Sunday, September 30, 2007

rhetoric rhetoric ... housing corruption

... ... ...

Here to stay
Meanwhile, research done at a Cape Town informal settlement suggests people living in such settlements plan on staying there permanently. This is despite the fact that they go to areas close to big centres like Cape Town in the hope of finding employment.

The research findings were presented at the Population Association of Southern Africa conference in Mafikeng. One of the researchers, Ravayi Marindo, says: "There are lots of networks that bring people into the informal settlements. Many of them actually come looking for jobs. Part of it has to do with people who actually come because somebody has found a job for them.

"Others come because of the hope of getting a job... There is lots of construction going on and they get those kinds of jobs. The majority of people actually look at the informal settlement as a home and they are not planning to go back although they do keep ties with their family homes."

- SABC

Thousands left homeless after Cape shack fire

More than 2,000 people have been displaced by a fire that gutted some 300 shacks at the Wag 'n Biejie informal settlement at Lwandle in the Strand, near Cape Town.

Residents say the fire could have been caused by a candle that fell over in one of the shacks this morning.

Fire-fighters at the scene have managed to extinguish the flames, but smoke can still be seen rising from the destroyed homes.

There have been no reports of deaths or injuries at this stage.

Council authorities say fires are a constant danger to the area, particularly because it is situated under Eskom power lines. Ward councillor for the area, Xolani Sotashe, says a number of pylons have caught fire. - SABC

Victory for Joe Slovo residents

Courtroom number one in the Cape Town High Court is proof that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

On Wednesday, an entire Bench in court was taken up by senior government and housing officials all anxious to secure eviction orders so they can start the relocation of about 5,000 homeless Joe Slovo residents -- “relocation” is the preferred term used by the political authorities these days for “forced removals”.

Outside court 1,500 residents of Joe Slovo informal settlement in Langa sat in the road patiently waiting to hear their fate. When local leaders announced the judge’s ruling of an eight-day stay of execution the ululations and cheers could be heard for blocks.

In court, Director General for Housing Itumeleng Kotsoane, Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu’s special adviser Sathssss Moodley, Prince Xhanti Sigcawu, the general manager of the state-owned developer and project manager of the N2 Gateway housing project Thubelisha Homes, and various senior Thubelisha Homes officials were in attendance, with their two senior advocates.

Policemen allowed a small group of Joe Slovo residents inside the court and when community representatives said they had no legal representation, presiding Cape Judge President John Hlophe allowed community spokesperson Mzwanele Zulu to address the court.

Generally, only advocates can appear before a supreme court judge.

Hlophe suggested that the community contact the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) and later that afternoon top Cape Town housing lawyer Steve Kahanovitz from the LRC was consulted by the community.

On Tuesday, it took the court and employees from Nongogo and Nuku Attorneys, the firm representing the government, more than five hours to stamp each resident’s objection form and a copy of it at tables set up on the pavement outside the court.

The housing minister’s legal team and Thubelisha Homes were seeking an order under eviction legislation that will allow them to clear the ground for more housing in the N2 Gateway project.

This followed what is described as one of the biggest class action cases brought in South Africa, when more than 3,500 Joe Slovo residents walked to the Cape High Court on Tuesday and individually lodged their objections to being removed by the housing ministry.

The N2 Gateway project is government’s biggest and most ambitious housing project yet and has been mired in controversy from the outset.

Apart from a budget overrun of more than R135-million, its biggest challenge is coming from residents of Joe Slovo, who were promised houses when large sections of this informal settlement were destroyed in two big fires three years ago. It is now clear that houses will not be built to accommodate Joe Slovo residents, but those who can afford the bond houses planned by First National Bank in Joe Slovo can apply.

Phases two and three of this massive 22,000 unit development were halted a few months ago because these 5,000 residents have refused to move.

Community leaders of the Joe Slovo task team were upbeat, hailing as a “victory for the poor” Hlophe’s decision to allow them one week to consult a legal representative.

“The court’s decision filled us with hope. This was a victory for us. The government wants to force us with court orders, bulldozers and guns to move. And we’ve stopped the housing minister for now. After 14 years here, I don’t want to move unless they tell us we can come back after they’ve developed the land,” said community leader Manyenzeke Sopaqa.

Thubelisha’s Sigcawu said he “hated” the proceedings this week but had no choice but to go to court to obtain an eviction order.
“These are our brothers and sisters. We want to build houses for the poor and in order to eradicate shacks, we can’t allow people to do as they want and stay where they want. I hate this situation -- we want to relocate them, we don’t want to forcibly remove them,”
Sigcawu said. - M&G

Friday, September 28, 2007

Township house inflation still rising

The residential property market is booming in the townships, where annual house price inflation rose to 39 percent in March this year after hovering below 10 percent before 2003, according to a new report.

The analysis by Lightstone Risk Management of the market in these areas - demarcated as peri-urban residential zones for black people under apartheid - notes that the nature of township transactions has changed significantly since 1994.

A key driver of increased demand in townships is the combined effect of upgrades to township infrastructure and increased economic activity, which has made previously neglected areas more attractive to upwardly mobile buyers.

Dramatic price rises in former white areas in recent years have also forced many buyers to seek more affordable properties in the townships.

Lightstone's analysis says the total number of township property transactions peaked at more than 120,000 a year during 1998 to 1999. It declined to between 40,000 and 50,000 a year in the past three years.

However, the earlier peaks were driven by municipal sales of land to individuals, as the state sought to raise property ownership among previously disadvantaged groups.

The proportion of property sales to individuals by organisations, mainly municipalities, has declined from 66 percent in 2000 to 21 percent this year. At R35,000 the average price of these sales was R165,000 lower than the average sale price between individuals.

The report says sales between individuals have increased from 23 percent of the township market in 2000 to 64 percent this year.

