Affordable housing shortage 'stifles market' - South Africa
Lack of affordable housing was a major obstacle to sustained demand in the housing sector and could lead to the slowing of house price growth to single digits later this year, a property group said yesterday."Without growing demand, price growth will decline," Harcourts Africa said. Chief executive Martin Schultheiss said the South African market's greatest need was in the essential buying category. "People need an affordable roof over their heads, as opposed to leisure or speculative buying."It was not only essential that greater volumes of affordable units were brought to market, not only for prospective owner-buyers but also for the affordable rental market, where better stock levels would spur greater investment."The household sector remains under pressure, with the latest figures showing the ratio of debt to disposable income still at nearly 80 percent," Schultheiss said. While this painted a rather bleak picture for prospective home owners, especially at the lowest end of the market, it also meant that they would be looking for affordable rental homes if they could not muster the finances to buy their own.
"Developers would do well to take note of this need and adapt development plans to cater for this sector."Although affordability is a common denominator, property investors are also looking for additional features - and developers who want to tap into this market should take heed."Schultheiss said investors wanted compact properties with easy access and hard-wearing surfaces for easy maintenance. "Tenants typically occupy units for an average of two years and landlords are keen to keep refurbishment costs to a minimum at the end of a lease period."Investors might also prefer built-in appliances and pre-paid meters for electricity. "And of course affordable units with low maintenance requirements would find favour among owner-buyers too," he added.
Keywords: - affordable housing, house price growth, development, affordable rental homes, South Africa, property investors, property group, moladi, formwork, construction, market, reduce
Showing posts with label South Africa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label South Africa. Show all posts
Housing need South Africa - 12 milllion people
Sexwale : 12 milllion people still in need of housing : South Africa
The SABC are reporting Saturday that Human Settlements Minister, Tokyo Sexwale, has confirmed that there is a backlog of two million housing units in the country.According to the Minister government still has to provide houses for 12 million people in South Africa.He was speaking at the launch of Tau Village, an inner city Social Housing project, in Pretoria on Friday and acknowledged that the government needed to meet people’s basic needs.The report also confirms that the residents of Tshabho - a village near Berlin in the Eastern Cape - have called on the Minister to investigate their housing project. While a company had been awarded a tender the project failed to take off. In addition that they have documents claiming to have finished their houses which was not true. According to residents' chairperson, Sizwe Yaka, several meetings have been held with the provincial department without resolving the issues.
Keyword - Human Settlements, Tokyo Sexwale, backlog, million, housing, moladi, concrete homes, sustainable development, South Africa, corrupt, fraud, SABS, basic need, job creation, houses, rdp, subsidy
The SABC are reporting Saturday that Human Settlements Minister, Tokyo Sexwale, has confirmed that there is a backlog of two million housing units in the country.According to the Minister government still has to provide houses for 12 million people in South Africa.He was speaking at the launch of Tau Village, an inner city Social Housing project, in Pretoria on Friday and acknowledged that the government needed to meet people’s basic needs.The report also confirms that the residents of Tshabho - a village near Berlin in the Eastern Cape - have called on the Minister to investigate their housing project. While a company had been awarded a tender the project failed to take off. In addition that they have documents claiming to have finished their houses which was not true. According to residents' chairperson, Sizwe Yaka, several meetings have been held with the provincial department without resolving the issues.
Keyword - Human Settlements, Tokyo Sexwale, backlog, million, housing, moladi, concrete homes, sustainable development, South Africa, corrupt, fraud, SABS, basic need, job creation, houses, rdp, subsidy
Lindikhaya Mpambani.: Acting housing CEO paid R4m
Lindikhaya Mpambani - South Africa: Acting housing CEO paid R4m
government housing company has paid its acting chief executive officer a R2.1-million bonus on top of his R2.2m salary.Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale revealed in a written parliamentary reply that Servcon Housing Solutions had, during the 2008/09 financial year, paid out more than R1m in a performance bonus and R1.1m as a retention bonus to acting CEO, Lindikhaya Mpambani. Servcon is a Human Settlements Department entity that deals with the registration and verification of state property.The Daily News was unable to reach Mpambani for comment.Sexwale said all Servcon employees had received a retention bonus during the 2008/09 financial year, but all the payments were approved by the company's board remuneration committee.
