Provision of adequate housing through cooperative government and intergorvernmental relations : the case of Bushbuckridge Local Municipality (BLM)

Abstract

South Africa adopted the democratic decentralisation governance model in 1994 with the aim of improving, inter alia, service delivery. The adoption of this model resulted in the establishment of three spheres of government, namely, national, provincial and local. These three government spheres are distinctive, interdependent, interrelated and autonomous. Power and responsibilities are devolved from the national to the provincial and then to the local government spheres. Cooperative government and intergovernmental relations structures in the three spheres of government were established in order to improve service delivery and to assist in the execution of the devolved powers. However, the results of this study revealed that the structures which had been established were not effective in addressing the housing challenges facing the Bushbuckridge Local Municipality (BLM). The results also revealed that each government sphere executed its housing mandatory responsibilities only when a housing project was launched or implemented in the BLM. During housing project implementation, the BLM was responsible for evaluation, the Mpumalanga Provincial Department of Human Settlements (MPDHS) was responsible for contracting a housing service provider and for payments while the National Department of Human Settlements (NDHS) was responsible for quality of the houses and compliance to national housing standards. In addition, the BLM had an inspection unit and the NDHS was supposed to work closely with the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC). However, the houses provided had defects ranging from cracked walls and floors, leaking roofs, leaking pipes to fading paint. The main role of the NHBRC is to check the quality or adequacy of public houses before they are allocated to the targeted beneficiaries.