Experts to devise plan for Cape Town stadium

The City of Cape Town has contracted a company to pull together a plan which city authorities hope will make the Cape Town Stadium more profitable in the long-term.

The multimillion-rand nineweek contract with International Risk Management is to end in November.

Although the price tag for the contract was not immediately clear, an online document from the city says the value is just more than R3.8 million.

Grant Pascoe, mayoral committee member for tourism, events and marketing, said the company employed specialists in a variety of fields.

Some of these included expertise in stadium and facility management and financial and risk advisory services.

Consultants also had experience in engineering and environmental management, Pascoe said.

In June, he said the city had begun the open tender process and invited business analysts to bid for the contract to develop a stadium business model.

This was the core duty of International Risk Management, he said.

"The business consultant is expected to develop a variety of stadium management and operating models aimed at achieving financial sustainability and optimum operational efficiency."

Reassessing zoning at the stadium would be one of the aspects, Pascoe said.

In April, the city said it wanted zoning restrictions at the stadium to be relaxed to improve profitability.

At the time, it said zoning meant parts of the stadium could not be leased for use, for example, by restaurants.

Another aspect that has to be decided in developing a model is property development and how best to use the space at the stadium, along with "rental and hire opportunities".

The R4.5 billion stadiumhas an operating budget of R57m for this financial year.

Questions have been raised about the sustainability of the stadium, but the city has emphasised that none of the events held there has incurred a loss.

A few big-name concerts have been held there, and they did not run at a loss.

One of the biggest was the Irish rock group U2's concert.

It netted a profit of just more than R800 000 for the city.

International Risk Management also has to look at attracting more events.

And for this it has to formulate marketing strategies.

The company will also assess financial projections and predict "profit-bearing scenarios".

"Each model developed by the business analyst is expected to take into account a one-to three-year, as well as a four-to 20-year operating arrangement," Pascoe said.

"Once this modelling exercise is completed, the city is expected to scrutinise each model and weigh the opportunities and implications of each before deciding on a most appropriate long-term business plan."

Earlier this year the city said the council was expected to make a decision on a longterm business plan by the end of this year.

In October, the council decided to terminate its contract with Sail Stadefrance because the consortium would not agree to a long-term lease.

Sail Stadefrance would not enter into a 30-year lease because it believed the projected losses of running the stadium were too high.

- Cape Argus

Call on city to stop evictions

CAPE Town residents' organisation Abahlali baseMjondolo has called on the City of Cape Town to put a moratorium on all evictions.

This follows a violent clash between 2000 backyard dwellers and the police after they had occupied land owned by the city in Kraaifontein on Sunday.

Police repelled the bid and drove the homeless people off a piece of land along Old Paarl road, arresting eight people.

Police and members of the city's anti-land invasion unit took down structures erected illegally on Saturday.

The backyard dwellers, from Bloekombos and Wallacedene in Kraaifontein, also occupied two other pieces of land along Maroela Road.

Plot markings and building materials were visible, but no structures had been put up.

Yesterday, Abahlali baseMjondolo provincial chairman Mzonke Poni condemned the City of Cape Town's actions against land occupiers in Kraaifontein.

"The city cannot wage war on the poor and then say it wants to negotiate with us," he said.

"If the city is serious about negotiations it must first renounce violence."

Khayelitsha resident and community leader Poni said residents wanted the city to declare a moratorium on all evictions in Cape Town.

"The struggles and survival strategies of the poor must be actively supported, Poni said.

"It is the responsibility of the city to provide houses for the poor.

"For as long as people do not have houses it is essential that the occupation of unused land be supported by the city."

Poni also dismissed claims by the city that people who occupied land in Kraaifontein wanted to jump the housing waiting list.

He rejected the city's housing waiting list, saying it was totally dysfunctional.

"It has been used as a political tool by the city to incite division between black Africans and coloureds in Western Cape," he said.

Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille said it was not possible to provide housing for everyone with the budget from the national government.

De Lille also said people must understand that many people had been on the waiting list since the 1980s.

- Sowetan

Funding policy changes push non-profits into business field

The recent flare-up between the government and the non-profit sector over changes to policies governing state funding of non-profit organisations (NPOs) has reignited the heated debate around how best to fund our social welfare services and social justice work in South Africa.

The hastily arranged meeting a few weeks ago between the Department of Social Development and a handful of NPOs did little to calm fears over the future funding of the more than 100 000 non-profits who between them deliver more than half of the welfare services government is obliged to provide.

Very few NPOs were invited to or even knew about the meeting at Parliament, which was apparently set up to address growing concerns over the lack of consultation and failure of the government to appreciate how its proposed policy changes will affect the work we do on their behalf.

One of our ongoing frustrations is that the government appears to see its funding of NPOs as the generous granting of gifts and awards, rather than paying for services rendered or ensuring funding for organisations that provide basic and essential social services. It seems to see itself as our benefactor rather than our partner in delivering the critical services promised to the poor and vulnerable.

Another problem with these policy proposals is that they are trying to impose the use of business practices and measurement tools on the non-profit sector. This is being done without much thought to the appropriateness of these practices for the sector, or to the vital work and services we provide.

This growing pressure on non-profits to operate more like businesses and generate “earned” income is being felt worldwide as governments make massive spending cuts and philanthropic giving falls in the face of global recession.

The problem with the income-generation imperative, however, is that NPOs are established to deliver services that do not generate income. They are inherently unsuited to business as they have social development priorities that limit profitability.

A recent Harvard Business Review article goes so far as to argue that the pressure on non-profits to become more entrepreneurial by generating an income and becoming self-sustaining is a dangerous trend that could distract non-profit managers from their core social missions and, in some cases, even subvert those missions.

The article goes on to insist that a company’s mission is primarily to generate profits, whereas a non-profit must generate impact.

The two don’t, and shouldn’t, mix. The difficult challenge for today’s non-profit leaders is increasingly around how to manage these multiple outcomes – to ensure that mission is accomplished by ensuring that the means exist to accomplish it.

The belief that “social enterprise” and “social entrepreneurs” are the way to go when it comes to tackling social problems is also gaining currency in South Africa. Although social enterprise is not a precise concept, the term is generally understood to define organisations that operate in the open marketplace while also addressing social goals.

I suppose you could say that social enterprises are revenue-generating businesses with a social twist. Whether operated by a non-profit organisation or by a for-profit company, a social enterprise has two goals: to achieve social, cultural, community, economic or environmental outcomes; and to earn money.

A non-profit’s sole aim is to create social value, whereas the objective of a social enterprise is twofold: financial and social.

I am not implying that it is a bad thing for non-profits to, well, generate profits or income. Such objectives must be part of an NPO’s sustainability strategy. However, it is what is done with these profits that defines the difference.

A non-profit cannot distribute its surplus (or profit) to the personal benefit of anyone involved in the organisation, whereas a for-profit group can and does. In fact, maximising and distributing profit is often the bottom-line objective of a for-profit social enterprise that needs to generate an income to sustain and develop an initiative. A non-profit social enterprise can’t distribute the profit, but its focus is still on generating income and surplus.

Although there is much to admire about the non-profit social enterprise business model, I believe that importing it wholesale and imposing it on to the non-profit sector in South Africa will not ensure non-profit sustainability. Any expectation that this is possible, viable, feasible or reasonable demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding of the values-driven nature of non-profit work.

A key factor here is that it is close to impossible to establish a fully operational, successful income-generating enterprise and an effective non-profit organisation at the same time (unless the purpose of the non-profit is “to generate income”, and these are few and far between).

Starting an enterprise and an NPO each takes total dedication and commitment from the entrepreneurial founder. As most enterprise start-ups fail within the first couple of years, it is best to focus on the success of one approach. Not both.

Most non-profit work will always require levels of donor funding where the core products, such as a school feeding scheme, simply don’t have consumer targets outside of the donor market.

In any event, non-profits are critical partners in social development, providing opportunities for individual and corporate commitment to social investment, along with the space where people are able to realise their own social commitment and to recognise themselves as active citizens responsible for society around them.

While some non-profits, such as craft projects, are established to generate income, jobs, skills and sustainable livelihoods, there still exists a range of non-profits that will always rely on philanthropic giving regardless of the innovative ways in which they are able to generate income.

