Thursday, July 31, 2008

There is a god - Western Cape cabinet reshuffle claims Dyantyi

Axed Western Cape Local Government and Housing Minister Richard Dyantyi

Dyantyi has confirmed that he has been axed

Western Cape Local Government and Housing Minister, Richard Dyantyi has become the first casualty of the Cabinet reshuffle in the province.

Dyantyi has confirmed that he has been axed. This comes as newly elected Premier, Lynne Brown, prepares to announce her new look cabinet later today. Dyantyi has been perceived as an ally of ousted Premier Ebrahim Rasool.

Brown says the announcement, expected earlier this week, was delayed as she had to consult with the ANC's National Executive Committee on the make-up of her new cabinet.

- SABC

Dyantyi in denial : being under pressure to resign

Western Cape Local Government and Housing Minister, Richard Dyantyi

Dyantyi says he is not under pressure to resign

Western Cape Local Government and Housing Minister, Richard Dyantyi, says he is not under pressure to resign from his job.

He was speaking at the handing over of more than 200 houses to homeless people at Wallacedene near Cape Town this morning. Dyantyi's name is among a number of ministers who are expected to resign following the removal of former Premier, Ebrahim Rasool, last week.

Yesterday, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning Minister, Tasneem Essop, resigned from her post. However, Dyantyi says he will continue to do his job as mandated by the ANC.

- SABC

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Housing summit to tackle growing slums in Africa

A slum in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

The conference seeks to find solutions for the growing number of slums across Africa

Delegates to a housing conference in the Nigerian capital are deliberating on how best to eradicate the continent's growing slums. Housing ministers from across the continent and representatives of international aid organisations have converged on Abuja as part of the second African Ministerial Conference on Housing and Urban Development.

With more than 70% of the continent's urban residents staying in slum areas, delegates are faced with an enormous challenge. They say the continued influx of people into Africa's cities and the pressing need to address the escalating housing needs of the poor is becoming more urgent.

The body was created in 2005 and South Africa has been chairing it ever since. South African Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu says the lack of proper housing in Africa is a crisis waiting to explode.


The summit is also looking at setting up a possible African Fund under the African Bank to eradicate slums on the continent.

The latest research indicates that more than 1.6 billion Africans will be living in slums by 2020. - SABC

Sewer leaks raise stink in Samora Machel

Sewer leakages in the Samora Machel informal settlement have become a daily challenge for residents who say pipe leaks are threatening not only their health but also their businesses.

And, they charge, city authorities take as long as three weeks to respond to their complaints.

Sanele Sigwegwe, assistant at a braai spot in the area, said his business was suffering because people did not want to buy food in an area where sewage was leaking out of pipes.

"People don't buy at my stall because it is smelly around here and they refuse to eat in a place like that," said an angry Sigwegwe.

Residents say the problem is not unusual and that sewers in the area have been leaking for weeks.

One, who did not want to be named, said he suspected the sewerage system was inferior.

The pipes, he believed, were overburdened because of the large number of people living in Samora Machel.

"The council needs to do something about this before we all get sick.

"And fixing the pipes is not going to make a difference. They must install new pipes," he said.

Residents reported children were experiencing skin rashes after playing near stagnant water.

Samora Machel ward councillor Monwabisi Mbaliswano said they were facing a huge challenge with the sewerage system.

He had been told that there were problems not only with the system, but also with the relevant employees.

The city's Eaton Oliver, responsible for sanitation in Mitchells Plain, said the pump station often filled up but that they were working to rectify the situation. - Cape Argus

Housing heroine still has no proper house

Irene Grootboom, the heroine who led the struggle for the homeless and landless of South Africa in the Grootboom Constitutional Court judgment of 2000, still does not have a proper roof over her head.

Eight years ago Grootboom brought an application to court on behalf of 510 children and 290 adults living in the Wallacedene informal settlement demanding housing and children's rights.

She won the case as the landmark judgment declared the state was obliged to devise and implement "a comprehensive and co-ordinated programme to realise the right of access to adequate housing".

But a visit by the Cape Argus on Monday found her "sick and tired" of promises.

Grootboom remains proud of the judgment and of herself for persevering when "everybody was scared to go forward - I decided to speak out because we were poor and wanted a place to live in," she said.

Wallacedene residents, without hot water or sewerage and having been on the housing waiting list for a long time, occupied private land meant for low-cost housing.

They were evicted, but the land they had previously lived on had been occupied. They settled on a sportsfield and in a community hall. They later occupied houses and shacks in other settlements.

"I was supposed to get a house a while back but I'm still in a shack which I share with my sister-in-law and her three children. They keep promising us ... I'm sick and tired of the whole thing," said Grootboom, 39.

"When it rains water seeps through every crevice and the thing is submerged in water. I try to repair it but I can't do much," she said.

Asked how she felt when the housing department handed over nearly 300 housing units at the weekend, under the People's Housing Process programme in her community, she said: "I can't feel good."

Grootboom said she had applied for a house under a different project, and hoped she would soon get one.

Ward councillor Ndumiso Magwetshu said a street in the community had been named after Grootboom as she was a symbol of the struggle for houses. "She has not been forgotten by the government, and my wish is to start by building a house for her in the next programme," said Magwetshu, adding that constitutionally everyone had a right to housing.

"I applaud her, the community loves her and we need to see her in a proper house," he said.

On Sunday Vusi Tshose, spokesperson for Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi, said Grootboom should benefit "in the next round".

Magwetshu said that, while the community was receiving better houses, the problem of backyard shacks still remained.

The government, he said, needed to develop a policy to the effect that, once a person was given a house, they should demolish their shack permanently.

"We want them in houses, not shacks," he said. - Cape Argus


Monday, July 28, 2008

Massive service delivery mess

More than 60,000 people in five provinces have been failed twice by the government in 14 years because they still don’t have a proper roof over their heads.

These citizens still live in shacks despite the fact that Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu set R2 billion aside three years ago to finish houses, which were promised to them in 1994.

The City Press yesterday said political analysts laid the problem at the door of the ANC and infighting, which had distracted officials from their service delivery mandate.

In some provinces slabs were laid for homes but the houses were never built.

Corruption has eaten into some projects where unscrupulous developers were paid but houses were never built.

National Housing spokesman Xolani Xundu said some projects had been blocked because contractors claimed they hadn’t been paid when, in fact, they had.

The department said it had asked the national treasury for more money to complete outstanding projects. - The Citizen

African informal settlements - "a crisis waiting to explode" - Lindiwe Sisulu

Ways of overcoming the crushing difficulties that African housing departments face are to be tackled at a conference of ministers of housing and urban development to be held in Abuja, Nigeria next week.

South Africa has been chairing and the housing department has provided the secretariat for the African ministerial conference on housing and urban development (Amchud) since its inception three years ago, when the first meeting was held in Durban.

African informal settlements - "a crisis waiting to explode" - Lindiwe Sisulu

Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu will report to next week’s plenary on progress so far, and will pass the baton to Nigeria.

The director general of South Africa’s department, Itumeleng Kotsoane said on Monday: "We have been working with our African partners, the UN Habitat and the African Union to find simple solutions and also share our experiences on how cities can respond to this challenge of the 21st century." - The Times

Constitutional rights activist Irene Grootboom still in a shack

The Cape Town woman, who made headlines eight years ago when she went to the Constitutional Court to fight for housing rights for herself and other squatters, is still living in a shack.

Irene Grootboom (39) of the historic Grootboom Judgment by the Constitutional Court in 2000, brought an application to court on behalf of children and adults living in Wallacedene on the basis of rights to housing and children's rights. She won the case, and now nearly 300 people received houses over the weekend. Almost eight years after the judgment the housing department handed over 277 houses to the Wallacedene community.

