Demolition sparks protests in Dunoon

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INLSA

Dunoon residents burn furniture after the City of Cape Town dismantled a neighbour s extension he had built on his premises.

Dunoon residents took to the streets to burn tyres and furniture to vent their fury at the City of Cape Town for dismantling a structure erected in a backyard in the area.

Yesterday Alex Dlamini watched as about 100 of his neighbours sang and toyi-toyied outside his home in West Beach Four, Dunoon, where they burnt piles of litter, broken furniture and tyres.

Dlamini’s brick house is between the Itando Yamahlubi herbalist home and Dr Moshaba’s Spaza Shop on Usasazo Street.

This week he tried to add a wood and iron structure to the front of the house, but it was dismantled twice in three days by the city because it was on city-owned land.

“They (the city) are telling me this is not my land, but everybody’s doing it,” Dlamini said.

City spokeswoman Kylie Hatton confirmed that the anti-land invasion unit had demolished Dlamini’s structure twice.

“In terms of council policy, he is not allowed to construct on that land,” she said.

Dlamini, who believes a jealous neighbour tipped off authorities, said he could not understand why the city did not approach others who had extended their homes because “everybody around here is doing it”.

Yesterday police were called in to monitor the crowd, which had cordoned off the area with bright orange Eskom tape with the words “Danger, Gevaar” printed on it.

Dlamini first built the structure on Tuesday.

He said he had spent about R4 000 building it. That day he was told by city officials that the structure was “illegal” because it had been built on council property.

Dlamini said that on Wednesday, while discussing the matter with his local councillor, the anti-land invasion unit moved in and dismantled the structure.

With the help of some residents he rebuilt it on Wednesday evening.

However, on Thursday morning the unit returned and dismantled his structure again.

“All I want to do is extend my home like everyone else,” Dlamini said.

The community then protested by blocking off the road.

- Pretoria News

Eco-living and Home Tour

Back by popular demand, Salt Spring’s Eco-Living and Home Tour returns Sunday, Aug.7.

Press material explains that in addition to showcasing innovative island homes, the tour includes ecological lifestyles, along with appropriate technologies that support eco-friendly living.

“The tour includes some of Salt Spring’s best examples of green building, energy efficiency, water conservation, food production and renewable energy,” the release states.

This year’s focus is on smaller homes and retrofits. Alan Martin will show off a beautiful, fully functioning 126-square-foot mobile home built following the plans available at Tumbleweed Tiny Houses.

Dr. John Christian will show his new compact 800-square-foot earth-sheltered studio/office with living roof and gardens.

Steve Abbott, an overseas consultant with major aid organizations, will guide people through the energy-saving features he has retrofitted into his house and show how to make a stand-alone foot-powered washbasin and a simple air-to-air heat exchanger.

Natural building pioneer Robert Laporte and architect Paula Baker-Laporte, authors of EcoNest and Prescriptions for a Healthy House, will show how to make walls of wood chips, straw and clay and other features of their EcoNest design.

Andrew Haigh will show his off-the-grid hemp bale house and teach how easy it is to make earthen plaster.

Marsh Heinekey, former BCIT Living Roof program director, will give a demonstration of living-roof technologies. Gardening and permaculture experts will share information in their organic food gardens — and much more.

This year only houses in the northern half of the island are being showcased to reduce the tour’s carbon footprint.

Patrons of the tour are encouraged to bike, bus and carpool. Carpoolers can meet on the deck between TJ Beans and Salt Spring Books between 9 and 10 a.m. to carpool with others.

Tickets are on sale now at Salt Spring Books with an early bird price of $25 until July 31. Full price tickets are $30.

The 2011 event is an initiative of the Salt Spring Community Energy Strategy and is sponsored by the Earth Festival Society, Transition Salt Spring, I-SEA, Salt Spring Books, Windsor Plywood, Uptown Pharmasave and Elements Home Design.

For more information, visit saltspringenergystrategy

N2 Boystown Gateway

The Western Cape Department of Human Settlements will this week, beginning 25 July 2011, make an application to the High Court for a restraining order prohibiting specific members of the Boys Town Project Steering Committee, as well as any other individuals making common cause with them, from having any contact with the contractor or from interfering with the contractor and any other operations on the Boys Town Housing development site in Crossroads, Cape Town. Anybody disobeying the restraining order will be arrested and prosecuted.

This restraining order has been initiated in response to incidents where the ward councillor, members of the Boys Town Project Steering Committee, as well as other individuals, have threatened the contractor and ordered them to stop work. Nobody has authority to interfere with and stop construction.

The Boys Town Project Steering Committee has failed its mandate. According to the terms of reference of the Social Compact agreement between the Housing Development Agency and the Boys Town Project Steering Committee, the committee is responsible for conflict resolution, and for best serving the interests of the community. However, the committee has been responsible for creating conflict, and for serving the interests of select individuals. I have had multiple meetings with the Boys Town Project Steering Committee, and have done everything reasonably within my capacity to work with them, yet it has been repeatedly clear that they are serving their own interests, and not the interests of the community who elected them.