Take the Right to Know campaign, which has so actively resisted the passing of the Secrecy Bill. How would such an organisation deliver on its mission to defend the right to access information and the freedom of expression while running a successful income-generating initiative to fully fund the campaign and make a profit to sustain the organisation?

All NPOs, whether classed as social enterprises or not, are always concerned with their financial sustainability and are constantly involved in devising mechanisms to ensure they are able to generate the support to meet their organisational objectives.

But let’s face it: it is easier to make profits than to make justice.

That is not to say that non-profits cannot benefit from the skills and practices used to run successful social enterprises. The concept of applying proven business techniques when it comes to serving real human need is a significant step forward in our quest for social justice.

But we cannot insist that those NPOs dedicated to ensuring and securing social justice in South Africa can only do so if they are able to fully fund their own work.

Inyathelo will hold an open discussion on social enterprises and the non-profit sector at its training centre in Woodstock, Cape Town, tomorrow. For more information, call (021) 465 6981/2 or visit www.inyathelo.org.za. Gaby Ritchie is the programme director for Inyathelo, the South African Institute for Advancement.

- Business Day

Sexwale is right but ...

HUMAN Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale is spot-on: South Africa must urgently address the divisive, sensitive and costly provision of housing to its poorest citizens.

It is divisive because it has, in some instances, set comrade against comrade with claims of foreigners surprisingly jumping the queue ahead of people who have been on the waiting lists for up to 10 years.

It is sensitive because the provision of housing cannot be wished away, especially in a society where the rich are getting fatter while the poor are getting hungrier.

It is costly because even the richest governments cannot afford to continue pouring money into a programme that seems endless: some of our homeless are hellbent on abusing the system at every turn.

Others move into RDP houses only to sell them and return to shacks, while shady officials are using it as a cash cow.

Sexwale said yesterday: "There has to be a cut-off date for discussing that. But we can't cut off the poor right now, particularly in the current national economic environment.

"We can't sustain what we are doing for a long time."

He said SA had around 2500 slums, and also had to deal with the growing population of immigrants from countries like Nigeria and Zimbabwe.

Just like many other areas crying for attention - health and education come to mind - there has been too much lip service and unnecessary failings.

These goals can be attained, Mr Sexwale. Get rid of the rotten elements in the mix, then half the job is done.

- Sowetan

Tokyo talks tough at housing handover

HUMAN Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale has issued his strongest warning to home builders yet – build shoddy houses and you’ll never build in this country again.

Sexwale opened the 12th International Housing and Home Warranty Conference in the city yesterday, before handing over eight state-of-the-art “green” legacy homes to “special needs” beneficiaries in Blue Downs.

But before posing for pictures and engaging in a spot of back-patting with the beneficiaries, Sexwale said: “I’m not here for the cameras.”

“If these houses fall, gaan ek vir iemand donner (I’m going to beat up someone). Builders and contractors must build quality homes. A home is someone’s pride and joy. It gives people dignity. If anything goes wrong with any building project, we are coming after you. You won’t build here again.”

Sexwale instructed the chairman of the National Home Builders Registration Council to fire any contractor who built sub-standard homes or who was corrupt.

“We don’t take the poor for granted,” he said. “If houses are built, it should be a quality product and affordable. Consumer protection and satisfaction is of utmost importance.”

The three-bedroom “eco-friendly” duplexes, two of which were constructed with concrete from the Athlone cooling towers, were built in under three months.

Yesterday Sexwale, Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille and Human Settlements MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela handed over the keys to eight beneficiaries, among them the grandmother and guardian of the twins whose mother, Bonelwa Tilikana, died in an accident near Beaufort West in March.

The twins were born after the critically injured Tilikana, 20, was airlifted to the Tygerberg Hospital, where she died a few days later.

Thozama Payi, Tilikana’s mother, and the twins Linamandla and Likhona were present to accept the keys to their new house.

“It’s been very, very difficult, but I’m glad we at least have a house now,” said Payi. “It makes it so much easier.”

Another beneficiary, Bongile Xolelo, lived in a dilapidated hostel in Langa with his 12-year-old disabled son.

“This is the proudest day of my life,” Xolelo said. “My boy, Mesuli, just smiled when I told him we are moving into our own house. He is very happy.”

De Lille said: “These homes must be looked after and appreciated. I don’t want to come here in a year and find that you have sold your house.”

Sexwale warned beneficiaries that he would be making random visits to the area to “check if you are keeping your end of the deal”.

Sexwale was also joined by the Housing Minister of Mali, Yacouba Diallo, who was keen to have similar “eco-friendly” houses built in his country.

During the handover, a group of about 20 disgruntled residents complained that they had been on the waiting list for decades and had still not received houses.

- Cape Argus

7 held for protest in De Doorns

Seven people were arrested in De Doorns, in the Western Cape, on Tuesday for throwing stones at motorists during a protest on the N1 highway, said police

Captain FC van Wyk said the police and other law enforcement agencies in the town had to periodically close the N1 because of the service delivery protest.

“It is reported that some community members, during the protest, were seen throwing stones at the vehicles that travelled on the N1 national road in De Doorns,” Van Wyk said.

He said they would be charged with public violence, assault and malicious damage to property and would appear in De Doorns Magistrate's Court on Wednesday.

Van Wyk said the situation in the town was quiet on Tuesday afternoon.

“The police are on the scene and are monitoring the situation,” he said. – Sapa

Human Settlements Minister Sexwale: 'housing for poor is not sustainable'

Minister says the private sector must contribute to the provision of housing for the poor, and that is why he will launch the "each one, settle one" campaign at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Thursday...

HUMAN Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale says the government must have a cut-off date on which it will stop building free houses for the poor.

"We can't sustain what we are doing. There has to be a cut-off date. We are discussing that. But you can't cut off the poor right now, particularly not in the current national economic environment," Sexwale told the 12th international housing and home warranty conference at Cape Town's International Convention Centre yesterday.

He said the private sector would have to contribute to the provision of housing for the poor, and that was why he would launch the "each one, settle one" campaign at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Thursday.

The campaign would ask "captains of industry" to "empty their pockets" to build houses, Sexwale said.

He also called on conference delegates to come up with innovative ways to build houses for the poor.

"Talking about good quality products means you don't take the poor for granted. Quite often people build houses, but if it is for the poor the quality tends to be lower."

Sexwale also called for an end to racialised human settlements.

"The task, if we have to be a common people bound by our humanity, is to create a situation in which people can live together."

He also warned that climate change could destroy the work of housing ministers.

Calling for a minute of silence for Kenyan environmental activist and Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai, who died on Sunday morning, Sexwale said "cities are threatened".

"If we continue to emit negative gases into the air ... at this rate ... whatever we plan climate change might negate," he said.

- Sowetan

Tafelsig evictions delayed

The scheduled eviction of people from Tafelsig near Cape Town was postponed on Monday, the City of Cape Town said.

The move came after an application by the land occupiers for leave to appeal against an earlier court ruling stating they could be evicted.

Judgment on whether they would be granted leave to appeal would be handed down on Tuesday, the city said in a statement.

“This was an illegal invasion which we sought to stop immediately,” said mayoral committee member for human settlements, Ernest Sonnenberg.

In another development, 101 partly built structures were removed by the City of Cape Town and police on Sunday from provincial land in Bloekombos/Kraaifontein.

The removal ended in violence and 28 people were arrested.

Sonnenberg said: “The city cannot tolerate invasions on land earmarked for housing projects.”

The invasions were attempts to circumvent the housing waiting list and deprive the rightful beneficiaries of a house, he said.

- Sapa

Sexwale calls for free housing deadline

Free housing for the poor has to have a cut off date, Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale said in Cape Town.

The solution to South Africa's backlog of 2.3 million houses was not in providing free homes, he told the International Housing and Home Warranty Conference.

He added however, that now was not the time to "cut off the poor".

"The solution will come not from free housing. There has to be a cut off date for discussing that. But we can't cut off the poor right now, particularly in the current national economic environment."

The answer to all housing problems lay in having a growing economy, where people had jobs and could access finance.

"We can't sustain what we are doing for a long time."

Sexwale said South Africa, which had around 2500 slums, faced added problems from its growing population of immigrants, from countries such as Nigeria and Zimbabwe.

"We have natural population growth as well as growth because people are coming here."

Another difficulty lay in the provision of social housing. South Africans, Sexwale said, preferred standalone houses with their own gardens, but a shortage of land around cities was making that impossible.

