Johannesburg – Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu says inter-governmental cooperation requires a unique commitment of the three spheres of government to work in a collaborative manner to improve the living conditions of South Africans.
She was speaking at the opening of the National Municipal Housing Indaba.
Ms Sisulu said her department, provincial housing MECs and the leadership of the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) had realized that municipalities had not been given a clear mandate for housing delivery.
“It must be clear how we structure our relationship – it should be in a manner that allows us to govern cooperatively across all spheres of government,” she said.
However, the minister said people must recognise that in effect they were a single government, inter-dependent and inter-related to each other.
She said the Indaba would put in place practical measures that would collectively boost performance in housing delivery.
“This Indaba allows crafting a common commitment to deliver to our people and relieve them from their misery because together we can,” she said.
SALGA chairperson and executive Mayor of Johannesburg, Amos Masondo, said underdevelopment, long years of deprivation and disparities caused by apartheid remained the critical challenges facing the country.
He said SALGA was “excited “that the department of housing had joined hands with them in developing sustainable solutions to the housing challenges.
“We remain convinced as Salga that the outcome of this Indaba and further interactions would result in full service delivery across all government levels, improving quality of life of our communities,” he said.
Mr Masondo said low cost housing should not be about shoddy workmanship and the provision of poor quality houses to the communities.
“Community participation in housing delivery needs to be taken with more vigour. We believe that through the people's housing process, communities will rise to the challenge of building houses they desire and deem appropriate for their own environment,” he said.
