House Chairpersons of the NCOP,
Ministers and Deputy Ministers,
Speakers and Deputy Speakers,
Permanent and Special Delegates from the Provinces,
President of SALGA; Cllr Tau
Executive Mayors,
Traditional Leaders,
MMCs and Councillors,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and gentlemen

Programme director, I am happy to welcome all of us to the Local Government Week which creates the platform today until the end of the week to share experiences and best practices on the topic at hand, which is, Land use: Towards integrated and spatial planning. 

Our meeting today should not just be to allude too, but be about talking about confronting the challenges experienced at local government. It should also be about celebrating the achievements that local government has been able to make thus far.

As gathered here today, we are confronted with the increasing number of land invasions. The recent one; over the weekend being the Protea Glen in Soweto, which spilled till yesterday. We have also noticed such protests all over the country. What we also noticed is the violent nature of these protests.

Since the advent of democracy, the government is confronted with challenges such as spatial, economic and social transformation, economic growth and economic inclusion. The government has been grappling with the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and underdevelopment.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a long history which has been tainted with dispossession, inequality, discrimination, hardship. Its enduring physical outcomes remain with us today until we do something and will continue to be a reminder to future generations of a past that should never have been.

The key challenges inherited from the colonial and apartheid eras, included, massive structural and endemic social inequality, widespread poverty, rising unemployment, racially segregated communities and a shaky economy.

Unfortunately, these inherited challenges, have, over the years, been compounded by other emerging local challenges, such as rapid urbanisation and the associated demographic changes; the increased demand for local service delivery and accompanying increased social discontent, unrest and contestation; the persistence of vested interests; financial austerity, fiscal constraints and the slow pace of social and economic transformation.

We also know that due to the pressures of urbanisation, our municipalities especially in those in the metros and the cities are the target. We have the population inflow in the cities which result in affordable housing failing to meet the demand. We also know that the municipalities are burdened when it comes to the pressures to provide services as a result of this growing population. These we know affects the planning, and the provision of sufficient supply of affordable housing.

We still have old apartheid spatial patterns still dominating our current discourse. The next three days we need to guide ways that will unleash the potential of our cities and towns and reverse the terrible legacy of apartheid spatial injustice.

We know that local government is at the coalface of service delivery. We know that the Constitution in Chapter 3 compels co‐operation so that no single sphere of government can step aside from responsibility and argue that the exclusivity of the function requires such sphere to stand aside.

In 2014, SALGA brought to the attention of the NCOP is the number of Acts which were passed by Parliament which affects local government badly. They came back to the House to say their predictions were correct. We need to be more alive in cooperative governance. We need more discussion on the three spheres of government.

Despite these many challenges confronting the local government sphere. We commend SALGA for the initiative and interventions they have shown in tackling issues facing the local government sector.

Programme director, the UN Agenda 2030, and more specifically Goal number eleven, considers urbanization a source of economic growth, social prosperity, and environmental sustainability.

Human beings have always been motivated to move about in search of better land, better resources and better opportunities. Mobility is mankind’s oldest and most successful poverty fighter to make the poor richer, and the rich even richer still by spreading wealth, trade and expertise that benefit all of us.

We need to look at mobility in bettering the lives rather than deprive the lives like in the past.

Our National Development Plan (NDP) envisages a future in which, “we have created a home where everybody feels free yet bounded to others; where everyone embraces their full potential. We are looking at a South Africa were we say we are proud to be a community that cares.” That is why communication, dialogue, is important to us. Otherwise the NDP 2030 will remain in paper without no meaning to our people.

According to the United Nations, fifty-four percent of the world’s population lives in urban areas. It is projected to increase to sixty-six percent by the year 2050. Although Africa is the least urbanized continent in the world, its urbanization rates are nowadays higher than anywhere else. The continent’s population growth is projected to double to an estimate of 2 billion by 2040, with an accelerated transition from rural to urban.

In South Africa sixty-three percent already live in urban areas which will rise to seventy percent by 2030. By 2050 eighty percent South Africans will live in urban areas.

In 2015, the UN adopted seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aimed at ending poverty, fighting inequality and injustice, and tackling climate change by 2030. Goal eleven of the seventeen SDG’s is: “Making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.”

The African Union Agenda 2063 recognises that: “Cities and other settlements are hubs of cultural and economic activities, with modernized infrastructure, and people have access to affordable and decent housing including housing finance together with all the basic necessities of life such as, water, sanitation, energy, public transport and ICT.”

One of Agenda 2063’s key objectives is to: “Provide opportunities for all Africans to have decent and affordable housing in clean, secure and well planned environments.”

The NDP recognises that, “while the fundamental reshaping of the colonial and apartheid geography may take decades, by 2030 South Africa should observe meaningful and measurable progress in reviving the rural areas and in creating more functionally integrated, balanced and vibrant urban settlements.”

Today, we continue to face major settlement challenges as a country, which include the stubborn persistence of urban sprawl, racial and social separation and segregation, the erosion of settlement infrastructure and services, growing social exclusion, increasing crime, sluggish and jobless economic growth and the dwindling ecosystem services.

This has had knock-on effects which has led to a widening of the gap between the rich and the poor and contributed to unemployment and poverty persisting with a concomitant impact on all aspects of the quality of life for the majority of South Africans who battle to make a daily.

South African cities and towns are among the most polarised in the world, with stark disparities in the living conditions between suburbs, townships and informal settlements. These divisions are underpinned by substantial gaps in income, health, education and crime level.

Hon Members, SALGA’s representative role in the NCOP completes the fundamental make-up of the House as the only institution within South Africa’s constitutional construct that brings representatives of the three spheres of government under one roof. This is important for promoting the adherence to the principles of co-operative government and intergovernmental relations contained in chapter 3 of the Constitution.

In the 5th Parliament, we adopted Intergovernmental Governmental Relations and Cooperative Government as an overarching strategic injunction for this term of Parliament informing all the business of the House.

This week we are aiming at providing an opportunity for national reflection on issues affecting local government, in order to improve the lives of South Africans through accelerated service delivery.

I also anticipate that these interactions would sharpen our individual and collective understanding not only of the role we ought to be playing but also the inter-connectedness of our work within and across the three spheres of government.

The following key issues should be considered: 

Land use versus access to land with a special emphasis on freeing of urban land for human settlement, agriculture, economic and social development.

Apartheid spatial planning vis-vis the agenda of building a non-racial society.

Transformation of local government in the context of building sustainable municipalities.

As we engage in this discussion we must be careful not to pre-empt the process underway by the Constitutional Review Committee however this process must seek to enrich and add value to that debate.

One of the critical outstanding matter that needs the NCOP and SALGA to finalise going forward is to deal with all the proposals on pieces of legislation that impede delivery.

South Africa’s National Development Plan (NDP) challenges us, “to rethink the urban to face the future challenges” and to “grapple with this task and deal intelligently with social exclusion, environmental threats, economic inefficiencies, logistical bottlenecks, urban insecurity, decaying infrastructure and the impacts of new technologies.”

We must therefore use the opportunity to address some of the fundamental constraints hampering Local Government so that the sector has a more stable, sound and equitable policy, legislative and fiscal framework to deliver on the developmental mandate.

I wish you the best for in the deliberations in the panel discussions and in the commissions and hope they will have a meaningful contribution in our people.

I thank you!

ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
Enquiries: Moloto Mothapo 082 370 6930