"The challenge is to develop social housing and planning for new towns and cities," he said.

"The challenge is for densification. We are having to go higher and higher and higher. The challenge is quite big."

- Timeslive

Eight held after land invasion

Eight people were arrested after five structures were erected in an open field in Kraaifontein in Cape Town on Sunday, Western Cape police said.

“Around 1000 residents gathered on the field and became aggressive when the structures were removed by authorities,” said police spokesman Lt-Col Andrè Traut.

The residents threw stones and burnt tyres in protest.

“Rubber bullets, gas cartridges and a water cannon were used to disperse the crowd,” he said.

Police arrested seven men and one women for public violence and unlawful occupation of land.

- Sapa

Second open letter to Patricia de Lille - ABM

ABM WCape chairperson says reply from mayor's chief of staff authoritarian and disturbing

Second open letter from Mzonke Poni, Chairperson of Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape, to Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille, September 21 2011:

Wednesday, 21 September 2011

Dear Mayor de Lille

Thank you for the reply from your chief of staff to our letter dated 12 September. We have now had time to circulate it amongst our members and to discuss it carefully.

We do appreciate your invitation for the leadership of Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape to meet with the mayor. There has, after so many years of struggle in Durban, been no such invitation from any mayor in Durban and we note and appreciate your willingness to meet with us.

As we have previously stated we have no interested in attending stage managed events that are designed for the media rather than to enable genuinely open discussion. We are committed to participatory democracy and to participatory budgeting and urban planning methods and would like to find forms of engagement that are genuinely participatory. As we have both noted in the past the current policies are failing to address the urban crisis in Cape Town. We cannot accept that so many of our people will live their whole lives in shacks.

We need to find a new path and to advance down that path. This requires the development of a serious critique of the current policies and not just PR exercise in support of them. We want to build a people's Cape Town in which all people count the same and everyone can live a life of safety and dignity. To us it seems logical that this will only be possible when people are put before profit and the social value of land is put before its commercial value.

Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape does not represent all shack dwellers in Cape Town or in Khayelitsha. We are always very careful not to speak for people who have not given us a clear mandate. There are many different organisations and some people are not members of organisations. We can only speak for our members and even then we can only speak for them after careful discussions about mandates.

But we would be very willing to work with you to set up people's forums in each area, starting with Khayelitisha, at which open assemblies, open to all organisations and people, could be held to discuss the way forward in each area. This is our proposal for a way forward.

There are two aspects of the letter from your chief of staff that we find disturbing. One is that he states that you are only willing to engage organisations that ‘have the best interests of the citizens of Cape Town at the heart of their agenda'. The problem for us is that the question of what is in the best interests of the people of this city is a political question. The DA has close engagements with property developers that we see as anti-poor. To us it is clear that they are only interested in private profit.

On the other hand when we raise the issues of the poor we are often presented as trouble makers or even as people who are violent, irrational and criminal. Any attempt to define who represents ‘the best interests of the citizens of Cape Town' and how these interests should be taken forward before a discussion takes place runs a real risk of excluding those of us, like Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape, that rejects the neo-liberal character of the DA City Council as being anti-poor.

In a democracy all citizens have a right to hold and to express their views and no Mayor or council has any right of any sort to exclude people who hold dissenting views from discussions.

We are even more concerned that your chief of staff has said that a meeting would only deal with ‘service delivery issues' and would not deal with ‘unrelated issues'. Since when was democracy only about ‘service delivery'? Since when was human dignity only about ‘service delivery'? We reject many aspects of the ‘service delivery' provided by your government. For instance Blikkiesdorp is, for us, a scandal and a place that is more like a prison than any ‘service' that is being ‘delivered' to the people.

We have a democratic right to take this view and to argue for it when we engage the state. In fact we reject the whole paradigm of ‘service delivery'. We want participatory urban planning and not the top down ‘delivery' of ‘services' to a passive citizenry. We also have a democratic right to take this view and to argue for it when we engage the state. In fact our view is much closer to the Constitution which stresses public participation in decision making than yours which wants to exclude the poor from any meaningful participation in decision making.

We have every right to insist on discussion on issues ‘unrelated' to ‘service delivery'. Your chief of staff wants to confine us to discussions of peripheral importance just as we are already confined on peripheral land on the outskirts of the city.

Any attempt to reduce legitimate engagement between citizens and the state to the technical questions of ‘service delivery' is an attempt to depoliticise issues that are deeply political. Depoliticisation always functions to make privilege seem natural and normal. Politicisisation can function to challenge privilege. We are committed to politicising poverty, exclusion and inequality.

Any attempt to deny us the right to do this work is an attack on a basic democratic right. The letter from your chief of staff is deeply infused with the authoritiarianism of the white capitalist elite that runs Cape Town and which refuses to recognise that poverty and the housing crisis in Cape Town are political issues.

At this time last year we called for a week of informal settlement's strike. We did this to show our anger, to show that we could disrupt the system that excludes and oppresses us and to force the people in power to take us seriously.

However the ANC YL, an organisation that we reject as a club for aspirant tenderpreneurs and the goons of the predatory elite, took advantage of the situation to organise their own protests some of which were accompanied by real thuggery. We would like to avoid having to return to a strategy of disruption and to be able to participate in a strategy of mass popular engagement on the urban crisis in Cape Town.

Do you accept our proposal for people's forums across Cape Town aimed at working out a plan to turn this city of privilege and exclusion into a people's city?

Thank you.

Mzonke Poni
Chairperson of Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape

Innovative building to ease housing backlog

Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille has proposed innovative building methods to tackle the city's housing backlog.

De Lille revealed her plans yesterday when she announced her administration's development strategy.

She said 450,000 people were on the waiting list for houses in the city. Those receiving homes now had been waiting since 1989.

The housing backlog was compounded by urban migration.

There are 227 informal settlements in the city.

"The norm has been to build houses from mortar and bricks only. When a tender goes out, the company must build a house [using] cement and bricks.

"We've not really ventured into innovative methods of building houses," said De Lille.

"There are a number of good ideas but, because of the way in which the tender process is structured, it almost excludes people who build houses differently. That is what we are looking into, [to] speed up housing delivery."

She did not reveal what alternative plans were being looked at.

De Lille said the integrated development plan would become the city's development framework to increase investment, foster job creation and alleviate poverty . De Lille's strategic programme includes promoting oil and gas drilling, installation of fibre-optic networks and gaining control of the port and the small harbours.

She said the city would implement its integrated rapid transport programme and increase funding for skills training and development. The city would also improve primary healthcare services to informal settlements and implement an open name-changing policy to ensure that the city reflected the diversity of its people.

"When I campaigned to be mayor, I did so on the basis of five pillars for the next five years: the opportunity city, the safe city, the caring city, the inclusive city and the well-run city," De Lille said.

"The integrated development plan is a document required by legislation.

"We are using it to map out our future and to provide the streams in which we will measure our success."

- Timeslive

'No more cash-cow contracts for clueless comrades'

The days of the department of public works being run like a "cash cow" are over, minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde said in Sandton on Thursday.

"Contracts are given to people who don't even have a clue what they are supposed to do," she told delegates at the Engineering Council of South Africa's summit.

There were roads and bridges falling apart around the country, and of the 41 departmental contracts reviewed by the Special Investigating Unit, all were found to be non-compliant.

"It's a shame. I am paying for buildings that are falling apart. Many are not being used, or maintained. They are just empty."

Mahlangu-Nkabinde took office on October 31 last year, succeeding Jeff Doidge.

She said: "When I got into public works, I discovered it was just a cash cow."

In two separate reports this year, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela held her and national police commissioner Bheki Cele responsible for a R500-million and R1.1-billion lease agreement with businessman Roux Shabangu for police office space in Pretoria and Durban.

'Unlawful and improper'
She found the leases were concluded in an unlawful and improper way. Madonsela criticised the department for going ahead with the deals, in spite of legal opinion to the contrary and an earlier agreement that this would not happen until the public protector had completed her investigation.

Without referring to the lease controversy, Mahlangu-Nkabinde said: "We have created a lot of millionaires who do not care what happens to this country.

"I am interfering in areas where previous people were comfortable, but I am not in it for myself, I am in it for the country and for the years to come.