Grootboom has stayed in a shack since 1989 and even now was not among those who benefited. Richard Dyantyi, Western Cape Housing Minister, says she is happy that other people are getting houses that she fought for. But, Grootboom, who is sick and in bed, says although she's joyful that some now have houses, she's unhappy that she could not get a house after playing a leading role in the Grootboom Constitutional Court application.

Dyantyi says the beneficiaries are people who have organised themselves into groups. The minister said the next two projects would start next month and Grootboom would definitely be one of the beneficiaries. - SABC

Friday, July 25, 2008

'Outsourcing of delivery no solution'

Cape Flats residents have taken to the streets of central Cape Town in protest against slow service delivery, the privatisation of housing and evictions.

The joint committee representing residents of the N2 Gateway flats, the Joe Slovo informal settlement and the Symphony Way settlement in Delft organised on Thursday's march with the Anti- Eviction Campaign.

Their aim was to speed up housing delivery and draw attention to the problems caused by the privatisation of housing construction by Thubelisha Homes and housing management by Trafalgar Properties.

About 200 gathered in Keizergracht, where they were instructed to write their grievances on slips of paper that they placed inside three homemade coffins representing Thubelisha Homes, housing management company Trafalgar, and Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi.

They then marched and danced their way through the central city, singing traditional protest songs, to the offices of the provincial department of local government and housing.

"They must give us houses immediately," said John Titus, who lives in the Symphony Way settlement with his wife and five children. He had been on the waiting list for six years and "enough is enough".

Campaign organisers read the memorandum to Dyantyi outside his offices and allowed him to sign it.

In the memorandum, they urged Dyantyi to declare the housing backlog a state of emergency.

They recommended that he start by "scrapping the laws that allow for the eviction of poor people".

"Your department must take direct responsibility for housing, housing delivery, and housing management.

"But you continue to outsource and privatise housing and housing delivery, as if this was a solution, rather than acknowledging that this is part of the problem.

"Evict Trafalgar and Thubelisha Homes, not the poor people."

Dyantyi's spokesperson, Vusi Tshose, said the department acknowledged that 410,000 people needed formal homes.

"It is our business to build houses. Housing is our priority. But there are certain things we can't resolve overnight."

Tshose said the department's budget enabled the building of only 16,000 houses a year.

- Cape Times

Thursday, July 24, 2008

'Immigrants up housing challenge'

One of the major challenges for housing provision in the Western Cape is that the province is a "favourite destination" for immigrants in search of job opportunities, better education, health care and improved standards of living.

That was the view expressed by the provincial Housing Department ahead of the annual Govan Mbeki housing awards due to take place on Thursday night.

"They don't come to get houses, but at the end of the day you need a home to go to, South Africa is a democratic country (and) we cannot control the movement of people into the province," said Vusi Tshose, spokesperson for Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi.

"As government alone, we cannot meet the housing challenges. We need partnerships, we need the private sector, banks, employers and communities to come on board in our quest to provide decent housing."

Tshose said unemployment and poverty in communities needed to be tackled first and foremost because these issues resulted in people selling the houses the government had built for them.

"They then go back to live in shacks, start accusing the government of not doing enough, try to go back to the housing list or start protest marches," he said.

Tshose said it was important to have communities as partners to address these issues, especially the issue of houses being seen as valuable assets that could be sold.

For the past three years the department had met its target of building 16,000 houses and servicing 18,000 sites annually.

Each year the department had also spent its full budget allocation. Tshose said to-night's awards were aimed at recognising valuable roleplayers in the vital area of housing provision.

These included developers, building contractors, the banking sector, community-based organisations, the mining sector, building material suppliers and professional associations, among others.

He said these players had supported the government in building sustainable human settlements.
The housing backlog currently stands at 410 000. - Cape Argus

Shacks demolished

TRAFFIC came to a standstill last week Wednesday when shack dwellers and police clashed on the corner of Modderdam and Stellenbosch Roads.

Residents of Freedom Farm informal settlement decided to demonstrate and vent their anger on motorists by blockading the road with burning tyres.

The problem they said started the previous Saturday, Sunday and on Wednesday morning when they alleged law enforcement police officers arrived and demolished their shacks without giving them a warning first to vacate the area.

Freedom Farm is situated between the Belhar cemetery and Cape Town international airport.

Traffic came to a standstill as police vans and fire brigades rushed to the area to estinguish both fire and people’s anger.

Sophia Moodey (29) has two children and has been living in Freedom Farm for sixteen years.

“We are not animals or criminals and do not deserve to be treated like this.

“People’s houses were demolished and some of them don’t even know as they were at work.

“Another man lost his eye after being shot with a rubber bullet by the law enforcement police and is in hospital as we speak,” said Moodey.

Moodey said the people who were evicted and their houses demolished had paid between R200 and R500 to build their houses there.

Khuliwe Gqalaqha said people fear for their lives and were afraid to say who was selling them the land.

She said people were afraid to fall asleep at night. “People are removed forcefully and their houses are destroyed.”

Ziyanda Makhaba said she received a phone call from one of the neighbours that their houses were being demolished.

“I left everything at work and ran as fast as I can to get here in time to save my belongings before they got stolen.

“Why is the law enforcement not giving us a warning first instead of just demolishing our shacks?” asked Makhaba.

Police tried to negotiate their way to have the angry community stop burning tyres and infringed the rights of the motorists and advised them to get their leaders instead to approach the ward councillor of the area about their problem.

The community said it was the third time their houses have been demolished since Saturday. They simply re-build it.

Close to 70 shacks have been demolished so far in the area.

One policeman said the Cape Town airport was a national strategic point and people are not allowed to build their houses next to the airport.

The police officer said the houses were built too close to the airport fence.

Mr Dan Plato, mayco member for housing in the City of Cape Town, said according to the information received only new structures were destroyed. He said a specific community leader in the area was selling sites at R200 with a promise that they will become beneficiaries of the N2 Gateway housing project and that was illegal.

Plato said community leaders have requested the city of Cape Town to re-open the N2 gateway list for communities of Freedom Farm to become beneficiaries in the N2 Gateway project.

He said the people whose houses were demolished received wrong information from these community leaders. “My response was that the city was not responsible for compiling of the beneficiaries list, that is for Thubelisha Homes to do. No one has the right to go and erect structures where ever they want and that is why the city demolished those new structures,” said Plato.

Plato said the city officials on the ground did give prior warning to those people not to erect structures and they ignored the warning.

He said the official did communicate with the people to go back to where they came from.

“Their leaders had requested a meeting with the city officials and councillors,” said Plato.

- TygerBurger

Monday, July 21, 2008

Two dead as fires ravage Cape shacks

A spate of fires in informal settlements in Cape Town this weekend has left two people dead and more than 800 homeless.

It is not yet clear what caused the spate of blazes, but Greg Pillay, head of the city's Disaster Risk Management Centre, said residents using open flames or stoves to keep warm may have been the cause.

Early on Sunday, a woman burned to death in Zone Six, Langa, when her shack was gutted.

Four hours later, a 29-year-old man was killed when his shack and four others were razed in the Lusaka informal settlement in Philippi.

Police had opened inquests into the incidents and the names of the two residents will only be released once their relatives have been contacted.

Pillay said in a separate fire, 20 Heinz Park residents were left without shelter when five shacks were gutted.

He said another shack in Philippi had also been razed, leaving four residents homeless.

Shacks were also razed in Nyanga.

And in the Masiphumelele informal settlement where the biggest fire occurred on Friday, another 800 residents were left homeless.

