PROGRAMME 3: DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING

PROGRAMME PURPOSE
The accelerated Sustainable development can be achieved through effective integrated planning, local economic development and implementation of schemes and provision of basic services. The purpose of this programme is to promote informed integrated planning and development in the province. This Programme consists of the following sub-programmes, namely Spatial Planning, Development Information Services, Land Use Management, Local Economic Development, Municipal Infrastructure, Disaster Management and IDP Coordination.

SUB-PROGRAMME: 3.1. SPATIAL PLANNING


Progress Analysis:

Spatial mapping of the projects is critical in effective integrated planning and sustainable development. The Department ensured that all 61 municipalities in the province were supported were supported in respect of their Spatial Development Frameworks (SDFs) aligned with Provincial Spatial Guidelines. The level of support offered differed from municipality to municipality due to different circumstances in municipalities and also because some municipalities developed their SDFs using appointed consultants whilst others used in-house capacity. Support offered therefore ranged from the development of Terms of Reference for the appointment of consultants, evaluation of bids submitted, management of consultants, and technical support on the development of Spatial Development Frameworks. All Spatial Development Frameworks for the 61 municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal (submitted as part of the adopted IDPs) were assessed. A report was then produced in respect of SDF compliance including alignment of the SDF with the Provincial Growth and Development Strategy (PGDS). About 5 municipalities were monitored on the implementation of the Provincial Densification Framework and monitored the increase in the population density within designated development areas to facilitate the achievement of 4.12 households per hectare.

In addition, municipalities were supported towards the development, review and implementation of Scheme towards achievement of wall-to-wall scheme coverage across the province. A report on the coverage of Schemes and Systems was prepared indicating progress in line with provincial and national legislative requirements for wall-to-wall Schemes, and the area within the province that is covered by Schemes and Systems. Further 6 municipalities were supported to develop a suite of plans and an analysis was made of the extent to which these plans have transformed municipalities and resulted in Spatial Equity.

Analysis of constraints and measures planned to overcome them
Varying levels of support were provided to municipalities identified in accordance with available resources. Constraints identified included internal staff vacancies and limited funding, as well as high municipal staff turn-over and leading to low capacity. Measures planned to overcome this include motivation to appoint additional internal planning capacity, assisting municipalities utilising internal skills, and applying departmental professional resources to municipal planning projects in collaboration with municipal planners. Structured support will be looked at to rationalise available resources.

SUB-PROGRAMME: 3.2 DEVELOPMENT INFORMATION SERVICES


Progress Analysis:

The Department continued to provide support to Local Government Institutions for effective integrated planning through implementing GIS programmes. In support of the Municipal Property Rate Act (MPRA) implementation, the Municipal Property Rates System was introduced to ensure that 45 Local Municipalities get access to their property rates information, namely; cadastral, ownership and valuation related information. This obviates the need for financially constrained municipal entities to have to pay for access to this critical information. The MPRA Value-Add programme has been implemented in 12 local municipalities in the 2015/16 financial year.

District Municipality Web Pages were developed to ensure that municipalities get access to the current infrastructure related information online. Cooperation with the relevant municipalities ensures that the currency and integrity of the information thereon is maintained. Web based mobile GIS apps were developed to support the various functions of KZN CoGTA and the Province. This technology is rapidly becoming the preferred method to capture spatially referenced field data. Technical GIS support was provided to the municipalities through the Development Planning Shared Services (DPSS) (Now District Shared Services) structures and the participation in the forum was extended to the local municipalities that are outside the DPSS fold. GIS mapping support and customized GIS applications continue to be provided in support of the Departmental initiatives (i.e. Disaster Management). Ongoing GIS support is being rendered in terms of the municipal outer and inner boundary demarcation processes which are critical for the imminent Local Municipality elections.

Analysis of constraints and measures planned to overcome them
DIS is rationalizing the placement of the limited staff resources that it has at its disposal in the face of the moratorium on staff recruitment as well as the challenges that are arising from the OSD staff recruitment requirements. The GIS support provided by some of the DPSS municipalities to their respective Local Municipality’s has been less than ideal due to a number of reasons including insufficient HR capacity. In order to ensure that the Local Municipality’s do get some form of GIS support, the DPSS-GIS forum has been extended to include the Local Municipality’s that are willing to participate.

SUB-PROGRAMME: 3.2. LAND USE MANAGEMENT


Progress Analysis:
The process of supporting municipalities on accelerating service delivery is very central to the Department. Municipalities were monitored against time norms and standards for development applications in terms of the planning legislation. The Assessment Template was reviewed based on previous assessment outcomes in order to achieve the Annual Performance Plan Targets. In addition, all 51 municipalities were supported in order to facilitate the roll-out of the Spatial Planning Land Use Management Act, 2013 (SPLUMA) in collaboration with the other stakeholders and 12 municipalities were supported with the land use management formalisation of towns project which entails the determination of outside figures, signing of Memorandum of understanding, finalisation of land rights audit and land right enquiries. The Department further monitored the Provincial Human Development Index (HDI) against the 0.58 target set in the PGDP, attended 100% of survey and boundary requests received.