Only 15 percent of property sales were financed by mortgages in 2003, compared with 45 percent this year. The loan value of township mortgages has risen from between 60 percent and 80 percent of the sale price to more than 90 percent this year.

Lightstone's first township residential property index tracks the price of 1.4 million property sales across South Africa back to 2000.

Pam Golding Property reported a capital growth in the sale of township homes of between 30 percent and 40 percent in the year to February. The average selling price was R442 000 in this period.

First National Bank property strategist John Loos, a co-author of the report, said yesterday that the township market was coming off a low base but price inflation as at March was accelerating, while the national market had been decelerating.

Loos said the impressive performance was driven by mounting affordability issues in the former white areas, as well as upgrades to township infrastructure that would transform these dormitory towns into more mixed-use economies.

What made this market's strength even more impressive was that many upwardly mobile people were still leaving the townships for the more affordable former white areas.

Between 2000 and 2007, the report says, 54 percent of sellers moved to affordable or mid-value housing areas outside the townships, which points favourably towards sustaining the long-term house price inflation for middle-class properties. By contrast, only 0.5 percent of township sellers moved into areas with an average house price above R700 000, it says.

Loos said the sustainability of township demand, despite significant numbers of people moving out of these areas, appeared to reflect solid economic growth on one hand and a relative shortage of new stock on the other. - Business Report

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Joe Slovo residents to get lawyers

Three hours. This is the length of time it took to postpone an application in the Cape High Court for a week.

The applicants were the Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu, housing company Thubelisha Homes and local government and housing MEC Richard Dyantyi.

The respondents were about 4,000 residents of the Joe Slovo informal settlement, who represent the families living in that area.

They came to fight an application by the government to have the residents removed from the land next to the N2 to make way for the next phase of the N2 Gateway Project.

Temporary housing has been arranged for them in Delft.

But the residents refuse to move and have united in their efforts to be heard by the Cape High Court.

The residents arrived in their thousands by train early Wednesday morning and flocked to the court.

Those elected as leaders of the group addressed Cape Judge President John Hlophe.

Mzwanele Zulu told the court the residents attended because they wanted the court to see that they wanted to be heard.

He asked the court for six months' grace, saying that they needed time to raise the money to pay for legal representation.

But Steve Kirk-Cohen, SC, who is acting for the government, said this was too long, adding that the matter was "of considerable urgency".

Judge Hlophe adjourned for an hour to give the residents time to establish the way forward. When they returned, Kirk-Cohen told the court that the Legal Resources Centre had been approached and that it would make a decision on whether to represent the residents by next week.

Kirk-Cohen also said there were many residents who were not opposed to the relocation and asked the court to request that they be allowed to do so without being intimidated.

Fiona Bester, of the firm Chennells Albertyn, said she had also been approached by one of the residents, Siphiwo Penze, to represent him and his "task team" in the application.

Judge Hlophe asked Penze about this and he confirmed that he had approached Bester to represent all the residents.

Judge Hlophe told the parties that it was clear that the residents wanted to be legally represented and that they had a right to be legally represented.

The only way forward was to postpone the case so that the residents could finalise that aspect and for Bester to obtain proper instructions.

He postponed the application to October 4.

But, before adjourning, Judge Hlophe thanked the residents for their co-operation and appealed to them to act within the law.

"We realise that this is an emotive issue," he said, adding that it would be best for the residents to find trained legal representatives.

After the proceedings, the Director-General in the Department of Housing, Itumeleng Kotoane, told the media he thought it was fair to give the residents an opportunity to obtain legal representation.

He said it was important for the residents to understand that the relocation was only temporary.

"We are doing it in the best interests of the people," he said.

He added that some of the residents did not qualify for subsidised housing and they were there to stir up the emotions of the rest of the group.

Zulu said it was not true that some of the residents were willing to move. - Cape Times

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Housing - Evictions & Hotells - Restaurants & Hunger

2006/07 DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING EXPENSES - DOH FACT SHEET

Accommodation Costs (Ranked by percentage increase/decrease)


RANK

2004/05

2005/06

2006/07

TOTAL AMOUNT

%







1

Refusal to respond

R 1,503,725.14

R 3,623,994.84

R 2,120,269.70

141.00%







Travel Costs (Ranked by percentage increase/decrease)



RANK

2004/05

2005/06

2006/07

TOTAL AMOUNT

%







1

Refusal to respond

R 6,750,080.86

R 16,441,487.10

R 9,691,406.24

143.60%







Food Costs (Ranked by percentage increase/decrease)



RANK

2004/05

2005/06

2006/07

TOTAL AMOUNT

%







9

Refusal to respond

N/A

R 804,147.62

R 804,147.62

-



  • Amount spent by the Department of housing on accommodation R3.6 million.

A better life for all - a chance to be heard in court

Over a 1000 residents of Cape Town's Joe Slovo informal settlement have gathered outside the city's high court ahead of an eviction hearing.

The residents, who were closely monitored by police, are objecting to a plan to remove them to make way for the N2 Gateway housing development.

Cape Judge President Judge Hlophe is expected to rule later on Wednesday morning on an application by Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu and state owned developer Thubelisha Homes for the eviction order.

On Tuesday residents descended en masse on the city centre to lodge individual objection notices to the application.

Some where still handing in their forms in Wednesday morning .

As they waited for the hearing to get underway, they sat peacefully in the street .

Many of them held posters including ones that read "Stop oppressing poor people." "That is not a better (life) for all and "No to capitalist forced removal." - Sapa

Court action to be launched for TB patients

The Western Cape's Department of Health is just days away from making a submission to the Cape Town High Court that could see TB patients who have absconded being legally forced to return to the Brooklyn Chest Hospital and continue treatment for the disease.

If the department is successful, it will have the right to dispatch police to bring patients back to hospital and will be able to enforce medical treatment.