On Sunday, scores of residents were busy rebuilding their shacks and sifting through piles of blackened corrugated iron and pieces of wood.

Crying children could be heard between continuous hammering.

Resident Nofirst Nzamela watched as her 12-year-old son, Asafika, curled up to rest in an old suitcase, one of her few remaining possessions.

She shook her head as she said she felt hopeless about the future of her four children.

"They are in school. But where will they stay now?

"I don't know what we'll do," she said.

Nzamela pointed to a sodden pile of burnt clothes which she had tried to salvage and said her sons did not have any school clothes, except for what they had been wearing on Friday.

She said she was thankful their school books had been with them when the fire had gutted their shack.

Nearby, Andrew Sigauke hammered pieces of wood together as he recalled the shock of arriving home on Friday to find his shack gutted.

Everything I had, everything, is gone, he said.

Just a few weeks ago when it was raining so much my house was flooded and the water came in.

Now I don't even have a house. I have nothing.

Sigauke said none of the residents seemed to know how the fire had begun.

Pillay said the fire might have been linked to people trying to keep warm.

It's quite strange because it's been cold, but not really that cold this weekend, he said.

He said fires that broke out in summer caused more damage because flames were fanned by strong winds and spread easily.

- Cape Times

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Thousand lose homes in shack fire

A fire that swept through the Masiphumelele informal settlement on Friday destroyed more than 250 shacks, displacing about 1 000 people.

Local volunteers said they had to rush many residents out of their shacks because they wanted to stay on and save their belongings.

One volunteer said a group of men even picked up an entire small shack and carried it away.

The fire, which started around noon, was brought under control after an hour and firefighters then started dampening down the area.

No one was injured or killed in the blaze and residents were moved to the Masiphumelele community hall.

Disaster Risk Management are providing blankets, hot meals and alternative shelter.

- Weekend Argus

Friday, July 18, 2008

Tulbagh waste pours into water supply

Tulbagh residents say water pollution in the picturesque town is "worse than ever", with sewage "popping up" through manhole covers and the Klip River being strewn with feminine toiletry products and human waste.

This river feeds into the Voëlvlei Dam, which provides the City of Cape Town with drinking water. In March, Democratic Alliance MPL Gareth Morgan said the city council was spending R400 000 a month more than it should on treating the highly polluted water from the Voëlvlei Dam.

Niel de Jager, chair of the Tulbagh Ratepayers/Inwoners Forum, said the area had been grappling with the problem for more than two years.

"The municipality put in a new pipe (from the sewerage plant), but after all the rains the amount of sewage coming down has lifted up the manholes."

De Jager said the polluted water also ran into the trenches that fed into the Berg River and eventually into the Voëlvlei Dam.

Resident Graham Hunter said: "I drive through this daily to get home and have complained for months to the council in Tulbagh. All we get is lip service."

The new pipeline had done little to ease the problem.

Witzenberg's manager, David Nasson, said on Wednesday that the municipality had appointed a service provider to clear the blockages.

The saga of the polluted river is not new, and in correspondence between Nasson and the forum in 2006, the pollution was blamed on debris clogging the river.

Residents said then that Tulbagh's sewerage plant was unable to cope with the volume of sewage.

Nasson rejected claims that the plant was the problem. "There is ample capacity and (the plant) is inspected regularly by the Department of Water Affairs."

The department could not be reached for comment.

Although the Voëlvlei Dam is managed by the department, the city said there had been concerns about the quality of the dam's water.

Nasson said the Witzenberg municipality would meet the World Development Bank and engineers soon about finding permanent solutions.

De Jager confirmed that the Witzenberg municipality had sent a machine to clean the pipe that was said to be filled with sand.

For many of the people of Tulbagh, the latest sewage overflow is the final straw.

De Jager said there were plans to declare a dispute with the municipality and to withhold rates payments.

The forum would vote on this issue at its next annual meeting, he said. If a dispute was declared, it would be one of more than 170 cases nationwide in which residents had or were declaring a dispute with their municipalities.

De Jager said the National Taxpayers' Union would meet tomorrow in De Aar to discuss ways of getting local government to improve its service.

- Cape Times

'Mini tornado' rips through homes

A gale has battered the rain-ravaged Cape West Coast and destroyed 59 homes, most of them low-cost RDP houses.

Onel de Beer, executive mayor of Saldanha Bay, said the 59 families were moved from the Witteklip area to community halls.

He saw the clouds darkening early on Tuesday evening and heard a loud noise and saw what looked like "a mini tornado" sweep over Witteklip.

He went to the scene soon afterwards and found the damage was more serious than he had feared. Some homes had collapsed.

"It's so bad that some people can't stay in their houses."

A pregnant woman and a child were slightly injured. They received attention and were "fine", said Japie Julies, head of protection services and disaster management.

The municipality provided the families with food, blankets and clothes on Wednesday.

The municipality hoped to repair most of the homes before the weekend as the weather was too cold for the families to endure a long stay in community halls, De Beer said.

He said emergency disaster funds would be used.

Julies said the families wanted to return to their homes because they were afraid they would be vandalised and looted.

Visible policing would be increased in the area, Julies said.

He had visited the area on Wednesday morning with De Beer.

"We went to the area to sympathise with residents and to see how we could assist them."

Social workers also spoke to the families on Wednesday morning to find out what help they needed.

A mobile disaster management unit had been moved to the area late on Wednesday afternoon to make it easier for the people affected to find assistance and information, Julies said.

It had yet to be determined whether any of the homes needed to be demolished, he said.

Ulrich Ukena, 28, and his son Shogun, five, were watching TV when part of their roof blew off.

Ukena has closed off the damaged section of his home and he and his family were now living in the bedroom.

People in Witteklip seemed in good spirits as they worked in the sunshine, repairing their roofs on Wednesday. They said they wanted to repair their roofs as soon as they could as more rain and cold weather were expected.

Municipal teams were out on the streets clearing broken glass, sheets of corrugated roofing and other debris.

Stella Nake, a meteorologist with the South African Weather Service, said weather in the area was expected to be fine with no rain until Monday, when the next cold front was expected.

- Cape Times

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Cape RDP houses destroyed by freak storm

At least 30 RDP houses in Vredenburg on the Cape West Coast have been damaged during a freak storm that struck the area last night. Deputy Mayor in Saldhana Bay, Frank Mbanze, says the roofs of the RDP houses are blown off, and about eight informal dwellings are also affected.

He says with the assistance of disaster management they are able to assist the families affected. Mbanze says they are in the process of assessing the damage and will be asking provincial government for assistance.

Mbanze says: "Those 33 houses, our verification is that some of them have to be rebuilt ... there was also damage to three wendy houses, which were completely destroyed." - SABC

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Western Cape now expecting fire

From flood to fire. That’s the warning from the South African Weather Service for residents of the Western Cape.

  • Cape flood damage to cost millions

  • Flood victims double

    It forecasts conditions that could lead to runaway fires in the province, recently hit by floods that left thousands homeless.

    The Breede River valley and Eden District municipality are at risk, it said.

    Cold conditions are forecast for the area for the rest of the week.

    Lynette van Schalkwyk, a forecaster at the weather service, said it had issued fire-danger warnings.

    “Fires can spread rapidly in current conditions in some areas. This includes strong winds, high temperatures and dry surface air. Warmer conditions are also expected in the areas that we have warned about,” she said... - The Star

  • Monday, July 14, 2008

    W Cape's housing crisis hits the big screen

    The critical housing question in the province hit the big screen with politicians, activists and beneficiaries heading to the movie house to catch a provocative production focused on the housing crisis in the Western Cape.

    Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille, Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi, mayoral committee member for housing Dan Plato and Ashraf Cassiem of the Anti-Eviction Campaign, among others, were part of the audience who watched Shamila's House on Saturday afternoon.

    The movie, directed and produced by Robyn Rorke, was shown at the V&A Waterfront as part of the Encounters Film Festival.

    'The movie is not meant to blame anyone'
    "The movie is not meant to blame anyone, but is a line of conversation designed to stimulate robust dialogue around the housing issue with the intent of finding solutions," explained Rorke at the outset of the movie.

    Made about four years with a budget of nearly R300 000, the documentary focuses on the struggles of a community in Eastridge, Mitchells Plain, in its quest to have its poorly constructed block of flats repaired.

    The movie exposes inefficiency within a city-appointed company which built the blocks of flats in 1999.

    The community feels cheated as it discovers that its members have to pay double the original agreed figure per month for homes with cracked walls, broken doors and windows and leaks.

    Faced with this scenario, the community, together with the Anti-Eviction Campaign, elects Shamila Hamied, a mother of two, who looks after five other children for a living, to spearhead the fight with the city and the company to have the houses fixed.

    'We must not make housing a political football'
    The community refuses to pay for the houses and stands its ground, including toyi-toying when threatened with eviction.

    Housing authorities eventually relent and the flats are repaired.

    As is reflected in the movie, the community wants action taken against the company.

    After the movie, De Lille, Dyantyi, Plato, Cassiem and Hamied engaged in a panel discussion.

    Plato, who was shown in the movie handling the issue between the community and the company, came under attack from activists for "dragging his heels" in dealing with the company.

    Plato said legal action had been taken and remedial work was underway.

    De Lille, calling housing an "emotive issue" and citing the constitution, said the provision of houses should be made a top national priority.

    "We must not make housing a political football," she said.

    Dyantyi called on Rorke to do a follow-up film.

    He said the housing question should not be looked at in isolation but other critical components such as unemployment, poverty, education, health, the economy and crime had to be taken on board.

    He said R82-million had been contributed for repairs to poorly built houses, in nine areas including Eastridge.

    Cassiem said public-private partnerships in housing were cause for grave concern as they were often marred by corruption, inefficiency and crooked people bent on abusing the public purse to enrich themselves. - Cape Argus

    Sunday, July 13, 2008

    Secret Joe Slovo rezoning plans

    Western Cape housing minister Richard Dyantyi has applied to rezone land occupied by the Joe Slovo informal settlement, even as the Constitutional Court prepares to hear a plea from residents to set aside their court-ordered eviction.

    In March Cape Judge President John Hlophe granted a court order evicting the 15,000-strong community from the site, which is intended to form part of the government's flagship N2 Gateway housing project.

    Hlophe gave the provincial and national governments the go-ahead to force the removal of the Joe Slovo residents to Delft. They do have a constitutional right to housing, he said, but not in the locality of their choice.

    In his ruling Hlophe said this was a not a normal eviction but a "strategic relocation".

    The Constitutional Court is set to hear the residents' appeal on August 21, when it is likely the top judges will still be embroiled in their battle with Hlophe over claims that he tried to influence them to decide in favour of ANC president Jacob Zuma.

    Lawyers acting for the community appear to have learned by chance of a notice in the Government Gazette advertising the rezoning application. This week they filed an urgently compiled objection with the city council.

    They argued that the application could not go ahead while the case was sub judice, saying "an application of this nature cannot be considered prior to the finalisation of the appeal. The reasons for clients' objections are also legal issues still to be decided by the Constitutional Court", attorneys at Chennels Albertyn and the Legal Resources Centre wrote.

    The notice sets out a request that the properties to be rezoned for "residential purposes and associated community and other urban facilities".

    Once designated as such, lawyers familiar with planning rules told the M&G, the government could build homes on the site, which are intended to be sold to people with low incomes who are able to afford a mortgage bond.

    Ownership of the land, however, remains contested. Representatives of the community are expected to tell the Constitutional Court that they have lived there for 15 years and have a legitimate claim to the land.

    Since most of the current residents of Joe Slovo have an income of between R300 and R1,200 a month, few of them will be able to afford the mortgage bonds required to buy N2 gateway houses, community members say.

    Thubelisha Homes, the government's agent on the project, has, since Hlophe's ruling, released ­figures showing it is "technically insolvent" to the tune of about R70-million.

    Prince Xhanti Sigcawu, spokesperson for Thubelisha Homes, declined to comment on the timing of the application.

    National Minister for Housing Lindiwe Sisulu referred all questions to Dyanti, who did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

    Neither Chennels Albertyn nor the Legal Resources Centre would comment, saying the case is sub judice.

    Jacques Snyman of Thubelisha's architectural firm, JS Architects, said applying for the rezoning of Joe Slovo "will enable the project to go ahead despite what legal or political battles are going on -- we have to build houses for people and court cases and political battles stall these processes. I wish we could simply build high-density structures to accommodate everybody who is currently living there," he said. - M&G

    Friday, July 11, 2008

    Extreme weather costs Western Cape R2bln

    The aftermath of extreme weather in the Western Cape has cost the province more than R2 billion in the past six years. This has emerged at a two-day Disaster Management Indaba underway in Midrand, north of Johannesburg.

    The province has recently experienced extreme floods which have left at least 18,000 people displaced and close to 4,000 homes destroyed. The University of Cape Town's Director for Disaster Mitigation, Ailsa Holloway, says government needs to put more money into developing risk averting infrastructure...

    - SABC

    R5 million needed for Cape flood victims

    Close to 40 000 people have been affected by torrential rains

    The city disaster management team is working around the clock to help flood victims

    Western Cape Social Development Minister, Kholeka Mqulwana, says her department will need at least R5 million to assist those affected by the recent floods on the Cape Peninsula.


    Mqulwana was speaking in Gugulethu on the Cape Flats where a donation of 250 food parcels and blankets was made by an NGO, Gift of the Givers. Close to 40,000 people have been affected by torrential rains that hit the Cape in the past week.

    The city disaster management team says some 22,000 people are been provided for daily and over 13,000 blankets have been given to the flood victims. They say 3,000 people are being housed in community halls across the city.

    Meanwhile, as many as 6,000 families in several towns in the Cape West Coast region are still cut off. Municipal manager of the Matzikama district, Dean O'Neal, says an Air Force helicopter has been bringing them supplies. Roads in Lutzville and Klawer are still closed. O'Neal says it's not yet clear how long the situation will remain.

    Mqulwana says various government departments are out assessing the situation and will compile a report to consider disaster declaration in parts of the province. The province was declared a disaster area in May following the spate of xenophobic attacks two months ago. Chances are that parts of the province will again be declared a disaster area next week. - SABC

    Thursday, July 10, 2008

    City identifies dry sites for flood victims

    The city has identified two vacant pieces of land to which those worst hit by the floods can be relocated, and it will select the more suitable site today, although it will not force anyone to move there.

    On Tuesday, the city's disaster risk management team reported that 22,000 people - in about 70 informal settlements, with 5,200 structures affected - had been left homeless by the downpours and strong winds that have swept through large parts of the province.

    Mayoral committee member for housing Dan Plato told the Cape Argus that engineers and city housing and finance officials would meet today before deciding on which piece of land was more suitable for immediate relocation. Plato did not want to name the two sites, fearing there could be illegal occupations in the meantime.

    "We need to determine if they can stand the test of flooding," he said.

    On Tuesday, Plato and Mayor Helen Zille visited several areas to assess flood damage, including informal settlements at Lusaka in Philippi and Rotterdam near Silversands.