The minister did not say how much the other employees received. In May, former public works director-general, Manye Moroka, was grilled by Parliament's spending watchdog over a potential conflict of interest after he awarded Servcon and another state company, Intersite, a tender of R223m while he was a board member of Servcon.Moroka disagreed with MPs that there was a conflict of interest in awarding the contract.The standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) also questioned the R215 000 bonus Moroka got from Servcon even though he had left the company and started working as public works director-general.Moroka said he had invested the bonus. After joining the government, Moroka continued to serve on Servcon's board and chaired its remuneration committee.He also told MPs that he had recommended to then public works minister, Thoko Didiza, and provincial MECs that Servcon be given the tender. Former public works director-general, Sam Vukela, told Scopa that the department had paid Servcon R7.6m and Intersite R2.8m for work done so far. The two companies were given contracts to audit all state assets across the country. Moroka quit as public works director-general late last year after fighting with Public Works Minister Geoff Doidge over the R215 000 bonus. Doidge accused Moroka of awarding the contract without following tender procedures. Moroka admitted to Scopa that there was no budget for the R223m tender.
Keywords - Lindikhaya Mpambani, Servcon, Tokyo Sexwale, housing, bonus, defunked, housing, South Africa, government owned enterprise
government housing company has paid its acting chief executive officer a R2.1-million bonus on top of his R2.2m salary.Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale revealed in a written parliamentary reply that Servcon Housing Solutions had, during the 2008/09 financial year, paid out more than R1m in a performance bonus and R1.1m as a retention bonus to acting CEO, Lindikhaya Mpambani. Servcon is a Human Settlements Department entity that deals with the registration and verification of state property.The Daily News was unable to reach Mpambani for comment.Sexwale said all Servcon employees had received a retention bonus during the 2008/09 financial year, but all the payments were approved by the company's board remuneration committee.
The minister did not say how much the other employees received. In May, former public works director-general, Manye Moroka, was grilled by Parliament's spending watchdog over a potential conflict of interest after he awarded Servcon and another state company, Intersite, a tender of R223m while he was a board member of Servcon.Moroka disagreed with MPs that there was a conflict of interest in awarding the contract.The standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) also questioned the R215 000 bonus Moroka got from Servcon even though he had left the company and started working as public works director-general.Moroka said he had invested the bonus. After joining the government, Moroka continued to serve on Servcon's board and chaired its remuneration committee.He also told MPs that he had recommended to then public works minister, Thoko Didiza, and provincial MECs that Servcon be given the tender. Former public works director-general, Sam Vukela, told Scopa that the department had paid Servcon R7.6m and Intersite R2.8m for work done so far. The two companies were given contracts to audit all state assets across the country. Moroka quit as public works director-general late last year after fighting with Public Works Minister Geoff Doidge over the R215 000 bonus. Doidge accused Moroka of awarding the contract without following tender procedures. Moroka admitted to Scopa that there was no budget for the R223m tender.
Keywords - Lindikhaya Mpambani, Servcon, Tokyo Sexwale, housing, bonus, defunked, housing, South Africa, government owned enterprise
Affordable housing South Africa gets boost from French finance institution
Affordable housing South Africa gets boost from French finance institution: "NHFC"
Affordable housing received a boost when Agence Française de Développement (AfD) entered into a loan agreement with the National Housing Finance Corporation (NHFC) on Thursday.The loan agreement is worth 20 million euros (R225 million), the NGFC and AfD said in a joint statement."The funding is intended for social and private rental projects supported by the NHFC," they said.Speaking at the signing ceremony, NHFC chief executive officer Samson Moraba said his organisation would continue to look to partnerships with the private and public sectors to deliver on its mandate."The demand for housing, in the affordable target market supported by the NHFC, continues to be far greater than the supply thereof and the Corporation continues to seek out opportunities to enhance delivery," he said.The project aimed to partly or fully finance activities that had been pre-identified by the AfD."The projects meet the NHFC criteria for social mix; close proximity to areas of employment and transport; and high urban density," the NGFC said AfD said.AfD chief executive officer Jean-Michel Severino said that until recently, downtown Johannesburg had experienced a period of disinvestment and deterioration."We believe the implementation of renovation policies and projects, such as the social housing initiative by NHFC, will attract residents, tourists, businesses and investors to revitalise this urban area," Severino said.The AfD credit line to NHFC would support the rehabilitation of central Johannesburg by, for example, funding corporate programmes such as the Affordable Housing Company (Afhco).