Patients in state facilities are currently not obliged to receive treatment for life-threatening and contagious illnesses.

Health Department spokesperson Faiza Steyn confirmed on Tuesday that court papers and the department's submission would be ready "by this Friday".

The department's proposed legal action followed media reports that several Extremely Drug Resistant (XDR) TB patients had absconded from the Brooklyn Chest while they were still infected and receiving treatment.

One man had returned home to his wife and six young children and was photographed coughing into one hand while holding his two-year-old daughter in the other... Read More - Cape Times

5,000 at court to fight N2 evictions

It was a day Cape High Court officials will probably never forget.

Two tables were hauled into the foyer of the court building and officials lined up behind them to stamp about 10,000 documents - two copies of a notice from each of the 5,000 families living at the Joe Slovo informal settlement to say they intend to oppose a government application for their eviction.

The notice was a single page, comprising no more than 150 words, and had to be stamped twice: by the court and attorneys.

It took the gathering of about 5,000 people more than five hours to have each of their two copies stamped by the court and by employees of Nongogo and Nuku Attorneys - the firm representing the government and housing company Thubelisha Homes.

We want to prove that we are not the hooligans they say we are
They came by train to the city centre shortly before 11am and moved to the Paul Sauer building to the firm of attorneys representing the government and Thubelisha Homes.

There they wanted to serve a copy of the notice on the attorneys.

But they were told to wait outside the court, where representatives of the firm would receive the notices.

The large crowd then peacefully made its way across Adderley Street, into St George's Mall to the Cape High Court, stopping traffic and attracting the puzzled gazes of curious onlookers.

Some stopped in the middle of their shopping or lunches to ask what the march was about.

The armed police officers who had followed the march from the Foreshore to the court building blocked off roads to make way for marchers and sped off to the high court to wait for the people to arrive.

The crowd stopped in Keerom Street outside the court and sat in the road waiting for those in charge to explain the process.

Five residents at a time were allowed to get up and proceed to five women representing the attorneys.

The attorneys' stamp was necessary proof that the residents had served the document on them.

Five women - two standing and three sitting on the steps of the court building - stamped each page before signing it and giving the date and time it was received.

After a while, employees of the nearby coffee shop, Castello's, said the women could use their tables and chairs.

In other cases, the documents are taken to room one in the building to be stamped.

But on Monday, officials working in that office and in other parts of the building set up tables in the foyer for the stamping of the documents.

The first batch were brought into the building and court official Andrew Fraser began stamping.

Moments later the others joined him.

The legal co-ordinator of the Anti-Eviction Campaign, Ashraf Cassiem, said the residents would have liked to have obtained legal representation, but there was no time to apply for legal aid.

The residents had to represent themselves and had to file individual notices of intention to oppose the application, he said.

But he emphasised that the crowd was not there to cause chaos.

"We want to prove that we are not the hooligans they say we are," he said.

Mzonke Poni. of the Anti-Eviction Campaign, said he was aware of the difficulties in filing and serving the documents the way the residents had done.

But he added that they were all lay people.

"We'll do it the lay way," he said.

Last week, Cape Judge President John Hlophe granted a temporary order for people to be moved.

The order was sought by Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, housing company Thubelisha, which is overseeing the N2 Gateway project, and MEC for Local Government and Housing Richard Dyantyi.

The government wants to clear land in Joe Slovo for formal housing.

Temporary housing has been arranged in Delft for the families who are to be moved.

But the people to be moved say Delft is too far away.

A schedule has been prepared for 100 families a week to be moved to Delft, beginning on Tuesday.

This will not take place, however, if the residents succeed in persuading the court that the order should not be made final. - Cape Times


Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Slovo residents fight for their houses

Hundreds of residents of Cape Town's Joe Slovo informal settlement on Tuesday filed formal objections to their looming forced removal.

They gathered in the street outside the Cape High Court under the watchful eye of police, as lawyers seated at tables on the pavement stamped and dated the individual forms before handing them over to court officials.

Cape judge president John Hlophe last week said he would hear argument on Wednesday on why he should not make a final eviction order against the squatters.

This followed an application by Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu and state-owned developer Thubelisha to have Joe Slovo cleared to make way for development of the N2 Gateway housing project.

A number of residents are resisting the move to housing at Delft on the Cape Flats.

Two weeks ago they clashed with police along the N2 highway, which runs past the settlement. - Sapa

Police fire on Potsdam service delivery protest - Mshiniwam Mshiniwam

FURIOUS RESPONSE: Residents of Potsdam, in Mdantsane, vent their anger in fire against the slow pace of service delivery, while police attempt to contain the protest. Pictures: MICHAEL PINYANA

POLICE yesterday used rubber bullets and teargas to disperse hundreds of disgruntled residents of Potsdam village who blockaded their main road protesting a lack of service delivery.

Trouble erupted at the village near Mdantsane’s NU18 after police declared the gathering illegal and ordered the residents to disperse.

Instead, residents who had littered the road with burning tyres, rubbish bins, rocks and branches, began stoning the contingent of about 20 police officers.

Police then shot rubber bullets and teargas in the direction of the unruly crowd, who were also singing Mshiniwam Mshiniwam (a warcry made popular by ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma).

Mlungisi Matomela, a member of a task team formed by residents, said police arrested about 20 residents.

Police Captain Leon Fortune confirmed “a group of people” had been arrested for public violence.

Schoolchildren at the scene said they had not been to school because the roads were blocked.

Residents told the Dispatch they were fed up with the lack of housing, sanitation and infrastructure, including roads and electricity.

They said they took action yesterday after their letters to both Eastern Cape Premier Nosimo Balindlela and Buffalo City mayor Zintle Peter appealing for their urgent intervention failed to yield results.

Last week, the residents threatened to turn Potsdam village into another Khutsong if they did not get a response from Balindlela by the end of this week.

