst the people await the construction of the top structures. Another programme I would like to briefly mention is the Emergency Housing Programme that has enabled us to intervene and move our people from life threatening situations to safer areas before we can give them their homes.

We will never upgrade or develop any projects where we know our people are still in harm's way. Even though we cannot anticipate all manner of emergencies but we can be prepared on how to deal with it and in partnership with municipalities move our interventions from being reactive to proactive. Last year in my speech I mentioned Bonnievale and the appalling condition in which the 67 families were living in next to pigsties and the town's refuse dump and with limited services. Through this programme I am proud to report that we have been able to relocate these families and provide basic services for all the families.

In Mossel Bay Municipality or Power-town the informal settlement in the floodplain was devastated by the floods in the Eden District in 2006. In partnership with a private developer we are looking at first relocating the 150 families to higher ground above the flood plain before we can plan the for the Integrated development for this community. I also committed that we will relieve the stress in Site C, Khayelitsha through de-densification and upgrading. I would like to report that to date we have relocated to Kuyasa 1 750 of the 2 000 families that had to be moved in order to de-densify the area and formalised 3 500 of the 6 200 sites in Site C.

Progress of relocation has been slow and has required my personal intervention through various meetings and community outreach programmes in order for me to engage with the community and lobby for their support to ensure we fast track the progress. 88% on relocation and 57% on formalisation is commendable considering the challenges we face.

On local government
* We have in partnership with all the district municipalities, the Western Cape youth commission and the district youth councils established district youth units that will develop and implement the district youth strategy and plan. As we celebrate youth month and as part of national youth service week, we had more than 400 young people volunteer to clean communities in Khayelitsha, Manenberg, Masiphumelele and Kuilsrivier.

* We have graduated more than 250 CDWs last year, and employed 200 of them into the Public Service, mainly in Project Consolidate Municipalities and Presidential Nodes. 36 CDWs were absorbed by our municipalities. We are currently seeking employment opportunities for the rest of the CDWs with other municipalities, State Owned Enterprises and other government departments.

* As mentioned earlier my department fast tracked councillor capacity building through the Provincial Councillor Summit and Councillor Induction programme.

* Through our partnership with Gender Education and Training Network (GETNET) we rolled out District based gender leadership training for women councillors facilitating women's municipal network to improve the effectiveness of political office-bearers. In addition we hosted the Deputy President Conference for Women in Local Government.

* In partnership with University of Cape Town (UCT) and the False Bay College my department trained councillors and officials with special responsibility for housing matters from all Project Consolidate municipalities on sustainable human settlement planning.

* Whilst we have not seen technical improvement from the Auditor-General (AG) report based year on year mainly because of the conversion from Institute of Municipal Finance Officers (IMFO) to Generally Recognised Accounting Practice (GRAP), Generally Accepted Municipal Accounting Policies (GAMAP), our partnership with Provincial treasury is turning the tide on improved financial viability.

* Providing hands on support through the Project Consolidate programme we have place 10 municipalities on an irreversible recovery path by providing specialist support, to build institutional capacity through filling of Municipal Managers and Section 57 vacancies, skills transfer, improvement of systems and processes, enhanced financial viability through improved revenue enhancement.

* On shared services we are already seeing the implementation of a shared service model in Central Karoo with the appointment of an internal auditing and supply chain competence.

On disaster management:

In order to comply with the purpose of the Disaster Management Act, the Disaster Management Centre in the province has to focus on the prevention of disaster risk, to mitigate the severity of disasters, emergency preparedness, as well as effective recovery processes to disasters.

To achieve this goal the following processes were instituted during the 2006/07 financial year, namely:

* To mitigate disasters through risk and vulnerability assessments that were completed in three District Municipal areas, namely Eden, West Coast and Cape Winelands.
* Capacity building through the Disaster Management Training, Education, Awareness and Marketing (TEAM) programme. Through this endeavour a total of 735 volunteers and 284 officials benefited from skills development programmes in first aid, fire prevention, home-care, environmental health and disaster risk reduction.
* To comply with disaster recovery needs, the Disaster Management Centre has effectively dealt with several major fires in informal settlements, as well as mountain and veld fires. A total of 15 201 fires occurred during 2006 of which 15% was reported to be in informal settlements, whilst 85% of fires occurred in the fields and forest areas and approximately 116 000 hectare were effected by these fires.
* Over and above the usual environmental hazards there were also the major floods that occurred during July/August 2006, which is now a declared local disaster. An amount of R274 million was allocated by the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) for infrastructure damage that was caused by this devastating event.

On fire brigade services:
A recent needs analysis has, however, revealed that at present, there is a huge backlog of approximately R415 million in fire brigade vehicles and related equipment province wide. In this regard, I have personally registered the Western Cape needs with the National Fire Brigade Board in order to ascertain inter-governmental solutions for this problem and this matter will be one of my priorities in this financial year.

2. Scene setting

Mr Speaker, with all of these achievements recorded during the period under review, we know for sure that we have only scratched the surface. Our people demand more than this. During the period under review we have indeed touched many lives. We have restored hope and unsettled many comfort zones. To illustrate my point, let me share the joys and tears of Mrs Daphne Damane with you. The Cape Times of 7 August 2006 published:

"Daphne Damane, who received her complete house on Sunday, said her subsidy was approved in 2003 and she joined the Malibongwe People's Housing Project (PHP) group in her area. She contributed to have a bigger house but had to wait for a few years until her supplier eventually delivered five pallets of bricks, sand and stones to her site. She however, tried in vain to get the rest of her materials such as roofing and windows."

The matter was referred to this department and at the time, both her legs had been amputated due to diabetes. After the Department successfully resolved her problem, this is what she said: "I am satisfied. I am very happy. When I was in pain my children felt my pain. But they must not worry these are tears of joy. The same must be done for other people and other areas. When people are crying they need to be attended to."