In terms of my mandate as Provincial Minister of Human Settlements and Section 8.6 of the Social Compact agreement, I am instructing that the committee be disbanded for not fulfilling its responsibilities. The project will continue with community involvement in the form of public meetings and leaflet drops to individual households to keep them informed of progress. I strongly condemn any actions which prevent service delivery. It is my mandate as Provincial Minister of Human Settlements to ensure the accelerated delivery of housing opportunities to people who need them. I will not allow political interference and local power games, driven by individuals with personal agendas, to get in the way. Legal action is a final resort once all other options have been exhausted, yet it's an option that I can, and will use, to ensure that service delivery is continued.

I refuse to let this project be sabotaged any further. It has been marred by infighting for the past eight years with minimal progress. Work on the Boys Town Housing Project will continue, and the first beneficiaries will soon receive their houses. The Boys Town Housing Project is part of the N2 Gateway Project and, when completed, it will yield 1,365 units.

- Cape Gateway

Du Noon residents demand electricity

Every month Kockjeu Mpiyake pays about R300 in order to run electricity from an illegal connection to a nearby RDP house.

Mpiyake, who lives in Ekuphumleni informal settlement in Du Noon, uses it to lighting and to power his television and radio, but cannot use other electrical appliances such as a washing machine, electric heater or stove.

The RDP house he is illegally connected to supplies electricity to ten other shacks, resulting in frequent power cuts due to overloading.

Having been in this situation for nine years, 61-year-old Mpiyake, who has nine children and two wives, has had enough.

He joined over 100 other residents in a march to the Eskom office in Table View on Thursday morning to protest against the lack of electricity supply to their area.

Carrying knobkieries and placards stating “No more waiting. We want electricity”, the residents gave Eskom officials an ultimatum to install electricity in their area within a week or they would uproot and burn electricity poles in the township.

Mpiyake said what angered the residents was that Eskom had promised to supply electricity to the informal settlement in 2009 but had not honoured their promise.

“People use candles and paraffin stoves and when they are drunk they leave the candle and the stove burning which result in shack fires,” said Mpiyake.

Nobongile, Mfuniseli, 55, said she had been paying about R300 a month for electricity simply to light her shack.

Mfuniseli said she had to use a paraffin stove for cooking and heating, resulting in a persistent cough from the fumes.

She said if she could afford to pay for illegal electricity she could afford to pay for legal electricity meter.

Bruce Jongile, 29, the constant danger of shack fires due to illegal connections and the use of paraffin stoves meant residents were afraid to buy goods to improve their standard of living as there was always a chance they would lose everything in a fire.

Community leader Chris Matomera said Eskom had promised to electrify their informal settlement in 2009 and undertaken to engage with residents on a monthly basis, but this had not happened.

Eskom Western Cape spokesperson Jolene Henn said the informal settlement was on Eskom’s priority list and would be electrified this year.

Henn said funds were available in their 2011/12 budget to be used for this purpose.

“You can’t just go into an area and put a line in. We explained to them how the process works and it takes some time. Funds are available for electrification of the area,” said Henn

She said electricity would be provided to 300 households by the end of the current financial year.

– West Cape News

Table Cape Hemp house building project.

The Advocate Hemp House Multimedia

Sexwale hits back at Malema

HUMAN Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale yesterday hit back at ANC Youth League president Julius Malema over his repeated calls for land redistribution, saying his department was playing a large role in giving land back to the people.

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Malema has made repeated calls for land to be redistributed - by force and without compensation if necessary.

In his address at the Vision 2030 youth summit in Durban yesterday, Sexwale said since 1994, about three million houses had been built by the government, particularly for the poorest of the poor, which was the "best strategy of land redistribution through human settlement and at the same time accelerating housing opportunities".

"As a result the amount of land parcelled away together with the housing units is to the tune of more than 76000 hectares or equivalent to 800 square kilometres. That is land distribution and our department is actively involved because the construction of these houses do not happen in a vacuum, you can't build a house in air but on land," Sexwale said.

"When we build a house we bring along bulk infrastructure as well and we give people plots because when you own a house, you own a plot and that is land redistribution."

He said land distribution did not mean a "scenario in which a man would stand tall and point to vacant land and say this is my land from here to there".

"It makes sense for Malema to say we need to distribute land, but I hope this loud-mouth young man is not talking about a situation where land is lying unused and someone is just happy to boast about it."

ANCYL general secretary Sindiso Magaqa said the youth league would only comment on what Sexwale said "once it was in possession of the full details".

"We will have to conduct an investigation before commenting," said Magaqa.

- Sowetan

12,5m South Africans still need housing - Tokyo Sexwale

Tokyo Sexwale

21 July 2011

Human settlements minister says there is a backlog of 2,1m units

Statement by Human Settlements Minister, Mr Tokyo Sexwale during Human Settlements Vision 2030 Youth Summit, Durban

21 Jul 2011

Background

It is noteworthy to state the following from the onset: It has long become universally accepted that the three most basic needs which people in our world must enjoy are food, clothing, and shelter.

In a nutshell, this Human Settlements: Vision 2030 Youth Summit, here in the wonderful city of Durban, is essentially about the ever so critical dimension of shelter - appropriate, affordable and good quality shelter.