“When they want votes they run to us with promises but they fail to fulfil them,” said Matomela.

“We have no life here, and that means our children will not get anywhere in life. We have a right to service delivery.”

Another disgruntled resident said: “People have burnt to death inside shacks and we are forced to carry their bodies away as there are no roads for cars.”

Provincial government spokesperson Phaphama Mfenyana was unable to confirm whether the residents’ letter had been received by Balindlela.

However, he said they would follow up on the correspondence and then refer the concerns to the relevant government departments.

“We urge the community to give the Premier a chance to respond, which she will do within 14 days,” Mfenyana said

Vuyo Zambodla, the director in the Office of the Mayor, said he was not aware of the letter and would therefore not comment.

Residents also called for the immediate removal of their ward councillor, Lindelwa Maxengwana. - Daily Dispatch

'Give us homes ... or face our wrath'

Heritage Day in Pretoria was marred by a series of violent protests sparked by poor service delivery.

Police fired rubber bullets on Soshanguve demonstrators less than 24 hours after the township's residents gave council officials two weeks to provide them with houses and better service delivery.

Early Monday morning, more than 600 Mamelodi residents stormed a section of land near Nellmapius that had been earmarked for RDP housing.

The protesters threatened to destroy the 2,000 houses built on the land if they did not get them.

'We are tired of being patient'
The council is in the process of building 3,600 RDP houses along Hans Strijdom Drive between Nellmapius and Mamelodi.

Mamelodi's Phase 1 extension residents said they would demonstrate until the council conceded to their demands.

Group leader Sisco Seabi said they were tired of the council's excuses. "We want our houses now. Council has been promising houses to us for years but we are still waiting," he said.

Seabi said they had heard that there was a waiting list but they had yet to see it.

"We keep on hearing about this waiting list and are told that we must be patient."

"We are tired of being patient, especially when people from other areas get these new houses," he said.

Seabi said they would continue to occupy the land even if they had to fight.

"What is happening is not fair. It is not right," he said.

Phase 1 resident Francina Tshabalala said she desperately wanted a house.

"I need a proper house for my children. We are living in poverty and my children are always sick."

"We cannot live like this. I am going to fight for a house."

"I will die if it means my children will have a house," she said.

Abraham Mmopane said he had been waiting for a house since 1994.

"I am tired of waiting. I want my home now. It is what we were promised," he said.

Mmopane said he was tired of living in a shack.

"My shack leaks and it is cold at night. I have no place to cook food for my children and they have no bedroom to sleep in," he said.

Yelling at one of the new homeowners Agnes Shiloda, Mmopane said she did not deserve the house because she was not from the area.

"It is not fair. Council is selling the houses to outside people," he said. Shiloda received her house for free and only had to pay R50 for her water and electricity connection.

However, she thought so little of her new house that she said the "land invaders" could have it.

"They (the houses) are too small. They are not nice."

"I do not know how people are meant to live in them," she said.

Tshwane Metro Police spokesperson William Baloyi confirmed the demonstrations saying that, in Soshanguve, police had opened fire on more than 200 protesters who had blockaded roads.

"When the people refused to disperse, we had no choice but to use force to clear them from the roads," he said, adding that one suspect had been arrested for public violence.

Baloyi said that after a tense stand-off in Nellmapius, police persuaded demonstrators to leave.

He said police were going to be monitoring the situation and would maintain a high police presence in both areas.

"We are not going to let people disrupt services and take over homes. Anyone trying to make trouble will be arrested," he said, adding that they were expecting further demonstrations this week.

Sonto Thipe, health and social development MMC, appealed to people to be patient and said everyone would get a house, "eventually".

"We have a list which we are working through and everyone will eventually get a house."

- Pretoria News

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Two brothers killed in Cape Town fire

Two brothers have been killed after their shack caught alight at an informal settlement in Overcome Heights at Muizenberg in the Cape Peninsula.

Police spokesperson, Bernadine Steyn, says the brothers, aged 28 and 29, were the only people inside the shack at the time of the blaze early this morning.

Steyn says the cause of the fire is not yet known. They are investigating the possibility that a stove could have fallen over. - SABC

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Two children die in Eastern Cape fire

Two children were burnt beyond recognition when the hut they were sleeping in caught fire in the early hours of this morning, said Eastern Cape police.

Superintendent Msukisi Fatyela said the boys were aged six and eight. One was found dead in a bedroom. The other was in the lounge. It appeared that he had been trying to flee.

He said they were alone at the time. Their mother had gone out for the night.

Although the cause of the fire was not known, police suspected it started when a paraffin lamp fell over. "The fire seems to have started inside the house," said Fatyela.

Police were called to the scene at 2am, but by then the house, in Cwecweni locality, Engcobo, had been destroyed. - Sapa

Friday, September 21, 2007

Cape informal settlement residents to be evicted

The national department of housing has filed an application notice asking the Cape High Court for permission to relocate to Delft about 4,500 people living in the Joe Slovo informal settlement near Langa.

About two weeks ago, the residents blockaded the N2 freeway in protest against their imminent relocation. Presiding judge president John Hlope has ruled that the department's notice is an order of court.

The company that manages the N2 Gateway project, Thubelitsha Homes, wants to build bond and rental houses on the land. It wants the Joe Slovo residents in Zone 30 and 31 to be relocated temporarily to Delft in order for the construction to go ahead. The department’s senior counsel, Steve Kirk-Cohen, argued in court that the houses in Delft were a step up from the Joe Slovo shacks, with water and electricity.

Housing department director-general Itumeleng Kotsoane says their application for the relocation is the last resort following three years of unsuccessful consultations with the community.

Slow progress
"We have made many consultations with the community over the last two years on the rolling out of the N2 pilot project. Every time we meet, we think we have made progress - only to find out that we have not made any… we think that now this is an opportunity for us to come to court and ask for court intervention," says Kotsoane.

