Home finance boost for ‘high risk’ group

People earning between R3 500 and R7 000 a month, long seen as a “high risk” group, will now be able to access housing finance after a “groundbreaking” agreement signed between the City of Cape Town and three major banks.

Mayor Helen Zille signed the deal with Absa, Nedbank and Standard Bank at Tafelsig, Mitchell’s Plain, making Cape Town the first city to have such an agreement in place.

The agreement stems from the commitment made by the financial sector under the Financial Services Charter last March that they would invest at least R42-billion in this market by December 2008.

‘I hope we make it work’

Zille said the agreement meant banks would be involved in all housing subsidy developments across the city and would further help eradicate the province’s housing backlog.“If we make it work in five years, I hope we do not have to have a waiting list of 200 000 people. I hope we make it work,” she said.

In terms of the agreement, potential buyers will have to pay a deposit of up to 10 percent, and the government can give these buyers a 50 percent subsidy on the deposit. Monthly payments may be up to 25 percent of income for a period of up to 20 years.

The payment methods will be structured in accordance with personal financial commitments and affordability levels.

The launch venue in Tafelsig is expected to be one of the first housing projects to benefit under the scheme.

The project is expected to develop 1 800 units in three years.

Standard Bank’s Linda Sing said research showed a 625 000 shortfall in the Financial Services Charter target of housing for between two and four million South Africans.

Nedbank regional director Anthony Costa said they were acutely aware of the shortage, particularly in the low income market. - Cape Argus

Dyantyi & housing corruption

Tensions ran high at the Gugulethu Sports Complex on Sunday when Local Government and Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi addressed a public meeting on the scale of corruption in the Peoples Housing Process (PHP).

The meeting was also attended by provincial government and City of Cape Town housing officials.

Dyantyi spoke about corruption in the PHP projects after receiving numerous complaints from beneficiaries.

He also spoke on the “burning issue” of backyard dwellers, which was a contentious topic at the meeting.

Focus its investigation on the failure of service providers

Dyantyi made a request to the Special Investigation Unit and Directorate of Special Operations (Scorpions) in April, asking it to focus its investigation on the failure of service providers to comply with contractual requirements.

He also asked the Scorpions to investigate the unlawful and unauthorised payments, made by the accounts administrator, of state subsidies in the development of low cost housing.

Addressing the packed hall, Dyantyi said the problems in the PHP projects had been identified and were being investigated.

“It is clear that the problems (of corruption) are rooted here in government. That’s where everything begins,” said Dyantyi. “The money stolen runs to hundreds of thousands, it’s your money. But if you want to direct your weapons to someone, you must direct them to me.”

He said that at meetings held in a number of communities, people had protested about the slow pace of delivery.

They are all marching for the same reason

“Everyone is marching in Khayelitsha, Nyanga and Mfuleni and they are all marching for the same reason,” he said.

“At one meeting I was told by the people that we’re doing this for ourselves …, but then government comes and messes up everything.

“People have subsidies, but when they go to inquire at the housing offices, they are told that there are no more subsidies Why? Because ‘ooclever’ (swindlers) took it.”

The department is also to investigate allegations that a former ANC ward councillor took money from Mandela Park residents in return for houses.

The man, whose name is known to the Cape Times, allegedly took the money from more than 50 people and gave them receipts.

“Another problem is the constant changing of committees. Funds go missing. Where have you ever heard of loans in subsidy money? I’m talking about your leaders who march with you when you are marching,” said Dyantyi.

Gugulethu resident Ruby Twayi asked why beneficiaries had to account to committees.

“We’re living in pain. One has to be in good terms with these committees,” said Twayi.

Another affected PHP beneficiary, Nosiphiwo Matyeba, said: “Why do we join the PHP if we have to end up buying our own building material?”

On backyarders, Dyantyi said authorities had been biased toward shack dwellers.

“We also need to understand the anger of backyard dwellers. We must be balanced and not biased,” said Dyantyi.

Mncedisi Twalo, chairperson of the Gugulethu Backyard Dwellers, said there was “no truth” in what Dyantyi said.

“Dyantyi knows that, at the end of the month, people will be moving into the N2 Gateway but there are no criteria. The relevant people (to address these issues) are Helen Zille and Basil Davidson, not these puppets.”

Responding, Dyantyi said: “There is no Zille here. I called this meeting as housing MEC. You can’t go to a Zille meeting and call for Dyantyi.” - Cape Times

Cape shack dwellers face miserable winter

More than 3 000 houses are standing incomplete in Khayelitsha for almost six years now, and with the wet and cold Western Cape winter season already here, scores of shack dwellers’ hopes are dashed.