Mr Speaker, this budget vote is a response to Mama Damane's call. In reporting on what we are doing and what instruments we are using, it is also important to reflect on the challenging environment we operate under. It is indeed exciting to be in the service of the people of the Western Cape. In this place that we call home, we are quickly taught how to strengthen intergovernmental relations, in an environment of fragile coalitions. In less than a year and a half, the 30 municipalities in our province are now into the second wave of political leadership and the trend is continuing. More than 10 municipalities have changed leadership.

We have a challenge in this regard. Many of our councillors in the executive or ordinary seem to be spending much of their energy on unseating others or doing everything including buying each other to remain where they are. We are the only province faced with this in the country. This is the worst level of uncertainty in local government ever. There was a time in the history of local government in the country when political leadership was re-elected every year. Then you had certainty at least for a year.

Since March 2006, things can change within three to six months. We have to live with this, as it is the will of the voters. But to avoid the collapse of service delivery to our people, we are paying an unprecedented attention to ensure stability in the administration of all our municipalities. Performance and compliance are areas of renewed emphasis.

The commitment of being hands on to our municipalities was acknowledged during the national Vuna Performance Awards in 2006. Two of our municipalities (Overstrand and Swartland), were celebrated. This department was voted the best countrywide in supporting municipalities. We live in a disaster prone province. Every season has its own challenges, from floods to fires. Again during the period under review we experienced both these types of disasters. We had a compound flooding disaster that caused the loss of life, economic and environmental setbacks particularly in the Eden District. Fires that occurred also caused loss of life and set us back economically and environmentally. These challenges left us wiser than before and have forced us to do better forward planning. I will say more about this later.

Homelessness in this province continues to be an ongoing challenge. As you received your keys, a few people in your area were complaining about homelessness. In St. Helena Bay, people who grew up in Asbestos houses, got decent homes for the first time in their lives. The constraints and shortcomings in this area, challenge us to be more creative in pursuing solutions.
I would not be doing justice if I don't share with this House some of the common problems live-experienced by people like Mrs Damane in the execution of housing projects. These problems include:
* houses that are partially built, but the funds have been exhausted
* payments made to suppliers and builders but no houses have been built or materials supplied
* housing units not occupied by the approved beneficiary
* units illegally built on sites that do not belong to the occupants
* approved beneficiaries having built their units only to discover that they have built on the wrong plots.
* Approved beneficiaries have built houses but these are not yet ready for occupation.

3. "Drie Voet"

In view of the challenges we face in this province, I have adopted a very simple but effective approach to accelerate service delivery to our communities. This approach is indeed aligned with long-term strategic agenda of the national departments I work with. I call my approach in this province, the 'Drie Voet'. This is the term that has become known to the Department and in all municipalities. This 'drie Voet' rests on three-legs:
* accelerated service delivery and quality settlements
* capacity building and public participation
* co-operative governance and accountability.

This, in effect, sums up the work we do and the work we will continue to do, as such. The three pillars of the 'Drie Voet' are interlinked and integrated signifying the interdependency of the three spheres of government. In everything we do, this 'Drie Voet' is non-negotiable. When everything else fails, these three must stand out. 'Drie Voet' is about guided fire and uninterrupted linkages. It's about risk taking and creativity.

In the next few pages, I intend to indicate what we are doing to fast-track services to our people, how we support municipalities to succeed in their mandates and how we institutionalise good governance at all levels. This, Honourable Speaker is done in the context and spirit of Batho Pele as the all embracing condition for excellent service delivery in government

3.1 Accelerated service delivery and quality settlements

In both the speeches of President Mbeki and Premier Rasool, the fact that Housing is indeed a contentious issue is highlighted, but the point that resonates the most is the fact that delivery has to be fast tracked. The reality is that we cannot continue to do things the same way and expect different results. In light of this we recently hosted a workshop on innovative building technologies to get exposed to the innovative building methodologies and technologies in the market that will assist us deliver faster and cheaper without compromising on quality. The next phase of this workshop is to implement projects using some of these technologies. We have to go beyond the brick and mortar.

The building methodologies are some of the interventions towards fast tracking delivery but at the same time with the ever-increasing backlog and shortage of resources especially land, we have to move towards offering a greater range of housing options beyond tenure. The reality is that one size does not fit all. Densifying and increasing the rental stock has become a very viable and essential option for various reasons which we have to drive more rigorously in this financial year and years to come. Two programmes are currently available for us to deliver on this housing option, namely Social Housing and the Community Residential Unit.

Social Housing

This is a rental option geared at enabling the previously marginalised people with an opportunity to reside in prime locations close to job opportunities and amenities. This also enables people who would otherwise not be able to afford living in these locations a chance to engage in this first economy. We are also working on Employer assisted housing options where the employers in partnership with my Department develop properties for the employees close to their jobs and amenities.

Community Residential Units (CRU)

This programme was developed as a response to the fact that Social Housing as it is currently does not cater for the lower income groups. This is another programme that will enable us to develop rental stock for the lower income groups and replace the Hostel Upgrade Programme. In this province like the rest of the Nation we have other demands that we have to deal with including Rural Housing, Farm Worker Housing and Post Restitution development. These programmes are meant to assist us fast track delivery and deal with specific challenges.

Rural and farm worker housing

Rural housing in our province has not featured much on the agenda due to the fact that our province does not have deep rural areas such as rural villages but we have farm worker housing. Currently my department is involved in inputting into a policy to guide farm-worker housing that has been crafted at the national department. In partnership with the departments of Land Affairs, Agriculture, farmers' associations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) we are collaborating to formulate resolution to the matter of farm-worker housing in the Western Cape context.

Post Restitution Development

In his State of the Nation Address the Honourable President Mr Thabo Mbeki said: "While the land restitution programme has resulted in more settlements in the recent period, we still need to put in extra effort in dealing with remaining cases, many of which are much more complex". Honourable Speaker the Restitution of Land Rights Act, 22 of 1994 stipulates that people dispossessed of land rights after 19 June 1913 as a result of racially discriminatory laws and practices have the right for these properties to be restituted. My department has been driving this programme in the Western Cape in collaboration with Land Claims Commission, the Department of Land Affairs and the City of Cape Town through the provincial Land Restitution Steering Committee which we established to co-ordinate and facilitate the finalisation of restitution claims by the deadline of March 2008.