Joe Slovo informal dwellers' leader, Mzwanele Zulu, says they will wait for the notice and are definitely ready to resist and oppose the notice. He says the law will have an opportunity to prove whether it is on the side of the poor or on that of the rich people.

The matter will be heard next week Wednesday. - SABC

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Housing fraud & corruption


INVESTIGATION: Thousands of people are still homeless due to corrupt officials while some get shabbily constructed RDP houses like this one. Photo: MOHAU MOFOKENG

Scorpions act on housing fraud

The Scorpions are investigating more than 30,000 civil servants for fraudulently receiving housing benefits.

A team of a special investigations unit headed by Willie Hofmeyer, including Scorpions and housing officials, has identified 31,259 bureaucrats believed to be involved in the massive housing scam.

The team examined a list of 53,555 government workers whose names appear in a database of subsidised housing and found that 31,259 did not qualify.

Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu asked the Scorpions to step in after her department identified a range of corrupt practices that were affecting the provision of low-cost houses.

President Thabo Mbeki mandated the Scorpions to investigate the loss of state funds, the mismanagement or misuse of the government’s low-cost housing schemes, and the conduct of officials administering RDP houses.

The investigators were also instructed to look at the activities of municipal councillors.

The Scorpions say they have only begun their drive to root out corruption in housing.

The investigators have set up offices in Gauteng, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape and Limpopo as bases for the probe. Cases are already being referred to courts across the country.

Attorneys, corrupt officials in the housing department, builders and members of the public are being prosecuted in the first wave of cases.

In Gauteng a developer was forced to repay R4,7 million after he failed to deliver on his contract, another developer was ordered to repay R1 million, and a third had to return more than R1,2 million.

In the Western Cape a developer received a suspended sentence of three years and was ordered to repay R292, 236.

In KwaZulu-Natal a lawyer was charged with the theft of housing subsidies and another faces charges of diverting R4,7 million in housing subsidies.

Sowetan recently exposed widespread corruption at Winnie Mandela informal settlement in Tembisa, in which officials allocated the same RDP houses to two or more beneficiaries. - Sowetan

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Political Promises Coming Home to Roost in Cape

PROMISES, promises, promises. They have a habit of coming back to bite politicians, and Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu had better invest in a pair of chain-mail trousers if she wants to avoid paying the price for some of her provincial colleagues' past whoppers.

Sisulu denies the government has ever promised every South African a free home, and a perusal of official policy documents confirms this; only the poorest of the poor qualify for RDP matchboxes. But pre-election campaigning seldom bears much resemblance to the dry policy approved by Pretoria, particularly in a closely contested province such as Western Cape. But if local politicians haven't been making extravagant promises, they have not gone out of their way to correct unrealistic expectations.

The protesters who wrecked show houses and caused havoc on the N2 highway near Langa outside Cape Town several times during the morning rush hour last week not only believe they are due proper homes to replace their shacks, but expect them to be built by the government for free and on the same site. Unfortunately, the land in question is earmarked for the N2 Gateway project, and it is impossible to build multistorey residential blocks on top of wood, plastic and corrugated iron structures.

Even worse from the protesters' point of view is the fact that most of the new houses will be allocated according to lengthy housing waiting lists, and few of those now occupying the land would qualify as buyers on economic grounds in any event. So, for the majority, their "temporary" relocation to outlying parts of the metropolitan area during the construction phase will be permanent.
Hence the accusation that the government is about to resort to forced removals of the kind that are synonymous with apartheid. Denials ring hollow given that people will indeed have to move if construction is to take place, and if they refuse to go voluntarily force is the only option. The fact that it would be court-sanctioned is irrelevant to those concerned. Sisulu is in a corner -- she cannot give in to anarchy and vandalism if this "presidential lead project" is to be completed before 2010, but she also can't avoid the fact that most of the protestors have little to lose.

The minister has not helped her cause by complaining that the protesters have legitimate channels for their grievances while simultaneously accusing the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) of being behind the action. The PAC has come close to being annihilated by the floor-crossing shenanigans that ended at the weekend, with just one PAC MP left in the National Assembly. And Sisulu expects poor, homeless PAC voters to put their faith in the institutions of a sham democracy?

To pile irony on ironies, the floor-crossing period also saw the African National Congress (ANC) increasing its dominance of the Western Cape provincial legislature, at a time when the party's popularity on the ground was taking a hammering over the housing issue and its heavy-handed response to Cape Town mayor and national Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille's anti-drug drive. Zille may have flirted with populism by joining in a high-profile anti-drug and gangsterism march on the Cape Flats, but that isn't the point. Nobody should be arrested for participating in a peaceful protest, and if it was a deliberate political ploy on Zille's part it was pretty darn successful.

Western Cape community safety MEC Leonard Ramatlakane's iron fist and blustering justifications have alienated the few friends that the ANC had left in the coloured communities that have been hardest hit by the province's drug and crime epidemic, while Zille's collection of brownie points is starting to look big enough to give the DA a real shot at taking the province come 2009.

The truth is that both the province and the city have taken significant strides in the war against the drug and crime syndicates, including high-profile arrests, the closure of large drug manufacturing operations and the eviction of dealers from council-owned properties. So successful have these initiatives been that the street prices of substances such as "tik" have rocketed. If the two levels of government could only work together, the gains might even be entrenched. - Business Day

Baboon dies of human tuberculosis

Human tuberculosis caused the partial paralysis in the young baboon, Marcus, that was put down in June.

But TB experts have warned that, rather than baboons being viewed as a health threat to humans, the diagnosis should sound the alarm about the transfer of human disease to wild animals...

Referring to South Africa's high incidence of TB among humans, he said it was far more likely that infection would come from another person.

"As a precaution, anyone whose house has been raided by a baboon should destroy any food the baboon may have tasted or touched," Van Helden advised.