Government has been channelling funds through community projects to see to housing needs. But community members disliked the small, matchbox-like houses. They have decided to establish a single fund from government subsidies and personal funds. Now funds have been misappropriated and corruption abounds.

Many houses commissioned in the late 1990s under different projects are still half-done. Most of the unfinished houses are now being vandalised.

Government to assist the afflicted
Richard Qubudile Dyantyi, the Western Cape housing MEC, says besides the legal interventions that have been instituted, his department will help those who have been victims of fraudulent contractors.

Over this weekend, Dyantyi will be accompanied by his department officials, councillors and officials from the city of Cape Town to meet communities from Guguletu, Nyanga, Phillipi and backyard dwellers to address matters related to housing in general. - SABC

Gateway fiasco - lets not build like this

Gateway ‘could be delayed by five years’

Completion of the N2 Gateway housing development, scheduled for December, could be delayed by at least five years, while the City of Cape Town will have to pay an outstanding R34-million for the units already built.

This was said on Monday by Neil Ross, chairperson of the City’s housing portfolio committee, who said he had been informed by Thubelisha Homes - the section 21 company appointed as project managers in February when the provincial housing department took over the project from the City - that “unless extra money comes from province, the projected finish time for the project is five years from now”.

In June 2005, the City’s audit committee said the total N2 Gateway project would cost R2,3-billion and that 22 000 residential units would be completed by December 2006.

Dogged by financial problems

“The major problem is with the construction of the flats,” said Ross. Instead of costing the projected R80 000 per unit, each flat’s top structure cost over R120 000. “Council will have to pay for this overrun.”

These shock revelations come soon after the call, made earlier this month by the housing committee, for an urgent forensic audit into the awarding of a R12-million contract for N2 Gateway to Cyberia Technologies.

Although Cyberia’s contract was terminated in January, former city manager Wallace Mgoqi approved the allocation of an additional R4-million to the firm, without referring the matter to council.

Ross said the request for an urgent forensic audit into this closed bid had been sent to the executive mayoral committee (mayco).

He said the extended contract period “gave light” to concerns that the N2 Gateway project has been dogged by financial problems.

First handover a year later than scheduled

In November last year, the Cape Times received a copy of confidential correspondence sent by Vula Joint Venture, one of the consortiums contracted by the City to the N2 Gateway management project, referring to a meeting where the City admitted to funding shortfalls.

It read: “The City advised that as a result of cash-flow problems which existed, relating to the funding of the N2 Gateway Projects, it was necessary to review the projects… currently in progress.”

Ross said revised figures for the project, incorporating the new time frame set by Thubelisha, were not yet available.

Vusi Tshose, spokesperson for Western Cape Local Government and Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi, said the first families would move into completed units at the Joe Slovo informal settlement at the end of May.

This is nearly a year later than the initial handover date scheduled for June 2005.

A senior councillor who declined to be named said it was unlikely these families would move in this year, as the location of the development and suitability of the land was being investigated.

Tshose said work on the next phase “was already happening” but could not comment on Thubelisha’s five-year prediction for completion of the Gateway project. - Cape Times

Cape Town turmoil - Province steps in

The Western Cape government is taking seriously a request by African National Congress councillors to have Cape Town placed under provincial government administration and is forcing Democratic Alliance mayor Helen Zille to account for the continuing political strife in the council.

Local government and housing provincial minister Richard Dyantyi gave Zille until Wednesday to present her side of the wrangling over Wallace Mgoqi’s contract as city manager, after a petition by the ANC last week…

Dyantyi’s spokesperson, Vusi Tshose, said the provincial minister was “concerned”, but did not elaborate on what steps would be taken. “Service delivery may suffer because people are focused on the dispute,” he added. - M&G

Western Cape Local Government and Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi has vowed clampdown on “underhand activities” in housing projects

Cape Town - Western Cape MEC for Local Government and Housing Richard Dyantyi has vowed to clampdown on “underhand activities” in housing projects aimed at uplifting the poor.

This follows a moratorium on a number of low cost housing projects due to alleged maladministration and corruption.

“During 2005 it came to my attention that some of the beneficiaries of these housing projects within the Cape Metropolis did not receive their rightful share,” he said.

He said beneficiaries in some of the projects such as the Umzamomhle housing project in Khayelitsha had lodged complaints with his department after the project came to a standstill.

The complaints according to Mr Dyantyi ranged from unauthorized payments of state subsidies and failure by the service provider to comply with contractual requirements.

As a result of the alleged corruption, hundreds of poor people who were supposed to have benefited from the housing projects still remain homeless.