"I want to remain an unpopular minister, because I will not give a 'comrade', who has no clue what he is doing, government projects."

In the past weeks, her department announced it had already found R3-billion worth of tender irregularities in response to recommendations made by the protector.

Clarity sought
The department's application to the High Court in Pretoria to have the leases cancelled was welcomed by Madonsela, as well as Shabangu, who said he looked forward to getting "clarity" on the leases.

But, the opposition Democratic Alliance felt Mahlangu-Nkabinde was trying to "spin the story away from her and towards other people in the department".

DA spokesperson John Steenhuisen said the minister was making statements to engineers, but had not even briefed the parliamentary committee on the matter yet.

"She is yet to come here and put her hand on her heart and say 'I'm sorry, I messed up'."

Mahlangu-Nkabinde said planned renovations to President Jacob Zuma's official residence were recently quoted at R135-million.

"I don't even think Michael Jackson could use that kind of money."

A check was done and she was told: "If we can reach R15-million it will be too much."

'We have allowed thieves and thugs to run our country'
"There are unscrupulous people who just want to take money that is meant for South Africans into their pockets. We have allowed thieves and thugs to run our country."

She asked the delegates to forward six names that Zuma could use for an infrastructure commission, saying she needed their help "yesterday".

For example, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi would need at least 504 buildings for the rollout of National Health Insurance.

She did not know how much longer she would be in her job, and joked about her "big mouth", but would not keep quiet just because she was a minister.

"I don't know how long I'm going to stay. Even if it is three months it will be [three months of] good decisions."

- Sapa

Tenants fear eviction from flats

After watching 18 of her neighbours being evicted from their Masiphumelele homes, Penelope Ngcobo fears her family will be next.

The board of the Amakhaya Ngoku Housing Association was granted an eviction order by the Simon’s Town Magistrate’s Court last month allowing it to evict 21 tenants who had not paid rent since moving in during 2009.

On Monday, the sheriff of the court began carrying out the eviction order.

Ngcobo, 25, said the group used to live in shacks on the same piece of land before the flats were built by the association in consultation with the residents.

She said the agreement was they would pay R400 a month in rent for four years before owning the flats, but some residents were not able to afford that.

Ngcobo lives with her husband and three sons and said they were scared as they had not paid their rent for several months.

But Jeremy Wiley, secretary of the housing association’s board, said only the 21 tenant families were being evicted.

He said only 18 of these families were evicted on Monday as the other three were contesting the eviction and were awaiting confirmation of a court date.

He said people who were on the waiting list would be moved into the vacant properties.

Wiley said the evicted residents had not paid rent since moving in and each owed close to R8 400.

Nolubabalo Dlulane, 42, was among the residents evicted on Monday.

She said she hadn’t paid her rent because she had been unable to work since having a stroke a few years ago.

Dlulane said she had nowhere else to go with her two children as she had lived in a shack on the property for many years before the flats were built.

Wiley, however, said they had asked residents who were unable to pay the rent to apply for rental relief.

“Those who are not working could apply for a reduction of as much as R300 by doing work on the property in lieu of rent,” he said.

Dlulane said she had applied for rent relief on three occasions, but without success.

Some residents said they had been living on the land since 1997 and would prefer that the flats were demolished so they could go back to living in shacks.

“(The evicted) have nowhere to go. Today we are saying it is better if they evict us all,” said resident Francis Futshane.

Boniswa Mbelwa, another resident, said the association had gone back on its word.

She said that when the building project was initiated they were told the money to build the properties would come from donors and subsidies from the provincial government.

She said she had been working for the housing association when the project started.

“We thought that after we paid rent, we were done,” she said.

“But now we are told that we have to pay R7 200 after a four-year period and another R4 500 in legal costs before we can own the houses.”

Wiley confirmed that residents would have to pay the legal and transfer costs before they could own the properties, but said this had always been part of the agreement.

Mbelwa said it would have been better if the association had gone to each of the 21 evictees to find out their financial situation before taking steps to evict them.

She said the residents had called a meeting last night to discuss their next step.

- Cape Argus

Patricia de Lille on the Hangberg peace accord

Cape Town mayor says agreement will relegate violence to the past

SPEECH BY EXECUTIVE MAYOR ALDERMAN PATRICIA DE LILLE ON THE OCCASION OF THE SIGNING OF THE HANGBERG PEACE ACCORD, September 20 2011

The Premier of the Western Cape, Helen Zille,
The representative from SanParks,
The people of Hangberg,
The mediator, Brian Williams,
Officials,
Ladies and gentlemen.

We are honoured that you could join us here. For we come here today in the name of peace. We come here today in the name of healing. We come here today in the name of hope. We come here today for the future.

Emerging from the pain and the suffering of the past, we come to join hands. We come to move forward, together. This is a historic day for our city and for the people of Hangberg. Once more, they take their rightful place as a valued and recognised community in our metro.

Today marks the end of a complex peace process, one that has involved months of negotiations, delicate democratic processes and careful agreements. It is an end that brings together a range of diverse interests. It is an end that will ensure that we put violence behind us. It is an end that ensures the continued development of Hangberg.

This agreement will see those who live above the firebreak come down below the firebreak and then back into the Hangberg community below the sloot. In so doing, they will ensure their safety and the safety of their community, especially against fires and floods.

Those who move beneath the firebreak will be encouraged to move into areas that we can provide services to before they move back into the Hangberg community below the sloot. Still others will move into new housing opportunities once developed. Others will receive the transfer of the 60 row houses after all legal processes have been completed.

The whole community will receive services. They will especially receive the benefits of the City's departments of Economic Development, Social Development, and Sports Departments, as well as the department of Human Settlements, to say nothing of general City Services. We have been engaged in mediation since November 2010.

That mediation was born from a web of illegal actions, violence and resistance. It was born from pain. But that pain was the culmination of a relationship that had broken down.

We know what we have lost. But now we must know what we have gained. For the first time in too long, the people of Hangberg and the City are talking to each other again. We are engaging each other as equal partners in the future.

Our new relationship will enable us to improve the lives of the people of Hangberg. That is the significance of the Peace and Mediation Accord that we sign today. There will be those who seek to prevent us from forging this bond. There are always those who selfishly benefit from chaos.

There are those whose interests are served by promoting illegal behaviour and unrest. They are the enemies of peace. But we will not be deterred by them. I ask you all to join me in signing today. Let our signatures be the pact that shows our commitment to each other. That commitment will let us build an inclusive city, together.

Issued by the Communication Department, City of Cape Town, September 20 2011

Call to probe housing row

WESTERN Cape MEC for human settlements Bonginkosi Madikizela visited Eerste Rivier for a random inspection of houses in the Our Pride Housing Project.

This follows allegations that some people had attained houses through corrupt means, insinuating that the people who were staying in the houses were not the intended beneficiaries.

According to concerned residents, about 56 houses out of 940 - which were built as part of the project - were not given to the rightful beneficiaries.

Madikizela said: "I will ask the police's special investigating unit to probe the matter. We are not accusing anyone, but we want to find out who has done wrong.

"We have heard that some of the beneficiaries had applied in the late 1980s.

"This means they may have been between 14 or 15 years old when they applied. People of that age do not qualify.

"So, how did they get onto the (waiting) list?

"My assumption is that some people were kicked out and replaced either by colluding officials," he said.

Dumisani Sigege, who founded Guguletu Housing Project in 2001, said: "I am hurt because some of those who were supposed to get the houses are still living in backyards.

"All we want is for this project to be investigated so that the right owners get their houses.

Phumla Dlokolo, the chairwoman of Our Pride Housing Project, spoke to Sowetan in one of the RDP houses.

"All the people who are staying in the low-cost houses have been approved by the department with the help of BKS consultants," Dlokolo said.

"We have nothing to worry about. "We welcome the investigation.

"The beneficiaries were in their 20s when they applied for the houses."

Ntombekhaya Maputa accused Dlokolo of taking her late father's house which was meant for her.

"My father died four years ago and he had already paid the money which was asked by Dlokolo.

"I have proof of this at home," Maputa said.

- Sowetan

RIGHT2KNOW CANDLE-LIT VIGIL

RIGHT2KNOW CANDLE-LIT VIGIL

We would like to invite all South Africans to join us as we light candles in support of freedom of expression and access to information. Help us send a message to the Members of Parliament who will vote on the Bill that we will not stand by and allow these Freedoms to be snuffed out.