Afhco has been funded by the NHFC for its provision of low-cost housing and urban renewal in Johannesburg.The NHFC said it continued to be a funder of social housing institutions and in the current year had provided funding to projects in all provinces where such projects were being built."AfD as an institution is not new to us as we have enjoyed a healthy and vibrant relationship with them," Moraba said."Together, we have in the past together organised a very successful seminar that attracted influential stakeholders in low-income housing, both national and international."According to Severino, addressing the urgent need for affordable housing in South Africa was one of the imperatives of the AfD."Our funding to public and non-banking bodies such as the NHFC aims to fulfil this," he said.The NHFC was established by the government in 1996 as a development finance institution with the principal mandate of broadening and deepening access to affordable housing finance for the low- to middle-income households.It provides funding support for the residential property market, particularly when finance is not readily available.The funding commitment announced by AfD during its four-day visit to South Africa amounted to R3.5 billion."This was towards socio-economic initiatives by the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, Global Rating, Central Energy Fund, Transnet and the Development Bank of Southern Africa," it said in the statement.The AfD also met Capitec Bank and the Airports Company of South Africa. - Sapa
Affordable housing received a boost when Agence Française de Développement (AfD) entered into a loan agreement with the National Housing Finance Corporation (NHFC) on Thursday.The loan agreement is worth 20 million euros (R225 million), the NGFC and AfD said in a joint statement."The funding is intended for social and private rental projects supported by the NHFC," they said.Speaking at the signing ceremony, NHFC chief executive officer Samson Moraba said his organisation would continue to look to partnerships with the private and public sectors to deliver on its mandate."The demand for housing, in the affordable target market supported by the NHFC, continues to be far greater than the supply thereof and the Corporation continues to seek out opportunities to enhance delivery," he said.The project aimed to partly or fully finance activities that had been pre-identified by the AfD."The projects meet the NHFC criteria for social mix; close proximity to areas of employment and transport; and high urban density," the NGFC said AfD said.AfD chief executive officer Jean-Michel Severino said that until recently, downtown Johannesburg had experienced a period of disinvestment and deterioration."We believe the implementation of renovation policies and projects, such as the social housing initiative by NHFC, will attract residents, tourists, businesses and investors to revitalise this urban area," Severino said.The AfD credit line to NHFC would support the rehabilitation of central Johannesburg by, for example, funding corporate programmes such as the Affordable Housing Company (Afhco).
Afhco has been funded by the NHFC for its provision of low-cost housing and urban renewal in Johannesburg.The NHFC said it continued to be a funder of social housing institutions and in the current year had provided funding to projects in all provinces where such projects were being built."AfD as an institution is not new to us as we have enjoyed a healthy and vibrant relationship with them," Moraba said."Together, we have in the past together organised a very successful seminar that attracted influential stakeholders in low-income housing, both national and international."According to Severino, addressing the urgent need for affordable housing in South Africa was one of the imperatives of the AfD."Our funding to public and non-banking bodies such as the NHFC aims to fulfil this," he said.The NHFC was established by the government in 1996 as a development finance institution with the principal mandate of broadening and deepening access to affordable housing finance for the low- to middle-income households.It provides funding support for the residential property market, particularly when finance is not readily available.The funding commitment announced by AfD during its four-day visit to South Africa amounted to R3.5 billion."This was towards socio-economic initiatives by the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, Global Rating, Central Energy Fund, Transnet and the Development Bank of Southern Africa," it said in the statement.The AfD also met Capitec Bank and the Airports Company of South Africa. - Sapa
Human Settlements - housing officials cited on R18m fraud
1300 housing officials cited on R18m fraud
THE Department of Human Settlements is disciplining more than 1300 housing officials who defrauded the housing subsidy system to the tune of R18million.
Human settlements director-general Itumeleng Kotsoane told Parliament’s human settlements committee yesterday that the special investigations unit had finalised 513 cases involving civil servants – many of whom were convicted.
