Cape Town - Metro municipalities are set to develop their own housing plans by June 2018 should the government gets its way on a new housing proposal.
Government has plans to completely transfer housing delivery in urban areas to the metro municipalities.
The Western Cape government already signed memorandum of agreement with the City of Cape Town to deliver houses in the metro.
Speaking on the sidelines of his department’s annual report presentation, Human Settlements MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela said his department would remain responsible for housing delivery in areas outside of the metro.
“As an MEC I will still be responsible for the work outside of the metro as the capacity (in those areas) is still a challenge,” he said.
Section 126 of the Constitution and Section 10 of Municipal Systems Act will be pivotal in the new plans, Madikizela said.
“This process started more than two years ago. The City got level 3 accreditation which means that they can now administer all housing projects in their municipal area. A process was started for all metro municipalities in the country,” he said.
Madikizela said there are still matters to clear out before anything will be approved.
“Treasury will give the money, we will sign off on the city’s housing plans and maintain an oversight role,” he said.
Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille in a previous statement said the move would lead to more effective planning and the establishment of a more responsive pipeline of projects.
“This development is in line with the objectives of the City’s Organisational Development and Transformation Plan (ODTP) to enhance service delivery and become more a proactive and customer-centric administration,” she said.
The City was granted Level 1 and 2 accreditation of human settlements delegations and functions from the Western Cape Government during March 2011.
“This enables the City to manage and administer all human settlement programmes which it has been accredited to perform – a responsibility that previously fell under the purview of the Western Cape Department of Human Settlements,” De Lille said.