Date:

Monday 19 September 2011
Time:

18:00 to 20:00
Venue:

JHB: Kotze Street entrance to ConCourt

KZN: King’s House, Eastbourne Rd

CPT: Parliament, Plein Street

For comments please contact:

Gauteng: Dale McKinley (072 429 4086)

KZN: Quinton Kippen (083 871 7549)

Western Cape: Nkwame Cedile (078 227 6008)

SIU to look at fraud, corruption claims

THE SPECIAL Investigating Unit (SIU) will be asked to probe the low-cost Our Pride housing project in Eerste River following allegations of fraud and corruption in the allocation of houses, MEC for Human Settlements Bonginkosi Madikizela has said.

He was speaking during a random door-to-door inspection of houses yesterday to check if the people living in the houses were actually on the list held by the provincial human settlements department.

“This is a preliminary investigation as we have received complaints that some people who were part of the original housing lists were removed and not allocated houses.

“We have also heard that some people have sold their houses or are renting them out. We wanted to see for ourselves if this is correct.”

Madikizela said what was disturbing was that some people on the beneficiaries list were born in the late 1980s, which meant they must have been 14 or 15 years old at the time.

“People of that age do not qualify so how did they end up on the list?

“My assumption is that some people were kicked out and replaced either by colluding officials and committee members here,” he said.

Madikizela said the information would be handed to the SIU for investigation after which the department would take action.

According to residents, about 56 houses out of the 940 built as part of the Our Pride project were not given to the rightful beneficiaries.

The province’s investigation comes after the Gugulethu Concerned Backyarders group complained about corruption in the project.

The backyard residents are the remnants of a 300-strong group called the Gugulethu RDP Housing Project, which formed in 2001.

They appointed Phumla Dlokolo as their chairperson and approached the provincial housing department with their savings in 2006.

Dlokolo had told them that R2 500 was required for a two-roomed house, and up to R5 000 for a larger one.

Upon their submission to the department, then under MEC Richard Dyantyi, erven were obtained in Eerste River and an 821-unit housing project, named the Our Pride, was given the go-ahead.

The first phase was completed at the end of last year.

Backyarder Mhlayivayo Qabaka said that the Gugulethu Concerned Backyarders’ preliminary investigations had revealed that people living in the houses at the project came from Mfuleni, Khayelitsha, Delft, and were also foreigners.

The provincial housing list comprises 500,000 people, 386,000 of them in the City of Cape Town area.

A 2008 survey found that in most regions, on average 68 percent of beneficiaries remained in their homes.

In the Southern Cape – which included George, Mossel Bay, Knysna and Plettenberg Bay – the figure was lower, with on average only 47 percent living in their government allocated houses.

Several houses had been sold for a fraction of their value, and the beneficiaries had moved back into shacks. Other houses had been converted into shop.

The department was creating more stringent beneficiary criteria.

Meanwhile, a disciplinary hearing is under way for a City of Cape Town official linked to corruption involving housing waiting lists.

Mayoral spokesman Solly Malatsi said the official was accused of gross dishonesty, negligence and improper conduct.

Two other officials are to receive counselling for their negligence and a fourth person, who did not work for the city, was also implicated.

Two cases of fraud and corruption were reported to the police.

- IOL

Thousands lash out at secrecy Bill

South African politicians on Saturday joined thousands of people who marched outside Parliament to protest against the controversial secrecy Bill which will be tabled in Parliament next week.

The African National Congress used its majority to push through the Protection of Information Bill which proposes penalties for disclosure and possession of material classified secret.

Former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils and Cape Town premier Helen Zille were among activists opposed to the Bill.

The Bill is aimed at shielding South Africa's "silly leaders" from embarrassment, not protecting the country's real official secrets, former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils said.

Kasrils said the legislation was wrong.

Standing on the flatbed of a truck parked outside Parliament's main gates, Kasrils -- who wore a pink shirt and a straw hat -- said it was essential people raised their voice against the Bill.

"I have been asked by journalists why I, as a former minister, and a member of the [ANC] and the South African Communist Party [SACP], am at this march.

"The answer ... is very simple. When your mother or father, brother or sister, your family, is doing the wrong thing ... you raise your voice and say, 'That is wrong, it must not be done!'".

Kasrils said his love for his country "transcends the love of my party".

Self-interest
On media freedom, he suggested government was pushing through the Bill to spare itself embarrassment.

"This all-embracing Secrecy Bill ... we smell and suspect is not about the real secrets that must be defended but it's to prevent those silly leaders who have egg on their face, who have been exposed by the media for doing foolish and embarrassing things."

Among such things, he said, were "misusing and abusing" tenders and contracts as well as taxpayers' money.

Saturday's march -- which proceeded from Keizersgracht along Darling, Buitenkant and Roeland streets to Parliament -- was organised by Right2Know (R2K), a grouping of 400 civil society organisations that began fighting the controversial bill a year ago.

About 2 000 people took part, including provincial premier Helen Zille, cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro, better know as Zapiro, and Treatment Action Campaign head Zackie Achmat.

'The trust will keep us free'

The marchers were preceded by a group carrying a long white banner proclaiming "we have the right to know" and the image of a vuvuzela with a knot tied in the stem.

"Jou Ma se Secrecy Bill" read one poster. "The Truth will keep us Free," read another.

The final draft of the Bill is set to go before the National Assembly on Tuesday. It will then have to go to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) for concurrence, before being signed into law by President Jacob Zuma.

Those opposed to the measure say it seriously erodes the public's right to know and poses a threat to the freedom of the country's press.

'Grave' concern
According to an editorial in the Cape Times on Friday, the Bill "fails the media freedom test" because -- in its current form -- anyone who had documents that had been classified state secret would be liable for criminal prosecution.

"And it fails because even if you have a compelling argument for publishing the contents of such documents, you will not have the right to argue that it was in the public interest."

In a statement issued on Friday evening, after its annual general meeting in Cape Town, the South African National Editors' Forum (Sanef) said the information bill was of "grave" concern.

"[Its] lack of any public interest defence, draconian sentencing regime, broadness of application and excessive shielding from scrutiny of the intelligence services are of grave concern."

Sanef said it would continue to oppose the Bill being enacted "and will take legal action if necessary".

Speaking to Sapa on Saturday, Kasrils said the passing of the Bill would be a sad day for the country.

"It will be a very sad day to see the rights of the people stifled."

'Making a mistake'

Addressing the crowd, Achmat said if the Bill was passed without a public interest defence clause, "we will be making a mistake".

Speaking at the start of the march, Shapiro told protesters the R2K campaign would oppose the Bill's passage.

"We will not let the Bill go through the way it is now," he vowed.

Among the posters held aloft outside Parliament was one showing three chimpanzees, using their hands to cover, each in turn, their mouth, eyes and ears. It read, "We're taxpaying citizens -- not your dumb pets".

On the back of the speakers' truck, a woman in a red T-shirt and wearing a white doek on her head held up a poster advising government: "Keep the bill in your pants".

- Sapa

Sexwale to rope in top companies for housing drive

Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale will launch a campaign this week to get the top 200 companies listed on the JSE to assist his department in dealing with the country’s huge housing backlog.

Called “Each One Settle One”, the campaign involved a call to corporates to help with the housing needs of the communities where they operated and beyond, said Mandulo Maphumulo, a spokesperson for the department.

The campaign is aimed at lobbying and mobilising companies, individual stakeholders, private sector institutions and donor agencies to assist in settling more than 2 million households in need of shelter.

Maphumulo stressed that the department was not seeking cash from corporates.

Examples of what the department was seeking to achieve were the housing project in the North West launched by Impala Platinum (Implats) last year for people who worked for the company and the project launched last month in KwaZulu-Natal by cement producer Afrisam for a community in need of homes, she said.

Implats spent R522 million in its 2010 financial year on housing as part of its home ownership programme to help employees acquire their own property.

Afrisam’s project, proposed by the Mineral Resources Department and part of its social and labour plan commitments, involved the company handing over 24 houses to destitute families in Ladysmith.

The social and labour plan is an agreement undertaken by companies when they receive a mining right.

Afrisam established the Shayamoya housing project and built 24 three-bedroom houses with the help of the Uthukela District and Ladysmith local municipalities, which provided roads infrastructure, domestic water supply, storm water drainage systems and technical services.

