MEC Moiloa’s comments are misleading and unfortunate
18 December 2018
Today, I have noted the malicious and vexatious statement by the MEC for Gauteng CoGTA and Human Settlements, Dikgang Uhuru Moiloa, regarding the reduction of the Human Settlements Development Grant (HSDG) for the City of Johannesburg.
Earlier this year, the Provincial Government, without warning or reason, reduced the City’s Human Settlements Development Grant (HSDG) funding by R180 million for the current financial year.
Today, the MEC bizarrely claimed that the reason for withdrawing the funding was as a result of the City not paying developers, not completing projects and failing to communicate with provincial government.
The statement is grossly misleading and as a clear illustration of the MEC’s interest in playing politics rather than seeing to the housing needs of our residents.
Over the past few months the City and the Provincial Department of Housing have been locked in an ongoing dispute regarding the redemption claims that must be sent to the Provincial Department of Human Settlements in order for the Province to release our HSDG funding.
During the 2017/18 financial year, the City experienced challenges with respect to the lapse of contractual agreements with contractors on a multi-year projects for the development of projects.
Following these challenges, and having made leadership changes within the Department, these contractual challenges were resolved and the resolution of which was communicated to Province.
Indeed, the City had communicated with the Province on these matters at all stages. By August of this year, all such contractual challenges were addressed. The MEC would seem to be unaware of these developments.
Indeed, the continued development of these multi-year projects is dependent on receiving the required funding from Province which had been agreed to.
Further to this, the City is in possession of correspondence which shows that the City had complied with all its redemption claims up to date.
The Province would now disingenuously claim this is not the case.
With respect to the Lufhereng project which the MEC takes issue with the Military Veterans Units, the matter was communicated with both the Provincial and National Departments of Human Settlements, the project was only stalled as a result of illegal invasions at the site of said project.
This included the invasion of 18 out of 30 housing projects for military veterans. Again, this was a matter where assistance was sought from the province and National to address the invasion issue.
Again, the MEC would seem to be playing ignorance to these matters.
The engagements with province, seemingly on bad faith, follows a pattern of Provincial Government intentionally reducing the City’s HSDG funding post the 2016 local government elections in which the ANC lost control of the City’s purse.
Prior to the 2016 elections the City was allocated R411 million for housing projects, however soon after entering office this was reduced by R66 million. The following year, the Province reduced the City’s HSDG funding from R411 million to R145 million. What the Province fails to realise is that these irrational decisions hurt our poorest residents the most.
The City is of the opinion that the latest decision by the Province, without basis, withhold a major portion of our HSDG funding is an irrational and arbitrary decision.
In the interests of inter-governmental relations, I wrote to Premier Makhura on the 5th of December 2018 requesting his urgent intervention. I then wrote to Minister Mfeketo, the Minister of Human Settlements requesting her urgent intervention. I did this in total good faith and in the spirit of co-operative governance as is required by the Constitution. However, these letters were met with dead silence.
Late last week, I wrote to President Cyril Ramaphosa for his intervention with this matter. To date, we have only received a confirmation of receipt.
As matters stand, the City has no choice but to institute an intergovernmental dispute and/or approach the High Court of South Africa requesting that they review and set aside this irrational decision.
Issued by Luyanda Mfeka, Director, Mayoral Communications, Office of the Executive Mayor, City of Johannesburg, 18 December 2018
