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MINISTRY
COOPERATIVE GOVERNANCE AND TRADITIONAL AFFAIRS
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
QUESTIONS FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NUMBER 2015/400
DATE OF PUBLICATION: 27 FEBRUARY 2015
Mr W M Madisha (Cope) to ask the Minister of Cooperative Governance and
Traditional Affairs: (DCoG)
(1) Whether, with reference to the reply of the Minister of Human
Settlements to question 1330 on 3 October 2014, any municipality in
the country has, with or without the assistance of his department,
fully transformed any apartheid-established townships in the course
of the last two decades by (a) tree-lining the streets, (b)
clearing away all junk and litter, (c) imposing stricter town
planning regulations, (d) building new and improved infrastructure
and recreational facilities and (e) giving such facelift to the
townships in order to make people who reside in those townships
proud; if not, why not; if so, what are the details;
(2) whether he will make a statement on the state and the condition
of apartheid-established townships in the democratic South Africa?
NW475E
Reply:
Municipalities, and the rest of government, have dedicated resources and
attention to the transformation of apartheidâtownships in order to improve
the quality of lives of the residents. Several programmes have been
dedicated to these areas, and I will indicate just a few. The Gauteng 20
Priority Township Programme, which was implemented as a partnership between
the Province and municipalities, led to the tarring of all streets in
Soweto, planting of trees, provision of social facilities and other
investments in townships such as Soshanguve and many more in the Gauteng
Province. Many similar initiatives have been implemented in townships
throughout the country, building on the principles of the Urban Renewal
Programme. The Clean Cities, Towns and Villages Programme that the
Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs administered
focussed on cleaning, greening (tree planting and gardening), and waste
recycling and thereby contributing to the transformation of such spaces.
The Community Works Programme and the Expanded Public Works Programme,
improve the quality of life through maintenance of infrastructure,
cleaning, greening of public spaces, etc., while also creating job
opportunities. The Neighbourhood Partnership Development Programme,
administered by the National Treasury, is another of such programmes where
resources have been made available to support the development of townships.
The Municipal Infrastructure Grant also provides resources for priority
infrastructure and other facilities as determined by the municipalities.
The list is endless. All these collective efforts are gradually
transforming our townships. An analysis conducted by Statistics South
Africa on the relationship between municipal spending and priority areas
indicate that municipalities are spending a significant percentage of their
capital budget in the formerly disadvantaged areas. The development of the
retail sector in the townships is an indication of the confidence of the
private sector in the potential of the townships as a result of the public
investments that have gone there.
A case study by StatsSA on relationship between Spatial Development
Frameworks and capital spending (study focused on Johannesburg, Cape Town
and Rustenburg) found that: Generally, there is higher expenditure in
previously marginalized areas than in developed areas.
With regard to implementation of the town planning regulations, most
municipalities have developed town planning schemes that cover the
townships. There is however scope for strengthening the enforcement of the
schemes and related regulations.
Generally, most of our townships are better places than they were prior
1994.
We are, however, aware of some of the challenges still facing our
townships, mainly old infrastructure that is not coping with growth, and
municipalities struggling to maintain, replace the old infrastructure while
investing in new infrastructure to accommodate growth. Illegal dumping is
still a big problem, but solving this would also require communities to
play their part by keeping their neighbourhoods clean.