Pilot and lead projects

We have a number of what I call Special Projects which include both Pilot and Lead Projects that are meant to help us test the Human Settlement Strategy through implementing projects that would showcase what we have stipulated, help us to develop best practices and help us find ways to fast track delivery. I would like at this time to give a brief report back on progress on some of these projects that are at different stages of implementation. The following are some of the Pilot Projects which we have been working on:

* Grabouw: This project we are implementing in partnership with Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) and the TWK Municipality. Planning is underway and will continue until the end of June 2007. Four projects have been identified within the initiative and Service providers will be appointed by July 2007.
* Conradie: This is a partnership with the provincial Department of Transport and Public Works and the City of Cape Town. The specialist's reports are completed. The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has been submitted.
* "Coming Together" is an initiative we are planning through the use of Intergovernmental Relations (IGR) mechanisms in partnership with Bitou Municipality and our sister departments, it was launched in July 2006 by the Deputy President and aims at Restructuring Plettenberg Bay through the creating of commercial and retail nodes and Integrated Human Settlements close to amenities. The initiative has been broken down into a number of projects with the five Work streams established and are driving towards implementation in the next few years.

We are also hard at work on the following Lead Projects:
* Site C, Khayelitsha: There are a number of projects earmarked for the decanting of people from Site C that are at different phases of development, namely Kuyasa, Mandela Park.
* Pendula Precinct: A property owned by Zanethemba Trust donated to the community.
* Thembokwezi, Washington Square: A property owned by Old Mutual to develop Gap Housing units.

Special projects

We have 11 special projects that we are implementing. These are projects that I have initiated as a result of visiting various communities and choosing specific interventions to extricate those communities from abject poverty and homelessness. My department has undertaken the responsibility to better the lives of the people in specific worse circumstances. These projects are in Hawston and Stanford, Kleinmond, De Doorns, Kensington and Pine Road, Steenberg Cove, Bonnievale, Eerste River or Gugulethu, Powertown, Cape Agulhus, Driftsands, Mossel Bay - toilets projects and George – toilet projects.

Enhanced discount benefit scheme

Honourable Speaker, many of our people endure tremendous hardship and often live under threat of eviction because they cannot afford to pay their rental and home loan instalments. To assist such people my department has started to implement the Enhanced Discount Benefit Scheme, which allows me to extend a further discount to people who want to acquire their homes.

We have started in Lentegeur and have now extended the project also to Delft, Belhar, Ravensmead and Pelican Park. For this year an amount of approximately R9 million has been spent on these discounts. Beyond the Discount Benefit Scheme the department has also written off debt to the amount of approximately R4, 5 million owing by indigent people to whom the collection of such debt will cause undue hardship. From the feedback that was received from beneficiaries, this programme has brought a great sense of relief and security and moreover, has helped to restore the dignity to those that have already given up hope.

In this same operating environment, Mr Speaker, the proliferation of bucket systems of sanitation, in old, yet formal development is rife not to speak of the informal challenge of no sanitation at all. Hence the introduction of the bucket eradication programme started in 2005 when the Western Cape was awarded R7 million in the Dora to eradicate a total of 2 097 buckets in several municipalities.

This amount was followed up by R14 million last year and R31 million for 2007/08. There has been significant progress with regard to the bucket eradication programme with project completed in the following towns: Rietpoort, Oudtshoorn, Rheendal, Concordia and Nekkies. Despite funding challenges in certain municipalities, we remain confident that the national target of eradicating the bucket system in all formal settlements by December 2007 will be met.

It must however be noted that the rest of the bucket system in informal settlements will be eradicated through the normal processes of human settlement delivery. In meeting this challenge, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry have pledged about R13 million towards the installation of water-borne toilets for Zoar community. They are helping us on the project that is registered on the Municipal Infrastructure Grants (MIG) programme and the service provider is currently working on the final design and the compilation of tender documents.

The CDW programme is a concrete expression of developmental local government, and this year the CDWs pragmatically demonstrated the President's vision of bringing government closer to the people. CDWs have demonstrated their invaluable role by working closely with all disaster management agencies, community based organisations (CBOs), churches, and local businesses in the recent floods in Eden and fires in Overberg, registering victims, facilitate the access to material assistance, arranging temporary emergency shelter of victims with the involvement and support of multi disciplinary team.

CDWs have played an instrumental role in the success of the national Imbizo focus week in the Western Cape help in the 15 priority areas identified in the Premier's State of the province address and as part of social transformation programme. CDWs will also update ward profiles in partnership with the Department of Social Development. The department will also be actively involved in the co-ordination and the facilitation of the roll out of interventions in the 15 priority areas as part of the social transformation programme.

Let me share with you some of the success stories:

* John Ovis and Matheus Swarts, our CDWs in the West Coast Direct Marketing Association (DMA) engaged with three big businesses Anglo American, Namakwa Sands, Grinaker LTA and played an instrumental role in securing 65 permanent job opportunities at the mine hence helping 65 families out of the poverty trap.
* Beauty Hlutyana, the CDW in De Doorn, are proactively assisting the vulnerable, mainly orphaned children, by facilitating meeting with role-players including Norway Foundation and local religious leader of the area. They intervention has resulted in the establishment of a Wendy house as a Day care centre for the 30orphans with local church assisting with counselling, clothes and food distribution whilst the Norway foundation will seek for Norwegian families to sponsor each of the 30 orphans.
* Xoliswa Tshukula, the CDW in Villiersdorp, established a women sewing group funded by Department of Social Development producing school uniforms (tracksuits for the local schools and providing livelihood for 12 families.
* The CDW have also identified in partnership with Bambanani, all the illegal shebeens and Tik houses for the South African Police Service (SAPS) to follow up and to prosecute.