The road to this summit commenced with a Youth Round Table discussion in Johannesburg during February 2011. There, leaders of various youth organisations in our country converged to deliberate upon youth involvement and participation in Human Settlements: Vision 2030 driven by the Ministry of Human Settlements.

The genesis of the concept: Human Settlements

The concept of Human Settlements, beyond housing, is largely globally associated with the 1976 United Nations Habitat conference held in Vancouver, Canada. This concept was later put on the agenda of United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg in 2002.

In his State of the Nation address in 2009 President Zuma put it thus:

"As part of social infrastructure development we will provide suitably located and affordable housing and a decent human settlement... a human settlement is not just about building houses. It is about transforming our cities and towns and building cohesive, sustainable and caring communities with closer access to work and social amenities, including sports and recreation facilities."

However, it is remarkable that long before the United Nations Vancouver conference of 1976, the people of our country, proclaimed in the world acclaimed Freedom Charter of 1955: "There shall be Houses, Security and Comfort".

All people shall have the right to live where they choose, be decently housed, and to bring up their families in comfort and security; unused housing space to be made available to the people; rent and prices shall be lowered, ... slums shall be demolished, and new suburbs built where all have transport, roads, lighting, playing fields, crèches and social centres."

In this regard the Ministry and National Department of Human Settlements are the ones tasked, on behalf of government, with the championing and implementation of the strategy around Human Settlements - from concept to reality.

In essence we say where we live must also be where we can learn; where we live must also be in the proximity of where we can leisure; we say where we stay should also be where we can play, where we can pray and so on.

Key elements of Human Settlements: Vision 2030

• The total eradication of the backlog of plus 2.1 million housing units which translates into approximately 12.5 million people.
• The outlay of the Human Settlements budget as opposed to that of mere housing in order to create more employment opportunities and thus contribute to increased economic growth and development via the roll out of bulk infrastructure such as sanitation, water and so on.
• The creation of integrated community settlements encompassing facilities and amenities like schools, hospitals, places of worship, sporting facilities and most importantly commercial and industrial areas within reasonable distances from residential areas.
• The utilisation of densification and inner-city high rise strategies to harness economies of scale and thus house more people per square metre.
• The encouragement and facilitation of People's Housing Process where residents can construct their own houses thereby making them less dependent on government. Ours is a developmental and not a welfare state.
• The total eradication of ghettos including the potentially explosive issue of backyard dwellers many of whom have been in dire straits long before those who are recent land invaders.
• To solicit a greater buy-in by the corporate sector as a partner of government, labour and community stakeholders in campaigns such as the "Each-One-Settle-One" due to be launched later this year.

Youth in action around Human Settlements

When all is said and done for the purpose of this Summit the vital question of the day is not that of Human Settlements in general but that of Youth In Action Around Human Settlements. It is about the involvement and participation of the youth in taking forward the concept of Human Settlements: Vision 2030.

In this regard during our interaction with members of Parliament last year I stated the following:

"In crafting our vision, (of Human Settlements 2030) we are mindful that a child born today will be 20 years old by 2030, and will need somewhere to live. We should be planning for the needs of that future adult. To succeed, Human Settlements vision 2030 must be (essentially) for and by the youth - it is about their own future homes, apartments, bachelor's flats and so on; it is about the future rural settlements and urban centres: it is about future towns and cities."

This now brings us to the burning questions which this, your summit, needs to carefully deliberate upon.

1. How can Human Settlements vision 2030 be more enhanced and materialised?

2. How best can residential de-racialisation be achieved to erase the negative impacts of apartheid spatial planning? This refers to the yawning gap between Johannesburg and Soweto, Durban and Umlazi, Pretoria and Mamelodi, Cape Town and Khayelitsha and so on.

3. Since 1994 to date approximately 3 million housing units have been distributed to people in our society - particularly the poorest of the poor. Consequently the amount of land parceled away together with these housing units is to the tune of more than 76 000 hectares! Or the equivalent of 800 square kilometers. Thus how best can the strategy of land redistribution through Human Settlements be enhanced at the same time as housing opportunities are accelerated?

4. To what extent can the role of the financial services - banks and other financial institutions - be galvanised towards the increased mobilisation of finance in order to improve the development of the residential property market?

5. With land being a scarce and finite natural resource how can the mix of the different housing typologies be managed whilst improving the quality of life of the people to enhance human dignity? For example products can range from single housing units, flats, and duplexes, to more complex densification and high rise inner city housing structures.

6. The future is fraught with uncertainties around climate change. What research and development of green technologies should be undertaken towards the production or improvement of human settlements products that will be sensitive and responsive to challenges of climate change?

7. How can the current negative rural to urban migration be stemmed plus the eradication of slums, mekhukhu, ghettos, amatshotshombe and imijondolo towards the creation of more and better Human Settlements in the urban areas as well asin the country side?

8. What opportunities are available for youth development, skills enhancement and sustainable job creation within the property market and the construction sector? (There are legal services, engineering, quantity surveying, product design, architectural sciences, banking and finance including basic skills like plumbing, brick lying, painting, fitting, electrification and so on).

