Durban - HUMAN Settlements Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi says that radical economic transformation cannot be achieved unless it was backed up with tangible results and benefited women, youth and black-owned businesses.
Kubayi was speaking during an exclusive interview with the Daily News.
“We need to look at many factors. Are we able to create black industrialists in these areas? Are we buying our materials locally? Who is delivering the goods? And who is building the houses?”
“Unless we can go into granular details like that we cannot achieve sustainable development.“
She expressed the need to buy locally and support black-owned entities.
The minister said KwaZulu-Natal was the number-one performing province in the country, which necessitated the national department to come see what they are doing.
“We all need to be accountable for what we do. Are we supporting local brands?
She said the department needed to account in terms of its capacity to create sustainable jobs and there was a need to accelerate service delivery.
“The majority of people have been waiting in the queue for many years. Some have jumped the queue because of corruption. We really need to deal with the trust deficit.”
“The 365 Days Delivery and Efficiency will ensure that we deliver on time and to the right people.”
She said the different departmental programmes were packaged in a way that responded to different South Africans.
“We have to provide shelter to the vulnerable. We continue to have migrant workers and we need to provide rental space to provide for them and those who did not want a bond, but only a space that they can afford.”
She said the department’s aim was to change the landscape of human settlements in the country, in a manner that addresses apartheid.
She said the grants system would be reviewed, as only eThekwini was receiving the bulk infrastructure grant.
“Monies allocated to municipalities must be spent correctly, because the return of that money is unjustifiable. There are so many needs. And settlements can be built.”
“We are not meeting targets in human settlements. Funds are allocated according to what the MEC has committed to do in that financial year.”
She said all departments will be making interventions to rebuild in KZN as it was the hardest hit by Covid-19 and the riots.
“Before we can talk about increasing the budget, we need to think about spending. Let’s fix our house and get it in order. Let’s spend and then get an increase.”
“There is a need to analyse how many black-owned businesses had been moved from grade one to seven. We need to understand that SMMEs and black-owned businesses cannot compete with big corporations that have been in existence for many years.”
She said this was due to the fact that they have been able to cut down operating costs and had reduced bank loans.
Human Settlements and Public Works MEC Jomo Sibiya said they had requested the national government to increase the amount used to build each house, as it was now no longer viable for the service providers to build settlements due to the price hikes in materials that should be sourced.
“We must be able to give opportunities to women and young people. We must create employment with proper planning,” he said.
Daily News