As legally required by the Disaster Management Act, Act 57 of 2002, the Provincial Disaster Management Centre is providing ongoing assistance to the City of Cape Town and the five District Municipalities with the establishment of their Disaster Management Centres. This department will contribute an amount of R1,5 million for the establishment of the Central Karoo Disaster Management Centre. Through the establishment of Disaster Management Centres in District Municipal areas, these areas will be enabled to co-ordinate the occurrence of major incidents and disasters.

Furthermore, these Centres would also provide for an integrated approach with other emergency related services, such as ambulance, fire brigade, traffic and municipal police. It is also necessary to reflect on disaster recovery processes as conducted by the Provincial Disaster Management Centre. I am sure that all of us still remember the devastating compound flood disaster, which occurred on 31 July to 3 August 2006 and again on 24 to 28 August 2006. Currently the expenditure on the allocated emergency funding of the 2006 floods, as at March 2007, demonstrates a 42% spend. It is envisaged that a 60% spending of the allocated funds should be spent by the end of June this year and the remainder of the recovery funds by the end of this financial year.

3.2 Capacity building and public participation

We have finalised the Guideline for Human Settlement, which is intended to enable municipalities to compile their Housing Plans. These guides include the input from other provincial departments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), community based organisations (CBOs) and municipalities and are used in the two-day workshops we have been running with municipalities where we assist them with compiling their Housing Plans.

On the People's Housing Process Programme (PHP) my department has implemented a compulsory comprehensive 60 day house construction training programme. Unemployed and unskilled beneficiaries of projects are be selected by the support organisation to undergo the training including the construction controller. This training results in the award of an accredited community building certificate, and covers all aspects of brickwork, carpentry, plumbing, plastering and painting. The training course will be financed through the Department of Labour.

My department has also recently completed new guidelines with respect to the duties and responsibilities of the external facilitators and has formally trained internal and external facilitators and all municipalities on these new guidelines. In future my department will implement contractual and legally binding agreements with all accredited facilitators. No external facilitator will be allowed to become a material supplier on projects that have been facilitated by him or her.

The department also monitored compliance in terms of the Municipal Property Rates Act and its regulations and ensure non-compliance is addressed in action plans. In terms of the Municipal Property Rates Act the department facilitated workshops on the Act with all municipalities to create awareness and compliance with the Act. The department provided a generic rates policy, generic rates by-law as well as an example of specifications for the procurement of a municipal valuator to all municipalities. Additional to this the department also provided a step-by-step guideline document and procedural circulars regarding Treasury Regulations to enable municipalities to plan within the parameters of their budgets.

Through the DBSA's Local Government Resource Centre, this department published all important information regarding property rates and valuations on the website in order to assist municipalities in this regard. The support on this was expanded to provide a more comprehensive service to municipality that enabled them to access and utilise the information from this system with their various strategic operations. This service also enhanced a learning network amongst municipalities throughout the country.

Hands-on capacity support were provided to project consolidate municipalities through the deployment Siyenza Manje Service delivery facilitators. This was provided through a targeted intervention by the Development Bank of Southern Africa. This period also marks extensive support provided to Kannaland and Cederberg with the implementation of their recovery plans with excellent progress with regard to Cederberg Municipality's financial status.

3.3 Co-operative governance and accountability

To coincide with International Anti-corruption day on 9 December and the strong emphasis on anti-corruption, a Western Cape "Anti-corruption" summit was hosted by the Department of LG&H together with the department of the Premier on 7 and December 2006 to promote good governance and share best practices. The theme of this summit was "we stand together in defending development and delivery against corruption". This summit forms part of a comprehensive programme against corruption. At this occasion the national Anti-corruption Strategy was launched for the Western Cape. Anti-corruption workshops were held to support pilot municipalities with various policies to prevent corruption actions.

With regard to investigation of PHP projects, two investigations were finalised (ChicagoBulls and Twinns) and the perpetrator was prosecuted. A further nine projects were referred to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) for investigation in terms of the co-operative agreement between the department and the SIU. The wheels have also been set in motion between my department, the national Department of Housing and the SIU to address irregularities in low cost housing under the auspices of a Presidential Proclamation issued on Monday, 25 April 2007.

Also to inculcate a culture of responsible spending and accountability, my department through the LGMTEC one to three processes, is constantly monitoring and interrogating municipal budgets. For us a budget must adhere to three principles if it's going to be effective and positively impact on the lives of communities. These principles are:
* Sustainability: does the municipality have sufficient revenue and adequate financial stability to fund and deliver on its budget?
* Credibility: can the municipality execute and deliver on this budget realistically?
* Responsiveness: is the budget appropriately responsive to economic growth objectives and socio-economic needs of the community, as measured in SEP-LG and prioritised in the IDP and LED?

Given the complex political environment we have done well to build relationship and foster cooperative governance though all the IGR fora. Whilst issues around Powers and functions remain challenges we have cemented the belief that our people see government as one. So we must work together to ensure seamless government and accelerated service delivery. A Standard Community Fire Safety By-Law was promulgated in November 2006. This by-law amongst others provide for penalty for discarding burning cigarettes. Municipalities were encouraged to adopt and implement this by-law. Close monitoring of municipalities led to a section 106 (Systems Act) investigation at the Oudtshoorn Municipality in November 2006. This related to maladministration and poor management of the municipality. The findings of the Commission together with further regression necessitated a section 139 (Constitution) intervention which effectively placed the powers and functions of the council and the municipal manager in the hands of an Administrator appointed by Provincial Cabinet. This is the first section 139 intervention in the Western Cape since the implementation of the dispensation of local government. The situation in the Oudtshoorn Municipality has since been stabilised.

Part of our legislative support was to facilitate an amendment to the Less Formal Township Establishment Act, 1991 (LEFTEA). This amendment has particular relevance to Imizamo Yethu (Hout Bay) as it would provide for the extension of residential areas and inter alia for fast-tracking development of land for informal settlements.