9. What is the process towards home ownership, how does one access a government grant if needs be, how does one access housing loan finance, bonds mortgages and so on? How can the dissemination of information around housing and home ownership be improved for the benefit of young persons who are new entrants in the housing market?

10. These and other questions including streamlining of government mandates, integration and coordination of national departments, better interaction between the three spheres of government, greater involvement of the corporate sector with their profits and labour unions with their pension funds, will require answers to enhance social justice as well as economic democracy.

There are many uncertainties lying ahead in the future of our young people. The world is in the throes of unendingconflicts and tensions, with different parts experiencing all manner of instabilities which poses a threat to our own society. One such threat is the steadily increasing instability of the global economy.

Although our country avoided a direct hit from the devastating effects of the last global economic recession, all indications are that the next one may not pass us over. The increasing likelihood of the default of sovereign debts looming over several developed nations can have devastating effects upon the developing economies such as ours.

Therefore this summit needs to be seen as an opportunity, as a point of entry into a much broader discussion around our national discourse. Human Settlements is merely a door into such a discussion which would require more than two days.

This youth summit coincides with the week in which the entire world and our country celebrated the birth day of our iconic and emblematic leader - the founding father of our nation - Madiba, who has said "it is in our hands to make ours a better world"

Let us take these words of wisdom to heart in our exchanges during this summit. There is no magic wand tocreate the future... the future can only be a product of well thought-out creative ideas based on real material conditions. We are confident that this summit will go some way in rising to this challenge.

When we crafted Human Settlements Vision 2030 which is located within the environment of our country's total national developmental space, we did so fully aware that this vision is not futuristic. It is realisable and can be concretised. The task of this summit is for you the youth of our country, the heirs of the future, to chart your own path into that future to make this vision your own reality.

Best wishes for a successful summit.

I thank you.

Issued by the Department of Human Settlements, July 21 2011

Philippi electricity protest rages on

Residents of a Philippi informal settlement and police have clashed again as protests over electricity supply entered their third day.

Three police Nyalas cordoned off the corner of New Eisleben and Sheffield roads yesterday when protests, which started on Tuesday, flared up again in Siyahlala.

Residents set containers on fire and used them to block off sections of Sheffield Road, while teenagers and children lined the road, armed with rocks, watching for police.

Standing at a trench made by residents who had dug up a section of road, Tumeka Xoyana, 29, said they had no option but to protest because the area had been without electricity for more than 10 years. “We have to steal electricity because the government doesn’t want to give it to us,” said Xoyana.

Ezile Cele, 24, said police had fired rubber bullets and tear gas at them: “Why can’t they give us a valid reason why we can’t get electricity?”

She said residents were angered that the area had been “skipped” while neighbouring areas had received electricity.

Residents had made “countless” requests to their Ward 34 councillor and the municipality for electricity, she said.

The councillor had told residents they would not receive supply because of the illegal connections in the area.

Provincial police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel André Traut said that on two occasions during the protest, SAPS members had been duty-bound to take action against riotous crowds and gas cartridges were discharged.

Nobody had been injured and no arrests had been made, and police would remain in the area to monitor the situation.

City spokeswoman Kylie Hatton said the settlement was in a road reserve and that it was council policy not to create electrical networks in road reserves. “The city is, however, investigating various options, but I cannot provide details before everything has been investigated,” she said.

- Cape Argus

Where are our houses? – evictees

Only 10 families have been moved to formal housing from Blikkiesdorp since its establishment as a Temporary Relocation Area (TRA) three years ago, the City of Cape Town has confirmed.

The remaining residents are on the city’s housing waiting list, which stands at 386 590.

Ernest Sonnenberg, mayoral committee member for housing, said it was not known how many people on the list actually qualified for a housing subsidy or already owned property elsewhere in the country – which would disqualify them in terms of the national allocation policy.

In the past year, 7 700 housing “opportunities” had been made available to people, said Sonnenberg.

He was not clear on how many people were actually moved into houses.

Now Blikkiesdorp residents fear they may never leave the TRA and realise their dream of living in “real” houses.

When it was built early in 2008, the city said the TRAs provided “medium term” temporary accommodation for people in emergency situations.

The first of the 1 680 families moved into the TRA on May 9 2008 after they were evicted from the N2 Gateway projects where they had illegally occupied houses.

The first occupants were given 18m2 wood and iron structures with electricity. One toilet and one standpipe was to be shared between four families.

A group of 136 families refused to move into the TRA, which became known as Blikkiesdorp, and squatted on the Symphony Way pavement in protest for two years. They claimed the TRA was crime ridden and not fit for families with children. After a lengthy court battle, the last of the families moved into Blikkiesdorp in November 2009.

On a recent Cape Argus visit to Blikkiesdorp, residents expressed unhappiness at being kept in the dark about when they would be moved into houses.

Community leader Jane Roberts said that last month residents had tried to invade empty houses in Delft, also part of the N2 Gateway project. Their attempts had been foiled by police and 11 people had been arrested.

They are expected to appear in the Bellville Magistrates’ Court on August 4.

