Commentary to the Housing Development Agency (HDA) Bill

Purpose To give an overview of the Bill To explore the grey areas of the Bill To propose some changes to the HDA Bill To incorporate Servcon’s function and mandate

H.D.A. Bill Overview The Bill seeks to establish a Housing Development Agency (H.D.A.), to provide for its objectives, role/functions and the matters incidental thereto. The enactment of the Bill is intended to address the backlog in housing delivery and capacity to provide housing. Through the H.D.A. housing institutions including Servcon and Thubelisha will be integrated into one institution. Servcon submitted its comments to the Bill on the 22nd December 2007 to as part of the public participation process

Establishment of Agency (S2) The Bill is silent regarding the nature of the juristic person that the HDA is going to be. It does not state whether the HDA will operate as a company registered in terms of the Companies Act and operate as a PTY or Section 21 company, or whether it will operate as any other legal entity.

Objective of the H.D.A. (S3) The objective of the agency is “by agreement with municipalities, acquire, hold and develop land… ” The phrase “by agreement…” could be restrictive and potentially pose challenges where immediate decision making is required. It is thus proposed that the phrase “in consultation with …” be used instead.

Role of the H.D.A. (S4) In terms of this section the H.D.A. can only acquire, hold, develop and release land identified by a municipality. Given the urgent need for government to address the increasing backlog in respect of housing delivery, the scope of the role of the H.D.A ought to be expanded to incorporate workings with a wider range of stakeholders. A detailed stakeholder analysis is shown below.

Stakeholder Analysis Municipalities Entities owned by Municipalities Provincial Gvts HDA Entities owned by Provincial Gvts Entities owned by National Gvt National Gvt (Various Depts)

Options for Stakeholder engagement negotiate Empower/advise consult

Functions of HDA (S6) The functions of the agency seem to be dependant solely on agreements with Municipalities and excludes any working relationships with the provinces and/or national Government. As a way of expanding the function of the H.D.A., S6 ought to be broadened to include property management activities which are currently within the mandate of Servcon . The proposed amendment to apply mutatis mutandis to land acquisition (S5)

Property Management Land identification Condition analyses/ surveys Holding of land Property Management Occupants regularisations & normalisations Property & occupants audits Land acquisition Land release Property rectifications

Funds of the agency (S24) A widening of the scope of the services offered by the agency to include services to all the spheres of government including entities owned by the national government and provincial government is proposed.

Conclusion Servcon accepts and embraces the H.D.A. Bill in principle and is committed to ensuring the successful launch of the Housing Development Agency