Learnership
A total of 24 learner contractors have been appointed for the Expanded Public Works Programme’s next intake of learnerships. The Intsika Yethu Sanitation Project has been identified as one of the labour-intensive projects where these learner contractors will be utilised. Tenders for these contractors closed in mid-March 2011. Service providers are due to submit the adjudication report for this project, which comprises 3 900 units of VIP in the amount of R27million.
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Job creation
Under the EPWP, the municipality has been allocated a R16.4 million incentive grant for the 2011/12 financial year. To earn this allocation, three directorates/departments within the institution – IPED, Technical Services and Municipal Health Services – are participating in the EPWP. A total of 4 645 people are employed in all EPWP projects, as was reported to the Department of Public Works. IPED created 561 jobs and Municipal Health Services created 200. In addition, the municipality has earned R4.5 million from July 2010 to December 2010 for its job creation programme.
2.4.2.9 SPATIAL ANALYSIS and RATIONALE (Refer to Chapter 4 for detailed analysis of SDF)
The map above illustrates the legislative environment that our district operates within, and reflects the challenges that it faces in terms of coordinating land use within the district (refer to SDF). The legislative framework is fragmented and therefore poses challenges for the district in its endeavour to create a more efficient and integrated settlement pattern in towns and settlement areas within the district. The district is addressing this challenge though it’s District Spatial Development Framework, which has been adopted by Council. The majority of this information is contained in the Spatial Development Framework, which is a separate chapter on this IDP document.
2.4.2.10 Land Tenure and Ownership
The Chris Hani District Municipality comprises parts of the former Transkei and Ciskei homelands and CPA areas. The most common form of tenure in the former Transkei areas is the communal land tenure system. Ownership of land in the urban areas and former CPA areas is held by free-hold title deeds. A considerable amount of land in the area of the former Transkei is still state-owned. This situation results in difficulty in obtaining land for developmental purposes. There have been calls from communities in the rural areas of the former Transkei region to be given title to their land on an individual basis. This will ensure tenure security and also safeguard them against future claims from others, or loss through potential re-organisation of village land at a later stage. It is envisaged that the
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Communal Land Rights Act (Act No. 11 of 2004), also known as ClaRA, will inform proposals for short term actions, even though the municipality will not be able to rely on its provisions until the Act comes into effect (Emalahleni Housing Sector Plan).
Spatial planning professionals working within the district are faced with developmental challenges due to the dynamic legislative character of the district, caused by different planning legislations that are applicable to the different towns in the district. This has led the district to focus on the creation of development plans that outline the development direction of the key nodes within our area, namely SDFs, Small Town Development Plans and Land Use Management Systems. These initiatives are new to our district but are evidence of the district’s and its local municipalities’ commitment to coherent spatial development within the district, ensuring that the developmental nature of the urban environment thrives to ensure economic growth that benefits the residents, the business environment and local municipalities.
2.7.2 Small Town Development
In its endeavours to define the district’s spatial rationale, the CHDM Spatial Development Framework focuses on the strengthening of linkages between the different centres within the CHDM region and their relationship with centres outside the boundaries of CHDM. This led the CHDM to adopting the Small Town Development approach that is aimed at accelerating development through the alignment of economic activities to ensure value chain addition. The Small Towns Development approach looks at the redesigning of town layouts with the aim of ensuring the potential of the space in and around the town is fully realised.
The Chris Hani Regional Economic Development Strategy highlighted the need to identify and prioritise small towns along the economic corridors that have the potential to participate actively in the value chain of the differentiated sectors, and to implement small town development initiatives. Cofimvaba was identified as one of the towns that had the potential to grow as it is one of the main service centres on the R61 east corridor. This culminated in CHDM and the Intsika Yethu local municipality, with the assistance of the Department of Local Government and Traditional Affairs, embarking on the Small Town Development Plan for Cofimvaba and Tsomo.