Roberts said people had acted out of frustration.

“For some people, it’s been three years. This was supposed to be temporary. We should have been in a housing project by now,” said Roberts.

She said that while they now had electricity, sanitation, water and a play park for the children, they were much happier living on the pavement.

“This place has changed people. The sense of community has faded away. This place was never meant to be lived in,” said Roberts.

Sonnenberg said several lessons had been learned from the Blikkiesdorp situation and these had helped the city in its establishment of the new Mfuleni TRA near the old Faure Road.

The relocations started in May and ended last week.

Most of the residents moved there by the city were Mfuleni backyarders and flood victims from the area. The Mfuleni TRA has 384 structures

.

Sonnenberg said the size of the structures had been increased from 18m2 to 24m2, and more resilient material had been used in building them. Each structure has its own toilet and wash basin inside.

A Mfuleni community leader, Xolani Mqikela, said his new home was “much better” than the waterlogged shack he had lived in before.

He said many of the residents were happy with their homes and didn’t mind living there for a while.

“We just hope that we get houses, and we’re not left here permanently,” said Mqikela.

- Cape Argus

Housing project clears two hurdles

THE Dido Valley low-cost subsidised housing project on the scenic hills of Simon’s Town is back in the spotlight after positive reports from a city-appointed environmental consultancy and an archaeologist.

The development on the 8.03ha prime piece of land is intended to accommodate about 2,000 residents from the nearby Red Hill informal settlement and Vrygrond near Muizenberg.

But the project has not received support all round, with some property owners in the nearby houses raising concerns about the standard of the houses to be built and the impact on their property values of bringing people on to the land. The Dido Valley Affordable Housing Project – described as the “most expensive cheap housing development” – has been on the cards for 16 years.

The proposed housing project will have 600 residential units, a clinic, a crèche, a church and business area.

“There are no known adverse impacts associated with the proposed Dido Valley Affordable Housing Project (but) potentially significant positive impacts. These impacts include, particularly, the socio-economic benefits of moving people from an inadequately serviced informal settlement (Red Hill) to formal housing with adequate access to services, as well as the potential to remediate the adverse biophysical impacts associated with the Red Hill informal settlement,” reads the draft basic assessment report by De Villiers Brownlie Associates, the city-appointed environmental experts.

The report adds that the benefit for the local communities is that the development would be a “desirable” means of utilising the land with the urban area “efficiently”.

Archaeologist Ute Seemann, a city-appointed heritage consultant, wrote in his report that the surface survey covering the property revealed no archaeological remains.

“The 64 municipal sub-economic dwellings built during the late 1940s are of no historical, architectural, aesthetic value. From an archaeological (and) historical perspective no objections to the housing development could be found,” said Seemann.

Ndukuyakhe Ndlovu, a senior heritage officer at Heritage Western Cape, also wrote on August 10, 2007, that there were no objections to the proposals.

Christopher Bladen, a nearby resident, said the development would be tricky as only about 100 families from Red Hill would be accommodated.

“They’re also going to take people from Vrygrond in nearby Muizenberg to come all the way down here. It’s also going to make transport a problem,” Bladen said.

Another homeowner, Vincent Marinkowitz, who is an architect, said city authorities were still waiting for the environmental assessment.

“I'm an owner of one of the affected properties. If the development goes ahead in its current form, I will suffer loss of value in all probability. So I’m going through the report. It’s a very dense report. But they look like brick shacks from the design. This looks like it was ill-considered,” Marinkowitz said. Council official Eddie Thomas, the former project co-ordinator, said the process had taken more than a decade because it was a “very complicated piece of land”.

“And there was the economic downturn and all those things. But those brick houses are all going to be demolished. Funding will come from the national government. All subsidy housing comes from national,” Thomas said.

- Cape Argus

Prime Minister opens new £2 million housing development

PRIME Minister David Cameron has officially opened a new affordable housing development by Carter Construction.

The £2 million scheme by the Gloucester-based firm was described as innovative and creative by Mr Cameron.

1. ​

   OFFICIAL OPENING: David Cameron talks with Carter Construction's managing director Michael Carter, left, and regional manager Phil Barnes

"It is vital we build new housing in rural areas to help sustain local services such as shops and post offices," he said.

Mr Cameron toured the development in Stanton Harcourt village, Oxfordshire, after cutting a ribbon signalling its opening.

Carter Construction is an advocate of sustainable building methods. The homes at Stanton Harcourt were built using carbon-neutral products and renewable technologies.

Managing director Michael Carter said: "This is a low-carbon, rural development with low running costs at its heart."

It features hemp-based walls and makes full use of natural renewable elements including ground source heat pumps, solar photovoltaic panels, under-floor heating and a rainwater harvesting system.

All 16 homes will be rented by the housing association to local people.

- thisisgloucestershire

New toilet scandal hits ANC

A new toilet scandal is about to cause a big stink for the ANC.

A Free State municipality which erected more than 1000 lavatories on land apparently earmarked for low cost housing, is now insisting that people who qualify such housing pay for the land - and the toilets.