Beamish said the Peninsula's baboon population of 384 180 was already stressed due to isolation, ring fencing by urbanisation and conflict with humans.

"A health risk introduced by humans is a serious threat to their continued presence in the Peninsula," she warned. - Cape Argus

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Dosen't this have history? Dr..

Shack dwellers under violent attack from the state in Cape Town

The New Crossroads?
South African cities have been rocked by a gathering wave of municipal revolts since 2004. The most recent of these has been organised from the Joe Slovo shack settlement in Cape Town. In just over 10 days time Abahlali baseMjondolo plans to put 20,000 people on the streets in Durban.

In Cape Town shack dwellers living on the road from the airport into the city faced forced removal. A housing project that is pushing them out was initially justified as being for them but once again capital is pushing out people...

Since the launch in 2004 of N2 Gateway, Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu’s pet ‘flagship’ project has run into problem after problem: delayed delivery, cost over-runs, above all lack of consultation. In their 2004-5 report the Development Action Group, an NGO, wrote “The top-down approach in the N2 project undermines its overall sustainability… The casual, continued and increasing practice of excluding people from decision-making about development processes that directly affect their lives is an obstacle that communities are unlikely to tolerate for much longer.”

Their prognosis was vindicated this week when the discontent of Joe Slovo residents boiled over and they closed down the N2 freeway at peak time on Monday morning. After the January 2005 fire, which destroyed 3000 shacks and made 12,000 people homeless, Joe Slovo residents were promised priority in the allocation of N2 Gateway housing. But they were not accommodated at all in the allocation of phase 1 flats. Now in 2007 what they face is being forcibly removed to Delft on the outskirts of the city to create space for the building of phase 2, not for them, but for those better off. They have lived in Langa for years and don’t want to be removed to the margins of the city far from job opportunities

What the Joe Slovo residents are asking for is RDP housing built in the area for them, and they have a plan as to how this can be done without any forced removal at all.

Incredibly, as a result of their occupation of the N2, they have instead been threatened by Lindiwe Sisulu with being struck off all housing waiting lists because they refuse to “cooperate with government” in their eviction. Additionally she said she had consulted with lawyers about “legal avenues to compel” their removal.

Sisulu’s first threat, of course, violates the constitutional right to housing enjoyed by every South African. “She has declared we are not South African” says Joe Slovo elected task team member Sifiso Mapasa, echoing the famous words of Sol Plaatje about the segregationist 1913 Natives Land Act, that it turned Africans into “foreigners in the land of their birth.” Moreover housing allocation is a provincial not national competence, and Sisulu’s action is therefore additionally illegal. As well, at the whim of the minister her declaration punishes each resident for refusing to cooperate with government, without even a hearing – a third constitutional violation! Sisulu is losing her senses.

The Western Cape (and City of Cape Town) waiting lists are anyway, in the words of regional COSATU general secretary Tony Ehrenreich, “a joke”. There is a backlog of some 400,000 houses in Cape Town yet Dan Plato says there are only 3060 names on the city’s waiting list! The houses being built each year in the whole Western Cape are not more than 20,000, barely enough to meet population increase, let alone the backlog. How many people have been waiting 20 years and more on the lists? The government could put the 4-8 million unemployed to work on a crash programme to build homes if it were not wedded to the capitalist profit system.

Sisulu claims that Joe Slovo residents “would have to make way for people higher up the housing waiting list.” But Phase 1 N2 Gateway housing was not allocated on the basis of waiting lists because very few people could be found who were economically eligible. Instead advertisements were placed in police stations to attract new applicants. What reason is there to expect any difference in Phase 2, which is so-called ‘gap’ housing for those earning between R3500 and R7500 a month? Rather than allocation by waiting list, she is moving out the poor to make way for the better off.

Some people ask why Joe Slovo residents are objecting, since they are only being ‘temporarily removed’ to Delft. But the national housing director-general has admitted that the plans are only to build houses for 1000 people on the Joe Slovo land, whereas there are presently 6000 residents. Thus, even if each one of those 1000 was a Joe Slovo resident, 5000 would be stranded in Delft. But, since the projected phase 2 is ‘gap’ housing, most Joe Slovo residents (and most of those on housing waiting lists) will be economically excluded anyway.

Transport MEC Marius Fransman maintained it was “unacceptable” in our democracy to blockade the N2 when “we have the opportunity to access the government.” But Joe Slovo residents have tried many times to “access the government”. On 3 August they marched to parliament to present a memorandum to Sisulu and asked to meet her. It was received by her personal assistant, who promised a reply within a week. In fact the only reply by Sisulu was a disdainful one reported in an article in the back pages of the Weekend Argus (25/8/2007). Sisulu did not even have the courtesy to deliver her reply to those concerned. Thus she undermined our democracy.

In her reply she accused Joe Slovo residents of being “unwilling to accept that communities of the future would cut across race and class.” If that is what she wants, then why does she not “cut across race and class” and (as Ehrenreich suggested) move them to Constantia? She claimed she wanted to “eradicate slums”. But what she is doing is merely moving the Joe Slovo ‘slum’ to Delft and installing better-off people in their place.

Sisulu does not like the term “forced removal.” But what substantive difference is there in her present search for means of “compulsion”, from the apartheid government of the 1970s wanting to forcibly evict Crossroads residents out of Cape Town altogether?

I was an eye-witness to the events of Monday morning from 4am, having been invited to observe by the task team. What I saw even in the dark was a peaceful protest interrupted by a police riot. Contrary to some news reports no guns were fired at the police. Nor were stones thrown, until the police had wounded some 12 people with rubber bullets. Riotous police behaviour was witnessed by reporters again later in the morning when police opened fire on a crowd including old people, children and women with a mere 20 second warning, and wounded many more. As of today the police are still occupying Joe Slovo and arresting people at will.