Analysis of constraints and measures planned to overcome them
In order to successfully monitor municipalities in terms of development application time norms, applications must be submitted to province to ensure this assessment can transpire. Although municipalities are contacted on a regular basis to provide this information, municipalities are not always forthcoming with the statistical information on developments applications. Furthermore, to address this close interaction and regular visits to municipalities will be required to ensure this monitoring can take place and feedback regarding issues of concern can be discussed in order to achieve the annual target.

With the adoption of municipal by-laws in line with the implementation of SPLUMA, each municipality can now have their own time norms with regard to the processing of development applications which will make monitoring these norms challenging. To address this, municipalities will be guided and encouraged not to deviate from the time norms set in the previous legislation.

SUB-PROGRAMME: 3.3. LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT


Progress analysis

The Department implemented programmes and initiatives that became the catalysts for further development and created job opportunities. The Local Economic Development Unit is responsible for providing capacity support to municipalities in the implementation of local economic development programmes and initiatives for the creation of job opportunities and economic growth. The main objective of the programmes supported is community economic upliftment. The unit is made up of three sub directorates being Special Initiatives, Community Service Centres and EPWP support.

During the year under review, the Department successfully implemented the corridor development programme with a special focus on the N3 Corridor plan and its key nodes including identifying new nodes along the corridor. Under the small town rehabilitation programme continued support was provided to small town and rural nodes to the following areas: Kranskop, Mpofana, Weenen, Phongolo, Harding, Mtubatuba, Mkhuze and Ndumo. The amaKhosi Rural Economic Development Programme implementation in UThukela and Msinga resulted in the creation of more than 70 opportunities in the agricultural sector in the projects owned and championed by amaKhosi focusing on fresh produce and maize. The amaKhosi programme was further expanded to three additional districts focusing on niche products such as fish farming, vineyards and fruit farming. Under the social cohesion initiatives aimed at uplifting rural economies, the Department successfully hosted the annual Mandela Marathon with over 13 000 participants and the annual festival of beads competition with over 5000 participants. The programmes are all implemented in line with the KZN Poverty Eradication Master plan, given the call for radical economic transformation and the industrialization of rural areas.

In order to improve LED Capacity in municipalities as well as enhancing impact of projects, the Department was mandated to support municipalities in establishing District Economic Development Agencies. The Department supported the recruitment of board of directors for the new Agencies established under UThukela, Amajuba, UMgungundlovu, Ugu and Zululand District while operational support was provided to ILembe, Harry Gwala and UMkhanyakude Development agencies. Further support was provided in the development of standard policies and guidelines for good governance practices in all agencies and rolling out of the school nutrition programme through the Agency programme in partnership with the Department of Education. The Community Service Centres (CSC) programme aims to strengthen the capacity of the Traditional Institutions to be able to play a critical role in accelerating service delivery in partnership with the municipalities and sector departments. The CSC programme successfully completed construction of 4 grade 2 community service centres and one grade 1 CSC in Emondlo. Furthermore, 4 new CSCs are at construction stage in Bulwer, Muden, KwaMbonambi and Bulwer. Planning and design work for Nquthu and Maphumulo is underway for implementation in the 2016/17 Financial Year. 24 CSCs were successfully refurbished while 23 CSC had alternative energy installed. Under the Expanded Public Works (EPWP) programme, over 300 rural women and youth were registered for EPWP under the KZN COGTA incentive grant in the social sector while an additional 100 people were employed to maintain community projects under amakhosi. Overall under the EPWP programme, over 1500 jobs were created in the KZN COGTA grant funded construction projects. The Community Works (CWP) programme received a major boost with an additional 5000 work opportunities allocated to 8 new sites in the province. The KZN province now boasts of a total of 38 municipalities benefitting from the CWP programme.

Analysis of constraints and measures planned to overcome them

Municipalities have limited LED capacity as well as project management skills to effectively monitor implementation of projects. Most municipalities have weak LED units and require support. Ongoing training is provided to municipalities leading to accreditation at NQF level 5. 30 LED officials from various municipalities benefitted from LED accredited training through the University of Johannesburg centre for LED, while all municipalities were trained in red tape reduction, project packaging and LED strategy development.

The CWP drop out and lower than target participation rate remain a challenge, which can only be overcome through continued marketing and communication of the benefits of the programme. The Unit will closely monitor sites participation rate and mobilize communities to take part in the programme. Challenges still exist in relation to EPWP reporting and expenditure especially of the incentive grants. Training and workshops will continue to be rolled out to capacitate municipalities on the principles of EPWP in line with the Phase 3 implementation strategy.

