According to Statistics SA, the province does not have a substantial informal dwelling problem.
Cope congratulates Limpopo on allocating 58,3% of its budget for rural housing. This should be the trend in all rural provinces. We then need to ask whether the provincial budgets are in line with the national department targets.
South Africans in poverty-stricken provinces have no access to quality water and sanitation. In 2009, 24% of households in the Northern Cape had problems with water that did not taste good, and 19% of people in the Eastern Cape are still using the bucket system. [Interjections.]
Rural municipalities are faced with huge basic services backlogs - 65% in water and 79% in sanitation. This is compounded by the lack of capacity at both the provincial and local levels.
Cope urges speedy intervention in the challenges facing the Rural Household Infrastructure programme. We also believe that it is far better for the government to identify programmes to train unemployed people and use them in infrastructure development thereafter. I thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]