    Zille said some of the worst effects of the flooding had been alleviated by rapid mopping-up operations and clearing of drains.

    On Tuesday teams from the city's transport, roads and stormwater directorate pumped out stagnant water at some settlements to reduce potential health risks.

    Referring to possible relocations, Zille said the decision to move was "entirely" up to those affected. "I am not in the business of removals."

    Plato said the city would provide housing starter kits and would help move those who had their own structures.

    The worst-hit areas identified by the city are Kanana and Lotus in Gugulethu, QQ Section, CT Section and Bani Mole kwani in Khayelitsha, Kosovo, Bongani TR section in Masiphumelele, Doornbach near Table View, Sweet Home in Philippi, Pholile Masakane and Soly's Town in Strand, and Gqobazi in Nyanga. Other settlements such as Freedom Farm and Malawi were also affected. - Cape Argus

    'Low-cost housing under threat'

    The increased cost of cement and soaring fuel prices mean the delivery of low-cost houses "is becoming impossible", housing associations say.

    Rising building costs would not only mean fewer houses would be built to ease the city's housing backlog, but they could also affect the quality of the homes provided.

    Bheki Nkonyane, of the Cape Town Community Housing Company, said steep building costs meant there was "no way people could afford structures that would not compromise on quality".

    The issue of quality was more serious in the Western Cape because of such environmental factors as flooding and strong winds, he said.

    The auditor-general's report on the administration of low cost-housing projects in the Western Cape has said most of the units inspected are "of a poor quality". Of 110 houses inspected, more than 60 were found to be sub-standard.

    Nkonyane said housing companies needed to work with "policymakers" such as the government and municipalities to find ways of dealing with rising costs.

    Johan Snyman, of the Bureau for Economic Research, said the rises in cement prices had exceeded the inflation rate since 1999.

    One reason was that the energy-intensive production of cement made it vulnerable to fuel price hikes.

    Retail cement prices had risen more than 8 percent since last year, Snyman said.

    The building sector was "transport-intensive" as labour and materials had to be transported long distances to construction sites.

    The prices of cement and bricks have each increased by about 140 percent since 2000.

    With the 96 percent increase in the price of diesel in the past year, builders have been hit hard by rising costs and lower profits.

    Thubelisha Homes, a section 21 company that undertakes low-cost housing projects for the national Department of Housing, said amounts tendered for developments were beginning to reflect the price increases in materials.

    The most recent study by the Economic Bureau for Research found that amounts tendered last year were on average 15 percent higher than those in the year before.

    The bureau predicted the amounts tendered this year would be on average 12 percent higher than those last year.

    Nkonyane said the average 42 square metre house would cost about R120 000, half of which would be subsidised by the government.

    The government needed to increase subsidy amounts to take rising prices into account, otherwise affordable housing would be "an illusion", he said.

    A survey by the University of the Witwatersrand's School of Construction Economics and Management has found, however, that cement accounts for only a small percentage of residential building costs. - Cape Times

    Wednesday, July 9, 2008

    Politicians recycle their winter promises

    Promises, promises Capetonians have heard plenty of them from politicians over the years, especially when winter rains strike, leaving thousands of people with flooded homes and miserable living conditions.

    July's rains are unusually heavy, but the flooding and its effects on people are not. The poorest of the poor have again been displaced in their thousands and a comprehensive, permanent solution to the problem appears far off.

    From reports in the Cape Argus it's clear that there is a predictable annual winter pattern in Cape Town, regardless of the political affiliation of the incumbent civic administration.

    Each year as the storm clouds threaten to dump their load on the people below, the city's disaster management department "braces itself" ahead of expected flooding and prepares to "put measures in place" to alleviate the resulting problems.

    Then, after the rains, politicians don their gumboots and wade through flooded shacks to "assess the extent of the damage".

    News pictures show soaked mattresses in waterlogged bedrooms, dejected residents scooping water from their living-rooms and rivers of rubbish flowing through streets of mud where children play in stagnating pools.

    The politicians sympathise with those affected, and make the right noises by slamming the dire circumstances in which people find themselves.

    As community halls are opened and blankets and food distributed, hopes are expressed that "this time" will be the last and calls are made to the government to fulfil previous promises of housing and service delivery for all.

    But little happens...

    A 2002 editorial in the Cape Argus stated that the housing problem in the Western Cape was "neatly illustrated by a report which recalled promises politicians made to residents of the flooded shacklands on the Cape Flats in 2007.

    The report also showed that the leaders' promises for those in danger to be relocated have remained mere soundbites".

    The editorial asked: "Can politicians really deliver on their promises?"

    Residents continued to find themselves in the same predicament because of political inaction and red tape, it pointed out.

    In addition to "political inaction and red tape", refrains often repeated in flooding reports are the calls for the various levels of government to work together, and the lack of land available for resettlement.

    In recent years, the flooding has given rise to protests about housing delivery.

    On Monday night, about 500 residents of flooded shacks staged a protest on the Mew Way on-ramp of the N2, burning tyres and throwing stones at motorists.

    While housing backlogs continue to grow, along with the increasing desperation of those affected by the flooding fury, mitigation remains the focus.

    Cape Town deputy mayor Grant Haskin says the reality is that people should be moved from the low-lying areas. In time, people will be moved out, and areas identified as prone to flooding will be physically demarcated - for instance by being fenced off, he says.

    The city will, however, have to strengthen its "land invasion unit" to deter newcomers from again erecting informal dwellings in flood-prone areas - thus perpetuating the cycle.

    Haskin said the city had done everything it could to lessen the damage and the impact of the floods through its disaster management and relief efforts, but added that it "can't stop the flooding".

    He said the problem that had to be resolved was that of communities living in flood-prone areas, and that called for "a housing solution".

    In the meantime, the city was considering approaching Dutch engineers, who could give specialist advice on additional measures to mitigate future flooding. - Cape Argus

    Tuesday, July 8, 2008

    Flood fury boils over

    Towns along the Cape West Coast suffered major infrastructural damage with key roads and bridges washed away as torrential rain continued to ravage the province this morning.

    The widespread flooding has sparked violent reactions among communities in Cape Town as hundreds of residents along the N2 blockaded the highway to protest at the lack of proper housing.

    Police reported that around 500 residents of flooded shacks staged a protest on the Mew Way on-ramp of the N2, preventing traffic flow for about two hours last night as they burned tyres in the road and threw stones at motorists.

    ...the flooding has also sparked calls for areas of the city to be declared a disaster area
    Police spokesperson Elliott Sinyangana said this morning: "Police responded quickly, managed to negotiate and get the people to disperse."

    Officers are monitoring the situation along sections of the N2, but no violence had been reported by 9am.

    The city's Disaster Management spokesperson Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said: "The protests on the N2 are about housing issues and disaster management and other authorities are in the areas providing disaster relief."

    The Cape Town Weather Office warned today that the cold, wet and windy weather conditions are set to continue to wreak havoc until Thursday morning.

    The Weather Office has also warned of more flooding in certain areas, and rough sea conditions with waves of more than 5 metres between Cape Point and Plettenberg Bay Wednesday.

    'The city is providing what it can, but this is a much bigger problem than people are saying it is'
    Gale-force westerly winds are also expected between Cape Point and Plettenberg Bay while snow may fall overnight in high-lying areas near Ceres.

    And the flooding has also sparked calls for areas of the city to be declared a disaster area.

    Simon Grindrod, mayoral committee member for Economic Development, Social Development and Tourism, told the Cape Argus this morning: "I've written to the Premier asking him to declare a city-wide disaster so we can access the emergency funding that we need.

