Executive Leadership and Management course offered by University of Stellenbosch: briefing by Department of Human Settlements

Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation

21 April 2015
Chairperson: Ms N Mafu (ANC)
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Meeting Summary

The Committee had had several discussions with the Department of Human Settlements on ways to professionalise Human Settlements. It was proposed that the Department worked with Universities to create a qualification.

The Department gave a progress report on this and announced that they had finally come up with a qualification that took into consideration all inputs from the Portfolio Committee working with the University of Stellenbosch and the University of Cape Town. The Department also announced more universities that the qualification would be offered in, including Fort Hare University, Mangosuthu University of Technology and UNISA, with the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and University KwaZulu Natal already with students.

Members of the Committee were excited to meet their professors and start going to class.

Meeting report

The Chairperson said the Committee had been asking for progress on skills and professional development. The professors could not attend the meeting, but the Committee could decide when they would want to see them during the training week.

Mr Monwabisi Maclean, Chief Director of Technical Capacity Development, Department of Human Settlements, gave feedback and a progress report on the programme that the Department had committed to.

The Minister, who was a Chancellor at the Mangosuthu University of Technology, announced that the Department would be helping that University to establish a chair for Human Settlements education and research. The Minister also announced an offer of 50 bursaries to the University’s students.

The Portfolio Committee and the Department had last year agreed that there was a need to facilitate structured capacity enhancement at university degree or postgraduate diploma level. Since then there had been special presentations from three universities. These sessions confirmed the need for a high level postgraduate course, and the Committee agreed as well. The emphasis that the Committee asked was for flexible and innovative training that would be delivered in a manner and mode accessible to Committee Members. There was also emphasis on the need for this programme to assemble human settlements experts recognised nationally and globally.

The University of Stellenbosch presented a module to the Committee on Housing Policy and Practice (2014 and beyond). This module contained 10 themes:

  • State market and housing
  • Market, welfare regimes and housing
  • Past dependency changing crisis
  • Emerging developmentalism, and economic city housing and planning
  • Constitution, citizen’s rights and the social contract
  • Financial property and land markets
  • Land infrastructure services
  • Co-production
  • Livelihood and shelter, and
  • Clean thinking sustainability

This was the proposal that the University submitted to the Department, but the Department was not happy with that as their focus was on a single module. The Department clarified that they were not interested in a module, but a qualification – as per the agreement with the Committee. The Department then met with the leadership of the University faculty, and two deans from the University of Cape Town, because this partnership was collaboration between the two universities. Out of these discussions there was a new programme that better spoke to what the needs of the Portfolio Committee could be.

The agreement was a three-year postgraduate diploma or degree at SAQA level 8, with10 modules;

  • Module 1: Housing Policy and Practice
  • Module 2: Macroeconomy and housing finance
  • Module 3: Sustainable cities
  • Module 4: Public Participation and Community Engagement
  • Module 5: Strategic thinking and governance
  • Module 6: Political management of human settlements
  • Module 7: Programme and project management
  • Module 8: Advanced leadership
  • Module 9: Humane settlements development
  • Module 10: Advanced monitoring and evaluation

The University of Stellenbosch and the University of Cape Town had designed the programme. The Director General had approved a Memo that would allow the Department to collaborate with the universities. There was also a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that was sent to universities to make inputs, and the legal unit of the Department had sent this back with their inputs and was currently refining the MOA.

The universities have stated that they would be ready to start the programme in July; this would also assist the Department in concluding the MOA and other processes that need to be concluded.

Mr Maclean announced that the Department would be launching a human settlements degree at Fort Hare University; and at the beginning of 2016 the University of South Africa (UNISA) would start offering a Human Settlements Degree. This was key, as this qualification would fast track professionalisation. There were also artisanship programmes, and worked with a number on SETAs to create funding with the Local Government SETA being one of the key partners of the Department. There would be scholarships and bursaries for all 50 students at Fort Hare. All the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) students had bursaries from the Department and the Local Government SETA. The Local Government SETA and the Department also offered 110 bursaries to 110 students in the University of KwaZulu Natal.

Discussion
The Chairperson appreciated the progress report as it also explained the delay to Members. Everything was now in place and the course started in July, the only thing outstanding was to meet the professors.

Ms L Mnganga–Gcabasha (ANC) would be away until 12 July, would the University vacations be over at that time. She proposed meeting the professors on Thursday, 23 April.

The Chairperson clarified that budget training was throughout the week, but Members could go on any day and then meet the professors on Thursday. Some officials from the Department would also be studying with the Committee.

Mr Maclean said the Portfolio Committee determined attendance of classes.

The Chairperson thanked Mr Maclean for the briefing.

The meeting was adjourned. 

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