Beneficiaries also received groceries to the value of R1 000 each when they received their new homes.

Afrisam followed its own criteria and selected beneficiaries in Steadville in Ladysmith who were categorised as child-headed families, orphans, elderly, physically or mentally abused and children infected with HIV and Aids.

The company also established two state-of-the-art computer centres, at Everest Height and Redcliffe Primary Schools in Verulam, each equipped with 20 computers and various hi-tech accessories.

“This is the kind of action the department envisages as opposed to seeking cash,” Maphumulo said.

She said the idea for the “Each One Settle One” campaign came out of consultations with various stakeholders in the human settlement space.

“It is championed by Minister Tokyo Sexwale and fully supported by all provinces.

“It is born out of a realisation that more partnerships are needed to deal with some of these challenges,” Maphumulo concluded. - Business Report

Bank backs initiative to provide homes for shack dwellers

Banking group Standard Bank and the Mellon Housing Initiative have handed over the final ten houses to the beneficiaries in a 40-house building project to provide homes for former shack dwellers.

Standard Bank donated up to R3,1-million for the building of 20 houses in Tembisa, Gauteng, and 20 in Witsand, in the Western Cape, to families that lived in shacks and had no access to running water or electricity.

The Mellon Housing Initiative is a Section 21 company focused on helping government build sustainable human settlements.

Each 40 m2 house consists of two bedrooms and one bathroom, is plastered and painted inside and out, and is connected to running water. Provision is made for the houses to be linked to the electricity grid when municipal supplies become available.

“This is an awesome initiative that the Mellon Housing Initiative has put together and we encourage other private companies to join in because this will speed up the process of housing delivery in South Africa,” Standard Bank Gauteng provincial director Hannah Sadiki stated last month at the handover ceremony.

She cautioned that the 2,1-million-unit backlog was significant and government could not be expected to meet this demand alone.

The Department of Human Settlements stated that the current housing backlog would be addressed over an eight-year period at a cost of over R170-billion. This would be realised at an annual public housing construction rate of over 250 000 houses a year.

“It is about time that the private sector and, most importantly, people that do not have jobs, volunteer their services to ensure that we deliver the required houses on time.”
Sadiki said that, in the bank’s Gauteng region, more than 800 employees had applied to work on site, mixing cement, clearing sites, painting and plastering, and planting trees.
“The interest and enthusiasm from our employees has been humbling. “Each site can only accommodate a specific number of people, so we’ve had to ask 400 of our people to wait for next year’s build and have given priority to those who were not involved last year.”
She noted that being relevant to the communities in which the bank operated was one of Standard Bank’s fundamental values.

- Engineering News

Threats to block N1 over lack of services

RESIDENTS of the Stofland informal settlement in De Doorns have threatened to block the N1 between Worcester and Touws River if local and provincial authorities don’t provide basic services.

During a provincial government oversight visit to the area yesterday, angry residents demanded answers from members of the provincial legislature (MPLs).

Monica Snyers, who moved to the area 39 years ago, told MPLs that residents were “tired of politicians and their lies”. She said residents who had been in the area for decades remained on the housing waiting list, while “youth”, some as young as 18, were given new RDP houses.

“It’s a big mess and we’ve had enough. People are living without water and electricity. Seniors have to relieve themselves outside. Someone has to do an audit of the housing waiting list to find out exactly what is going on here.”

But the MPLs, who were set to go on a walkabout, left the area after 30 minutes on the advice of provincial government officials without addressing the community’s concerns.

Dorothy Nkosi, 65, said: “I’m never voting again. Our people are suffering, but it seems the DA government, both at the municipality and in the province, don’t care about us.”

ANC MPL Mcebisi Skwatsha said he was “disappointed” that the committee had been advised to leave the area before they could talk to the residents. “It seems like the DA-led administration is not keen to deal with the needs of the most deprived communities. People have serious concerns...”

Stofland ward councillor Mpumelelo Lubisi said: “I’m not heard in council. I take these people’s concerns to the officials and the mayor, but they don’t do anything. The housing waiting list is maintained by the provincial government. I have no say there.”

Breede River deputy mayor John Levendal said the new DA administration was aware of the problems in Stofland and was devising a plan. “There are a lot of issues here, but we have just taken over this municipality from the ANC in May. We are still holding meetings with officials and community leaders to establish exactly what is happening.”

In 2008 residents blocked the N1 for two days during a service delivery protest in the area.

The committee also visited the Thusong Centre in Worcester yesterday. The centres are hubs where people in rural areas can get information about government services and employment opportunities according to the provincial government website. Instead, the committee found a dilapidated building and a community furious about lack of services.

Zwelethemba resident Bongani Ntshingila said: “This centre is a disaster. It’s an embarrassment.”

Manager Mawethu Bikani said there was no budget and only two cleaners and a data capturer. “We are struggling.”

Ntsietso Sesiu, director of service delivery integration in the Local Government Department, said most of the province’s 26 Thusong centres were in poor wards and should be managed by the municipalities.

She said there was a plan for the centres to be self-sufficient, but it was not working.

“There is a big problem with departments saying these centres are unfunded mandates. We are engaging with municipalities to ensure the centres are covered in their budgets. We are aware of the challenges at this centre and have made proposals to the Treasury to have it refurbished.”

Levendal said: “This is the first time I hear about these problems here. I will look at this to see how we can assist.”

- IOL

Ithembalabantu housing project halted by MEC

ALTHOUGH building started on the Ithembalabantu housing project in Makhaza on Thursday last week after weeks of protest, Human Settlements MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela has put it on hold again.

The 163-unit housing project has been the subject of protests for weeks as backyarders in the area claim they were bumped off the beneficiary list.

A High Court instruction on Wednesday last week, made when ward councilor Danile Khatshwa was brought before the court on charges of instigating the protests, forbidding anyone to hinder the development, meant workers started digging foundation trenches on Thursday.

But now the MEC himself has halted the work.

Speaking in Makhaza on Sunday, Madikizela said he was ordering a halt to the development in order to investigate the allegations of corruption made by the backyarders.

He said he would go examine the original beneficiary list and take action against those who stood to occupy state houses illegally.

“I am still following the allegations of corruptin, we have the list of original beneficiaries since 2004. I’ll go door to door, each and every site,” he said.

The meeting, which took place in an open field in Makhaza, was attended by over 200 people.

At first backyarders heckled Madikizela, calling him a liar, but quietened down when they heard what he had to say.

The backyarders accuse previous ward councillor Thobile Ludidi of selling their plots to outsiders.

Resident Mbulelo Mkhumelwana accused Madikizela and DA MP Masizole Mnqasela of dividing the community. “You only interfere when it’s suit you,” said Mkhumelwana.

Resoident Primrose Merhani, agreed with Mkhumelwana. She said Mnqasela had been addressing meetings and telling people they would get houses.

“We’re tired of corruption in Makhaza. We want the project to stop until the investigation is finalised. I been living in a shack since 1992, and my house is leaking.”

Madikizela admitted to the crowd that political issues divided leaders and stood in the way of effective service delivery. However, political differences would be “put aside” to “face corruption”, he said.

He urged anyone with proof of corruption regarding the housing project to produce it.

— WestCape News

‘Toilet saga used in political games’

The recent open toilet saga had given politicians leeway to play “political football”, Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale said on Tuesday.

“It started being a game of which party was responsible and which party was not... that was rather unfortunate,” he told reporters in Pretoria, at the announcement of a sanitation task team to advise the government on open toilets.

“The idea is to sit down and do something about it,” he said.

The open toilets saga embarrassed the ANC on the eve of the municipal elections in May.

The ANC had criticised the Democratic Alliance for failing to enclose toilets in Khayelitsha on the Cape Flats. A court ruling compelled the city of Cape Town to enclose the 1316 toilets.

However, the ruling party itself was later found to be responsible for open toilets in Rammulotsi, near Viljoenskroon in the Free State, and in Tshiame near Harrismith.

Sexwale acknowledged that sanitation was a problem throughout the country.

He wanted to “shut this matter up” once and for all, he said.

“We care about the poor we cannot turn our backs on them.”

The sanitation team, headed by ANC stalwart Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, had three months to complete its work.

