HDA News

Dear Stakeholders

The festive season is upon us and we can already feel the slowing down. The HDA has in the past quarter of the financial year been focusing on project implementation of the government-led catalytic projects that are on the 2017/2018 financial year horizon.

Also during this quarter we presented our Annual Report for the past financial year - 2016/17 - to the Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements. I am pleased to share with you as stakeholders that again the Agency has received an unqualified audit. We really want to thank all the employees of the Agency that work meticulously to ensure that our set rules and procedures are adhered to at all times while we execute our work in a very pressured environment.

At the start of 2018, we will be rolling out a public information campaign around our catalytic projects. This will focus on information-sharing about specific projects within the concerned localities. We look forward to interacting with all our stakeholders as we go around the country marking the official launches of the respective projects.

Our Mining Towns Programme is also gaining much needed traction. Having commenced with the Marapong Community Resiential Units (CRU) project in Lephalale in December 2016, we are pleased to say that the project is in construction phase and work is progressing very well.

As you may all know, one of our functions is to find and develop land on behalf of government. As set in our Annual Performance Plan, we continue to achieve and exceed our targets in this regard.

Let me take this opportunity to thank all of our hardworking contractors; those who have in earnest contributed to the achievement of our set goals as we gear up towards upscaling human settlements delivery through the catalytic projects programme.
We extend a word of gratitude to the various provinces and municipalities we work with. Ours is to assist you to fulfill your constitutional mandate of providing decent housing.

To our communities, the people we ultimately labour for, congratulations to those who got their title deeds this year. We are working hard to ensure that your interaction with the HDA is smooth and always has courtesy and redress. Take care of the assets that government has given you so as to create a legacy for your families and break the cycle of poverty and displacement.

Happy festive season to all of you! Be safe on the roads as you head back home or to your holiday destinations.

We look forward to 2018 with renewed hope that we will again diligently undertake our work with the cordial spirit of cooperation and partnership.

Compliments of the New Year!

Minister launches John Dube Village Mega City Project in Ekurhuleni

The John Dube Mega City Human Settlements Project forms one of government's 31 Gauteng integrated human settlements projects that are expected to collectively yield over 500 000 housing units upon completion. It is expected that the projects, which involve all spheres of government (national, provincial and local) as well as the private sector, will be completed over a ten-year period.

On Tuesday 11 October, the Minister of Human Settlements, Lindiwe Sisulu, together with the Gauteng MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and Human Settlements, Paul Mashatile launched the John Langalibalele Dube Mega project in Duduza in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng. The project is a part of government's plan to transform the apartheid spatial plan. "This is one of the projects which cement our commitment to integrated human settlements. It reflects our community in diversity," said Minister Sisulu. The Housing Development Agency will be responsible for the programme management of the development, a role that will entail interfacing with all development role players and ensuring that project development bottlenecks are promptly addressed.

The John Dube Village Mega City will feature a different mix of housing types including BNG houses, military veterans units, rental stock units, affordable bonded units and serviced sites. The new township will also boast public facilities including seven primary schools, three secondary schools, 53 parks, eight business facilities, a civic centre, and a university. In addition, the minister said plans for a hospital were also in the pipeline.

Bokone Bophirima partners with The HDA to develop provincial master spatial plan

The Department of Local Government and Human Settlements in Bokone Bophirima has partnered with the HDA on a consultative drive that involved the engagement of various sector officials, practitioners and affected government departments in the province toward the development of the Bokone Bophirima Human Settlements Master Spatial Plan (HSMSP).

The development of the HSMSP follows on Minister Lindiwe Sisulu's 2014 Budget Speech in which she committed to "laying the basis for a Master Spatial Plan for Human Settlements so that we can direct all the necessary amenities to where human settlements are and we are able to plan ahead for the provision of the necessary infrastructure."

Following on this directive, Mohamed Shaik-habeeb - a representative from the Department of Local Government and Human Settlements - underlined the intention of the HSMP as being "to direct and focus government resources, municipalities and private investment in human settlements to overcome the legacy of apartheid spatial planning. This will pave the way for integrated communities being created through projects that connect people to work and economic opportunities."

The plan is set to become the underpinning design for all human settlements in the region. The final MSP was submitted to the Bokone Bophirima Department of Human Settlements for adoption.