    The problem is that the NGOs that we would otherwise rely upon are over-stretched dealing with the recent xenophobia crisis.

    "We need heavy pump machinery, emergency starter kits, the plastic sheeting, and we need sand. We also need to be feeding people on a daily basis.

    "The city is providing what it can, but this is a much bigger problem than people are saying it is. I'm also concerned about DIY electrical cables which backyard dwellers are erecting. We need a huge effort to educate people to the dangers of exposed electrical cables in water."

    Meanwhile, rockfalls were also reported on De Waal Drive where work was being done this morning to secure banks above the road, and eastwards from Gordon's Bay on Clarence Drive, where several motorist were lucky to escape unscathed. The Huguenot Tunnel was on Monday also temporarily closed due to rockfalls.

    At 9am on Tuesday, 4,295 housing structures had been affected, 18,627 people had been displaced, and 12,409 food parcels had been distributed along with 13,249 blankets.

    Meanwhile the capacity in the six dams which feed the City of Cape Town rose by almost 10 percent in the past week.

    On Monday, Theewaterskloof was 84,7 percent full, Voelvlei 78,5 percent, Wemmershoek 74 percent, Steenbras Upper 83 percent and Steenbras Lower 66,4 percent.

    Willie Enright, from the Department of Water Affairs in the Western Cape, said on Monday the sixth, the newly-built Berg River dam, near the river's source in Franschhoek, had filled to 77,7 percent. It was up 15 percent from 62 percent in a week.

    This was despite water being released from the dam a fortnight ago. The dam boasts the largest sluices in South Africa, and Enright said these had been opened for the first time last week, at a rate of 200 cubic metres per second, to ensure that the Berg River remained ecologically healthy.

    On the West Coast, the flooded Olifants River has caused widespread damage, and has filled the Clanwilliam Dam to capacity, up from 55 percent just a fortnight ago.

    On Monday, 1000 cubic metres (tons) of water were flowing over the dam wall a second and this morning 11 of the 13 dam sluices were opened to allow the dam level to subside. - Cape Argus


    Cape's informal settlements in weary battle

    "We don't want your blankets. We don't want your food. What we want are proper houses. The houses that we have been promised for years and have not been delivered."
    This was the collective message from frustrated Kosovo residents in Philippi on yesterday to Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi who visited the flood ravaged area.

    According to Disaster Risk Management's Wilfred Solomons-Johannes, 3,000 people in the area were displaced and 400 shacks affected.

    The Philippi community is one of 24 informal settlements affected by floods in the Western Cape in which 16,000 people have been displaced and 3,600 dwellings affected.

    "If political parties want to get it right next year during the elections, they should just deliver houses," said one resident who declined to be named.

    Another resident, Ntombekaya Qhala, said she feared for her children.

    "I have three children and I fear that they will get diseases from the pools of water surrounding our houses," Qhala said.

    "We simply need houses - we are tired of this miserable life."

    Dyantyi acknowledged residents' frustrations and the difficulties they have every winter when their homes get waterlogged.

    He said Kosovo was one of the areas that needed urgent attention and that plans had been put together by his department, the city and other stakeholders to find suitable pieces of land to relocate the people from the area to.

    "You cannot stop the rains from falling," he said, adding the biggest challenge faced by his department was the acquisition of land for housing development.

    Meanwhile, in Valhalla Park, residents faced similar conditions as the rains left informal dwellings in the area under water.

    Sarifa Simons, her husband Shafiek and their four children were among the families who were displaced after the flooding of their informal dwelling in 8th Avenue.

    "I don't know what to do now. I get a disability grant, that's all," said Simons, holding a baby to her hip.

    Simons said she has been living in Valhalla Park for two years and was also a flood victim last year.

    Their home also has no electricity. "We make the fire outside to cook and to get warm," she said.

    "We struggle if the wood is wet, like now. My children get sick with flu because of the wet and the damp, and my house floods all the time."

    Another family affected was the Odendaals, whose home was destroyed by gusting winds and rain.

    Father-of-three Peter Odendaal yesterday tried manfully to scoop water out of the shack, but appeared to make very little progress.

    "It's been three years since I have been living here. Every winter this happens and there is nothing we can do about it," said Odendaal, who only has the use of one of his hands.

    Another resident Sumaya Sylvester said they have come to expect flooding.

    She said she has lived in Valhalla Park for two years and "nothing has changed".

    - Cape Argus

    Audit shows up major cracks in low cost housing

    STRONG action has been called for following a damning auditor general‘s report on low cost housing in the Western Cape.

    The DA wants the report debated in the provincial legislature and also wants parliament‘s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) to “deal with it”.

    DA MPL Robin Carlisle said yesterday he would request Scopa to deal with the report as a matter of urgency.

    A performance audit report published by the auditor general in May revealed that 60 per cent of low cost homes in the province had serious defects.

    The report focused on the allocation of housing subsidies and the administration of low cost housing projects by the Western Cape local government and housing department.

    It found that at least 2210 municipal employees who earned more than the subsidy threshold of R42000, and thus were not entitled to a subsidy, had in fact received subsidies to the value of at least R65-million.

    Carlisle said: “This is only the tip of the iceberg as the sample only covered municipal employees at seven councils. During the period of the audit, some 200000 subsidies were allocated, and on the basis of the auditor general‘s sample, the fraud must be massive.”

    In a physical inspection of a sample of low cost housing projects from across the province, the auditor general found the general condition of the houses to be poor.

    The report said 60% of the houses had one or more serious defects, including severe cracks in walls and foundations, leaking roofs, windows and doors that did not function properly, and reticulation services that did not function properly.

    In addition 49% of the houses experienced dampness, many erven had been serviced but the top structures had never been built, and there was a difference in the department‘s books where the accounts in respect of subsidies failed to balance by an amount of R15,8-million.

    Vusi Tshose, a spokesman for housing MEC Richard Dyantyi, said the provincial administration had already spent R80-million on a rectification programme.

    “That programme is still taking place, specifically in Cape Town,” he said.

    “In George, the MEC got together with construction companies and asked them to come back to him with a programme of how they would rectify shoddy work.”

    Tshose added that they had “learnt a strict lesson” from the past and only paid out the full amount owing to construction companies once the building inspectors were happy with the work done on low cost houses.

    “Province has a plan in place and is working with the local municipalities to identify and rectify the shoddy work,” he said.

    Carlisle said that quality assurance measures put in place by the government did not seem to be working.

    “Developers are allowed to build sub-standard houses and get away with it. Projects on which millions have already been spent on infrastructure come to grinding halts. Brand new houses are vandalised because the owners cannot be found, or the house was not allocated in the first place.”

    - The Herald

    Cape floods: Disaster teams on full alert

    Misery is mounting in the areas worst hit by the downpours that have pummelled the region, leaving a farm worker dead and more than 16,300 residents living in damp and deteriorating conditions.

    And as stormwater flows into sewerage pipes in areas such as Gugulethu, fears are growing of an outbreak of water-borne diseases.

    Last night, people living near the Olifants River in Clanwilliam were preparing to leave their homes after the river burst its banks.

    The Huguenot Tunnel was closed after rockfalls on the Worcester side.

    Community Safety spokesperson Makhaya Mani said the route had to be closed as a precaution and would be opened once the weather cleared. Meanwhile, motorists were being diverted to alternative routes, Mani said.

    On Monday, more than 16,000 people were being helped in Cape Town by relief agencies.

    Wilfred Solomons-Johannes, spokesperson for the city's disaster risk management centre, said heavy rain was forecast to persist until Wednesday evening, continuing to put a strain on relief operations.