4. Learning and leading organisation
Administration

My department has adopted a continuous improvement process in order to position ourselves as learning and leading organisation. We recently undertook a study to assess our capacity and capabilities to deliver what we are supposed to deliver to our people, namely basic services. Preliminary findings of this assessment illustrated without qualms that there is capacity gaps and we need to close these if we are to deliver services efficiently and effectively. Several critical posts were created as a result of this institutional review process. The results of this institutional review process were submitted to Cabinet for approval.

As we grapple with local government and housing issues, we still have to ensure compliance with other pieces of legislation such as the Employment Equity Act 55 of1998. As you may see from the figures below, my department leads the province.

African
Western Cape: 29,7%
Local Government and Housing: 32,44%

Coloured
Western Cape: 51,2%
Local Government and Housing: 52,28%

Indian
Western Cape: 0,9%
Local Government and Housing: 1,10%

White
Western Cape: 18,2%
Local Government and Housing: 14,17%

Disability
Western Cape: 2,00%
Local Government and Housing: 2,01%.

As at end March 2007, gender representation stats for my department is as follows:
Male
Western Cape: 53,9%
Local Government and Housing: 49,09%,

Female
Western Cape: 46,1%
Local Government and Housing: 50,91%.

We have more females than the province; hence I say my department leads! In line with our strategy to build "Social Capital" in the province, we will continue supporting students who are following careers in a local government and housing related field.

Sanitation backlog

In order to address concerns around the state and provision of municipal infrastructure, an Infrastructure Indaba was hosted by my department and attended by MECs, municipal mayors and councillors as well as officials of all municipalities on Tuesday, 15 March 2007 and Wednesday, 16 March 2007.The aim of this was to come with innovative ideas on how this province can deal within infrastructure backlogs and also learn from the best in the industry. A focused outcome of this Indaba has been the establishment of a dedicated Infrastructure Team led by my department in partnership with all District Municipalities, Provincial Treasury, Department of Water Affairs and Forestry and the Department of Provincial and Local Government. This task team will produce a comprehensive District Infrastructure Plan for the entire province.

The Infrastructure Indaba was preceded by an in-depth assessment of the sanitation backlogs in our province, an exercise funded through our close working relationship with the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry. The study was able to assess the sanitation need in each municipality based on present need as well as future growth and set this need at 410 000 families. In calculating a cost to provide the necessary water and sanitation requirements, projected growth over the next fifteen years was also considered. The exercise predicted a present day monetary need in excess of R10 billion.

The N2 Gateway

Aligned to the need for continuous learning and leading is the N2 Gateway project, which is a national pilot to demonstrate the intention of the Comprehensive Plan for Sustainable Human Settlements: "Breaking New Ground". The project aims to bring shelter, comfort and security to tens of thousands of families residing in informal settlements and backyards along the N2 freeway.

Whilst doing this, the project will also demonstrate the ways of creating social and economic integration by providing opportunities for rental, bondable and low-income residential units. The nature of project required the moving of families to temporary relocation areas which have since been termed "TRAs". The development of TRAs has allowed for the moving of families out of areas of high risk, prone to life threatening fires, to shelter with access to basic services. Families will move out of these units into permanent homes in a cyclical process.

The N2 Gateway was initially encumbered by issues of funding but has since gained national support and separate funding from the National Treasury. Ring-fenced funding for this year is well in excess of R450 million and progress on site generates the confidence that these funds will be comfortable and responsibly spent.

Housing Demand Database

In collaboration with national Government we commissioned a Housing Demand Database for the Metro to determine the needs of our people. The findings indicated that 79% of the population in the Metro earns less that R1 500, 18% earn between R1 500 and R3 500 and only three percent earn more than R3 500. It indicated that currently six percent of the population are living in Wendy houses, 31% in backyard rooms, 51% in shacks, and 12% are sharing with the owner in a house, flat or hostel. The largest percentage of the population is between the ages of 26 to 30 years at 27% and the lowest between the ages of 46 to50 years at 5%. Thirty-seven percent of the population has no dependants, these could be young couples or single people, 32% have one dependant, 19% have two dependants, eight percent have three dependants and three percent have four dependants.

It has also reflected that 37% of the population is employed and 63% not employed with only 32% able to afford to purchase and the 68% not having a regular income. One percent has received assistance and 99% have not, of which nine percent prefer rental, seven percent did not declare and 84% prefer to own their own homes with a percentage within that willing to buy. Two percent of the population would require special needs housing and 98% comprised of able people.

Quality of life survey

I have also commissioned a Quality of Life Study to assess how service delivery by my department has impacted the lives of the people we serve. A range of Project Linked, PHP and Upgrading of Informal Settlements Programme (UISP) projects were selected and focus group discussions were conducted to obtain first hand feedback from beneficiaries on how the move to a new house has benefited them or not. The projects were in Kuyasa (Khayelithsa), Mbekweni (Paarl), Nomzamo (Strand), Wallacedene (Kraaifontein), Nyanga Upgrades (Nyanga) and New Rest (Gugulethu). The findings indicate that the beneficiaries of the PHP and Project Linked programmes were positively impacted however beneficiaries who benefited from UISP felt less so. These findings indeed challenge us to take advantage of our strengths and explore our developmental areas.

Communication

Honourable Speaker, as you might be aware, it is critical for my department to maintain close liaison with all communities. To this end, we are committed to improving internal (within the department) and external (municipalities and the public) communication. For example, the Rental Housing Tribunal has for the past years consistently increased the number of formal complaints dealt with. During 2005/06 487 formal cases were lodged, while up to January 2007, this figure already stands on 502. With an even larger increase in future, we are looking into bolstering the capacity of the staff to deal with the pressures of assisting landlords and tenants in resolving disputes. This will be needed if the Rental Housing Amendment Bill becomes law, which will give more teeth to the Tribunal, but will mean additional functions in line with the national drive to increase the rate of reduction in case backlogs of our courts referred to, by the President. We are already intensifying our communication and education efforts to prevent inhumane practices like illegal evictions and illegal attachment of possessions.