On Tuesday two leaders in Joe Slovo were arrested on charges of “public violence” for daring to ask the police for permission to hold a general meeting! This too was a constitutional violation. There is a police-state atmosphere of intimidation in Joe Slovo in no way compatible with the democracy talked about by MEC Fransman.

Sisulu’s refusal to meet Joe Slovo residents makes her responsible for these injuries and actions. She now has the blood of women and children on her hands.

She claims that Thubelisha, project manager of N2 Gateway, is responsible for interacting with residents and that she has “the fullest confidence” in them. Thubelisha was established to build houses, and lacks people-management skills. Residents of Joe Slovo have met with Thubelisha management several times, to no avail.

At the same time as the complaints of Joe Slovo, the N2 Gateway phase 1 residents also have their grievances. Selected as beneficiaries, at preparatory workshops they were suddenly told that rent would be increased from the R350-R600 advertised to R650-R1000. Desperate for housing, and given no time even to read the long contracts, they signed. They moved into the flats – only to find cramped accommodation, serious structural problems, cracks in the walls, hopelessly defective plumbing, and so on. Later they discovered that some people were paying the old rents (which even Thubelisha admits is an ‘anomaly’). Thubelisha has not addressed their problems to their satisfaction. They have launched a rent boycott in protest, and also marched to parliament on 17 July to present a memorandum to Sisulu – to which she again responded only in the media. They also are threatened with eviction.

The N2 Gateway ‘flagship’ project has become a fiasco.

The high-handedness of Sisulu in all this is also reminiscent of old apartheid ministers. Her behaviour is a symptom of the arrogant, aloof, and self-satisfied unwillingness to listen to ordinary people that increasingly characterises the Mbeki government. Sisulu talks of frequent “consultation” with communities over N2 Gateway. But this “consultation” has not involved listening but rather telling communities what they should do.

Minister Sisulu must come to her senses. By delegating the handling of her pet project to others, she has been acting like a coward. Instead of issuing ultimatums from afar, she needs above all to meet with and listen personally to Joe Slovo residents (as well as those of N2 Gateway phase 1). Then it will become clear to her that both communities are united in their demands, and that they can suggest answers to their problems. Both communities are insistent that any attempt to forcibly evict them will be challenged in court, and physically if necessary. But there is a way out of this conflict, if Sisulu lives up to her responsibilities.

Martin Legassick is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of the Western Cape.



Cape shack blaze leaves scores homeless

Almost 100 people have been left homeless this evening. This, after a raging fire destroyed about 40 shacks at an informal settlement in Phillipi near Cape Town.

Residents claim the fire was caused by a paraffin stove which overturned. Eight fire engines were dispatched to the scene. Fire-fighters battled for nearly two hours before they could put out the flames.

Leroy Cloete of the Gugulethu Fire station says they responded immediately, but the fire left a trail of destruction in its wake. Some of the victims sifted through mangled, charred debris trying to salvage what they could. They are being housed at a nearby community hall. - SABC

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Democracy sowed seeds of township rage

It was the dawn of democracy and for the first time poor people felt free to move closer to the city.

Land near Langa which had been used as a dump became home to a few hundred people searching for a better life.

Within a few years thousands of people, many from the Eastern Cape, thought of the place as a temporary home while they waited for houses to be provided. They named it Joe Slovo, after the first minister of housing in the new government, in the hope he would favour them with proper houses.

The area is distinguished by its banks of cement lavatory stalls
Slovo, also a member of the South African Communist Party, died of cancer in January 1995.

Today the area is distinguished by its banks of cement lavatory stalls, all on the bucket system, a system the provincial government promised to eradicate in informal settlements by this year. People do, however, have electricity, and rubbish is collected weekly.

Joe Slovo would have remained just another informal settlement had it not been for a series of devastating fires over the last seven years.


In 2005 almost 28 000 people were left homeless when a fire swept through the settlement; last year 4,000 people lost their homes in another fire. After every fire the city and the provincial government handed out starter kits to rebuild shacks, Capetonians opened their hearts and purses and new measures were introduced to prevent further fires.

One of the most ambitious was to have gaps 4m wide between the houses to allow fire engine access and prevent the easy spread of flames from one home to another. But the gaps were quickly filled.

'I've been living here since 1994 and believe that I am entitled to stay here'
In 2005 fires, which resulted in damage of millions of rands, prompted the City of Cape Town, the provincial government and the national Department of Housing to announce the N2 Gateway project.

While the houses were being built thousands of people had to move to transit camps in Delft.


Most of the people who moved to Joe Slovo over the years say they were either backyard dwellers, lived in overcrowded houses or in township hostels.

Now, with the second phase of the N2 Gateway about to get under way, they are being told they have to move to Delft.


But they fear that once proper accommodation has been provided there will not be room for all of them back at Joe Slovo. They also fear they will not be able to afford the rent in the new housing, and say they want free accommodation.

Residents said Delft was too far from their places of work and job opportunities.

In action reminiscent of the apartheid years, on Monday they barricaded the N2 with burning tyres, bringing rush- hour traffic to a halt. Angry protesters clashed with the police and rubber bullets were fired. A bread truck was looted and set alight.

Joe Slovo resident Thandeka Masila, 35, is a
mother of four. "I was tired of living in the crowded hostels in Langa where I lived with my dad. This was bush back then," she said, pointing at the jumble of houses that makes up Joe Slovo.

"We had to use our hands to cut them down and now all of a sudden these guys just come and evict us."

Masila took part in Monday's protest, which started around 4am. "I've been living here since 1994 and believe that I am entitled to stay here," she said, adding that she was upset and disappointed that police used rubber bullets on the protesters. "They shot me in my thigh," she said. "It seemed as if police were out to 'kill us like flies'."

She added: "I'm not going to Delft. They must rather take me off the waiting list."

