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27 August 2013 Alex Pioneer Page 3
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GAUTENG TO ROLL OUT ACCREDITATION IN METROS WHAT IS ACCREDITATION? The Accreditation Framework states that “the national government and provincial government must assign to a municipality, by agreement and subject to conditions, the administration of a matter listed in Part A of Schedule 4 or part A of Schedule 5 which necessarily relates to local government”. The frame work will address various policy, constitutional and legislative aspects in order to enable municipalities to manage the full range of housing instruments in their geographic areas. The Housing Act No: 107 of 1997 sets out general principles applicable to housing development across all three tiers of government to be adhered to. At a provincial government level, the MEC responsible for the delivering of sustainable human settlements has the powers to accredit municipalities to carry out certain functions, subject to the level of accreditation conferred upon the said municipality. Accreditation facilitates democracy and accelerated service delivery, depending on the capacity at municipal level, the MEC can either do this through delegation or assignment.There are currently three levels of accreditation that the MEC can opt for (Level 1, 2 or 3) subject to capacity of each municipality. In a nutshell, these three levels are broken down as follows: Level One: deals with issues of beneficiary management, subsidy budget planning and allocation as well as priority programme management and administration (delegated functions) Level Two: deals with full programme management and administration of all housing instruments/programmes (in addition to Level One) Delegated functions Level Three: Financial administration (in addition to Level Two) All functions-Levels one, two and three-are assigned. The framework further states that Local Governments are required as part of the Integrated Development Plans (IDP) to ensure that all reasonable action within the national and provincial legislation are carried out at municipal level. Municipalities are mainly responsible for services in respect of water, sanitation, parks, electricity, roads, storm water drainage and transport provision. Furthermore they must also ensure that they promote housing delivery projects by developers. They must also ensure that they set development goals in respect of their area of jurisdiction. The Housing Act also enforces adherence to Section 26 of our Constitution. In most cases, municipalities, except metros and higher capacity local authorities often do not have housing departments or representatives. The successful implementation of the National Housing Programme is central to the achievement of the national urban vision and goals. Delegation: •It is the authority to exercise powers of another sphere of government by agreement with the metros •MEC’s can delegate powers conferred on them and assign any duty imposed upon them, excluding any duty relating to their responsibilities as the Accounting Officer in terms of Section 11 (5) or 12 (2) (b) •Delegation assists in the decentralisation of policy formulation •Facilitates effective implementation of IGR systems across all three spheres of government