Since its inception in 1994 the new national housing programme has delivered some 1 149 000 houses and has provided, secure tenure, shelter and basic services to some 5 million poor people. Of this total amount of units of houses delivered, the provincial department of Western Cape has delivered over 170 thousand houses, and thereby providing shelter to approximately 350 thousand poor families. Although our achievements have been recognised nationally and internationally, there is still a room for improvement.

To ensure a shift from quantity to quality in respect of housing delivery, my department has already embarked on the implementation of the Consumer Protection Measures Act, which is aimed at enforcing the registration of all homebuilders in subsidised housing with the National Home Builders Registration Council.

My department has in this regard signed a memorandum of understanding with National Home Builders Registration Council. Mechanisms to streamline the process are currently being developed.

Delays is the handing over of housing projects:
My province is also affected by the delays in the handing over of subsidy houses. One of the areas that are mainly affected by this problem is the Crossroads Housing Development Project, which is part of the presidential urban renewal project-popularly known as the Integrated Serviced Land Project.

What is happening in Crossroads is basically the confirmation of what I have long been warning people against-that political interference generally in development, and housing in particular has adverse consequences for delivery to the poor people. It is sad that in the end it is the poor people who suffer most and not the politicians.

In addition, this problem has financial implications for government. This relates to unbudgeted security costs of repairing vandalised houses and the costs incurred by extending the project contract.

Incomplete or blocked projects

There are a number of projects that were initiated some years ago that are still incomplete, largely as a result of escalating building costs. The approved top-structure could no longer be provided from the originally approved subsidy amount.

A mechanism has now been put in place whereby such blocked projects can be resuscitated. My department will be contacting all municipalities where projects have ground to a halt and will be putting measures in place to ensure that these projects are completed.

Financial plan for 2003/2004

With reference to the Financial Plan for 2003/2004, my department has the following objectives: contained within our Strategic Plan.
To allocate funds to 30 municipalities
To process and approve 10 000 project-linked subsidies, 1.500 individual credit-linked subsides, 2000 People's Housing Process subsidies, 3000 consolidation subsidies, 1000 institutional subsidies, 400 relocation subsidies, 100 rural subsidies and 1000 savings linked subsides
To process payments in respect of 3 hostels and emergency assistance

Major challenges facing my department

The major challenges that account for the lack of delivery in general and under expenditure in particular include:

While the requirement that beneficiaries should contribute R2 479 as a pre-requisite to access housing subsidies, will contribute significantly towards ensuring the development of quality houses as well as promoting self-reliance amongst the beneficiaries, the lack of mechanisms and systems for the collection of the contribution has contributed to the problem of under expenditure. The heads of housing are presently addressing this matter. The implementation of the NHBRC also contributes towards the under spending of provinces

To build the capacity of provincial as well as municipal officials and councilors in housing and focus on practical and sustainable capacity building initiatives for beneficiaries. In this regard, my department is at present providing project management and monitoring support to municipalities, especially the smaller municipalities. In the past four months, I have also visited a number of municipalities within the province to establish their delivery constraints and challenges. My department is now developing a comprehensive strategy to support municipalities struggling with capacity problems.

To obtain affordable, suitable land for housing close to transport nodes and economic opportunities. The high cost of suitable land for housing has always been, and still continues to be a challenge. This is being addressed at present and I hope to be able to have good news concerning this matter in the near future. A number of audits have been conducted in this regard, all we need to do is consolidate them.

To integrate housing development with other service providers, such as schools, clinics, crèches and other infrastructure which cannot be provided from housing funds.

Housing's contribution to Black Economic Empowerment
Housing development has always had a direct impact on economic empowerment in that housing delivery creates jobs for the formal as well as informal housing sector. Most, if not all of our housing projects are subcontracted to emerging contractors.

Relying on the big contractors for the development of the emerging ones is not enough. It takes emerging contractors long, if not forever to be able to stand on their own feet. This is why my department will be focusing on sustainable capacity building of emerging contractors and women in construction within the next financial year as part of their strategic objectives.

Having carefully studied housing, I discovered a number of things. I discovered that housing delivery is so slow, and as such struggles to keep up with the demand. I have also realized that the housing delivery process itself is riddled with quite a number of problems, but most importantly, I have realized I cannot do it on my own. Frankly, I need help.

In response to my discoveries, I have appointed consultants to help me formulate my 2014 vision document called an Accelerate Housing Delivery Strategy. The emphasis of this strategy is on partnership with all role players in housing. At the indaba that my department hosted on 23 of April 2003, the Housing Partnership Council was formed, and will help me identify and tackle housing blockages, as a collective, I might add.

It its only when we are a collective that we stand a chance against the forever increasing housing backlog in the Western Cape.