During the tabling of the Gauteng Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) and Human Settlements Annual Reports for the 2017/2018 financial year at the Gauteng Legislature, Gauteng MEC Dikgang Moiloa stated that low levels of revenue collection in most municipalities across the Gauteng province are the major cause of financial challenges and directly affect negatively on service delivery commitments to communities.   

“Key among the myriad of challenges in municipalities is the inability to pay creditors and key service providers,” said MEC Moiloa. 

The successful implementation of interventions and programmes rendered by the department is yielding significant and positive results across the province.  The fifth and latest Quality of Life Survey reveals that despite challenges, the Gauteng residents’ lives are improving. This survey highlighted that unqualified Audit Reports were achieved by all Gauteng municipalities. MEC Moiloa attributed this to the effective municipal support by CoGTA to the respective municipalities.

Commitment by the department to maintain the highest standards of governance is fundamental to the management of public finances and resources.

“We are also proud to report that Gauteng CoGTA not only received an unqualified audit, but we also received clean audits each year for the past many years,” MEC Moiloa added.

Going forward, CoGTA will continue to support all municipalities as part of the Provincial Transformation Mandate by ensuring good governance and repositioning of the HR function in the coming financial year.



 As part of transforming municipalities to improve performance  in 2018/19, CoGTA  is in the process of appointing the SA Board of People Practice (SABPP) to support the five targeted municipalities with conducting HR Audits. The five targeted municipalities are the City of Tshwane, Sedibeng DM, Mogale City LM, Emfuleni LM and Lesedi LM. 



MEC Moiloa is adamant that the proper implementation of the project will lead to the fulfilment of the Departmental Mandate and Gauteng 10 Pillars of Radical Transformation, and in particular pillar 4 and 5 - Transformation of the State and Governance and Modernisation of the Public Service. It will also lead to good governance and empowered personnel to deliver efficient and effective services. 



The significant reduction in the number of service delivery protests is a good indication that dialogue and co-operation between Local Government and our communities are having the desired impact and a positive sign of even better results going forward. 



On Human Settlements, Moiloa said Gauteng is the most urbanised province in South Africa but occupies a mere 1.4% of the country’s land and the Department’s Mega Projects will be an overarching approach to a service-delivery model, which the Department aims to use to decongest all human-settlement related shortfalls. 



“As part of job creation, I have extended our department’s partnership with the Gauteng Enterprise Propeller. The incubation programmes from the Propeller will upskill our youth in the SMME sector. This will give them the tools to be propelled into the mainstream of the construction-sector,” he said.

The MEC said the Department was leading the Land Availability Stream (LAS), of the Rapid Land Release Programme to identify suitable sites for release to qualifying beneficiaries for use as the following :Serviced Sites for Self-build under the integrated Residential Development Programme (IRDP) and the Finance Linked Individual Subsidy Programme(FLISP); Agricultural Sites;Commercial Buildings under long term leases and Multi Storey Buildings where densification is required.

 

Moiloa said land acquisition remained the major bottleneck in housing delivery which included. He said the challenges included finding suitable location of land, its cost and the length of time it takes to negotiate and complete the acquisition of land.

He said by leveraging on State owned land, all of the above issues can be resolved as state owned land is usually well located, free and immediately available.