In December last year, we launched a pilot call centre for the Rental Housing Tribunal in order to resolve disputes within the 90 day prescribed period. Both landlords and tenants get free information and also lodge formal complaints through the call centre. Consequently, this has expedited the registration of complaints and the resolutions thereof; it has also reduced calls to line-function releasing them to do other support functions to the members of the Rental Housing Tribunal. This service has thus far proven very successful so much so, that on average over 900 telephone calls have been received per month.

Of these, an average of 50 formal complaints has been lodged. This shows how valuable an asset this is, as a large number of complaints have been prevented by providing information at the point of contact. My department continues to engage with communities on weekly basis in order to deal with people-concerns first hand. This strategy pre-empted demonstration, protests, marches etc to our offices and increased understanding amongst communities about what the government does or plans for their areas. In the last financial year, I met and spoken to more than 10 437 community members province-wide. My slogan for these community engagements Mr Speaker is, "We listen and do", "Simamela senze"; and "Ons luister en reageer"

Honourable Speaker, as part of our constitutional and oversight role, my Department conducted a survey to gauge the level of public participation in municipal IDPs and budget processes and to provide the public with an opportunity to comment on the level of service delivery within the various municipalities in the Western Cape. As part of this campaign we distributed 1.2million questionnaires to all municipalities, schools, and clinics in the province. Eight million questionnaires were responded to and returned. Fifteen percent of the returned questionnaires were stratified and randomly sampled and analysed. Preliminary findings of this survey suggest that communities especially in the City of Cape Town still feel disconnected from the IDP and budget processes.

Despite this trend, our resolve is to empower communities with information so that they can make informed decisions about what is happening in their locality. We will also ensure that Speakers of each Municipality continue to report to me on a quarterly basis on their Public Participation programmes. We encourage all municipalities to implement Ward and Community Based Planning. Of the 348 wards in the province, we supported the establishment of 211 wards. After 15 months of trying Honourable Speaker, we still have none of the 105 Ward committees established in the City of Cape Town. Again, despite this setback, we will continue to support and monitor the establishment of ward committees across the province. We will ensure that ward committees are functional with dedicated municipal support that enables meaningful public participation.

Part of being hands-on on my part, is the responsibility to approve all municipal IDPs. If IDPs do not meet the set standards, unfortunately they will not be approved.

5. Partnerships

As a Ministry and Department, we have also realized that we cannot face these enormous challenges alone hence our strategic endeavours to enlist as many partners as possible to assist in transforming the lives our people for the better. Partnership with communities, private sector as well as NGO's is critical for our success in dealing with the complexities of our environment.
In my effort to accelerate housing delivery to communities, my department has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Peoples Housing Partnership Trust and two other NGOs, Habitat for Humanity and Development Action Group (DAG),- my department has appointed them to unblock 10 projects in Khayelitsha.

The key focus of both these NGOs will be to unblock PHP housing projects in Khayelitsha and transfer skills in project management and project construction to the support organizations in order for them to successfully complete their housing projects.

In 2006, my department developed a strategy in partnership with the Umsombovu Youth Fund (UYF) and the Department of Labour. This strategy is an integration of the government run PHP programme with Youth Construction Training together with a business and life skill component. An additional benefit of the programme was the inclusion of an integrated Local Economic Development programme that addresses poverty in its broadest sense.

Mr Speaker, through Public or private sector participation, donor funding was received from South African Breweries (SAB) Miller for a comprehensive toolkit presented to each learner on completion of the programme. This will ease the learner's entrance into the open market and enable him or her to obtain work more readily. In December 2006 the youth programme produced the first group of graduates; some of these youth have joined forces and formed their own construction company, a company I will watch with interest.

My department has engaged Thubelisha Homes, a housing support institution from national government. Their broad brief from my department is to reconcile certain blocked PHP Projects, present an independent audit and assist beneficiaries of empty sites to obtain a top-structure, they have been appointed by my department to unblock projects in the Greater Philippi area, George, Mossel Bay, Paarl and Khayelitsha. Tenders have been called and construction is to commence soon. Added to this, Niall Mellon Township Initiative started their involvement with the PHP programme and is utilising volunteers from Ireland to assist with the construction of houses for example Netreg and Mfuleni. The possibility of their involvement in projects outside the metro is taking place this financial year.

The Mbekweni project in Paarl is an excellent example of the kind of partnerships that are so essential if we are to address the pressing needs of South African society. It is initiated by Provincial Government, supported by Local Government with assistance from the design consultants, Vernon Collis/Anna Cowen, the local Mbekweni community in the form of the projects beneficiaries, the locally elected housing support committee, the local youth in the People's Housing Process driven skills training programme, Umsombovu and the Department of Labour, corporate entities like the Old Mutual Foundation, South African Breweries, the Universities of Cape Town and Stellenbosch. Each party brings their own skill and perspectives, which continue to enrich and strengthen the project.

Considering the limited resources that Government has at its disposal, partnerships have proved to be an important mechanism for us to be able to fast track delivery. We have established a number of partnerships in the past financial year including the following:
* United Nations (UN) Habitat South Africa connected with the global plans and strategies of the UN.
* "More than a Roof" a Social Housing Institution in Canada to exchange ideas and experiences on implementing Social Housing developments
* National Homebuilders Registration Council (NHBRC) to ensure we align our endeavours with the support of this body to ensure quality assurance and control in all projects we would be developing especially with the use of the Innovative Technologies.

Various partnerships were forged with a range of stakeholders in relation to the CDW programme, e.g training of CDWs' on co-operatives in partnership with Department of Trade and Industry, a partnership with the South African Revenue Service on small, medium and micro enterprises (SMME) tax indemnity campaign and a partnership with Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) on water regulation and consumer education.

6. Environmental challenges

Honourable speaker my portfolio is both exciting and extremely challenging. It is an uphill battle that has to be won irrespective of whatever the shortcomings are. There are a number of challenges I would like to mention that we face as we tackle this mammoth task and they include the following:
* the apartheid spatial paradigm that placed our people in the periphery
* the continuous in migration of people into the Western Cape
* the ever increasing backlog on the provision of housing
* the increase in informal settlements
* the parcels of land we own in my department are in the periphery far from economic nodes and job opportunities
* insufficient resources to deal with the challenges and demands
* the ever increasing costs in construction
* programmes that do not cater for all income groups
* the weather conditions in Cape Town which demand better quality services and revised designs to houses
* community biased against rental versus tenure and Innovative building technologies versus brick and mortar.

