Welcome to our quarterly newsletter of 2016 - updating and informing you, our stakeholders, about our activities and projects. The HDA is a national public development agency that was established by the Housing Development Agency Act of Parliament (Act 23 of 2008) to promote sustainable communities. This, the agency does through making well-located land and buildings available for, and leading and supporting the development of human settlements. For more information
on how the HDA is structured, how it works and what services it provides, visit www.thehda.co.za
Dear Stakeholders
The end of 2016 has been momentous for the HDA. We have just held a very successful Developers' Consultative Round Table where we interacted with our stakeholders and government on our revised role as government developer of choice for human settlements. Followed by this, was Minmec's endorsement of our work on the Catalytic Projects. Forty five of these projects, which are led by government, will soon be announced to the public.
Our joint exhibition with the Department of Human Settlements, and our Geographic Information System expertise continued to trend, specifically when the European Commission - Joint Research Centre (EC-JRC) requested us to demonstrate the advanced systems at one of the sessions at the Habitat III Conference held in Quito, Ecuador!
I will have failed if I don't, first of all, acknowledge the men and women who form part of the HDA staff. Under massive constrains, they were able to steer the ship to a new-fangled direction. We went through many processes to redesign our internal structures in order for us to become the developer for government. I also
appreciate our Board, partners, stakeholders and government, who worked with us in to get to where we are.
The mist has been dispersed and the role of the HDA is now clearer to the sector. The 2017 year will be a year of ample implementation.
Till then, I wish a merry festive season to you, our stakeholders!
Best Regards,
Pascal Moloi
HDA repositions as state developer of choice
We have now evolved and repositioned ourselves as government's developer of choice for human settlements.
Hundreds of developers and stakeholders converged on 21 November at our inaugural consultative roundtable which aimed at unpacking the new mandate of the Agency as government's developer of human settlements. At the roundtable, the Deputy Minister of Human Settlements, Zou Kota-Fredericks (MP) announced the HDA as "the official state developer". She further urged private sector developers to enter into partnerships with the government to tackle South Africa's housing backlog. This follows a pronunciation by the Minister of Human Settlements in her 2014 budget speech to transform the HDA into "a fully-fledged public sector developer."
The Director General of the Department of Human Settlements, Mbulelo Tshangana said he recognised that red tape is expensive and time consuming for developers who found themselves having to go to different departments to get projects started. "The HDA could help resolve this issue by becoming a one-stop shop for developers in provinces and municipalities, but they have to discuss different solutions to deal with the housing backlog."
The HDA CEO, Pascal Moloi said that the HDA will build towards its overall developer role in a phased manner in line with resources. "Initial focus will be on a limited number of catalytic projects to test approaches, mobilise resources and build partnerships," said Pascal.
"The HDA has carved its niche and delivered beyond expectation on its role as project support for the Department of Human Settlements," said the Deputy Minister.
"Today we are pleased to announce that working with the HDA Board and the CEO, we have done all that we needed to do to establish a business case for the transitioning of the HDA into the official state developer."
For more information, please Click Here to access copies of speeches by the CEO, Deputy Minister and Chair of the Board. Youtube streaming: Click Here
HDA participates in the Human Settlements Conference
The Housing Development Agency participated in the inaugural Human Settlements Conference hosted by the Department of Human Settlements in partnership with the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.
The three-day conference was held on 5-7 October under the theme "Sustainable future cities and human settlements begin today." It included delegates from government, academics and private sectors.
The conference was preceded by a tour for delegates and the media to the HDA's Zanemvula mega project and other projects under the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro (NMBM) Support Programme - which included the Walmer Q 189 Project which won the Integrated Resident Development Programme (IRDP) project at this year's Eastern Cape Govan Mbeki Awards. The HDA is an implementing agent and the project manager for this mega project. The Zanemvula Project consists mainly of replanning, upgrading and improving Soweto-on-Sea and Veeplaas (the source area) and the development of services, top structures and the necessary urban socio-economic facilities in the Greenfield Reception Projects of the Chatty Extensions and Joe Slovo West. In all, approximately 20 000 Breaking New Ground (BNG) housing units will be delivered over a period of 15 years. To date, 8 071 units have been delivered from the various component projects since 2006.