In the wake of the party's open toilet controversy in Viljoenskroon's Moqhaka municipality, the ANC led Maluti-a-Phofung Municipality in Harrismith is now charging the poor up to R5000 for a plot of land with a flushing toilet on it.

Despite numerous enquiries, municipal officials could not explain how or why more than 1000 toilets were erected on one field across the road from Tshiame township almost three years ago.

Ward councillor Moeketsi Mofana refused to reveal what the municipality was charging for toilets and the plots of land upon which they have been erected, but The Times understands that they are being sold for between R1000 and R5000 depending on the size of the land.

The municipality's actions fly in the face of government policy which stipulates that those who earn less than R3000 a month qualify for free, low cost houses. These houses should come with all necessary services, including water, electricity and a toilet.

Mofana confirmed that the toilets are now being sold.

"We are selling them. I'm not sure about the prices, it will depend on the size of the stand. They have to be sold. The money used to develop the site has to be recouped," he said.

"For now there are no RDPs [low cost houses] in the pipeline. The priority is to move and complete this project."

The municipality, Mofana said, started selling the toilets on Friday.

"They can go to the municipality and request stands according to their affordability," he said.

Maluti-A-Phofung municipal manager Stephen Kau assured that he would respond to questioned e-mailed to him "as soon as I can".

Local government spokesman Vuyelwa Qinga and Free State local government head of department Kopung Ralikontsane declined to comment, saying Kau would be better placed to provide a response.

Department of Human Settlements spokesman Mandulo Maphumulo failed to respond to questions.

Metsing Mpakathe, a DA councillor at the municipality, said the toilets cost at least R3-million to erect and the intention was to build houses but the project "went wrong".

Thandiwe Mazibuko, who lives in a mud hut with seven other people in Tshiame, and whose makeshift toilet doesn't have a door, said on Friday that the community held a meeting to discuss the toilets.

"What we want is houses," she said, adding that she will not be able raise the money she needs to buy a proper toilet, let alone build a house, as no one in her household had jobs.

"We were told they will cost between R1000 and R5000. They are messing around with us, where will the money come from?"

Of her own toilet, she said: "The door fell off. We just go in there and do our thing, what can we do? We are poor."

Butch Steyn, the DA's spokesman on housing, said it was wrong for the municipality to sell toilets without houses to the poor.

"If they put infrastructure there it means the land was earmarked for development," he said.

Steyn said more affluent residents in the area now had an opportunity to buy up stands at the expense of the poor.

Toilets became campaign tools during the local government elections in May.

ANC Youth League president Julius Malema and Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula travelled to the Moqhaka Municipality with Free State premier Ace Magashule to inspect the open toilets which they promised would be covered within two months. That work is now under way.

In Cape Town, the DA-led metro was lashed by the Human Rights Commission for building "loos with views" in Khayelitsha's Makhaza settlement.

The High Court in Cape Town ordered the city to enclose the toilets, and prototype enclosures were erected around them last week.

- Timeslive

Sexwale v Sisulu

Tokyo Sexwale, the human settlements minister, has been accused of using the fight against corruption to tarnish his predecessor Lindiwe Sisulu’s image, as well as people close to her.

This comes after Sexwale’s blistering attack on Sipho Mashinini – the chief executive of the National Homebuilders Registration Council (NHBRC) – and corruption-buster Vanessa Somiah in Parliament.

Several sources close to the fallout said the ANC’s succession battle is at the core of the fracas in the housing department.

A source with intimate knowledge of the fallout said: "Remember that both Tokyo and Lindiwe are in the running to become Kgalema's [Motlanthe, the deputy president] deputy in Mangaung."

Motlanthe has recently been punted as a possible successor to President Jacob Zuma at the ANC’s national conference in Mangaung, Free State, next year.

In a strongly-worded statement released on Saturday, Sexwale hit back at his critics, saying nothing will make him retreat from “pursuing people who have acted in a questionable manner, hoping to muddle issues by concealing themselves and their evil deeds behind innocent ministers such as the previous housing minister Lindiwe Sisulu”.

'Fabrications'

Sexwale slammed those saying he was attempting to embarrass Sisulu, calling these claims laughable “fabrications”.

Sexwale’s own presidential ambitions are increasingly being scuppered by internal ructions in the ANC and he has apparently settled on being second in charge.

Sexwale, who is also a multi-millionaire businessman - with interests in the mining, energy and services sectors - has been hard at work building an image of a corruption fighter committed to cleaning up the housing sector.

In 2009, he even spent a night in Diepsloot, where he slept in a shack.

But lately he has been hurt by reports about housing targets not being met and was criticised by his colleague, Co-operative Governance Minister Sicelo Shiceka, for not accepting the blame for the open toilets scandal.

Sexwale – flanked by special investigating unit SIU head Willie Hofmeyr – earlier came out with guns blazing against Somiah and Mashinini, accusing them of "whitewashing" an investigation into alleged irregularities at the NHBRC, the building industry’s regulatory body.

'Collusion'

The minister also accused them of collusion because Somiah was appointed by Mashinini and the NHBRC board in April to head investigations at the council.

The SIU probe targeted Mashinini and the council’s former chairperson, Granny Seape.

