The Chairperson of the Select Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Water and Sanitation and Human Settlements, Mr China Dodovu, and the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements, Ms Machwene Semenya, are horrified by the fire that gutted a building in the Johannesburg CBD and led to 73 people confirmed dead.

The chairpersons stressed that while it will be premature to apportion blame to anyone at this time, it is important, however, that cities must ensure adherence to safety standards of buildings. “The loss of so many souls must be a wake-up call to the city’s administration, and all metropolitan municipalities must urgently find solutions to the hijacked building crisis in major cities. Also, there is a general need for all cities to address the huge human settlements’ pressures caused by urban migration as people look for employment opportunities in those cities,” Mr Dodovu emphasised.

Ms Semenya said another area of improvement that the cities must focus on is the completion of projects funded through the Urban Settlements Development Grant which will assist to alleviate the pressure of demand for human settlements opportunities.

“In 2020 the National Treasury informed us that it was in the process of invoking Section 19 (1)(b) of the Division of Revenue Act which calls for the stopping of a transfer of an allocation or a portion to a municipality. This amounted to National Treasury withholding R1,7 billion of the USGD to metropolitan municipalities. The committee then underscored that while there might be political challenges facing most metros’ the committee was unhappy because the USDG is meant to deliver critical infrastructure and to upgrade informal settlements and provide services with the aim to eradicate the housing deficit by placing more focus on metros as the centres of economic growth,” said Ms Semenya.

According to the Department of Human Settlements about 72% of the total allocation of the USDG was not spent by the metros then. Of the 12 045 386 voted funds for the USDG the metros have only cumulatively spent 3 376 188. This is despite infrastructure backlogs in those metros that experience pressures due to urban migration.

The two chairpersons highlighted that while solutions to the complex migration challenge require time, planning and resources, the administrations of cities and provinces should be effectively utilising resources within their disposal such as the USDG and Human Settlements Development Grants to alleviate the existing high demand for services.

“We extend our heartfelt condolences to the families of those that perished in the fire,” the chairpersons concluded.

Source: Parliament of South Africa