Irrespective of these challenges I am determined through innovative mechanisms to gain the support of communities in respect of acceptance of new housing construction options that will enable us to build faster and cheaper without compromising on quality.

A major priority of my department is its legislative and compliance mandate to provide systemic hands-on monitoring, support and intervention through cooperative governance to ensure that the developmental agenda of the State (as a whole, but more specifically Local Government) is achieved, hence I always say that we sing from the same hymn sheet whilst conducting the different voices.
This was demonstrated when we received the national Vuna accolade for being the best province supporting municipalities. Even Democratic Alliance (DA) spokesperson Willem Doman recently acknowledged that my department had delivered even though we have the most complex and dynamic environment.

The ride on the crest of a wave of accomplishments has not as yet cast our citizens beyond the grips of poverty and the hardships associated with such circumstances. If anything, it has helped us to further understand the mammoth tasks that lie before us and has evoked the commitment to succeed that comes from seeing that our mission is attainable. Faced with an increasing population of homeless families, rising costs, a scarcity of and competition for natural resources - the most important being land, limited financial resources and competition from other sectors in the construction industry, total dedications necessary to remain focused.

Evictions on bonded houses and the selling of subsidized houses by their legitimate beneficiaries to other people remains a huge problem and contribute to the ever-growing housing backlog that I have already alluded to.

Capable personnel are exiting our sector to engage in the more lucrative construction markets. Developing and strengthening existing capacity to meet our challenges will assist in attaining our envisaged outcomes. Prime real estate that will further the ideology of a comprehensive plan for integrated human settlement, is unaffordable within the parameters of present funding but is readily acquired by private developer's thereby further enforcing economic segregation.

Contributing to the restricting pace at which new human settlements can be developed is the current capacity and condition of many bulk infrastructure facilities. These are presently operating well beyond their design capacities and lack of preventative maintenance has resulted in some facilities being unable to achieve their intended capacities. State funding to provide increased bulk infrastructure capacity is limited and misaligned to the quantum of funding for housing provision. Revised frameworks for bulk infrastructure grants are now being considered at a national level.

An imperative for local government is to be the conduit to mobilise and incite various sectors of their communities to become involved and to fulfil a meaningful role in assisting emergency services to more effectively be able to resource and manage incidents. Amongst others, local government must ensure that they:
* conduct risk assessments in their areas of jurisdiction and those measures are taken to prevent incidents from occurring
* have emergency plans in place based on the identified credible risk scenarios prevailing in their respective areas so as to be able to deal with incidents should they occur
* make provision for developing pro-active programs aimed at ensuring constant preparedness to respond and deal with emergency incidents
* constantly introduce initiatives that promote a strong sense of awareness regarding emergency management aspects amongst their community members.

Among others, the development and expansion of towns and cities often results in increased populations, more vehicles on the roadways and increased quantities of hazardous substances. Development and expansion of towns and cities in South Africa (and in particular the increased populations and movement of populations to urbanised areas) brings with it the proliferation of informal settlements. These settlements are inherently unsafe, unhygienic, and pose a huge fire risk due to the degree of combustibility of the structures and contents, the number of people occupying the relatively small confined area, the proximity of dwellings from one another and the difficulty for emergency workers to gain access to the area.

As most towns develop and expand so does; the extent of the risks, the probability of the risks to manifest into emergency incidents, the severity of the potential consequences of the risks as well as the impending frequency of incidents arising from the increased risks. With such an increase in risks comes a proportional challenge for disaster and emergency service managers to be able to control and deal with incidents arising from these risks.

As a result, it is vitally important for managers within disaster and emergency management services to be integrally involved in the planning, development and expansion phases and processes of their towns and cities (i.e. already from the incipient stages). It is imperative that they are permitted to be involved and are enlightened so as to see the bigger picture regarding what is being perceived and planned for the area at the earliest possible stage.

This will enable them to fulfil a much more meaningful role in identifying relevant disaster prevention related aspects and advising on relevant issues concerning emergency management. It is unfair to expect that local government should be regarded as the sole provider of resources to manage every emergency incident occurring within its area of jurisdiction.

7. Commitments for 2007/08

Moving on and wanting to escalate the levels of success attained over the past financial year, there are new commitments that I want to lay before you today. These include the following:

* Together with Comprehensive Community Health Centres (CCHC), National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC), National Health Consultative Forum (NHCF) and CITY, we will be driving the house rectification programme in Eastridge, Luyoloville, Pylon, Manenberg, Stork Road, Railway, Newfields, Woodridge and Morgen's Village.
* We will spend R668 million in the 15 priority areas identified by Premier Rasool over the next two years, of which R428 million will be spent in this financial year.
* In as much as we have given a greater quantum of grant funding towards human settlement development, revisions to the minimum requirements for housing provision has seen the introduction of the 40m2 unit with improved quality. This therefore means that the additional funding cannot deliver additional sites and houses but a higher level of comfort to beneficiaries of houses. I am thus able to commit to once again delivering 18 000 serviced sites and 16 000 houses in this financial year.
* Continuing the eradication of the bucket system of sanitation beyond formal areas by using the Upgrading of Informal Settlements and the Emergency Housing Programmes.
* Implementing the first phase of departmental reorganization to enhance capacity and accountability as well as support to municipalities and communities
* Closing off old business in the PHP projects in order to release capacity to deliver on new initiatives and programmes
* We will roll out municipal summer schools, creating a learning network amongst Municipalities show-casing best practice this year.
* The remaining 10% of work that needs to be done at the Disaster Management Centre in Tygerberg will be completed in the first six months of this financial year. In this financial year, we plan to deliver a number of projects, formulate Policies and Strategies that will enhance service delivery to communities. I would like to give you a snapshot of some of the projects. Before I get to the project I would like to announce that the Western Cape Sustainable Human
Settlement Strategy (WCSHSS) will be officially launched on the 21st June 2007.

