“Rapid migration” slowing down pace of service delivery – Government
How do we get around this?
On Thursday, Parliament heard some of the changes that government says are hindering its ability to deliver services effectively. While there are also obviously political factors that have played their part, the main three reasons were informal settlements, rapid migration and slow economic growth.
This was according to Human Settlements Minister Nomaindiya Mfeketo.
“I see this clearly as I visit communities that are affected by wildfires, pressures of landlessness, and unfortunately, a chain of corruption and maladministration that affects the poor,” Mfeketo said.
Mfeketo was addressing Parliament during her Budget Vote in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP).
In the new budget, a total of R31.3 billion was allocated as grant funding and transfers in the 2018/19 financial year. This figure was then divided between provinces, municipalities and human settlements entities.
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R18.1 billion went to all nine provinces while R11.3 billion was handed to SA’s metropolitan municipalities. A further R1.1 billion also went to the seven human settlements entities.
The funds are meant for the provision of sustainable human settlements as well as public amenities. Around R260m and R140m have also been set aside for emergency housing for municipalities and provinces.
“We urge efficient use of this emergency fund to alleviate the plight of our people in the face of unfortunate circumstances such as fires, floods and other natural disasters,” said Mfeketo.
Aside from migration and affordable housing, the department has allocated R900m to the Finance-Linked Individual Subsidy Programme (FLISP)
The program supports workers who are earning less than R15 000 per month have access to home loans.
“We continue to call on banks to help increase access to home loans in order to close the gap for this important sector of workers across all industries.”
With housing and land being the biggest issue in South African politics right now, expect municipalities to be strongly questioned on how they spend the money.