EMBARGOED. CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY!

SPEECH BY LN SISULU, MINISTER OF HOUSING ON THE INTRODUCTION OF THE HOUSING DEVELOPMENT AGENCY BILL, 2007

8 May 2008, National Assembly, Cape Town

 

Madam Speaker,

 

In 2004 we introduced the Comprehensive Plan for the Creation of Sustainable Human Settlements – commonly known as “Breaking New Ground in Housing Delivery” (BNG) through which we made provision for immediate, short and medium term interventions with detailed implementation plans for each priority response.

 

In addition to the capacity development thrust of the comprehensive plan, the main focus areas of the Plan include the following broad themes: 

 

After a comprehensive review of the housing delivery value-chain, it became clear to us that access to well located land is one of the biggest and hugely debilitating blockages in the housing delivery chain. The acquisition, holding and release of land as well as the slowness in processing land development, posed a serious threat to our resolve to fast-track delivery of sustainable human settlements.

 

Our initial response to the land bottleneck was to ask municipalities to refrain from the wholesale sale of municipal-owned land. The idea was to target state land in our quest for suitably located land.  In October 2005, we convened a National Municipal Housing Indaba at which we urged Municipalities, led by the South African Local Government Association (SALGA), to adopt a moratorium on the sale of land. Because of the very nature of the association – SALGA – the moratorium remained of a voluntary nature.  We welcomed the gesture of cooperation underlying the voluntary moratorium, and I take this opportunity to express my appreciation to those municipalities that adopted the freeze on the sale of land.

 

Unfortunately, the moratorium yielded little results in that by the time it was introduced, much of municipal-owned land had already been sold off. Sadly, there were also some municipalities that ignored the call for a moratorium on the sale of land in their myopic drive to gain revenue from the sale of land assets. This points to some of the intergovernmental relations weaknesses that often undermine our efforts in responding to national development challenges.

 

Our second response was, through cabinet resolution, to impose on all public enterprises the requirement to prioritise housing as they dispose of their non-core land assets. This initiative immediately demanded that there be a special purpose vehicle for harvesting these land assets for housing development purposes and holding them.

 

In our search for solutions we looked further afield and noted that governments in countries such as Namibia, India, Sri Lanka, Singapore China, and Malaysia had established Housing Agencies in one form or other to pay specific attention to the attainment of stated (government) housing development goals. In these countries, such housing agencies are bestowed with special authority to effect housing developments.

 

The size of the housing backlog in South Africa demands that we find channels and means of delivery beyond the established norm. Displacements of construction capacity, specifically away from the low-cost housing sector as a result of mega infrastructure developments, as well as increased global mobility of skills impose on us the responsibility to seek and adopt alternative delivery models and instruments. 

 

The constraints to the rapid provision of housing for the poor and the willingness of the NGO and private sector to join government in providing sustainable human settlements, led to a number of workshops and ultimately a conference in Cape Town in September 2005 involving all the partners to find innovative ways to resolve the constraints the sector faced.

 

This conference culminated in the signing of an agreement between all the parties involved in the delivery of housing. This agreement is popularly know as the “Social Contract on Housing”. The parties included trade unions, mining houses, trade associations of the construction industry, manufacturers of building materials, NGOs, the Banking Association of South Africa, Slum Dwellers International and other private sector stakeholders. The subsequent activities of the parties were to identify obstacles to development and find solutions.

 

The Housing Development Agency is a product of what happens when government and the private sector accept joint responsibility for the eradication of slums and agree to work together to provide a better life for all.

 

Madam Speaker,

 

The Housing Development Agency Bill establishes the Housing Development Agency as a statutory body and its main purpose is to address: 

 

The rationale behind the Agency is that it would assist in cutting red tape that prohibits the acquisition of suitable land, something that would be very difficult for Municipalities or Provincial Departments to do on their own. The Agency will also aid with minimising red tape in the approval of development both by Government and the private sector. This in turn should make the housing segment attractive for increased private sector investment. After all, the private sector is a key player in the provision of safe, affordable housing to all South Africans!


The Agency will facilitate the acquisition of land in a way that supplements the capacities of Government across all spheres. Municipalities will be expected to use their housing sector plans to identify local housing land needs. The Provincial Housing Departments will be responsible for assisting local authorities in developing their land needs assessments and in co-ordinating individual municipal submissions into a provincial plan.

 

The Agency will also pro-actively facilitate collaboration with other sectors in the development of such land in order to achieve the outcome of sustainable human settlements.


The Bill provides for an agreement between the Agency and a Municipality where a council lacks the capacity to acquire, hold, develop and release land for residential or community development. Such an agreement will allow the HDA to undertake these tasks on behalf of the municipality.  The Agency will also be empowered to assist municipalities to complete unfinished projects and the Bill provides for the facilitation of project management.

 

The Agency’s facilitation of the rapid release of land is key to the implementation of the Breaking New Ground (BNG) policy and will improve the efficient location of human settlements. The agency will also be a facilitator of the relationships between Housing Departments attached to different spheres of government and the commercial banks – particularly in the packaging, financing and implementation of projects.

 

The HDA will be assisted by the integration of Thubelisha Homes and Servcon into the new agency.

 

In summary, identifying the right parcel of land for acquisition, managing costs once land has been acquired, assisting in the packaging of projects and ensuring that developments are fully integrated are all key duties and activities to be performed by the Housing Development Agency.

 

Madam Speaker, I pay tribute to my team at the department, our partners in the NGOs and private sector for ensuring that this bill serves before the house in record time. I commend members of the portfolio committee who worked tirelessly to ensure that the HDA Bill served before the house in the shortest time possible after, the passage of the bill.

 

Madam Speaker, I present to you and commend the Housing Development Agency Bill, 2007 to the House for approval.

 

 

I thank you.