Madam Speaker, the Honorable Premier, Cabinet Colleagues, Members of the House, Honored guests, the officials of the department of housing, members of the media and the public at large, a warm welcome.

Ladies and gentlemen I would like to start my Budget Speech by quoting the great words from the late Mas'kandi musician, Mfaz'omnyama when he said "Ngisebenzile Mama, Awubheke izinkomo zami kodwa lomama uyanguthuka ungibiza ngevila"-this means mama I have achieved, look at the heads of my cattle and yet the other people are still calling me lazy.

These words ladies and gentlemen reflect upon the South African politics, especially in the Western Cape. No matter how hard dedicated and progress-loving people of this country work, some people's mission is always to trivialize the wonderful work that has been done by this caring government within the shortest time possible it has been in office.

Ladies and gentlemen, a lot of people have argued what housing is all about, but allow me to give you yet another version.

For me, housing is not only about shelter. It is about people themselves taking responsibility for sustaining their common environment and shaping their future.

It is about creating viable communities and sustainable living environments. It is about prosperity in unity through partnerships between private sector, public sector, Non Governmental Organisations, but most importantly, communities.

Housing to me could best be described as a process, which involves planning with people as opposed to planning for the people. Housing in the South African context is not just a product, but also a process that is based on democratic values that the people of this country fought so hard for.

It is a process that listens to the people, allows people to exercise their democratic right to choose the type of housing and areas they want their houses built.

There is therefore nothing so dehumanizing and undemocratic than to deprive people of their fundamental right of choice. Unlike the apartheid regime, as a social activist, people are at the center of my housing delivery vision and strategy.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am happy this afternoon to be presenting to you my second budget speech as the Provincial Minister of Housing. I am also proud that I am presenting this budget speech on the eve of the 10th Anniversary of our democracy.

There is concrete evidence that the ANC-led government has achieved a lot in just less than ten years of its democratic rule than any other country has ever done worldwide. Sisebenzile-We have achieved.

In concrete terms, of the 1.4 million housing opportunities that the government has delivered, I am proud to announce that our province has in the past nine years, delivered 167 000 units, which is 11% of the national cake. This, in my view is an excellent performance by any standard.

I would also like to register that the past year was full of challenges, which impacted negatively on the delivery of housing in the country as the whole, but in the province in particular.

These challenges were as a result of the introduction of the new policy prescripts and mechanisms such as beneficiary contribution of R2 479 and the introduction of the National Homebuilders Registration Council Warranty Scheme on government subsidized housing.

These measures are not aimed at slowing delivery but to make sure that our people receive quality affordable housing. The learning curve we are undergoing in implementing these policies has however slowed down delivery.

Making matters even worse was the fact that my department operated without a Chief Director for nine months. This retarded progress to a very large degree. I have since appointed one, Mr. Seth Maqethuka, a born and bred Cape Tonian with national and local government experiences, whom I would like to congratulate and welcome even though I have done it so many times.

In spite of all these challenges and constraints, I am proud to announce to our people that my department has managed to spend R348 million, which is 92% of the housing allocation to the Western Cape. Some of the provinces have barely spent 52% of their budget.

This has resulted in the approval of approximately 25 000 housing subsidies. More and more poor families will be getting a chance to enjoy the fruits of our democracy. This ladies and gentlemen, represents a significant increase of 3000 units compared to the previous year. Sisebenzile-we have achieved.

In this regard, I would like to acknowledge the important role-played by municipalities within our province. Without their commitment and sterling work, we would not have been able to spend.

In the same breath, I would like to congratulate the City of Cape Town on having spent about 70% of our budget. I am also not forgetting my officials for their hard work and contribution to our vision of housing the nation.

Ladies and gentlemen, I would not be truthful to the dictates of my conscience if I only gave a rosy picture of the housing delivery process. There are gaps that still remain in our delivery process. To this end, we still need to improve on the following pressing areas:

• Most of our houses have not yet complied with the policy shift-from quantity to quality housing.
• We still need to change the process of housing delivery from that of providing shelter to that of creating sustainable human settlements.
• We need to transform the participation by beneficiaries from passive to active participation.
• We need to change the mindsets of our people so that they can begin to look at the government subsidized houses not as mere products but as assets.
• Even though we celebrate our achievements in housing, it is a cold reality that the majority of our poor people still live in areas that lack essential services, such as water, sanitation, and refuse collection.
• Lack of access to housing finance remains a persisting problem.