    Scores of other areas, among them Gugulethu, Mitchells Plain and Ottery, were also badly affected by the rain. In Kosovo, near Philippi, streets were turned into little lakes and the water rose ankle-high in shacks.

    In Khayelitsha, people took to the streets last night. A small group of angry people threw stones and blocked parts of the N2. The police's flying squad quelled the crowd. Police spokesperson Elliot Sinyangana said the group were angry about their homes being flooded.

    "It was just a small group of people," Sinyangana said. "They say they need help with the problem of flooding."

    While disaster management response teams continued mopping up efforts, food, blankets and other relief supplies were being provided by a range of non-governmental organisations. Three community halls and a sports complex had been opened to provide shelter for people whose homes were flooded.

    City stormwater staff were "pumping out" water standing in pools in informal settlements to reduce health risks.

    The SA Weather Service has forecast that the heavy rain will persist until tomorrow evening.

    "The preparedness and response strategy of the City of Cape Town has been stepped up and the disaster response teams are on full alert," the disaster management centre said.

    It said people could reduce the risk of their homes being flooded by raising their floors to a level higher than the ground outside. Also, they could move to higher ground if they stayed in an area prone to flooding.

    Alfred Mendis, 33, pointing to a flooded street, said it was "something like" the conditions in the shack he shared with his pregnant wife and two-year-old child. Artwell Peter, 34, watched as children played in the puddles left when drains overflowed, and said he was worried the little ones would fall ill.

    "They don't know it's dangerous - they're enjoying it," he said ruefully...

    - Cape Times

    Monday, July 7, 2008

    Alternative land sought for flood displaced

    The City of Cape Town wants alternative land to house affected residents

    Waterlogged: Thousands of Cape Flats residents have been displaced by floods

    The City of Cape Town says a special unit is needed to address the mushrooming of informal settlements in low-lying areas in the Cape Peninsula. Mayoral Committee Member for Housing, Dan Plato, says people invade land soon after others have been relocated to high-lying areas.

    Thousands of people have been affected by flooding on the Cape Flats. Plato says land invasions are a serious challenge.

    The Western Cape Housing Department says it is working closely with the City of Cape Town to acquire land from private owners in an effort to curb the housing demand. Provincial Housing Minister Richard Dyantyi visited flood ravaged Kosovo informal settlement on the Cape Flats this afternoon to assess the situation. Thousands of people have been displaced since heavy rains hit the Cape Peninsula over the weekend.

    - SABC

    16 000 hit by floods

    Torrential rain lashing the Western Cape has left at least one person dead in Citrusdal and thousands homeless on the Cape Flats and the City of Cape Town is trucking food and blankets to ease the misery.

    Philippi, on the Cape Flats, was hit hardest with thousands of houses flooded in the Kosovo, Pola Park, Boys Town and Never Never areas.

    On the West Coast, rain hit the Citrusdal district hard. A bridge across the Olifants River was washed away, taking with it a man who returning home from visiting his girlfriend on Saturday night.

    Citrusdal police commissioner Solly Barends said the man was swept into bushes and drowned. His body had been recovered.

    The N7 between Citrusdal and Clanwilliam was closed on Sunday after a dam broke and flooded the road about 10km outside Citrusdal. Police were still on the scene early today and had re-opened one lane.

    To the east of Citrusdal residents of the Bo Rivier area were unable to reach the town this morning after a 10m chunk of tar road gave way - leaving a vast ditch across the road.

    Mop-up operations are under way in the province, though the Cape Town Weather office has warned that the cold, wet and windy conditions are set to persist until Wednesday. Heavy rain - between 50mm and 60mm - is expected in parts of the Western Cape and more flooding is expected.

    Light snow is possible over the western high ground of the Western Cape and Northern Cape.

    By 9am on Monday, three community halls in the Cape Town were housing displaced people - in Lusaka, Crossroads and Lwandle in the Helderberg - indicating that most people were opting to weather the storm and remain in their sodden homes.

    This morning traffic was delayed by flooding in the vicinity of Main and Belmont roads in Rondebosch and on Rhodes Drive, where there was a mudslide on Sunday, causing water to dam up. Flooding caused delays on Racecourse Road in Kenilworth and Table Bay Boulevard.

    About 40 accidents were reported over the weekend and early this morning, according to city traffic spokesperson Merle Lourens. One person was killed and two seriously injured in one accident in Symphony Road, Philippi East.

    The city's Disaster Risk Management Centre began mopping up on Sunday.

    A statement from the city's disaster co-ordinating team verified that 3600 structures in 24 informal settlements were affected by flooding. Altogether about 16 000 people have been affected.

    Wilfred Solomons-Johannes told the Cape Argus that 24 areas would receive attention after officials had assessed the damage. Hot meals, blankets and emergency shelter have been provided.

    The Cape Flats had been most affected by flood damage, the city said. This had been because of the high water table and limited run-off capacity. "Formal areas have experienced only limited localised flooding due to blocked drains," said the statement.

    This morning Langa residents waded through a stream of water running between Langa's Zone 25 and Joe Slovo on their way to work. Some made stone footpaths to cross the stream. Dressed in yellow rainsuits and boots, some waded through the water while one person braved the deep stream and drove through.

    Resident Mxolisi Mboni said:
    "Year in and year out the roads are like this. We have nowhere to go now because our shacks are flooded. This is what we go through all the time."
    - Cape Argus

    Floods leave 10 000 homeless

    Cape Town - Three people have died and at least 10,000 residents of 23 informal settlements have been left homeless, after heavy rain wreaked havoc in the Cape Peninsula over the weekend.

    Cape Town Disaster Management said 3,600 buildings had been flooded.

    The South African Weather Service sent out a national warning that more rain is expected in the next 24 hours.

    Twelve parts of the Cape Metropole have been identified as high-risk areas, while the rest of the Western Cape is not as badly affected.

    The head of the fire department and disaster management in the Overberg, Reinard Geldenhuys, said it had rained on Saturday night, but not heavily. Rescue and diving teams were, however, on standby.

    Two die crossing raging river

    Two men drowned when they tried to cross the raging Boontjies River in Citrusdal on Saturday night. A third man survived and managed to reach a nearby farm.

    Rescue workers retrieved the body of one of the men from the river early on Sunday morning.

    Rescue dogs and members of the police's diving unit were still searching for the second man late on Sunday. Their identities are not known.

    A Citrusdal resident said 104mm of rain had fallen by Sunday afternoon.

    Elsewhere, an accident on the R44 near Kogelberg claimed the life of a 35-year-old man on Sunday morning.

    A traffic department spokesperson, Merle Lourens said: "It would appear as if the car skidded and the driver lost control and drove into the mountain."

    A fifteen-year-old girl was injured in the accident. Their names were not yet available.

    45 road accidents

    Forty-five accidents have been reported in the Peninsula since Thursday, with 10 of these on Sunday.

    Several of Cape Town's busiest roads were closed to traffic. The road between Constantia Nek and Constantia Road was also closed for traffic on Sunday due to mudslides.

    Morreesburg residents who live near the river were evacuated after 37mm of rain fell over the weekend.

    ID Mayoral Committee for Economic, Social Development and Tourism, Simon Grindrod, asked on Sunday that emergency funds to help homeless people be made available by the Western Cape Premier, Ebrahim Rasool. Grindrod was to organise an urgent mayoral committee meeting to discuss the possibility of providing more aid to flood victims.

    Twelve areas have been identified as possible flood risks: Kosovo and Sweet Home in Philippi; TL, CT, QQ sections and the Barney Molokwana area in Khayelitsha; Masiphumelele near Kommetjie; Lotuspark, Kanana and New Rest in Guguletu; Doornach in Table View and Gqobasi in Nyanga.