The Small Town Regeneration concept is aimed at creating a development plan with a 30 year future outlook of its growth potential, as well as creating a plan that seeks to realise that potential. The plan does not place the district or the IYLM as the sole role players in the realising of the developmental objectives of the Cofimvaba and Tsomo towns, but rather looks at creating plans to be used as a spatial guiding foundation that assists stakeholders/investors in defining their roles in the overall growth/development of these towns.
The following reflect the aims behind Small Town Development:
Strengthen the retail, business, industrial and employment role of the town centres;
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To develop the community, civic and educational roles of the two centres as key attributes of
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vibrant town centres;
Build on the unique function of each of the sub-centres serviced by these major centres as a
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defining characteristic of these areas and a contribution to the Corridor Development Initiative in the district;
Improve connections between the sub-centres and encourage activities adjoining access routes
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between the major centres and the sub-centres to create a more physically contiguous and integrated town centre service area;
Consolidate the individual roles of the centres so that they can better serve the sub-centres, and
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act as destinations for sub-centre communities by providing an extensive and unique range of retail, community and leisure opportunities;
Encourage new housing in and around the town centres that increases the range of housing
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choices;
Create an attractive and distinctive built environment that supports the range of activities of the
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town centres; and
Create a positive urban image for each part of the town centres through the design of buildings
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and spaces.
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Source: Cofimvaba Small Town Development plan
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2.4.2.11 Land restitution and redistribution
The Land Reform Area-Based Plan (ABP) is a sector plan of the municipality, to be implemented in partnership with the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, the Department of Agriculture and the Chris Hani District Municipality. The Area-Based Plan is aimed at ensuring the achievement of local land reform objectives and targets in a coordinated and integrated manner with other development initiatives.
The Land Reform ABP Vision is:
A transformed farming community that is:
Reflective of a racially diverse rural population living in harmony, with tenure, social and economic
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security; and
Agriculturally productive in all municipal areas, producing food for the population in an economic
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and environmentally sustainable manner.
Transformed communal settlement and land areas that are:
Reflective of households with secure and defined tenure rights, which are protected by law;
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Reflective of an efficient and effective system of administration of the land and the management
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of the use of the land; and
Agriculturally productive, with allotments and commonages producing food for the household and,
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and where appropriate, on a commercial basis, in an economic and environmentally sustainable manner.
Objectives and Targets for the Municipal ABP are:
Redistribution
a. In terms of the national policy objective of achieving a 30% redistribution of white owned farmland.
b. In terms of the national policy objective of productivity on redistributed farms. Farms redistributed achieve at least 80% of envisaged production output estimated in the Project Business Plan, and generate at least 75% of envisaged beneficiary income estimated in the Project Business Plan within five years from land occupation by the beneficiaries, with output and income steadily increasing from its baseline in year one.
Communal land management
The key focus areas for land reform in the communal land areas have been identified as:
1. Land Administration (by which is meant, in this ABP, dealing with the key issues of land allocations, and recording and managing land rights in communal land areas);
2. Tenure reform or, more specifically, land rights clarification, upgrading or formalisation (achieving recognised security of tenure); and
3. Dealing with issues of settlement planning and land use management (for example, to better permit natural resource utilisation for economic development and/or manage such natural resources to ensure appropriate land use and prevent resource degradation).
Strategies applied to deal with these focus areas are:
1. To implement a targeted programme of local planning processes in areas prioritised by local municipalities.
2. To secure management support from the district municipality and the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform for local planning process projects.
3. To establish a capacity building programme in support of local planning projects being implemented.
The institutional framework for implementing the ABP comprises:
a. Establishing local land reform offices with a Land Reform Administrator;
b. Establishing and convening a local land reform committee;
c. Participating in the District Land Reform Forum; and
d. Implementing and managing the Small-Scale Farmer Support Programme.
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All programmes and projects are subject to implementation funding from the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, and (for relevant aspects) from the Department of Agriculture or other Departments.