Both were appointed by former housing minister Lindiwe Sisulu and are seen as her allies.

Seape is believed to have told the SIU that she had permission from Sisulu to conduct business with the council even though she was the non-executive chairperson.

Her lawyer, Peter Tshisevhe, said on Friday that they had asked Sexwale for a copy of the SIU report, the terms of reference and the presidential proclamation under which the investigation was conducted.

Sisulu’s spokesperson Ndivhuwo Mabaya said that the chairperson position was not a full-time one and that Sisulu had followed the council’s rules when she appointed Seape.

"Granny was not a full-time employee of the NHBRC. Any other person who is not a full-time employee would be given permission to do business. As chair, she only had to attend four or five meetings a year," said Mabaya.

City Press understands that Somiah’s report clears both Mashinini and Seape, citing Sisulu’s approval for them to conduct their private businesses while serving on the board and working for the NHBRC.

Interview

In an exclusive interview with City Press, Somiah said the only issue raised with her by Hofmeyr had been why she hadn't interviewed Sisulu.

She said Sexwale had contacted Hofmeyr after receiving the report in February, asking the SIU head why Sisulu hadn't been interrogated.

But Hofmeyr denied being contacted by Sexwale about it, saying that he had raised the issue with Somiah himself.
The SIU has subsequently decided to reopen the investigation into Mashinini and Seape.

Mashinini also lashed out at Sexwale, accusing him of interfering in the affairs of an “independent regulator [the NHBRC]” and for being more concerned about his public image than the building industry.

Mashinini, who has taken leave from his job, said: “Sexwale has not visited the NHBRC for the past 24 months.

"When he came in [as minister] he demolished all Sisulu’s houses and took out full-page advertisements . . . Tokyo wants to send a message that people are doing bad things and he is the good one.”

In 2009, the ANC expressed its concern about Sexwale and Sisulu’s relationship after a public spat over projects Sisulu had initiated during her tenure.

Read Sexwale's full response

- City Press

Read Sexwale’s full response

Press statement issued by the Department of Human Settlements 09 July 2011


NHBRC ANTI-CORRUPTION PROBE TO BE VIGOROUSLY PURSUED


1. The ministry and the department’s fight against corruption which affects tax payers and the poorest of the poor, will continue to be pursued vigorously against any government or non-government persons, without fear or favor.

2. The department is more than aware that certain people within the National Home Builders Regulatory Council (NHBRC) suspected of wrong doing, having put severe question marks upon their integrities, are attempting to mislead the media and public at large about their culpability.

3. For the record it must be noted that Ms. Vanessa Somiah is the senior Special Investigations Unit (SIU) official, who having been entrusted with the sensitive investigation of, amongst others the CEO of the NHBRC, Mr. Sipho Mashinini, ended being recruited by the self same person into the NHBRC top management. In this respect the following can be stated:

3.1 Nothing that Ms. Vanessa Somiah or others may say will undo the fact that she jumped from the SIU having been entrusted with this sensitive investigation and ended up gaining employment within the NHBRC. This constitutes a serious conflict of interest.

3.2 Nothing she or others may say will change the fact that such a senior post given to her by Mr. Mashinini within the NHBRC, which requires ministerial approval, did not get such approval by the Minister of Human Settlements via the NHBRC council. This appointment was irregular.

3.3 Nothing that she or others may say will change the fact that she was granted a salary of R1.3million plus benefits, which falls within the ministerial salary bracket, way above approximately R700 000 she was earning at the SIU.

3.4 Nothing she or others may say will change the fact that her departure from the SIU and her negotiations with the NHBRC CEO were kept away from her SIU employers, when it was important for good governance purposes to declare her future employment within the NHBRC to the SIU.

3.5 Nothing she or others may say will hide away the complete shock and bewilderment on the part of NHBRC workers, particularly the whistleblowers, when they saw the senior SIU investigator walking into NHBRC premises having been appointed to a senior position by the same CEO they had raised issues about. It can now be understood why the Nehawu members staged a protest against management at the NHBRC headquarters this week.

3.6 Nothing she or others may say will change that both she and Mr. Mashinini are now suspended by a unanimous resolution of the council of the NHBRC and not the untruth which Ms. Somiah has told her lawyers that she is not suspended but is on maternity leave.

3.7 Nothing she or others may say will take away that having been thus exposed, she has through her lawyers demanded from the department an immediate payment of one million rands for what she regards as damage to her integrity; while strangely, in a subsequent letter within days through the same lawyers, is requesting an amicable solution.

3.8 Nothing she or others may say will diminish the commitment and authority of the department to investigate corruption in all its forms within or outside the boundaries of any Proclamation because corruption does not require only special investigations. A simple police person can be called upon to investigate any wrong doing by anybody within and outside the department. Corrupt activity is investigated at any time.


3.9 Nothing she or others may say will make us retreat from pursuing people who have acted in a questionable manner, hoping to muddle issues by concealing themselves and their evil deeds behind innocent ministers such as the previous Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu; their fabrication that the investigation is intended to embarrass any minister is laughable because through their own actions they have tarnished their own reputations and embarrassed themselves.