SUB-PROGRAMME: 3.4. MUNICIPAL INFRASTRUCTURE


Progress Analysis

The service delivery environment remains characterised by an inadequate provision for operation and maintenance of infrastructure, general long term planning, and shortage of funding as well as skilled personnel. Initiatives and programmes are focused on infrastructure investment planning, co-ordination of infrastructure delivery with the various support institutions and service authorities, project planning and management of implementation, financial support (provision of grants as well as financial management), implementation of planned and preventative maintenance programmes, and “basic” service delivery under the Back to Basics programme.

The Department assessed 60 municipalities against service delivery benchmarks, supported 38 municipalities with service delivery programmes and 31 municipalities on the implementations of indigent policies. In addition, 13 municipalities were supported in yard water connections, basic level of sanitation services and 10 municipalities in increasing households with a source of electricity supply. Water and Energy fora were established as permanent institutions, meeting regularly for co-ordination and support purposes. Universal Access Plans were completed for water services in all districts. Operation and Maintenance plans are being completed in 6 districts and this programme continues in 2016 / 2017. A programme for the installation of “package-type” water purification plants in priority areas was completed. Although there was a slight but disappointing decrease in expenditure (fund utilization) on MIG in the 2014 / 2015 financial year, utilization of available capital funding remains good. There is a focus on increasing levels of service, particularly water, with monitoring and support instituted in respect of the quantity of water supplied per capita per day and in increasing the number of households with water supply in the yard. The Back to Basics programme has, inter alia, focused service authorities on fundamental service delivery matters – water loss and immediate attention to leaks, immediate attention to sewer spillages, roads maintenance and pothole repair, electricity theft, refuse removal and the management of solid waste disposal.

Analysis of constraints and measures planned to overcome them.

The challenges relating to service delivery have been adequately summarized above. The Business Unit’s programmes tabulated below accordingly focus on co-ordination, accelerating service delivery through improved programme and project management, increasing service levels, infrastructure maintenance and monitoring of service delivery. Efforts must continue to secure an Operation and Maintenance conditional grant for municipalities, funded from the National fiscals and allocated in terms of the Division of Revenue Act. The anomaly of funding Operation and Maintenance from municipal revenue (inclusive of Equitable Share) while also requiring municipalities to provide Free Basic Services needs to be removed by the introduction of a Conditional Grant for Operation and Maintenance. The Department has continued to lobby in this regard.
Review of National fund allocation policies for infrastructure capital development must be precipitated. Needs-based allocations (as opposed to formula-based allocations) to municipalities with sufficient management capacity, needs to be pursued.

SUB-PROGRAMME: 3.5. DISASTER MANAGEMENT


Progress Analysis:

The Department made serious efforts to address the strategic goal of responding to Climate Change as articulated in the Provincial Growth and Development Plan (PGDP) with the objective of managing pressures of biodiversity. The Provincial Disaster Management Plan was reviewed through various consultations with stakeholders as part of ensuring that all relevant inputs are incorporated into the plan.
The refurbishment of the Provincial Disaster Management Centre (PDMC) is underway; occupation is anticipated in the 2016/17 financial year.
PDMC continues to roll out the Capacity Building Programme to municipalities, to date at least 45 Fire Fighters were trained on Fire Fighting Level 1 & 2, and they have been deployed to various municipalities in their Fire & Rescue Services. 90 Municipal Disaster Management officials were trained on Disaster Risk Management as well as Fire and Rescue Skills Development through funding sourced from LGSETA, with this training the municipal capacity shall be augmented.

The Department continues to support municipalities with the development of the Climate Change mitigation and adaptation plans. The PDMC has been responsible for supporting municipalities in lobbying financial support from the National Departments, for responding to the drought situation that the Province of KwaZulu-Natal is facing in order to normalise the lives of fellow citizens.

Analysis of constraints and measures planned to overcome them

There has been a delay with the finalisation of the Provincial Disaster Management Centre (PDMC) construction, the PDMC continues to engage the Implementing Agent to discuss the implications of this delay and further obtain the final date when the project is anticipated to be concluded.

The Provincial cost containment strategy has had an impact in the process of establishing the Provincial Fire and Rescue Service Unit within the PDMC as a National Imperative, as it indicates that no restructuring should be done by departments.

The lack of proper institutional arrangement at a municipal level to deal with disaster management as well as fire and rescue services continues to be a challenge; hence the PDMC opted to secure funding for training which was undertaken throughout the 2015/16 financial year. The Province of KwaZulu-Natal has been declared as the Drought Disaster Area due to water shortages emanating from the drying up of water resources (dams, rivers etc.). The PDMC, together with the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) and other Sector Departments, is working tirelessly to deal with the scourge of this drought situation.

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