Bongani Majola
Government delivery of electricity connections fell last year compared to the year before, according to the National Electricity Regulator.
Formal employment also fell slightly and the level of formal housing provision looks stagnant. However, land reform improved marginally and major strides were made in water provision.
Last week the Mail & Guardian assessed the government’s 2001 performance on broad policy pledges made in President Thabo Mbeki’s state of the nation address. He is expected to begin his speech today by focusing on the government’s socio-economic delivery achievements for last year.
Ministry of Housing figures show that the delivery of subsidised houses has been declining steadily since 1997/1998, from 322 638 houses that year to 231 181 in 1998/1999 and 170 883 in 2000/2001. Projections for 2001/2002 indicate little significant increases. The backlog stands at between two million and three million houses, and 7,5-million people lack adequate shelter.
However, ministry spokesperson Mandla Mathebula said about 1,2-million houses had been built nationally since 1994 and that the backlog was being kept under control.
Total expenditure for the 2000/2001 year was about R3-billion, while the department had spent R1,9-billion in 2001 up to December. “This does not mean we are under-spending,” says Mathebula, “but that we pay people after work is completed. We will exhaust the budget, and will build about 200 000 houses before year-end.”
On land restitution for victims of apartheid land dispossession 283 226ha was settled last year, compared with 263 868ha in 2000/2001.
A total of 13 315 land claims had been settled as of January this year, leaving about 50 000 outstanding. The total spent on restitution is about R600-million, and the number of families who have benefited is 40 983.
However, the department would not provide details of what was achieved under the controversial land redistribution programme, where delivery fell sharply during the 18 months after the 1999 election.
Land Claims Commissioner Wallace Mgoqi said that because of the initial court-bound nature of the restitution process, progress had been painfully slow. As more and more claims were being finalised, expenditure levels outstripped those projected in the medium-term expenditure framework.
The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry registered a sharp increase in toilets provided last year 36 000, compared with about 13 000 in 2000/2001 and 9 000 the year before. However, the sanitation backlog was estimated in the September 2001 White Paper on Basic Household Sanitation at 18-million people, or three million households. It would be cleared by 2010, according to the ministry’s spokesperson, Themba Khumalo.
Last year the department launched its “Free Basic Water” programme, aimed at providing 6 000 litres of free water a month to 14-million people. The department met half its target.
“Some municipalities do not have systems in place yet, or have limited finances which prevent them from providing any free water,” Khumalo said.
On the job front, “there was relatively little change in the labour market between September 2000 and February 2001”, according to Statistics South Africa’s Labour Force Survey 2001. The official unemployment rate grew by 1% from 25% in 2000 to 26% last year. There were 11,9-million employed people in February 2000 compared to 11,8-million at the same time last year.
The National Electricity Regulator reported a decline in the electrification of households from 397 000 in the year 2000 to 336 000 last year. A total of 3,78-million households have been electrified, while 3,99-million still have to be connected.
Telkom could not provide figures for the telephone line rollout last year. However, it conceded that in the 2000/2001 financial year the net number of customers had declined from 5,4-million to 4,9-million because of a “disproportionate” number of disconnections following a crackdown on commercial fraud.