Established in 2009, Moloi says the agency has three main areas of focus. It was set up to ensure land assembly for human settlements purposes on behalf of the state. As such, the HDA identifies, acquires, assembles, prepares and releases land, mostly to municipalities. Secondly, it offers broad support to provinces or municipalities in human settlements work.
right of refusal before they alienate land. Despite these challenges, the HDA’s targets related to land are within reach. “This year the target is 10 000 hectares and we are just 500 hectares short of that.”
A bigger role to play While the HDA’s mandate has always been that of development
The HDA is also expected to be involved in property
agency, there is now a bigger push for it to look beyond land.
development as programme managers, implementing agents
“We’ve not been playing as big a role as a developer and the
or developers.
The land challenge
Minister is of the view that the state requires a development agency that will play a role in the whole value chain of property development, from inception right up to exit…
Moloi explains that when municipalities and provinces
We have now completed a business case taking us in that
identify a piece of land for potential human settlements, they
direction.”
approach the HDA. In some instances, private interests or non-
While the HDA will continue with land assembly and
governmental organisations that have identified land suitable
acquisition, going forward it will look into setting up
for development approach the agency.
partnerships with private sector developers and/or non-
“We’ll go in and do the investigations, studies and evaluations. We sometimes prepare the land ourselves and do the town planning schemes.” He adds that acquiring land for human settlements is not always an easy task.
governmental developers. “We’ll do project packaging, broker financial modelling and raise capital. We’ll continue giving support and do monitoring and evaluation and research on development on behalf of the state.
“The land question is an old one in the country. Issues
“We are now being challenged to be central in making sure
with land can relate to the location, price and sometimes
that there are project implementation plans, funds are raised,
typography.”
projects run and they make the impact that is expected.”
Another challenge is that much of the land is the property of stated-owned companies (SOCs). “You would expect that because we are all agencies of the
Moloi says the agency will work towards ensuring that there is economic development, sustainable development, access to amenities and old spatial patterns are undone.
state, if land belonging to SOCs is identified and it's suitable for
In her recent Budget Vote, Minister Sisulu announced
human settlements, there would be an agreement, politically or
the roll-out of catalytic projects that will trigger massive
otherwise and that land would be a donation, a straight transfer.
investments by the private sector and have huge economic
“But with some of the bigger SOCs, land is a serious
spin-offs over the next three years. The projects, in all nine
component of their balance sheet. It’s not easy for them just
provinces, have a combined value of over R300 billion.
to release and give it up for human settlements purposes so
These projects will provide fully subsidised houses; gap
there are very intricate discussions and negotiations that take
housing, especially for public servants; rental and social
place,” he says.
housing; and serviced sites for the poor and middle class
To address this issue, the Minister of Human Settlements,
close to places of economic activities.
Lindiwe Sisulu, put together a suggestion related to the
Government's investment in these 101 projects, which is
compensation for state-owned land, which she is discussing
estimated at R90 billion over five years, will trigger about
with the relevant stakeholders, explains Moloi.
R150 billion from the private sector.
He adds that there is a need for long-term regulation that would compel government bodies to give the HDA the first
Public Sector Manager • June 2016
The HDA will be integral in the successful roll-out of these programmes.
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