In the past months, I embarked on a very crucial process for housing delivery. I consulted the key stakeholders within the province to share with me their problems and challenges with regard to housing delivery.

I visited approximately 70% of municipalities in this regard, talking to both senior municipal officials and councilors. I also had discussions with community leaders and members of the business community. All people consulted confirmed these gaps and challenges.

Internationally, it is widely recognized that no matter how much political will there is, governments alone cannot bare the responsibility of housing the poor, especially the developing countries like ours.

It is in this regard that in April 2003 following my road shows, that I convened a Provincial Housing Indaba. The main objective of this Housing Indaba was to craft a 2014 Housing Vision for the province and to develop a strategy to accelerate housing delivery in the province.

Ladies and gentlemen, I need to emphasize at this juncture that where there is no vision there is no future. Our 2014 Housing Vision is therefore aimed at mapping out the short-term, medium and long term housing delivery for the province.

Before I can go any further with my vision, there is something I would like to share with you, and that always happens when formulating policy from bottom to top as opposed to the other way round-top to bottom. This got confirmed at the housing indaba

I was deeply moved by one outstanding comment that came from one of the participants at the Indaba. She said, " It is for the first time in the history of this province that the housing future strategy has been developed with the people".

This statement is so assuring that 'this vision will prosper because the people own it.'

Through the partnerships that I sealed at the Housing Indaba, I am happy to announce my housing vision for the province as follows:

Our Vision for 2014 is not just about housing, it is about establishing viable communities that are characterized by:

• Mobilizing and uniting communities to work together with government to meet their own needs.
• Acceleration of housing delivery in the province
• Integrating communities in terms of race, ethnicity, and class reflecting on our Rainbow Nation and overcoming the divisions left by apartheid.
• Facilitating the provision of descent housing with adequate, affordable basic services such as water, sanitation, electricity and service roads.
• Providing easy access to health facilities, recreation, transport and commercial activities.
• Contribution to income generation and employment.

Ladies and gentlemen, a vision without a concrete Plan of Action is a dead vision. My priority programmes towards the realization of our 2014 Vision are:

The people's Housing Process remains the flagship of our vision. This process has potential to address housing demand at a scale while satisfying the needs of our people.

I always say to people that this process is in line with our culture as Africans. For instance, our traditional gatherings of families and friends require bigger space. Through the PHP we have managed to build houses ranging between 36, 48, 54 and 75 square meters.

During the past financial year, 42 new PHP project applications consisting of 12 755 units with a total subsidy value of over R1.8 million were approved.

As I had indicated in the challenges facing housing delivery, that effective partnership is lacking, I see the People's Housing Process as an excellent approach that will promote partnerships within housing and ultimately stretch the subsidy and add value to the end product.

The announcement by national department of housing that as from the 1st April 2002 beneficiaries will have to contribute an amount of R2 479 towards their homes has had a big influence on the PHP. This has resulted in the increased support for the PHP, as it does not require the R2 479 contribution from beneficiaries at the moment.

Over and above the 42 PHP projects that I said earlier on my department has approved, there are another 30 project applications that my department is currently processing.

There is also a shift from the Traditional PHP-where people use their Sweat Equity to Managed PHP-where beneficiaries organize and supervise the construction of their own homes.

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to point out that if the Managed PHP is not coordinated properly, with clear guidelines and procedures, it can easily and unduly be manipulated by unscrupulous developers and contractors.

Constructors who are not committed to a People-Centered Housing Delivery process must distance themselves from this process. This is not their process. Lenqubo yeyabantu, ingakumbi amakhos'kazi.

In collaboration with municipalities, NGOs and CBOs, my department is presently developing guidelines and procedures for the effective implementation of the managed PHP. Through this intervention, I will personally ensure that the following PHP principles are upheld and strictly adhered to:

• The strengthening of partnerships between government and communities.
• That the process is a people-driven process-this entails people taking full ownership of the process and decisions.
• That there is proper transfer of skills-this entails training of local builders.
• That there is community empowerment-this entails beneficiaries utilizing local builders for the construction of their homes.