Social housing

With our partner communiqué we will deliver the following Social Housing projects:
* Drommedaris which will yield 677 units
* Bothasig which will yield 168 units
* with NHFC in Pine Road a project that will yield close to 500 units.

House occupancy survey

We will conduct a House Occupancy Survey in various areas including Westbank and Delft.

Rural housing

The projects we will deliver on in this financial year in partnership with Municipalities include:
* Cederberg Municipality: Wupperthal Rural Housing Project for 150 rural subsidies.
* The Waterkloof Municipality: Genadendal Rural Housing Project for 100 Rural subsidies.

Human settlement development

We will be implementing a number of projects with our partners in this financial year namely:
* Thembokwezi or Washington Square, Khayelitsha - with Old Mutual Properties and Nedbank to develop 10 hectares of the property owned by Old Mutual to yield 540 Gap Housing units and a shopping complex
* Phendula Precint with ABSA developing a property in Khayelitsha owned by the Zanethemba trust to yield 106 flats units and 85 single residential units for the Gap market
* Belhar CBD with super strike a black economic empowerment (BEE) Consortium to develop 28 hectares of our property in the Belhar area including Integrated housing and establishing an economic node to offer job opportunities which aims to yield 2 300 to 2 800housing units.
* Paarl, Dal Josafat with the Drakenstein Municipality to develop 39 hectares of our property for Integrated housing with a specific focus on a yield of 1 200 – 1 400 gap market units
* Stellendale with Visual International to provide 140 Gap housing on approximately four hectares on our land in a cross subsidisation development
* Brentwood Park with adjoining landowner to provide 240 GAP housing opportunities on seven hectares of our property
* Erf 105 and 107 in Eerste River in partnership with the Support Group and possible banks and property developers to implement on 25 hectares of our properties a Human Settlement Development that will showcase true Integration of different of different races and income groups to yield approximately 1 000housing opportunities. In total, these partnerships will yield 6 300 over and above the 16 000 housing units from the conditional grant.

Delivery through land release or conversion

Speaker, our land audit has revealed that we own large parcels of land situated on the periphery which contradicts what our Human Settlement Strategy stipulates which in a nutshell dictates that we must bring people closer to the centres of economic activities. I am happy to report that we are already developing some of our properties that are situated in suitable areas so as to attain the mentioned objective of the Human Settlement Strategy and many more will be developed in the next few years. We have compiled a land release plan that identifies approximately 136 hectares of land in the Cape Metropolitan Area which will be made available for development between 2007 and 2009. These properties include Ottery Bufferstrip, Khayelitsha, Eerste River, Delft Symphony, Ilitha Park and Highbury Park, Brackenfell in partnership with NHFC and Gugulethu.

Volunteer Housing

We are planning for this financial year to train 1 000 volunteers to assist in building PHP houses.

Policies and strategies

Other programmes we are currently working on to be completed this year include the following:
* Elimination and Prevention of the Re-Emergence of Slums Act
* Farm worker Assistance programme
* Inclusionary Housing Programme
* Backyard Assistance Programme to be completed in this financial year.

Demand database

Honourable Speaker, to ensure that we recognise and respond to the diverse housing demands, we need a new approach to data and information collection and reporting that will provide decision-makers with evidence-based analysis of socio-economic needs, success (and failure) cases; areas in need of intervention; and evaluations of specific interventions. In partnership with the national department we will be rolling out a comprehensive housing demand data base to all district municipalities. This system would be a move away from the waiting list with the support of a Geographical Information System (GIS) for tracking and representing in spatial form the key driving forces, pressures, status, impacts and responses within and across localities.

Future plans

* Gugulethu-Eerste River Project- in partnership with the Support Group is aimed at developing our property to yield Integrated Human Settlement development with amenities to support the new community. This PHP project is one of the flagship projects that will display on the ground the practical integration of two communities from different racial and economic groups settling in one area. We are breaking ground by the end of this calendar year on this project and look forward to the completion of the project in the next financial year
* Imizamo-Yethu in Hout Bay- in partnership wit the City of Cape Town is aimed at developing properties and upgrade existing township. This project will endeavour to formulate resolutions to the long-standing housing problems in the Hout Bay area. We embrace the process led by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) that has to date successfully managed to get all the residents of the area to communicate and in unison work towards finding a solution for all. Although the project is still at the initial stages it is a promising project that would also showcase in line with our Strategy true integration.

8. Conclusion

In conclusion, I would like to repeat some suggestions made to us by one of the bursary holders of the department when she urges us to:
* "…commit to spend our allocated budget" and we have done that
* "…the housing allocation budget should be tripled"
* "…make use of cheap reliable construction techniques and material", a plea to us to go beyond the brick and mortar.

To Companie Fabio and all other students who wrote these essays to us, I want to say we have taken note of solutions that you are suggesting. We also wish you well in your studies, so that you can be enabled more and be in the position to help us reconstruct this country. Mr Speaker, I have reflected on progress achieved, lessons learnt and acknowledged the kind of challenges that we continue to face. We are aware that in comparison to what still needs to be done; the achievements recorded are merely a scratch on the surface. We pledge to do more and better with less.

I also want to take this opportunity to thank all who have made it possible for us to achieve our targets. These are our partners in communities, in the construction industry, service providers, many of our state owned enterprises, the sector departments active in our province and the NGOs for enriching our work, and of cause members of parliament for your critical oversight role.
To the Ministry staff and the departmental teams, thank you for your understanding, passion and commitment. Without you there is no driving force. To the Head of Department Ms Shanaaz Majiet your leadership role is appreciated and celebrated.
"It is not the structures and systems that matter most; it is the will of the people to make them work" C D. Craythorne 1993

Issued by: Department of Local Government and Housing, Western Cape Provincial Government
7 June 2007
Source: Western Cape Provincial Government (http://www.capegateway.gov.za)