The errant officials who “defrauded the housing subsidy system” have signed more than 1440 acknowledgements of debt to the value of R18399778 .
The officials have paid government back R1,8million so far, Kotsoane said. A further 795 officials are currently facing disciplinary action. Kotsoane told the committee that the spiralling costs of housing material posed a “huge problem” to the government.
He said the Competition Commission’s investigation of possible cartels in suppliers of construction materials such as stock bricks and cement will help reduce the costs of building houses in the future.
Meanwhile, members of Parliament urged Kotsoane to check that quality houses are being built as a way of preventing service delivery protests.
Committee chairperson Nomhle Dabuza said the human settlements department had also failed to monitor what happens to new housing projects.
THE Department of Human Settlements is disciplining more than 1300 housing officials who defrauded the housing subsidy system to the tune of R18million.
Human settlements director-general Itumeleng Kotsoane told Parliament’s human settlements committee yesterday that the special investigations unit had finalised 513 cases involving civil servants – many of whom were convicted.
The errant officials who “defrauded the housing subsidy system” have signed more than 1440 acknowledgements of debt to the value of R18399778 .
The officials have paid government back R1,8million so far, Kotsoane said. A further 795 officials are currently facing disciplinary action. Kotsoane told the committee that the spiralling costs of housing material posed a “huge problem” to the government.
He said the Competition Commission’s investigation of possible cartels in suppliers of construction materials such as stock bricks and cement will help reduce the costs of building houses in the future.
Meanwhile, members of Parliament urged Kotsoane to check that quality houses are being built as a way of preventing service delivery protests.
Committee chairperson Nomhle Dabuza said the human settlements department had also failed to monitor what happens to new housing projects.
J Zuma: Housing South Africa and job creation - moladi support
J Zuma: Black Business Organisations (CBBO) meeting
Address delivered by the President of the Republic of South Africa, His Excellency Jacob Zuma, at the report back meeting with black business and black professionals, Sandton Convention Centre, Sandton, Johannesburg
23 July 2009
Ministers and Deputy MinistersLeadership of organisations representing black professionals and businessBusinesspersons and professionalsLadies and gentlemanGood evening to you all
We meet almost three months after the establishment of a new government following the highly successful and robust elections of April 2009. The transition occurred smoothly and professionally. We have redesigned government in order to improve the capacity to deliver services. We have a number of new Ministries and have also redefined the mandate of others to ensure clarity and focus.
The first few months have been about effecting those changes. It is now all systems go as Ministers are settling in well in their new portfolios. We had to hit the ground running because we have to meet the needs of our people especially the poorest of the poor. And we have not been deterred by the negative global economic climate. Many of our people have lived their entire lives in a recession. They are yet to experience the benefits of economic growth and for their sake, we have to soldier on and do what needs to be done, with the available resources.
International partnerships are important to enhance the achievement of our national goals. I have recently returned from two critical international relations engagements the G8 and the G5 Summits held in Italy, the Non Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit in Egypt and the African Union (AU) Summit in Libya.I was struck and humbled by how South Africa is received in international forums. The respect and confidence that countries of the world bestow on our country is overwhelming.
I came back confident that the leaders of the most powerful economies in the world have applied themselves towards responding to the global economic crisis.At the G8 and G5 meeting, I was reassured that the world is working together to address this economic crisis.
I hope this mark a new era of international co-operation that will also lead to a significant positive outcome to the talks on a common effort to slow down climate change and its deal with its impact. The climate change talks will take place in Copenhagen later this year.
Ladies and gentlemen, although we have fared better than most countries, we are going through the most difficult economic period in recent times. The last time that the economy shrunk as it is now, was in the early 1990s, before the transition to democracy.
It is not likely that the current reversal will last as long as the recession in the early 1990s, but our recovery might not be as strong as we would hope.Even if the economy begins to grow again next year, we will have to wait a little longer for a significant increase in new job creation. It always takes some time, even years, after growth starts, for jobs to be created in significant numbers.
That is why the agreement between government, labour, business and the community sector reached in February this year to respond jointly to the crisis remains so important. I will be meeting with the leaders of the teams developing and implementing the crisis response programmes early next month. That will be the time to assess our progress and consider the way forward.