I am proud to announce that we have established a strong partnership with the City of Cape Town in respect of ensuring effective implementation of the PHP projects.

To ensure administrative and financial accountability of the PHP, the Unicity has undertaken to play the Account Administrator role in most of the PHP projects within the Metro area. My department is also beefing-up its capacity to conduct housing inspections and technical support in the PHP.

The National Minister of housing clearly stated in her budget speech this year that Social Housing is one of the National Expenditure Priorities for 2003/4. This means, as the province we must roll up our sleeves and make it happen. The Social Housing is aimed at promoting Medium Density Housing through rental and rent to own tenure.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have no intentions of deviating from this call. I see Social Housing as the window of opportunity that will address the problem of bad spatial apartheid planning and development, unite our people from all races and integrate our economy.

My strategy is to use it as a catalyst to promote Inner-city Housing Development. In demonstrating my commitment to this process, I have recently signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the City of Cape Town and the Social Housing Foundation Institution to promote Social Housing within the province.

It is expected that through this initiative, a total of 5000 rental units will be delivered within the Metropolitan area over the next five years. I will give my full support to this initiative by ensuring the availability of institutional subsidies.

As I indicated that in the previous financial year 92% of our allocation was spent, I also indicated that the 8% under expenditure was as a result of the new policy mechanisms that were introduced in April 2002.

Before I table my expenditure for this year I would like to register that one of the major contributing factors to this under expenditure was because of the politicization of housing. Some political organizations still see it fit to play soccer games with people's lives.

In Crossroads for instance, two housing projects are held at complete ransom due to political factions between political parties. It is appalling that some politicians will hold the development process at ransom at the expense of the poor communities.

Ladies and gentlemen, a total budget of R423 million for 2003/4 has been drawn up and municipalities have been informed of their respective equitable share of the allocation. It should also be noted that this budget is mindful of all the delivery programmes set out by national department of housing. It seeks to achieve the following:

• 10 000 Project-Linked Subsidies
• 1 500 Individual Credit-linked subsidies
• 2 000 People's Housing Process
• 3 000 Consolidation Subsidies
• 1 000 Institutional Subsidies
• 400 Re-location subsidies
• 100 Rural subsidies
• 1000 Savings-linked subsidies in respect of the 3 hostels
• And to promote and facilitate capacity building of municipal officials.

I am happy to note that 95% of municipalities are now at the advanced stages of their planning on the new projects. This approach will contribute towards expediting housing delivery. I will ensure that my officials pay regular and continuous visits to municipalities, especially the incapacitated municipalities to provide technical and administrative support.

One of my goals this year is to limit my under expenditure to less than 5%. I hope that some politicians will not stand in my way. To expedite housing delivery, my department has established an extensive programme to assist municipalities and developers to adjust their programmes and applications to the new procurement regime that the national department of housing introduced in April 2002.

This process has played an important role in the successful submission of 15 projects that have been conditionally approved this year in accordance with the new process. These projects represent no less than 14 856 units to the value of over R302 million.

A further 8 projects have been received and processed for conditional approval. These projects have a potential subsidy value of approximately R202 million and could further provide 9 954 housing opportunities to destitute families.

I am happy to announce that my department is far ahead of other provincial departments with regard to the processing of projects under the new procurement regime.

The implementation of the NHBRC in the housing subsidy sector commenced in April 2002. The NHBRC Warranty Scheme is aimed at improving the quality of our houses against structural defects.

The potential stumbling block to housing delivery is the slow registration of municipalities as homebuilders with the NHBRC, in accordance with the new procurement regime.

In this regard, my department is presently conducting road shows to inform and support municipalities to register with the NHBRC. This measure is aimed at preventing the problem of slow delivery. My department is continuously holding discussions with the senior members of the NHBRC Management to discuss ways of streamlining the enrolment process for speedy delivery.

There is evidence of the withdrawal by large construction companies in housing owing to the low profit margins. This factor, coupled with the National Imperative to promote Black Economic Empowerment has resulted in national department of housing calling for provincial housing departments to allocate 10% of their housing budget to Emerging Contractors, especially Women-headed Construction Companies.