The HDA showcases its role at Gauteng Department of Social Development Summit

The Gauteng Department of Social Development on the 27th of September hosted the Social Infrastructure Sum­mit, a gathering of stakeholders from the human settlements sector aimed at seeking alignment between the department's infrastructure planning and the Provincial Strategy Framework of Transformation, Modernization and Re-industrialization (TMR).

The HDA's program management role for Gauteng Mega projects is to establish within existing steering committee integrated planning approach where all the social amenities are initially included in the planning process.

Partnering with Gauteng Department of Social Development' infrastructure planning division will make it possible for social amenities to be included in development of new townships as they will form part of their business planning process and budget allocation.

"It is crucial to embrace these partnership as first step to achieve mix use development in achieving integrated development and discouraging poor spatial planning," said Mooketsi Mphahlele (HDA Head of Built Environment). "As the HDA we are looking forward to a very fruitful partnership with the governments departments to ensure a fully integrated approach in our planning and implementation."

The HDA was also invited to the summit to showcase, through 3D Models, how it uses GIS capabilities for geographic data analysis and to feature the challenges and opportunities encountered daily on the ground in the development process as well as how it is responding to these challenges. Our GIS Team can be reached on 0115441000

The HDA meets with contractors to upscale delivery

In an attempt to upscale the delivery of human settlements in Gauteng Province, the HDA team on Friday 03 November 2017 met with all the contractors and professional service providers involved in the construction of houses in the Province. The purpose of the session was to hear contractors' concerns and to find ways of accelerating the construction of houses in Gauteng. The Agency has an agreed target of 3455 housing units with Gauteng Province in the current financial year. Progress to date includes 2232 foundations; 1825 wall plates; 1417 roofs and finishes, and 1274 overall completions.

The contractors complimented the Agency for its turn-around time in processing contractors' payments. Concerns raised by the contractors included Province Quality Assurance turn-around times for inspection of completed development milestones; SMMES and communityparticipation in the construction process; house specifications and costs, and the high wages payable to community liaison officers.

The Agency undertook to promptly deal with and address the concerns raised by the contractors and the professional service providers with a view to ensuring that all the targeted housing units are delivered within the current financial year.

The HDA eyes partnership with University of The Free State

The HDA's Free State office recently engaged with the University of the Free State's Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences to introduce the university to the HDA's main activities and to identify areas of mutual interest for potential collaborations and long term working relationships.

This meeting was in line with the HDA's strategic objective to become the government developer of choice by ensuring alignment between our activities as a government agency and the teachings of academia about the social housing sector.

Our HDA Free State team met with officers from the University of the Free State's Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Built Environment and Engineering Services.

The proposed partnership will see the HDA benefitting from research while students from the university benefit from work exposure.

HDA hosts Senegalese housing study tour to South Africa

The HDA played host to a delegation of senior representatives from the Sen­egalese Ministry of Housing and Urban Development on the 4th of November to provide the visiting officials with a pre­sentation of the HDA's work and role in South Africa's housing programme.

The delegation, which was led by Mr. Yatma Gueye, Chief of Staff and Special Advisor to the Minister of Housing and Urban Development was in the country to learn about South Africa's experiences in the delivery of affordable housing. Of particular interest to the delegates were Social Housing Provision, including Rental Housing; Subsidisation Mechanisms; Housing Fi­nance Mechanisms including Mortgage Systems; Land Development Mechanisms, Site and Service, and Incremental Housing.

During their stay, the team also visited inner city projects in Johannesburg and Pretoria to get a feel and true experience of some of the projects that have been delivered through the South African housing programme.

Map of the quarter

With the availability of aerial or satellite imagery, any object, area, or phenomenon on earth can be investigated. This field of study is called remote sensing. The development of Remote sensing and GIS has resulted in production of methods that are used for the detection of land use change whereby images of the same area at different times are compared to each other to determine land use change (Fan, 2008).

Figures 1-4 shows how high resolution Digital Globe satellite images can be used to monitor an informal settlement upgrade between 2009 and 2017 in Boystown. In 2009, Boystown was a 100% informal settlement as shown in figure 1. However, 500 units were delivered as shown in figure 2. Figure 3 further shows that, in August 2016, the land was prepared for further construction and, as a result, another 305 units were delivered by August 2017, as shown in figure 4. Thus, in total, 805 units have been delivered in Boystown to date. The HDA Western Cape Office has been instrumental in the upgrading of the Boystown informal settlement. The HDA has cutting-edge mapping and GIS services. Contact the HDA's GIS department for more information.