The Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements will over the next two days undertake an oversight visit to the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality to assess the city’s progress in spending the Urban Settlement Development Grant (USDG) and the Informal Settlements Upgrading Grant. The committee has on several occasions scheduled a meeting with the city to get an update on itsspending of these critical grants but the municipality highlighted challenges with travel funding to attend the meetings. The oversight will be used to get an update from the city and to visit various infrastructure development sites.

The committee is of the view that the effective spending of these grants will ensure focused services such as housing, informal settlements and basic services within the city for the benefit of the most vulnerable communities. The main purpose of the USDG is to assist the municipality to improve bulk infrastructure and services. The recent outbreak of cholera in the Tshwane area could point to weaknesses within the municipality on spending the grant and this will have a negative impact on the drive to improve quality service delivery incommunities.

Since its inception, the committee has emphasised the need for municipalities to strengthen their internal technical capacity to enhance performance in contract management and spending of allocated grants. This visit will assess initiatives the city has undertaken in response to this advice from the committee and the impact thereof.

Source: Parliament of South Africa