"I did not know housing was such a crisis in the Western Cape."
This was the stark admission by Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu on Wednesday during her one-day housing imbizo.
Grapevine SA Alumni - The University of York Autumn 2006
Lindiwe Sisulu (PhD Centre for Southern African Studies, 1989) has been South Africa’s Minister of Housing since 2004. The daughter of ANC veterans Walter and Albertina Sisulu, Dr Lindiwe Sisulu is promoting a ten-year plan to eradicate the squatter camps that are home to 2.4 million families and instead to create non-racial communities nearer to where people work and play.
She also promised the government would "drastically reduce" informal settlements within the next 10 years.
Sisulu was accompanied by premier Ebrahim Rasool, Housing MEC Marius Fransman and mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo, who addressed communities in Wallacedene, Paarl and Khayelitsha.
| 'I did not know housing was such a crisis in the Western Cape' |
Sisulu remained tight-lipped about the contents of the plan, but said it was an "extensive programme with business plans" that could be a blueprint for housing issues for the next 50 years.
"We had enough time to learn from our mistakes, as well as what we got right," she said.
Asked how long it would take to build formal housing and do away with informal settlements, Sisulu said: "Within the next 10 years, South Africa will have drastically reduced its informal settlements. Informal settlements are a health and safety hazard for the people living there.
"Every year we will go back to our business plans to check up on our delivery."
Sisulu said the visit to Wallacedene had shocked her.
"There was a woman from Wallacedene who really touched my heart. She said the floods deprived her of her home, and also affected her children's education.
"They could not attend school because their books were wet and their school clothes were wet. It has effects beyond what we can imagine."
Eight thousand homes are planned for Wallacedene within the next three years.
The recent flooding of informal settlements which affected 14,740 people in the City of Cape Town, provided the backdrop to Sisulu's visit.
"We are unfortunately faced with a situation where people will go to areas convenient for them to put up their shacks. Some areas along the N2 are former rubbish dumps that people have now settled on, and others have high water tables."
Meanwhile Mfeketo reiterated that the city council has moved into action with a short-term plan to deal with the flooding and will move about 300 families from the worse affected areas - Gxagxa, Kanana and New Rest informal settlements in Gugulethu - to land close to Nyanga Junction and elsewhere. Families in Wallacedene are also likely to be moved.
Relocation will be discussed with communities this week.
The province has 155 informal settlements with 92,000 shacks.
Fransman said yesterday the biggest challenge facing the province was the 310,000 housing backlog.
"This backlog is estimated to grow at a rate of 18,000 houses a year as a result of new families, rapid urbanisation and the migration of 48,000 people from other provinces to the Western Cape each year."
The Western Cape housing department came under the spotlight when it announced it had underspent its budget by R150-million last year.
Fransman said this financial year the province would build 14,542 houses and develop sites in the metropole, Boland, Overberg, Central Karoo and the Southern Cape.
"We have built 1,500 houses in the past three months. My department has been allocated R587-million for housing. This money is not enough for us to deal with the present housing backlog, but with smart planning, we will be able to make a dent," said Fransman. - Cape Times
