SUBMISSION TO THE COMMITTEE BY DU TOIT

COMMENTS ON DRAFT HOUSING DEVELOPMENT AGENCY BILL.

1 Subsection 9(e) notify the Minister immediately

The word immediately is not defined in the Act and will therefore have to be interpreted according to it's general meaning which is:

At this moment, at once, directly, promptly, without delay, right away.

As immediately would mostly be physically impossible the word should rather be changed to "as soon as reasonably possible".

The change will not affect the urgency of the notice but will afford the agency the opportunity of at least verifying the information. It will also provide for events where the Minister may not be available.

The method of the notification may also need clarification as the circumstances may differ. In some cases a telephonic notice followed by a written notice may be required and in other only a written notice.

2 Subsection 9(a) - The Board must give effect to the mandate and the strategy & Subsection 20(2)(b) - Functions of the chief executive officer are to implement the policies and decisions of the board.

At the moment the strategy and Policy of the board are nowhere defined officially and therefore cannot be enforced on anybody.

The proposal is:

Section 9(a) - remove reference to the strategy of the agency. Or include a Section how a strategy should be created.

The Agency is empowered to work out a strategy with individual municipalities but as these will be subjected to public participation it should not be seen as a strategy of the Agency.

Section 20(1)(b) - Remove reference to policies.

The Mandate is the policy.

Decisions by the board.

Consider changing the word to resolutions.

The Decisions of the agency as envisaged in Section 9 & 20 seems to be achievable without public participation and can therefore hardly be considered law.

The Agency (Board) has no legislative powers but may advise the Minister of needs which will then be processed by the Minister to eventually end up with Regulations.

The Board are however allowed to make and implement (resolutions) house rules. These rules will annually be considered indirectly by parliament while evaluating the performance of the agency.

The Subsection should be changed to "must give effect to the provisions of the Act, the mandate and regulations made in terms of the Act"

3 Intended beneficiaries

The beneficiaries should be limited to:-

· South African citizens.

· Persons not capable of providing housing for themselves.

· Persons without the opportunity or means to upgrade there housing standards.