    Michael Jacobs of the Red Cross said they had been handing out blankets and food parcels non-stop in flooded areas since Thursday night.

    Dam levels

    Water levels in Cape dams were looking good though, said Farouk Robertson, spokesperson for the Water and Sanitation Department.

    The Western Cape's biggest dams - the Steenbras Dam, Wemmershoek, Voëlvlei and Theewaterskloof Dam - were all between 75% and 80% full.

    This compares well to last year's levels, when the dams were 77% full around the same time.

    - Die Burger

    Scores seek refuge as rains wreak havoc in W Cape

    Hundreds of people on the Cape Flats are taking refuge in community halls to escape heavy rains

    Hundreds of people on the Cape Flats are taking refuge in community halls at night to escape heavy rains. Cape Town disaster management says they are providing food and shelter for those worst affected.


    In Gugulethu last night, mainly women and children made their way to the Lusaka Community Hall for a rain-free night and something warm to eat. Angry communities are threatening to boycott next year's elections due to their horrid living conditions.

    Each year, thousands of people battle to keep dry and they say they have had enough. The weather services predict more rain until tomorrow and have issued flood warnings for the low lying areas in the Western Cape. All emergency personnel are on standby.

    “...at the moment more than 3 000 structures are affected and we are busy assisting the people with food and shelter but we'll also make an assessment of who's worst affected in the coming days,” says Wilfred Solomons-Johannes from Cape Town Disaster Management.

    - SABC

    Houses of the dispossessed

    A crumbling home unfinished after seven years

    Latutu Sindaphi never imagined he’d be staring at a crumbling shell nine years after being told the government was building him a home.

    “My dreams of owning a house I can call my own became true in 1999, when a local councillor delivered a letter informing me that I will have a four-roomed house built at plot No 70 in NU18,” said Sindaphi.

    Since the first brick was laid in 2001, house No 70 in Mdantsane, East London, remains unfinished. At least two construction companies were involved in the project. Yet still there is no roof, floor, windows or doors.

    Sindaphi’s story is testament to the huge backlog in the province that Lindiwe Sisulu, the minister of housing, this week said might need the intervention of defence force engineers .

    The Eastern Cape failed to use almost R500- million in funding it received from the government for housing. And Sindaphi and his wife, Ethel, who survive by making bricks at a nearby dam, have lost all hope of holding the key to their dream home.

    National housing department spokesman Xolani Xundu confirmed that more than R443- million of the Eastern Cape’s integrated housing and human settlement grant — allocated by the national treasury — was redirected to Gauteng after the 2007/8 financial year because the Eastern Cape failed to spend it.

    “The Eastern Cape is the only province where we had to recall funds,” said Xundu. He said parliament was concerned about the province’s poor building performance .

    # The province’s housing delivery rate dropped from 37500 homes in the 2004/5 financial year to only 11000 in the 2007/8 financial year.

    # According to provincial records, at least 19953 homes that the province had built are of such poor quality that about R18000 would have to be spent to repair each of them.

    Xundu said parliament told Sisulu to form a task team in April to help speed up housing delivery in the province. The minister met emerging construction companies in Bhisho this week to discuss the housing backlog in the province.

    Xundu said contractors highlighted problems, including corruption by government officials and late payment to companies by the department.

    A project to build 2503 houses for shack dwellers in Mdantsane was launched in 2001, with 500 houses to be built in the first phase.

    Sindaphi was among 628 shack dwellers who qualified for that phase. Since moving to Mdantsane in 1975, he has lived in backyards . Promises to Sindaphi by a local councillor last week that the home would be completed soon have come to nothing.

    “The visit by this councillor … is to lure voters in preparation for next year’s elections,” said Ethel. “ Whether they finish my house or not, I won’t vote. My family won’t go to the polls. I don’t have any job. Why do I have to vote as if this government cares for us, because they don’t.” - The Times

    Sunday, July 6, 2008

    Housing delivery under the spotlight on Cape Flats

    Informal dwellers in Valhalla Park on the Cape Flats have appealed to authorities to speed up housing delivery.

    This comes as heavy rains continue to hit the Peninsula, leaving their shacks flooded. Some are ankle deep in water. One resident, Caroline Stynder, says she was tired of broken promises by the government. She says she will only vote in the next year's general elections if she has a house.

    Stynder has also challenged the authorities to visit their settlement to witness their living conditions following the heavy rains. - SABC

    Saturday, July 5, 2008

    Disaster management tackle township floods

    The city of Cape Town's disaster management has assisted hundreds of families who were affected by the spate of heavy rains on Friday, and remains on full alert.

    The weather services have predicted a wet, rainy weekend, with a strong possibility of floods in low-lying areas.

    In Valhalla Park's 8th Avenue informal settlement, over 300 shacks were damaged by the rain. Charlotte Powell, of the disaster management centre, said residents were receiving food and blankets.

    The Red Cross also assisted with the provision of over 40 food parcels and blankets
    The Red Cross also assisted with the provision of over 40 food parcels and blankets and was monitoring the situation.

    Powell said around 50 dwellings in the Freedom Farm informal settlement near Belhar were damaged. Residents were also receiving the necessary supplies.

    In Kosovo, the informal settlement near Philippi, many residents were busy emptying water from their shacks, and faced grim prospects over the next few days.

    Mngcete Migudu, who shares a one-roomed shack with his siblings, said Thursday night's rough weather had kept the family awake.

    "When you wake up, you feel the water inside, on you. Your clothes and blankets are wet. Then we have to try to get most of the water out; it's a horrible thing," said Migudu.

    'You have to throw everything out to try to get it dry again'
    While he understood that housing for all would take some time, he urged the government to build tarred roads in informal settlements. He believed this, with a proper drainage system, would alleviate the damage caused by floods.

    Small children played in pools of water in the muddy roads, while cars struggled to navigate water-filled potholes.

    Another resident, Roselene Dangaleze, appealed for plastic roof sheeting to keep the inside of her shack dry.

    "It's so cold and wet. You have to throw everything out to try to get it dry again."

    The South African Weather Service has issued a national warning for rough weather this weekend. Forecasts indicate rains will persist until Monday. Temperatures were not expected to rise above 15deg C; over the next few days.

    Powell said the city's disaster management would remain on high alert over the weekend.

    "We have our plans in place. Relief management includes moving people to emergency shelters. Non-governmental organisations are also on hand to provide food."

    Wet weather is also creating havoc on city roads. Merle Lourens, spokeswoman for Cape Town traffic, said there were 14 accidents on Friday.

    A taxi collided with a pole and seven people were injured.

    Lourens urged motorists to keep a safe following distance and to switch on their headlights.

    - Cape Argus

    Wednesday, July 2, 2008

    Tackling South Africa's land issue...

    The Expropriation Bill has negative consequences for South Africa and will leave the country lagging behind successful economies, a group of concerned parties said on Wednesday.

    The interim committee for the defence of property rights said the bill was based on the perception that white South Africans had no moral right to own land.

    The group, consisting of organisations and political parties Agri SA, Afriforum, the Afikanerbond and the Democratic Alliance, said it would address the implications of the bill at a number of conferences in July.

    Other members included the FW de Klerk Foundation, the ACDP, the Agricultural Employers Organisation and the National Taxpayers Union.

    It said the expropriation of white-owned property at less than the market value was not justifiable.

    "The bill is based on the false perception that white South Africans have no moral right to ownership of land in particular, but also property in general, as everything they possess is the result of wrongful deprivation," the group said. - Sapa