October 2012 - Trademax Publications

sahfMinister Madikizela’s address atSAHF Conference, Cape Sun, Cape TownWestern Cape Human Settlements Minister BonginkosiMadikizela presented the closing address at the Southern AfricanHousing Federation Conference at the Cape Sun, Strand Street,Cape Town on 19 September 2012.Today, there is a lack of depth of quality leadership in civilsociety. Any development is a partnership betweengovernment and civil society, and private citizens alsoneed to take responsibility in meeting the deliverychallenges.Government can’t do it alone; delivery needs willing andco-operative partnership with civil society. We need todevelop civil society leadership.”“Service delivery protests happen where services arebeing delivered, but the resources are limited so thatpeople are competing for resources. This shows thatdelivery is happening.”“It is true that in some municipalities there is a lack ofcapacity, but in some areas there is an oversupply. MinisterLindiwe Sisulu has suggested a central public service toassist in areas where capacity is lacking. However, if it’snot broken, don’t fix it. I don’t believe that in areas wherecapacity is adequate, we have to change our systems.”“Enough capacity is present among the differentparticipants among industry, business, civil society andgovernment. We need to strengthen our partnerships sowe can work together with those who can assist us inclosing the gaps.”Minister Bonginkosi Madikizela - MEC for Human Settlements,Western Cape.The conference, titled ‘Building Capacity forSustainable Delivery’ and comprising of 45speakers, drew delegates from Southern Africa,Australia, Canada, the USA and the United Kingdom.“The biggest problem we have is not lack of capacity, butdisplaced capacity. We have a job vacancy rate of about850 000 in private and public sector, and around 600 000unemployed graduates. Here we have an example ofdisplaced capacity.”“Under my tenure, we have taken the lead in the WesternCape with initiatives to build capacity for delivery,including appointing teams of professionals called PRTs, orProfessional Resource Teams, to assist with undercapacitated municipalities and to help unblock projects.The Department is spending around R500 000 per monthon these teams.We have also improved the housing database with theHDDIP (Housing Demand Data Improvement Program), andhave developed an information system to track andmanage our complex projects, called the ProjectManagement Unit (PMU).”“There is a massive problem in civil society leadership.Before 1994 there were strong civil leaders, whosubsequently moved into government.38OCTOBER 2012