It consisted of 11 members, who met on Tuesday, and included a medical doctor, representatives of the SA Local Government Association, the water affairs department, the SA Municipal Workers' Union and people living in informal settlements.

The team was tasked with identifying irregularities and malpractice, the scale of the problem, its nature and geographic extent.

It would deal with problems in every province and all municipalities and would report back in January with recommendations on policy, legislation and budgeting.

Human settlement department director general Thabane Zulu said the sanitation task team had been budgeted for, but he could not give figures.

Sexwale praised Madikizela-Mandela as the “president of informal settlements”.

“She is a mother who must cover the wounds,” he said on Tuesday when Madikizela-Mandela was asked about what she brought to the team.

She, in turn, expressed delight at being at the forefront of efforts to accelerate service delivery.

She hoped Sexwale's department would leave a legacy for generations to come.

Speaking on the mushrooming of informal settlements, Sexwale said it was a “game that doesn't end”.

There were 2500 informal settlements in the country, down from 2700 when Sexwale took office.

The province most affected was Gauteng, he said. - Sapa

Toilets must wait while Winnie's foot is up in the air

ANC stalwart Winnie Madikizela-Mandela is recovering at a Johannesburg hospital after undergoing minor foot surgery at the weekend.

Madikizela-Mandela was admitted to hospital on Saturday as a result of a pain in her ankle, said ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu yesterday.

“She was checked by doctors and subsequently underwent a minor foot operation, which was successful,” he said, adding that she was recuperating well, but was still under medical observation.

Madikizela-Mandela turns 75 years old in two weeks.

Last week Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale announced that Madikizela-Mandela, as a member of Parliament, would head up a task team that would advise his ministry on the controversial issue of open toilets dotted around the country.

The task team will report back in January 2012 with recommendations relating to policy gaps, legislative short comings and budgetary issues.

- thenewage

Project stop-starts go on

Human settlements MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela has put the Ithembalabantu housing project on hold again, after it eventually started last Thursday.

The 163-unit housing project has been the subject of protests for weeks as backyard tenants in the area claim they were bumped off the beneficiary list.

The Cape Town High Court last Wednesday ordered that construction resumes and forbade protesters from hindering work on the housing project site. But after work started the following day, Madikizela ordered that it be stopped.

Speaking in Makhaza at the weekend, Madikizela said he ordered work to stop so that an investigation could be conducted into the allegations of corruption the backyard tenants had made.

He said he would examine the original beneficiary list and take action against those who stood to occupy state houses illegally. “I am still following up the allegations of corruption.

“We have the list of original beneficiaries since 2004. I’ll go door to door to verify the authenticity of the names (on the list).”

Madikizela was in Makhaza to address a community meeting on the Ithembalabantu housing issue. The meeting took place in an open field and was attended by about 200 people.

At first the backyard tenants in the crowd heckled Madikizela, calling him a liar. They later gave him a chance to address them.

The backyarders accused previous ward councillor Thobile Ludidi of selling their plots to “outsiders”.

Resident Mbulelo Mkhumelwana accused Madikizela and DA MP Masizole Mnqasela of dividing the community. “You only interfere when it’s suits you,” he said.

Another resident, Primrose Merhani, accused Mnqasela of abetting corruption in housing. She said Mnqasela had been addressing meetings and telling people they would get houses.

“We’re tired of corruption in Makhaza. We want the project to stop until the investigation is finalised,” Merhani said. “I have been living in a shack since 1992 and (it) is leaking.”

Madikizela admitted to the crowd that political issues divided leaders and stood in the way of effective service delivery. “However, political differences would be put aside so that corruption could tackled head on,” he said.

He urged anyone with proof of corruption regarding the housing project to produce it.

– WCN - TNA

Bhisho meeting with Protector yields corruption claims

Claims of corruption in the Eastern Cape Human Settlements Department, two municipalities and a public hospital will be probed by Public Protector Advocate Thuli Madonsela, her office said on Friday.

"We cannot prejudge the cases. We will investigate each matter, working closely with the complainants," she said in a statement.

The complaints were made at a community outreach meeting in Bhisho on Friday.

According to the Protector's statement, MPL John Korkie claimed that no action had been taken about the alleged theft of R28-million from the municipality.

He also alleged that no action had been taken against the person who "stole" R1.4-million, since recovered, from the Kou-Kamma Municipality.

Life insurance on the terminally ill
Korkie further accused nurses at the Santa Hospital in Port Alfred of buying life insurance for terminally ill patients only so they could claim benefits when they died.

He asked: "How can we be sure that there will be good health care when the nurses stand to benefit from the patients' deaths?"

Madonsela's office said a community member had alleged that a company which had failed to deliver on a social housing project was still securing similar projects elsewhere in the province.

Korkie claimed that the company was awarded a R13-million tender to build 550 RDP houses, but delivered only 120, some of them falling apart, and was paid R9-million before its contract was terminated.

Madonsela had inspected the defective houses in Sweetwaters, her office said.

Feedback
Other matters raised at the meeting included the fairness of the land restitution process, pupil transport, the school nutrition programme and the lack of a secondary school in the area.

Concerns were also raised about crime, poor road conditions, basic municipal services and delays in pension benefits payouts for former South African National Defence Force members.

"The consultative process was aimed at soliciting feedback on the work of the Public Protector and fostering a common understanding of the institution's mandate and role," Madonsela's office said in the statement.

It was also aimed at implementing the Protector's remedial action to ensure administrative justice by organs of state when it came to service failure, and to ensure accountability in the exercise of state power and control over public resources. -- Sapa

Open letter from Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape, to Patricia de Lille, Mayor of Cape Town

I wish, at the outset, to make it clear that we, as Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape, and the many organisations in solidarity with us across Cape Town, appreciate some aspects of your speech yesterday.

We appreciate the fact that you acknowledge that shack dwellers, including backyarders, are living as we are as a result of a history of oppression and not because there is something wrong with us. Once this fact is acknowledged then it becomes obvious that we need justice and not charity to help us to survive poverty for another day or education to train us to accept our poverty. What is required is an end to poverty.

We appreciate the fact that you acknowledge that political freedom did not mean economic freedom for the majority. Once this fact is acknowledged then it becomes obvious that we cannot continue with an economic system that has made the rich richer and the poor poorer after apartheid. What is required is to think about the housing crisis outside of the logic of the economic system that has worsened the inequalities inherited from apartheid.

We appreciate the fact that you acknowledge that people have been waiting for houses for many years and so have had to seek alternatives on their own. Once this fact is acknowledged then it becomes obvious that we cannot continue to criminalise the survival strategies of the poor like land occupations, self-organised electricity and water connections etc. When we do criminalise the survival strategies of the poor we are criminalising poverty itself.

In a country where CEOs are earning R2 million a month this is disgraceful. In a City where property developers, working closely with the DA municipality, are making fortunes by taking the best land for the rich this is disgraceful. Poor people building shacks on an empty piece of land are not a threat to society. It is the alliance between politicians and elite property developers that are a real threat to the integrity of this city.

We appreciate your honesty in being open about the fact that according to your statistics there are 450 000 families needing houses in Cape Town and that the number is growing by 16 000 a year but that the City is building less than 7 000 houses a year. For too long politicians have told shack dwellers that we must be silent and obedient because shacks will soon be eradicated. This is a lie and it is a lie that has enabled politicians to present our struggles as a conspiracy by the 'third force' when in fact our struggles come out of the real and serious crisis of our situation.

The truth is that if things stay as they are most of us will die in shacks. This is why we cannot accept any way forward that accepts the limits of current situation as if they were cast in stone when in fact they come from the choice to privilege the interests of elites against those of the poor.

We appreciate the fact that you say that you believe in open and honest engagement. We also believe in open and honest engagement. However if you think about it for a few seconds you will see, we are sure, that open and honest engagement is not a few people listening to a stage managed PR exercise organised by the City. Open and honest engagement actually means open and honest engagement - i.e. a free and open discussion by all who want to participate. Yesterday you ran away from open engagement. Your staff said that our wish to talk to you was a 'security risk' and a 'disruption'. If you are serious about your stated commitment to open and honest engagement then we expect you to condemn those in your staff who fear the poor, to put aside their side managed PR exercises, and to engage with us in open assemblies.