While we still need to do more to address the impact of the crisis on the poor and low paid workers, I am confident that some of the measures already introduced and others in the pipeline will help to cushion the impact of the crisis for the most vulnerable.
We need to unite and work together to meet the challenges of the economic crisis. Our mission is to make all our people to feel that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, Black and White, and work together to make our country a success.
We will need that unity as we work together to meet our central objective, to provide leadership when it comes to dealing with issues of job creation, eradicating unemployment, ensuring that our people enjoy safety and security as well as accelerating the pace of service delivery.
As indicated in the State of the Nation Address, government will be guided by the ten priorities that we have identified. These are derived from the five African National Congress (ANC) priorities of education, health, rural development, land and agrarian reform, the fight against crime and creating decent jobs.
The issues rose during our last sessions touch on these priorities. We share the concern of black business and black professionals about the need to create an inclusive and transformed economy, and our Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) is one of the key tools of addressing this. Our view is that we have a good BBBEE policy. The current BBBEE framework is adequate. It is inclusive and balanced. We may just need to sharpen implementation and communication. The Department of Trade and Industry is attending to this aspect.
The seven elements of the BBBEE scorecard are a response to the initial narrow BEE, which focused only on ownership and management control in enterprises.In addition, very few people realise that the current BBBEE framework provides for co-operatives.
In our view, BBBEE must reinforce:* skills and rural development* enterprise and socio-economic development* job creation through procurement and entrepreneurship.
Access to government procurement opportunities by black firms has been raised as a serious challenge.
Government is working hard to ensure that this is being addressed adequately. Already, the key objectives of the preferential procurement element of the codes of good practice promote the use of black owned professional service providers and entrepreneurs.
In this regard, black owned professional service providers are recognised as value adding enterprises for purposes of the BBBEE scorecard. We need to ensure that state-owned enterprises give effect to this in a meaningful way. This includes ensuring that government departments allocate and implement the targeted procurement services for black professionals. We are planning to hold a national summit on BBBEE on May 2010. This summit will be able to give government a sense of progress on the implementation of BBBEE.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are meeting with you this evening because you have a role to play in the implementation of the country’s programme of action.We need to work together to improve government’s service delivery mechanisms. We appreciate the fact that you constantly inform us of areas where government needs to increase the pace, or improve the quality of service. Remember that this is your government. Working together we can do more to effect the desired improvements!
We noted your concern rose at the last meeting about the unacceptable delays by government departments in paying black businesses and small, medium and micro enterprise (SMMEs) for services rendered.
Treasury regulations state that all payments must be settled within 30 days from the receipt of an invoice or, in the case of civil claims, from the date of settlement or court judgment.
The exception is only in cases where parties have agreed to an alternative arrangement. In addition, the BBBEE codes of good practice have made provision for shorter payment periods in order to assist to alleviate cash flow burdens faced by SMMEs.
The Minister for Performance Monitoring and Evaluation in The Presidency has written to all national and provincial departments and municipalities and urged Ministers, Premiers, MECs and mayors via Premiers, to ensure that heads of departments comply with the regulations. The departments and municipalities are expected to provide feedback to the Minister at the end of July.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are also working hard to promote gender equity in the economic sphere. We want to emphasise greater focus on entrepreneurship development for women, especially in the male dominated construction and property industries amongst others. However, we must add that while the 50 percent gender representation policy of the ANC and government are commendable, there needs to be a way to encourage the private sector to do likewise.
Better enforcement of the provisions of the Employment Equity Act could go a very long way towards achieving this objective. Ladies and gentlemen, I am also aware that the issue of the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Act is of genuine concern to you. We have worked hard to ensure that legislation such as the CIDB Act supports rather than hinders black owned businesses.
It is not acceptable for small and emerging contractors to find it cumbersome to register on the CIDB Register of Contractors or for established contractors to move to higher grading levels. Part of the challenge stems from the inability of lower level contractors to provide audited statements which forms part of the CIDB grading assessment.
However, I agree with the suggestion of the black business caucus in the built environment that the CIDB has to offer the requisite support to emerging contractors through, for example, training and mentorship programmes.I am satisfied that there are open channels of communication between the parties and the fact that CIDB has undertaken to attend to the concerns that have been raised. Task teams have been established to deal with each of the issues raised.