My department is in this regard developing a strategy on the support of Emerging Contractors. We are in the process of holding discussions with the Construction SETA, Department of Labour, Training Providers and Women Construction Groups to develop a provincial strategy in this regard.

It is envisaged that the outcome of these discussions will be the development of a framework in respect of capacity support to Emerging and Women Contractors.

Ladies and gentlemen, the attitude of some politicians, officials and community leaders is still negative and inappropriate towards the informal settlement areas.

They still perceive informal settlements as ghettos and cancerous areas where inhabitants are regarded as 'uninvited guests'. Their solution to these areas is that they should be eradicated and demolished.

I differ entirely with this discriminatory approach. I strongly and sincerely believe that these areas should be accepted, treated as integral part of our society and should be taken into consideration during our planning.

In am happy to announce the finalization of the Informal Settlement Handbook, which was a product of my department together with the Unicity officials and specialists in the private sector.

This handbook will assist municipalities and other role players to contribute meaningfully in their quest to improve quality of life of the thousands of the homeless and shack dwellers. It will also help change the stigma attached to the informal settlement areas.

Ladies and gentlemen, I would not like to be construed as promoting informal settlements, or trying to obviate from my responsibility of providing descent housing. The truth is, you and I both know that it is not their fault that they resorted to staying in informal settlements. It was social and political dynamics that were beyond their control.

Based on the limited resources at our disposal, the housing backlog is increasing faster than our ability to provide housing for the poor. We therefore need greater innovation and creativity in solving people's problems.

To promote Integrated Housing Development, my department has developed a Five-Year Strategic Housing Delivery Plan. This plan will be reviewed on an on-going basis to be in line with the Integrated Development Plans. Our intention is also to assist municipalities develop Municipal Housing Sector Plans in line with their IDPs.

My department also intends establishing greater alignment with sister departments such as Health, Local Government, Education, Planning and Economic Development to promote integrated and sustainable housing development.

There are valuable lessons we can learn from the Integrated Serviced Land Projects in terms of coordinated planning and budget alignment between departments.

Housing is also about people caring for one another. This means we cannot turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to those with special needs. My department acknowledges that by doing something in this regard.

This issue remains of critical importance and my department will be looking at the implementation of policy to provide support to HIV/AIDS sufferers and their families.

There have been further amendments to the policy regarding assistance regarding beneficiaries with disabilities. I am pleased to note that there are beneficiaries being assisted within this programme.

Ladies and gentlemen, the availability of well-located land for housing development for the poor remains one of the stumbling blocks in the delivery of housing. By well-located land, I am referring to land that is reasonably closer to services, jobs and community facilities.

Problematic to find suitable land as it is, there is one thing I know would be extremely wrong not to try and undo. It would be wrong to perpetuate the planning and housing delivery policies of apartheid regime of driving the poor and homeless away from social and economic activities.

In this regard, my department is presently engaging the departments of Public Works, Land Affairs and Municipalities to collaborate in identifying suitable state land for housing.

To accelerate access to housing while at the same time addressing the injustices of the past, I am committed and in full support of the restitution of families who were forcibly removed from their homes/land by the apartheid government.

My support in this regard is represented by my Board's decision to make available 16 smallholdings in the Covie area/Southern Cape of 31 hectors at a historic price for restitution purposes. It is my sincere belief that this initiative will contribute towards the delivery of housing.

My department is also investigating the possibility of establishing Housing Fund for the purchase of privately owned land.

It is sad to announce that our province is the only province that has not phased out the Provincial Housing Development Board in accordance with the Housing Amendment Act of 1999.

My efforts of appointing the Provincial Advisory Panel have been stifled by the legislative process that I have to follow to establish the Advisory Panel.

I am working tirelessly to ensure that the Western Cape Provincial Housing Act is amended before the end of this year to allow for the appointment of the Advisory Panel.

Ladies and gentlemen, what I am about to say is the saddest of all things I have ever encountered in my housing involvement. It is unfortunate that some beneficiaries deprive themselves of the only asset that government provides to them. They either sell their homes through ignorance or irresponsible behavior.

My department will ensure that policy mechanisms are developed to facilitate effective implementation of the housing pre-emptive clause. This measure will be reinforced by extensive housing consumer education and awareness campaigns.

