Infrastructure
With regard to the revelation by the Swellendam Municipality, during an oversight visit by the Standing Committee on Human Settlements on 20 June 2022, that the allocation of proposed serviced sites is one of the challenges it faces in carrying out housing developments as there are no proper criteria or guidelines for who would qualify and/or not qualify for a serviced site:
(1) Whether there has been any training to inform municipalities of the criteria or guidelines; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details;
(2) (a) how has his Department made sure that municipalities are aware of what is expected of them in regard to serviced sites and (b) what do the criteria regarding serviced sites entail?
[1] In July 2022, the Department approved the “Amended Western Cape Provincial Framework Policy for Selection of Housing Beneficiaries in Ownership-based Subsidy Projects”. A key object of the 2022 amendments is to enable the implementation of the National Directive [ND] issued by the National Department of Human Settlements in 2020. The ND indicates that provincial departments and municipalities should seek to downscale the provision of top structures and increase the share of serviced sites in their human settlement projects. The ND also states that top structure units are intended for households from defined priority groups i.e., households headed by older persons [60 years of age and above], households affected by permanent disabilities and military veterans.
In October 2021, the Department issued a municipal circular mainly covering beneficiary selection in top structure projects in the light of the ND. Top structure projects currently constitute nearly all new subsidy projects on greenfield sites and are thus a delivery focus of municipalities. Municipalities were briefed on this circular in regional forums run by the Department. It was also emphasised that municipalities needed to start shifting their delivery focus to the supply of serviced sites.
[2][a] In the 2022/23 financial year, the development of policy guidelines for the “Amended Western Cape Provincial Framework Policy for Selection of Housing Beneficiaries in Ownership-based Subsidy Projects” [Amended Framework Policy [2022]] is an Annual Performance Plan deliverable. Guidelines for municipalities to assist with municipal policy formulation and implementation are under development. Following internal workshops with project management staff in the Department, a series of regional workshops will be held with municipalities starting in October 2022 on the draft guidelines.
(2)[b] The Amended Framework Policy [2022] indicates how the norms and rules set out in the original Framework Policy of 2012 and in the “Age-based prioritisation guidelines” of 2015 apply in the emerging new policy context signalled by the ND. For serviced sites, which in the Western Cape are defined in greenfield projects as “enhanced serviced sites” (which consists of an enclosed toilet, tap and wash trough connected to a sewer), the date of registration on the Western Cape Housing Demand Database remains the primary basis for selection. The minimum registration period of three years, a principle established in age-based prioritisation will also apply. In addition, households selected for serviced sites must reside in the catchment area applicable to the project as specified in the municipality’s beneficiary selection policy. Age-based prioritisation will not apply however, given that on enhanced serviced sites no top structure is provided by the government.
Municipalities should be familiar with all these criteria and how to implement them, as they have formed the basis of beneficiary selection since 2015 at the latest.