I have also been advised that there would be follow up meetings that would be held in the near future for the task teams to give report backs on their findings. I believe that this is the correct approach of reaching common ground, and would await developments and reports from this front.
Compatriots, during the elections we pledged that the ANC government would have, as one of its key priorities, the fight against crime and corruption in order to ensure safer and more secure communities. To this end, we have begun working to overhaul the criminal justice system and work towards reducing crime levels.
In the next three years the number of police personnel will be significantly increased from 183 180 to 204 860 with more focus being given to increased visibility and enhancing crime detection. Over the next year, the number of detectives will increase by 19 percent and a programme is already underway to train 12 928 detectives.
But the most effective response should come from ordinary South Africans, who should cooperate with the police in the fight against crime. Working together we will do more to fight crime decisively. Ladies and gentlemen, every life is valuable. We are saddened by the death of nine miners who were killed by a fall of ground at Impala Platinum's Rustenburg operations on Monday.
We extend our condolences to the families of all those killed in this disaster.Around 200 miners die each year in South Africa and this is alarming and unacceptable. Government will work more intensively with mining groups and labour to address this issue without delay. On the labour front, it is still bargaining season. Wage negotiations in a number of sectors, including in the public service, have not yet been resolved. Strikes have occurred and more are threatened. Wage negotiations around this time are not an unusual occurrence, nor are the resorting to strike action when agreement is not achieved. This happens every year.
Due to the current economic conditions, these negotiations may be more difficult this year. Employers and workers must negotiate in good faith and should be prepared to understand each other’s positions. We wish all parties that are still negotiating a speedy resolution, so that life can normalise for employers and workers alike. We have also noted with great concern, the protests that have erupted in several parts of the country. This government will listen to people’s concerns, and will work with them to address them. We will always do that; we will govern with our people.
We acknowledge that there are service delivery problems in some areas and that is why we have reconfigured government departments and have instituted some changes that should improve the way government functions. We are putting systems in place to create a more responsive and more effective government.
Our Constitution allows our people the right of freedom of assembly and expression and to protest where they feel they need to, but this must be done within the ambit of the law.
There can be no justification for violence, looting and destruction of property or attacks on foreign nationals residing in our country. The law enforcement agencies will continue to act swiftly and to take action against all who break the law. They have our full support as they carry out their mandate to maintain law and order in our communities. Ladies and gentlemen, let me remind you of what I said the last time we met. We need your talent and expertise in the public service.
You will be moved by how people’s lives will be changed for the better, by the work you perform. Most importantly, you will have the power to implement all the suggestions you are making, once you join the public service! Compatriots, we appreciate the fact that we were able to meet again. Let me thank you for placing your confidence in the ANC government. We will from our side work to formalise the interaction so that our discussions can impact on our policy and implementation processes.
Teams from the Presidency and the organisations represented here will take the matters forward.
I thank you.
Issued by: The Presidency23 July 2009Source: The Presidency (http://www.thepresidency.gov.za//)
moladi supports you in your endevours to get South Africa (Pty) Ltd housed and working
Address delivered by the President of the Republic of South Africa, His Excellency Jacob Zuma, at the report back meeting with black business and black professionals, Sandton Convention Centre, Sandton, Johannesburg
23 July 2009
Ministers and Deputy MinistersLeadership of organisations representing black professionals and businessBusinesspersons and professionalsLadies and gentlemanGood evening to you all
We meet almost three months after the establishment of a new government following the highly successful and robust elections of April 2009. The transition occurred smoothly and professionally. We have redesigned government in order to improve the capacity to deliver services. We have a number of new Ministries and have also redefined the mandate of others to ensure clarity and focus.
The first few months have been about effecting those changes. It is now all systems go as Ministers are settling in well in their new portfolios. We had to hit the ground running because we have to meet the needs of our people especially the poorest of the poor. And we have not been deterred by the negative global economic climate. Many of our people have lived their entire lives in a recession. They are yet to experience the benefits of economic growth and for their sake, we have to soldier on and do what needs to be done, with the available resources.
International partnerships are important to enhance the achievement of our national goals. I have recently returned from two critical international relations engagements the G8 and the G5 Summits held in Italy, the Non Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit in Egypt and the African Union (AU) Summit in Libya.I was struck and humbled by how South Africa is received in international forums. The respect and confidence that countries of the world bestow on our country is overwhelming.
