Johannesburg - A number of shortcomings have been identified in the City of Joburg’s Upgrading of Informal Settlements Programme (UISP).
These are contained in a report released by the Gauteng office of the SA Human Rights Commission.
The report detailed projects that the three metros in Gauteng have committed themselves to in the 2020/21 financial year under the UISP.
According to the report, the city failed to submit its draft plan for the Urban Settlements Development Grant (USDG) in 2019/20.
The report indicates that the city rectified this in 2020/21,as they submitted a plan which included its multi-year UISP plan, with the requirements set out in the 2020 Division of Revenue Bill.
The city’s projects include formalisation of informal settlements, electrification and new basic water and sewer services. Areas to benefit were Princess Plot, Meriting, Rugby Club, Matholesville, Kya Sands, Lenasia Ext 11 (Patsing) and Vasco Da Gama.
“The City of Joburg has done well to indicate all the areas that would be electrified and receive new basic water and sewer services in 2020/21 under two of the listed projects,” the report read.
However, the report indicated that there was a concern with what the city has spent in implementing these projects.
“A mere 11% of the budgets linked to these projects has been spent. Of similar concern is that only 1% of the budget had been spent between the end of September and December, in the second quarter.”
The report revealed the city has also not provided reasons for the delays in implementation of the projects.
The commission’s Dalli Weyes warned that the delays, especially where they appeared to simply be administrative in nature, reflect poorly on the city and have real-world consequences for residents citywide.
“The failure of the City of Joburg to timeously initiate and procure services negatively impacts on the right of residents of informal settlements to adequate housing.”
In the City of Ekurhuleni, their USDG and UISP component plan, submitted in May last year, had failed to account for R50 million.
“Of the projects listed in the plan, only two indicated the number of households that would be targeted over the 2020/21 financial year to be in line with the Service Delivery and Budget Implementation Plan (SDBIP).”
The report clarified that another failing for Ekurhuleni was not knowing conclusively how many informal settlement households stood to benefit from the R390m set aside for upgrading in the 2020/21 USDG UISP plan.
“This lack of conformity across various documents is also partly because what metros have included under their 2020/21 USDG UISP component is not reflected in their overall, multi-year UISP plan.”
In correspondence with the City of Tshwane over its 2020/21 USDG and UISP component, the SAHRC noted that it was appreciative of the fact that the municipality had been placed under administration on March 5, and that the administration had been successfully challenged in the courts and ultimately set aside in October last year.
Despite this, the report said: “Historically, the City of Tshwane, whether under administration or not, has not met the requirements set by the USDG. In 2019/20 … the city had failed to submit their draft USDG plans.”
The report said in the same year R200m of the USDG that had been allocated to Tshwane was not transferred to the the administration due to non-performance.
The report showed that the City of Tshwane had fared no better in 2020/21. Even though the city managed to submit a USDG plan, the plan’s annexure covering the upgrading of informal settlements simply listed 20 informal settlements.
“… the city in its plans has not listed any projects that would benefit from the USDG UISP component made available to it – an amount of R320m.”
The report stated that the failure of the City of Tshwane to meet the requirements around the USDG, and specifically around its UISP component, was indicative of poor planning, poor budgeting and poor reporting, and showd a lack of commitment to ensuring the right to adequate housing through the upgrading of informal settlements was met.
The Star