This was a reference to remarks by Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, who threatened to remove Joe Slovo residents from the housing waiting list if they did not co-operate with the housing authorities.

The minister's comments led to furious outbursts from opposition parties and community organisations.

When Weekend Argus visited the settlement this week, residents were sitting outside their homes, chatting and playing cards. Women doing their washing said they were worried about their future.

Thembekile Mhlaba, 35, said: "We go and stand by the robots in the hope that a good Samaritan will pick us up and give us a job for a day or two. We walk as far as the city to look for work."

The area appears quiet. Police are still maintaining a presence to make sure residents don't disrupt the N2.

But many said "this could be the lull before the storm", and there are fears of further protest action this afternoon.

Thembisile Nqayi, one of the members of the Joe Slovo Task Team, a residents' organisation, said: "One of our members was arrested on Tuesday after the protest when he went to the police to ask for permission to hold a meeting with the residents."

He warned that their protests were far from over.

"Plan A has failed us, so yes we do have plan B but I can't reveal anything to you guys. You will just have to wait and see," he said.

- Cape Argus


Joe Slovo burns, smoulders, erupts

On Monday morning, hundreds of homeless people from the Joe Slovo squatter camp in Cape Town blockaded the N2 highway during peak-hour traffic, venting their anger and frustration with government for not providing houses. In response, Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said:
“Residents of the Joe Slovo informal settlement must decide whether they wish to cooperate with government. In this way they will qualify for housing opportunities. If they choose not to cooperate, they will be removed completely from all housing waiting lists,”.

When the minister was asked in the national assembly on Tuesday whether she could remove people from the housing waiting list, she said: “I’ve already done so.”

It is unclear which housing list the minister is referring to and legal experts say that the minister “doesn’t have the authority” to remove people from the list.

Pierre de Vos, a constitutional law lecturer from the University of the Western Cape, said it was “untenable and intolerable” for the minister to make such a threat.

“The Constitutional Court says people have a right to houses and it’s the government’s responsibility to provide houses. She can’t just unilaterally take people off the waiting list. There has to be a hearing and you have to hear the protesters’ side of the story. You can’t take away people’s rights without listening to their side of the story,” De Vos said. “You can’t punish people for opposing the government’s policy -- if you do, you are abusing your power.”

De Vos warned that there were “numerous cases of people removed from social grant lists -- every time this was challenged, government lost the case and the courts had harsh words for those officials who unilaterally take away people’s benefits”.

Director General of Housing Itumeleng Kotsoane said he had received an instruction from Sisulu “to implement processes that will lead to reprioritisation of government housing waiting lists”.

Steve Kahanovitz of the Legal Resource Centre asked: “What powers is Sisulu going to use to remove people from the housing waiting list? If you take administrative action, you’re supposed to have a hearing. She can make the threats, but does she control the list and have the power in order to make these threats?”

Dan Plato, mayoral committee member for housing in the city, said the city has a housing list with 3,060 names on it. “Minister Sisulu can’t interfere and dictate to the city council to take names off this list. The national ministry has its own list, but there’s supposed to be only one list,” Plato said.

Provincial Housing Minister Richard Dyanti’s spokesperson, Vusi Tshose, said he “doesn’t know” which list Sisulu was referring to.

“I don’t know where the housing waiting list is -- we don’t have a list,” Tshose said.

Sisulu’s spokesperson, Monwabisi Maclean, said there was a housing waiting list, but it was confidential. “It has people’s ID numbers on it -- the national housing department has a consolidated housing waiting list and it’s this list from which people will be removed,” he said.

Manyenzeke Sopaqa, who has lived in Joe Slovo for 14 years, said government “must bring their bulldozers and their guns -- we will die here. They don’t talk to us and they make false promises. Where is this housing list that they’re now threatening us with? We want to know their plans. We want to see their lists and we want a say in where we live.”
- M&G

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu is playing with fire.



Civic bodies including InternAfrica.org, criticise minister over waiting-list threat - Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu is playing with fire.

This is the warning from civic groups after Sisulu’s threat to remove protesting homeless people from the housing waiting lists.

Speaking in parliament in Cape Town yesterday, Sisulu said: “If they choose not to cooperate with government, they will be completely removed from all housing waiting lists.”

But Philani Dlamini, president of Abahlali base Mjondolo, said it was a disgrace for the minister to even contemplate such a move, “especially in the face of rampant corruption and the fact that some people have been on the waiting lists for more than 10 years”.


Anti-Privatisation Forum leader, Trevor Ngwane, said Sisulu’s threats were a clear indication that there were no waiting lists.

“People do not protest because it is fun. They are homeless and they are trying to knock some sense into politicians’ heads,” he said.

“If every community was to protest who would be on her waiting lists?” asked Ngwane.

He said more protests should be expected because the government was becoming arrogant.

“They have no plan to build houses for people, they only have a plan to build stadiums for the World Cup,” he said.

During question-and-answer time, Sisulu said that the government was developing a national database with strict criteria that would give housing first to children, the elderly, the sick and women-headed households.

Her comments came in the wake of protesters from the Joe Slovo informal settlement in Cape Town setting up burning barricades on the N2, stoning vehicles and destroying houses under construction.

Sisulu said the new database was aimed at eliminating corruption in allocating houses. She said the database would be similar to that used by Home Affairs and the Independent Electoral Commission. She said some of the criteria would include age, vulnerability such as sickness and whether children were involved. She said that women-headed households would “rank highly”.

“By the time the list is consolidated no one can move anyone, anywhere, anytime, without the permission of the minister,” said Sisulu.

The minister said that the government would only provide housing to those who could not afford to buy their own. She appealed to the “able-bodied” to approach the government for help to build their own houses.

The government’s flagship N2 Gateway housing project has been dogged by controversy since its inception as residents have complained of shoddy workmanship and high bonds and rents. - Sowetan