I came back confident that the leaders of the most powerful economies in the world have applied themselves towards responding to the global economic crisis.At the G8 and G5 meeting, I was reassured that the world is working together to address this economic crisis.
I hope this mark a new era of international co-operation that will also lead to a significant positive outcome to the talks on a common effort to slow down climate change and its deal with its impact. The climate change talks will take place in Copenhagen later this year.
Ladies and gentlemen, although we have fared better than most countries, we are going through the most difficult economic period in recent times. The last time that the economy shrunk as it is now, was in the early 1990s, before the transition to democracy.
It is not likely that the current reversal will last as long as the recession in the early 1990s, but our recovery might not be as strong as we would hope.Even if the economy begins to grow again next year, we will have to wait a little longer for a significant increase in new job creation. It always takes some time, even years, after growth starts, for jobs to be created in significant numbers.
That is why the agreement between government, labour, business and the community sector reached in February this year to respond jointly to the crisis remains so important. I will be meeting with the leaders of the teams developing and implementing the crisis response programmes early next month. That will be the time to assess our progress and consider the way forward.
While we still need to do more to address the impact of the crisis on the poor and low paid workers, I am confident that some of the measures already introduced and others in the pipeline will help to cushion the impact of the crisis for the most vulnerable.
We need to unite and work together to meet the challenges of the economic crisis. Our mission is to make all our people to feel that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, Black and White, and work together to make our country a success.
We will need that unity as we work together to meet our central objective, to provide leadership when it comes to dealing with issues of job creation, eradicating unemployment, ensuring that our people enjoy safety and security as well as accelerating the pace of service delivery.
As indicated in the State of the Nation Address, government will be guided by the ten priorities that we have identified. These are derived from the five African National Congress (ANC) priorities of education, health, rural development, land and agrarian reform, the fight against crime and creating decent jobs.
The issues rose during our last sessions touch on these priorities. We share the concern of black business and black professionals about the need to create an inclusive and transformed economy, and our Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) is one of the key tools of addressing this. Our view is that we have a good BBBEE policy. The current BBBEE framework is adequate. It is inclusive and balanced. We may just need to sharpen implementation and communication. The Department of Trade and Industry is attending to this aspect.
The seven elements of the BBBEE scorecard are a response to the initial narrow BEE, which focused only on ownership and management control in enterprises.In addition, very few people realise that the current BBBEE framework provides for co-operatives.
In our view, BBBEE must reinforce:* skills and rural development* enterprise and socio-economic development* job creation through procurement and entrepreneurship.
Access to government procurement opportunities by black firms has been raised as a serious challenge.
Government is working hard to ensure that this is being addressed adequately. Already, the key objectives of the preferential procurement element of the codes of good practice promote the use of black owned professional service providers and entrepreneurs.
In this regard, black owned professional service providers are recognised as value adding enterprises for purposes of the BBBEE scorecard. We need to ensure that state-owned enterprises give effect to this in a meaningful way. This includes ensuring that government departments allocate and implement the targeted procurement services for black professionals. We are planning to hold a national summit on BBBEE on May 2010. This summit will be able to give government a sense of progress on the implementation of BBBEE.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are meeting with you this evening because you have a role to play in the implementation of the country’s programme of action.We need to work together to improve government’s service delivery mechanisms. We appreciate the fact that you constantly inform us of areas where government needs to increase the pace, or improve the quality of service. Remember that this is your government. Working together we can do more to effect the desired improvements!
We noted your concern rose at the last meeting about the unacceptable delays by government departments in paying black businesses and small, medium and micro enterprise (SMMEs) for services rendered.
Treasury regulations state that all payments must be settled within 30 days from the receipt of an invoice or, in the case of civil claims, from the date of settlement or court judgment.
The exception is only in cases where parties have agreed to an alternative arrangement. In addition, the BBBEE codes of good practice have made provision for shorter payment periods in order to assist to alleviate cash flow burdens faced by SMMEs.