It is also disturbing that malicious creditors who obtain those houses through judicial options sell some of the subsidy homes. The recent investigation in Prince Albert has revealed that a number of such auctions take place for outstanding debts for as little as R150 00

I wonder what happened to their conscience. In many of these cases, proper judicial procedures were not followed in obtaining such judgments. I have referred this matter to national department of housing for drastic measures to be applied against these operators.

My department is currently busy with a multi-pronged intervention strategy in collaboration with the national department of housing to improve the Management of the Asset Portfolio of the Western Cape Housing Development Board. One of the areas will be on the transfer of property, which is earmarked for other state functions such as school sites, community centers etc.

In this regard, approximately 20 000 hectors of land along the West coast is earmarked for conservation. I have recently approved the transfer at a nominal value of R10 of certain land in the Weltevreden valley North to the Catholic Welfare and Development Organization for the development of a community center, which includes residential accommodation of the elderly.

Not only does this demonstrate our commitment to partnership between government, private sector and NGOs, but also demonstrate that delivery is possible through partnerships.

Ladies and gentlemen, meanwhile the mathematicians are busy solving X, here in housing, we solve problems and resolve conflicts. In the Western Cape, we are doing so through the Rental Housing Tribunal.

I am pleased to announce that the Marketing Pamphlet has been compiled in Isi Xhosa, English and Afrikaans. We are indeed 'saying it in your own language.' This information is being distributed throughout the province, and also available in our website.

The statistics on the number of complaints dealt with by the Tribunal and Secretariat in comparison to the previous years clearly demonstrate the success of the marketing process. The number of complaints registered during 2001-2002 were 2 468 compared to the 3 285 complaints dealt with during 2002-2003.

I wish to also state that my department still mourns the death of Rental Tribunal Chairperson, Mr. Koos Therone, who led the Tribunal with exceptional leadership skills.

Because of the critical role played by the Tribunal, it would be inappropriate not to appoint the new chairperson. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate and welcome Mr. Saleem Patel as our new chairperson. With his outstanding legal background, I have no doubt that the Rental Tribunal is in good hands.

In our contribution through the Human Settlement Redevelopment Programme, we have contributed to the Presidential Urban Renewal Node in Khayelitsha and Mitchell's Plain.

In Khayelitsha, we have allocated a total amount of R5 million to resolve land ownership for 7 500 houses in Site C. Coupled to this, my department has also approved a total amount of 1000 subsidies for the PHP.

In addition, we have provided a total amount of R1.4 million for ablution facilities in the informal areas. We have also contributed R500 000 towards the development of the Khayelitsha and Mitchell's Plain Strategic Reports.

My department is also implementing a Capacity Building Programme to assist municipalities to strengthen their capacity in order to execute their roles and responsibilities in terms of the Housing Act. During the past year, a total of 356 candidates consisting of provincial, municipal housing officials and councilors were capacitated.

Although some interventions have been carried out in this regard, some challenges still remain with regard to Capacity Development for municipalities. Some of these pressing challenges are:

• Establishment of housing units/components in their municipalities, especially the smaller and rural -area-based municipalities.
• The need to empower municipalities to become developers in housing projects in accordance with the new procurement regime requires.
• Project Management and Monitoring skills
• The need to strengthen the capacity of municipalities to support PHP, especially with regard to facilitation and technical support skills.

Within my department, our immediate challenge with regard to capacity relates to Organizational Transformation and Training. I will admit that our present organizational structure is not adequately suited for the new housing challenges and policy shifts.

My department is in this regard, finalizing its New Organizational Structure, which will be submitted to Cabinet shortly for approval. I will ensure that we do not only create a structure that will deliver housing for now, but such a structure must be relevant and able to deliver houses toward our 2014 vision.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have presented to you a budget that really takes the interests and aspirations of the poor at heart. A budget that acknowledges our strengths and shortcomings, a budget that places people at the center of housing development, a budget that offers our people a number of options in as far as the type of housing development that they want is concerned.

But this budget is nothing and meaningless, with its noble ideas without the support of Cabinet, Sister Departments, the Local Governments, NGOs, CBOs, the Private Sector but most importantly, without the cooperation and commitment of those it seeks to better their lives-the communities.