4. The department’s resolve and political will under the leadership of Minister Tokyo Sexwale to see through this investigation remains undiminished. The scourge of corruption in our society must be fought relentlessly and vigorously because ultimately it is the public and the tax payers who suffer losses – particularly ordinary working people and the poorest of the poor who become eventual victims of corrupt conduct in the public and or private sector.

5. In light of the above, the department welcomes the statement issued by Nehawu in support of Nehawu whistleblowers, whose efforts have been publicly appreciated by the SIU head Mr. Willie Hofmeyer.

6. The minister says: “As a Cabinet Minister acting under the direction of the President, I am not running a corruption-protection racket; furthermore I have a responsibility to keep away public funds from unscrupulous hands. I also welcome the steps taken by the NHBRC council in suspending the affected persons and look forward to the conclusion of the investigations which are being conducted by the NHBRC as well as the broader investigation by the SIU within the housing sector countrywide.”

- Citypress

Fortress Malema will replace Juju's old home

ANC Youth League president Julius Malema is building a multi-million-rand fortress after demolishing his R3.6-million Johannesburg home.

Despite reports suggesting that Malema had sold the house earlier this year, a deeds search this week revealed that he still owns the property in Sandton.

The "economic freedom fighter", as the youth league leader calls himself, declined to speak to the Sunday Times about the issue, saying the newspaper was invading his privacy.

His neighbours at the upmarket estate in Sandown say they were surprised to see the house being demolished early this year.

"(We) are in horror because this was a perfectly beautiful house. Paving was done around the house and many other big renovations ... and then he brought the whole thing down," said a neighbour who did not want to be identified.

A Sunday Times visit to the site this week revealed construction workers hard at work. A Bedfordview-based company - Kwandisa Construction - is involved.

Insiders familiar with the project say the house could be the biggest in the area. It is expected to be a double-storey building with underground parking.

"It is going to be a very big and modern house - probably the biggest in the estate. There's underground parking and it will have two floors on top of that," said one insider.

According to the insider, actual construction would start soon and the house would be complete by early next year.

It is uncertain where Malema is living while construction is under way. His grandmother's house in Seshego, Limpopo, is also undergoing renovations.

Malema's spokesman Floyd Shivambu said: "It is a private matter and not for the newspapers. We are asking that people respect other people's privacy and not interfere with it."

Malema, who fashions himself as a champion of the poor, recently spent a week on holiday in Italy following his re-election - unopposed - as youth league president.

- Timeslive

City needs 4 000ha of land for housing

THE City of Cape Town needs about 4,000 hectares of land for housing, and would have to pay about R2 billion for state-owned land which some national departments have refused to release or “unlock” for close to two decades.

One official in the city said 15 years of negotiations with the Department of Defence and Military Veterans to release the Wingfield land had amounted to nothing.

On the amount of land needed by Cape Town, Jens Kuhn, manager for housing land and forward planning, said if 400,000 families were to be housed on plots of 100m2, 4,000 hectares would be needed.

He said the challenge facing authorities was to acquire land for housing when opportunities arose. On the money the city would have to fork out for the land, Kuhn said “simple arithmetic means 4,000 multiplied by R500,000 would equal R2,000m (R2bn)”.

“Price depends on location, year of acquisition, willing sellers, at what price the state land is released. Again, the key is to spend a reasonable proportion of housing funds each yearon raw land to allow for new projects in future years,” he said.

On the Youngsfield and Wingfield land parcels, Kuhn said both sites had been registered with the Housing Development Agency for assistance in “unlocking them” from other state departments (Defence and Public Works).

“Wingfield is about 195ha and Youngsfield is 60ha. In both cases large portions are not usable. But they are well located. As the years go by, and it has been almost two decades now, their land value is pushing the viability of low-cost housing out,” Kuhn said.

The provincial Department of Human Settlements, led by MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela, believes high prices for the land are justified and the city has no choice but to pay.

Madikizela’s spokesperson, Bruce Oom, said the city had enough land available to spend its human settlements budget for at least the next three years.

“However, we need to establish a project pipeline for the next five to 10 years, hence the importance of identifying available land now, so that environmental and feasibility assessments can be done well in advance,” Oom said.

He said the Human Settlements Department had, in the past two years, provided funding to the City of Cape Town and other municipalities in the province for the acquisition of land. “The department considers all the city’s applications for provincially owned land favourably if it is in line with the department’s strategic objectives. The Western Cape Department of Human Settlements has made 300ha of land available for human settlement development, but the planning process still needs to commence,” Oom said.

He added that properties owned by national government departments, such as Youngsfield, were suitably located for commercial and residential development for a range of income groups.

“Therefore, the high cost of this land is justified by the opportunity it presents for mixed and high-intensity development. The department has a responsibility to ensure that human settlement developments do not only cater for low-cost housing, but for all economic and social sectors of society,” Oom said.

Housing finance manager Wayne Muller said earlier this week that the availability of land was the main challenge in the Western Cape as land cost more than anywhere else in the country, with one hectare of unserviced land costing, on average, R1m.

- Cape Times