The conference encouraged interdisciplinary debate and thinking on new approaches, perspectives and cutting edge technologies and practices that can bring about transformation of cities and human settlements.
It is envisaged that the partnership with universities will bring much improvement to the human resources in the human settlements sector. "It is through these institutions that we will continue to refine our thinking and infuse new thinking into an otherwise rigid public service," said the Minister of Human Settlements, Lindiwe Sisulu (MP). She added further that doing the same thing day-in and day-out is the surest way of killing creativity and innovation.
HDA demonstrates GIS tool at Habitat III, Ecuador
The HDA, together with the South African National Space Agency (SANSA), was sponsored by the European Commission - Joint Research Centre (EC-JRC), to demonstrate how the Global Human Settlements Layer (GHSL) is used in South Africa at the United Nations Habitat III Conference. South Africa and Brazil are the first users outside the European Union to have used the GHSL. The GHSL is a global spatial dataset that was developed by the EC-JRC to describe human presence over time. This layer uses satellite images from 1975, 1990, 2000 and 2015 to show where built-up areas, more specifically, human settlements, are located. Satellite images are then related to population statistics obtained from census data, which can be used to monitor settlements growth over time.
"The GHSL is a good solution to monitor settlements growth from 1975," said Hadley Remas (Our Manager: Geographic Information System and Business Intelligence). "Currently, SANSA can provide satellite images for South Africa at a higher resolution than the EC-JRC and has had successes in classifying informal settlements in some municipalities across South Africa." Future research will focus on urban expansion, transformation from informal settlements to formal townships and possibly an annual layer that can be used for project monitoring.
For more information kindly contact our GIS unit on 011 544 1000 or visit www.lapsis.co.za
DHS and agencies join forces to handover decent homes to the elderly
The community of Savannah City cheered as they welcomed the Minister of Human Settlements, Honourable Lindiwe Sisulu at a community ceremony to hand over houses in the Sedibeng District Municipality - one of the HDA's strategic catalytic projects in the Gauteng Province on Friday, 23 September 2016.
As an institution of the Department of Human Settlements and a partner with the Gauteng Provincial Human Settlements, the HDA took part in organising this Celebrity Build ceremonial handover.
Together with other Human Settlements entities, the HDA sponsored groceries and furniture to the four elderly beneficiaries who received houses for the first time.
This Celebrity Build programme was launched in 2015 where a number of prominent South Africans, including actors and musicians participated in the event to show their support for government's efforts to improve the lives of people in South Africa.
The Minister was joined by the Deputy Minister of Human Settlements, Zou Kota-Fredericks; Human Settlements MEC forGauteng, Paul Mashatile; Executive Mayor of Sedibeng, Cllr. Busisiwe Modisakeng, and the Executive Mayor of Midvaal LocalMunicipality, Cllr. Bongani Baloyi, (accompanied by local councillors) as well as the HDA CEO, Pascal Moloi and other dignitaries.
Savannah City is one of the Department of Human Settlements integrated projects and it straddles at least three municipalities, the District of Sedibeng, Midvaal and Johannesburg. It is a R24 Billion project which will yield more than 18 000 integrated units with different tenure options like BNG houses, rental and bonded units, when complete.
Map of the quarter
Housing need per main place in relation to
developments, May 2014 - Jan 2016: Ekurhuleni MM
The attached map illustrates the relationship between housing need and new developments in the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality between May 2013 and January 2016. According to the Census 2011 data, Ekurhuleni MM has a total housing need of 226 764 households, with the top three highest ranked Main Places out of 32, holding 47% of the total housing need (> 20 000 households).
In general, the map illustrates a weak correlation between housing need and new developments in the metro e.g Tembisa is ranked first in the housing need and 12th in total number of new developments.
The top three areas being:
Thembisa - 21% (45 410 households)
Katlehong - 14% (31 576 households)
Boksburg - 13% (29 113 households)
According to the data, between May 2013 and January 2016, a total of 10 031 new developments were recorded in Ekurhuleni MM, with 55% of the developments taking place in the following areas:
Boksburg - 24% (2 435 developments)
Ekurhuleni NU - 16% (1 634 developments)
Benoni - 14% (1 442 developments)
