President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered two of his ministers to form a joint team to engage with land and housing organisations demanding that state land be donated to communities living with insecure tenure.
They are the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Sihle Zikalala, and Minister of Human Settlements, Mmamoloko Kubayi
Ramaphosa was responding to GOOD party MP Brett Herron’s question about the applications that were formally submitted to him by the organisation, Ndifuna Ukwazi, on behalf of communities living on unsuitable wetland in Khayelitsha and a community in Gugulethu.
The questions were a sequel to marches by land and housing organisations to Ramaphosa’s house in Rondebosch and the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, demanding urgent action in the form of state land disposal.
The organisations had complained about land insecurity faced by the most vulnerable in the country, saying it required an urgent and agile response.
They argued that the State Land Disposal Act gave Ramaphosa the power to donate, sell, lease or exchange any piece of public land in the country.
“As communities, we have identified various vacant and underutilised parcels of land and buildings with the hopes of having these donated to us so we have access to land for living,” the organizations said when they delivered the memorandum of demands.
In his parliamentary questions, Herron asked whether Ramaphosa has considered the applications that were formally submitted to him by Ndifuna Ukwazi in September 2023, and the date he envisaged the process of considering the applications would be completed.
Ramaphosa said the Presidency was not in receipt of the applications for disposal of state land that were ‘formally submitted’ to him on 23 September 2023.
“However, the Presidency did receive a memorandum in August 2023. On the basis of this memorandum, I have requested the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure and the Minister of Human Settlements to constitute a joint team to engage with the organisation in question.”
Asked how the government intended to use its proposed serviced sites programme to promote equitable land distribution in well-located areas to enhance socio-economic development for communities in need, Ramaphosa said the Department of Human Settlements’ programme of delivery of serviced sites aimed to accommodate households, mainly residing in the informal settlements, whose income levels would enable them to gradually build on their own once they had access to land.
“The programme prioritises access to housing in well-located areas that are close to economic opportunities, social amenities and transport infrastructure. A total of 186,750 serviced sites were delivered between 2019 and March 2024,” he said.
“The serviced sites programme aims in the longer term to mitigate current challenges relating to unauthorised occupation of land, often accompanied with the mushrooming of informal settlements in the country,” Ramaphosa added.
Herron also asked about the steps the government was taking to ensure compliance with the Government Immovable Asset Management Act in the disposal of state land.
Ramaphosa said the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure released state land identified as suitable for human settlement development to the Housing Development Agency (HDA).
“This is done through the issuing of power of attorney to the HDA, for commencement of township development processes and ultimate transfer to the beneficiaries.”
He added that the department consulted with the affected user departments and stakeholders before any disposal was considered to confirm if they needed the identified properties for their respective government functions.
“If the identified properties are still required for government purposes, the applicant is informed accordingly.”
Ramaphosa explained that the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure released state land to support land redistribution, land restitution, human settlement development and for other socio-economic purposes.
“This includes availing suitable state land for the building of affordable houses for the benefit of the qualifying, historically disadvantaged and poor communities,” he said.
However, Ramaphosa said, state land disposals were subjected to due diligence, including feasibility studies, valuations, town planning and others to ensure that the best disposal option was undertaken to achieve socio-economic objectives.
Cape Times