However we are deeply concerned about the fact that you said nothing about the necessity for us all to struggle to change the situation in which the number of people without houses is growing every year. You want us to be patient while you work to make some small changes within this oppressive situation. This is not acceptable to us. You are asking is to abandon all hope for our lives. This we cannot do. We need to struggle against this situation that oppresses us.

We need to demand a solidarity tax on the super-rich to finance housing, we need to place large taxes on elite property developments, we need to expropriate land, well located land, for housing, we need to kick the tenderpreneurs out of housing development. We need to be clear that for as long as the state is failing to house people land occupations must be encouraged.

We need to be clear that for as long as the state is failing to provide water, electricity and sanitation people must be encouraged to appropriate these services for themselves. We need to be clear that for as long as Cape Town is dominated by elite interests the poor need to refuse all instructions to be patient and, instead, to organise ourselves, to build our collective strength and to challenge the elite interests.

We are also concerned about your failure to acknowledge the fact that in Cape Town, as in ANC controlled cities like Durban and Cape Town, the state is recreating apartheid style spatial segregation. Poor people are being dumped in the middle of nowhere. We are committed to an equal right to the cities for all people.

We are also concerned about your failure to acknowledge that it is unacceptable that in post-apartheid South Africa the houses that are being built for the poor are worse than the township houses that were built under apartheid.

We are deeply concerned about your failure to condemn Blikkiesdorp and all other TRAs as an absolute disgrace to our City and its people. We hope that you will commit to moving all residents of TRAs into decent and well located housing immediately and to never, never building one of these monstrosities again.

We are also deeply concerned about your failure to acknowledge the unlawful state violence that has been deployed against the poor by the DA in Hangberg and Mitchell's Plain. For as long as the DA, like the ANC elsewhere, continues to respond to land occupations with state violence the open and honest discussions that you say that you want will be difficult to achieve.

It is common knowledge that you can't negotiate with people that are using violence against you. If you are serious about negotiating with the organised poor then you should issue a moratorium against state violence against land occupations.

We are not struggling because we like to struggle. We are struggling because we live in the middle of a crisis every day and the state has no plan to resolve this crisis. We are struggling because if we don't struggle we will, like Irene Grootboom, die in our shacks.

We are keen to negotiate with the state to try and come up with solutions to resolve the housing crisis. But we see no point in being part of stage managed PR exercises where there is no willingness to engage in real discussion.

If you are willing to engage in real discussion we will welcome you to our communities and we will engage with you openly and honestly. But if all you want to do is organise stage managed events where you try to legitimate your complicity with an oppressive situation we will continue to organise against a City that treats us with contempt. We will continue with protests, road blockades and land occupations. We will have no choice but to organise, through struggle, a popular vote of no confidence in your administration.

Mzonke Poni

Issued by ABM Western Cape - Politicsweb

So it begins: Hotel secrecy for safety of ministers: Manyi

Ministers could not answer questions about their use of hotels as such detail could be used to “ambush” them, government spokesman Jimmy Manyi said on Thursday.

“It is indeed a security issue and it would be quite frankly irresponsible for ministers to put in on (a) website,” Manyi told a regular post-Cabinet briefing in Cape Town.

“It would be a serious, serious breach of security.”

He said Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe had at Wednesday's Cabinet meeting reiterated a call to ministers to answer written parliamentary questions timeously.

The media asked why ministers were citing security reasons for declining to respond to questions from the opposition aimed at establishing how taxpayers' money was spent on travel and accommodation.

Water and Environment Affairs Minister Edna Molewa and State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele recently did so in response to questions from the Democratic Alliance.

Last year, the defence ministry declined to give details of President Jacob Zuma's local and international flights since he took office, stating that this could put his life at risk.

Manyi said even if the information being requested was old, it could still be of use to criminals planning to attack members of the executive, and could therefore not be made public.

“The issue here is that where two years ago, up to the same date, the minister keeps going to the same place, they are mapping out a clear roadmap for what criminals should do, because we are saying here is the predictable situation,” he said.

“So if you want to do an ambush why don't you target this place? This is the context.”

Manyi said on such questions the minister would provide the information to Motlanthe's office, who could then share it privately with the MP who asked the question.

“If certain of the questions pose a security risk, ministers will go and tell the leader of government business what those are, so that opposition members can go to the leader of government business and check that out,” Manyi said.

“So in that way the question is answered in a way that does not compromise security.”

He dismissed a journalist's suggestion that if criminals were planning to attack ministers, they would more likely do so between their easily identifiable offices and official residences.

“They are forever out there in their constituencies. They are criss-crossing the country. They are never in their homes,” Manyi said.

DA MP David Maynier, who put the questions to Molewa and Cwele and planned to ask the same information from other ministers, said he had not been told he could obtain the answers from Motlanthe's office.

He dismissed Manyi's arguments on security.

“I see no reason why a retrospective answer giving the names of hotels, the duration and the cost of the stay would endanger the ministers.

“I see it as an attempt to cover up the 1/8Higher Education Minister 3/8 Blade Nzimande syndrome of ministers staying in luxury hotels at great expense to the taxpayer.”

It was revealed last year that Nzimande spent 15 nights in the Mount Nelson in Cape Town, one of the most luxurious hotels in the country.

- Sapa

Madikizela-Mandela is perfect for the Stinking Job

Veteran ANC member Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has just been given what most people have referred to as the “stinking job”. It entails going around the country focusing on sanitation issues to see first-hand the incompetence of some of the government’s appointed contractors.

According to Human Settlement Minister Tokyo Sexwale, Madikizela-Mandela and three other people will be part of a team tasked with looking at the problem of unenclosed or incomplete toilets countrywide.

These toilets were built by contractors who did shoddy work and, since 1994, connived with corrupt government officials to steal money from the state.

These government officials gave contracts to companies that often just took the cash and disappeared without doing any work. Nobody was willing to hold them to task because such scams often involved local politicians and administrators. Many of the companies were incapable of delivering.

In areas like Makhaza in Cape Town and the Moqhaka municipality in Free State, the public only came to know about the problem because politicians were feuding among themselves.

In the build-up to this year’s local government elections, some politicians drew media attention to some of the poor work carried out in the name of improving people’s lives.

In Madikizela-Mandela, Sexwale could not have chosen any better person. Given her deep connections with communities and the way she’s held in high esteem by the majority of South Africans, Madikizela-Mandela is the right person for the job.

But perhaps Sexwale should have sought buy-in from other ministers and then broadened the task team’s mandate, to look at poorly managed government projects, including incomplete houses and public works countrywide.

Madikizela-Mandela is bound to be shocked by what she sees if she does venture out to the right places.

In provinces like Mpumalanga, Free State, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, it is heartening to see the ongoing reconstruction that’s done in most communities. But as soon as you go deep into communities, the optimism gives way to disappointment because of the many public works projects that have been abandoned before completion.

Most of these are houses, and of course, toilets, but there are many incomplete roads as well.

That is why Sexwale and the government should have set up a team to focus on many other elements of reconstruction and development, and included people from other relevant government departments.

It is only through such an approach that the state will be able to clamp down on corrupt officials and the sloppy contractors.

The poor workmanship in public works projects currently is a serious problem. Provinces are littered with incomplete schools and clinics, as well as other completed government buildings that are empty.

Go to Driefontein and Daggakraal in Mpumalanga, as well as Ficksburg in Free State and you will find these.

The media have been able to pick up problems in the cities but the situation is worse in rural areas.

Some contractors were given jobs to build new toilets. Instead of moving into communities with roaring tractors, people were asked to dig the toilets themselves and were told the government would only come to erect the enclosures. Today, some people are still waiting.

Somebody has to account for this.

The fact that we have had many governments since 1994 being elected into office should not count much because in most instances, the ANC has been the ruling party. So investigating these projects should not be seen as an attack on those who led government at different times.

A politician of Madikizela-Mandela’s stature and seniority is the right person for the job. She has nothing to lose. She’s been at it all and is not punted as one of those with serious political ambitions.

The thrust of her contribution now is to go out there and investigate what is being done by the tender brigade that wants to fleece government of every cent in the public purse, and to ascertain if this is really what she went through all the hardship for during the struggle.

Knowing her, she is likely to have little good to say in her report to Sexwale come January next year unless she’s considerate of the forthcoming elective ANC conference at the end of the year.

Can Parliament please give her a five-month leave of absence because this “stinking job” is really important? And by the way parliamentarians should have done these inspections long ago.

- thenewage