The Minister for Performance Monitoring and Evaluation in The Presidency has written to all national and provincial departments and municipalities and urged Ministers, Premiers, MECs and mayors via Premiers, to ensure that heads of departments comply with the regulations. The departments and municipalities are expected to provide feedback to the Minister at the end of July.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are also working hard to promote gender equity in the economic sphere. We want to emphasise greater focus on entrepreneurship development for women, especially in the male dominated construction and property industries amongst others. However, we must add that while the 50 percent gender representation policy of the ANC and government are commendable, there needs to be a way to encourage the private sector to do likewise.
Better enforcement of the provisions of the Employment Equity Act could go a very long way towards achieving this objective. Ladies and gentlemen, I am also aware that the issue of the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Act is of genuine concern to you. We have worked hard to ensure that legislation such as the CIDB Act supports rather than hinders black owned businesses.
It is not acceptable for small and emerging contractors to find it cumbersome to register on the CIDB Register of Contractors or for established contractors to move to higher grading levels. Part of the challenge stems from the inability of lower level contractors to provide audited statements which forms part of the CIDB grading assessment.
However, I agree with the suggestion of the black business caucus in the built environment that the CIDB has to offer the requisite support to emerging contractors through, for example, training and mentorship programmes.I am satisfied that there are open channels of communication between the parties and the fact that CIDB has undertaken to attend to the concerns that have been raised. Task teams have been established to deal with each of the issues raised.
I have also been advised that there would be follow up meetings that would be held in the near future for the task teams to give report backs on their findings. I believe that this is the correct approach of reaching common ground, and would await developments and reports from this front.
Compatriots, during the elections we pledged that the ANC government would have, as one of its key priorities, the fight against crime and corruption in order to ensure safer and more secure communities. To this end, we have begun working to overhaul the criminal justice system and work towards reducing crime levels.
In the next three years the number of police personnel will be significantly increased from 183 180 to 204 860 with more focus being given to increased visibility and enhancing crime detection. Over the next year, the number of detectives will increase by 19 percent and a programme is already underway to train 12 928 detectives.
But the most effective response should come from ordinary South Africans, who should cooperate with the police in the fight against crime. Working together we will do more to fight crime decisively. Ladies and gentlemen, every life is valuable. We are saddened by the death of nine miners who were killed by a fall of ground at Impala Platinum's Rustenburg operations on Monday.
We extend our condolences to the families of all those killed in this disaster.Around 200 miners die each year in South Africa and this is alarming and unacceptable. Government will work more intensively with mining groups and labour to address this issue without delay. On the labour front, it is still bargaining season. Wage negotiations in a number of sectors, including in the public service, have not yet been resolved. Strikes have occurred and more are threatened. Wage negotiations around this time are not an unusual occurrence, nor are the resorting to strike action when agreement is not achieved. This happens every year.
Due to the current economic conditions, these negotiations may be more difficult this year. Employers and workers must negotiate in good faith and should be prepared to understand each other’s positions. We wish all parties that are still negotiating a speedy resolution, so that life can normalise for employers and workers alike. We have also noted with great concern, the protests that have erupted in several parts of the country. This government will listen to people’s concerns, and will work with them to address them. We will always do that; we will govern with our people.
We acknowledge that there are service delivery problems in some areas and that is why we have reconfigured government departments and have instituted some changes that should improve the way government functions. We are putting systems in place to create a more responsive and more effective government.
Our Constitution allows our people the right of freedom of assembly and expression and to protest where they feel they need to, but this must be done within the ambit of the law.
There can be no justification for violence, looting and destruction of property or attacks on foreign nationals residing in our country. The law enforcement agencies will continue to act swiftly and to take action against all who break the law. They have our full support as they carry out their mandate to maintain law and order in our communities. Ladies and gentlemen, let me remind you of what I said the last time we met. We need your talent and expertise in the public service.
You will be moved by how people’s lives will be changed for the better, by the work you perform. Most importantly, you will have the power to implement all the suggestions you are making, once you join the public service! Compatriots, we appreciate the fact that we were able to meet again. Let me thank you for placing your confidence in the ANC government. We will from our side work to formalise the interaction so that our discussions can impact on our policy and implementation processes.
Teams from the Presidency and the organisations represented here will take the matters forward.
I thank you.
Issued by: The Presidency23 July 2009Source: The Presidency (http://www.thepresidency.gov.za//)
moladi supports you in your endevours to get South Africa (Pty) Ltd housed and working
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