The plight of the victims prompted Mr Dyantyi to institute an investigation, which he said was now at an advanced stage.

“I have decided to act decisively in this matter and requested the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and the Directorate of Special Operations (DSO) with whom my department has co-operative agreements, to investigate,” he said.

The investigations, which so far have resulted in the arrest of one official involved in the housing projects, form part of Mr Dyantyi ’s mission to monitor and support municipalities while at the same time rooting out corruption and maladministration.

My Dyantyi said he would this weekend hold a meeting with the victims to update them about the investigation process.

“The programme of addressing these housing corruption victims is key to me as it will provide all the necessary answers to our people,” he said.

However, Mr Dyantyi said that while the money that was meant to provide shelter for beneficiaries had been misused, the government still had a responsibility to build houses for the victims.

“We therefore need to discuss the matter with the affected people and give a clear way forward,” he said. - BuaNews

2004-05 edition of the South African survey

There were protests about service delivery, most notably about lack of sanitation facilities or against the bucket system. Most demonstrations concerning housing delivery took place in the urban areas of Gauteng, Western Cape and Eastern Cape.

There are many issues that prevent municipalities from being economically viable and from delivering essential services to citizens. Among those frequently cited are lack of skills; corruption; and failure to spend budgets.

Frequently overlooked is the creation of jobs, specifically in the rural parts of the country. More rural jobs would ease the influx of people into the urban municipalities and thus minimise the demand for housing (and services associated with it) in those areas.

The high demand for housing in urban areas contributed to the proliferation of informal settlements, which grew 119% between 1995 and 2004.

2004-05 edition of the South African survey

Housing - what the Judgements say

October 04 2000

A Constitutional Court judgment in favour of the “Irene Grootboom” group Cape Town.

In a landmark judgment on Wednesday, the Constitutional Court ruled that the state had an obligation to implement an effective housing plan and to provide emergency shelter to destitute people.

In an unanimous judgment, Justice Zakeria Yacoob ruled that the constitution obliged the state to act positively to lessen the plight “of the hundreds of thousands of people living in deplorable conditions throughout the country”.

The South African Human Rights Commission and the Legal Resources Centre welcomed the decision.

05 April 2006

What the judgement says
The City of Johannesburg v Rand Properties (Pty) Ltd and others: On March 3 2006, the high court ruled that the City of Johannesburg could not evict residents of condemned buildings without providing alternative accommodation.

Judge Mahommed Jajbhay ruled that the city had failed in its statutory and constitutional obligations to provide a suitable plan of action for rehousing inner-city residents, and prevented it from carrying out the evictions.

“Our Constitution obliges the State to act positively to ameliorate these conditions,” he said. In terms of Section 26 of the Constitution, all people have the right to access to adequate housing and the state must take reasonable measures to achieve the progressive realisation of this fact.

“We now require a coherent plan and the implementation of the plan at the micro level. The obligation is to provide access to adequate housing to those unable to support themselves and their dependents,” said Judge Jajbhay. - M&G Eviction and Dereliction

Housing conference under way in Kenya

A two day African ministerial conference on housing and urban development is under way in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. The conference chaired by South African Lindiwe Sisulu, the housing minister, is focussing on achieving the millennium development goals in Africa especially the realisation of global commitments on slums.

The African ministerial conference on housing and urban development AMCHUD was set up a year ago to develop a programme of action relating to slum upgrading and prevention. But African states are yet to meet the millennium development goal on improved livelihoods of slums. Moody Awori, the Kenyan vice president, says many African governments are overwhelmed by the rapid urbanisation as well as high poverty levels in urban areas.

The United Nations Habitat estimates that 72% of Africa’s population in urban areas lives in slums without basic services such as clean water, electricity or proper sanitation. - SABC

Housing majors to be grilled by parliament

As the country prepares for accelerated housing delivery to eradicate shacks, parliament has departed from tradition to call together all those passing the buck in housing subsidy graft.

Its standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) decided after a report from the auditor-general (AG) to call the national department and provincial housing authorities to a joint hearing to explain why more than R300-million has been lost to corruption.

… “The AG’s audit provides disturbing reading because it calls into question the number of houses built since 1994,” Themba Godi, Scopa’s chairperson, told Independent Newspapers.

“The report talks about double payments to the same application and this constitutes a very high percentage at a time when we are trying to half the number of those living in shacks.”…

The government has committed itself to the millennium goal of halving the number of those squatting, and Lindiwe Sisulu, the housing minister, is implementing new plans to increase the number of units being built .

But the AG’s report on the approval and allocation of housing subsidies showed that a total of 53 426 out of 1,4 million subsidies were irregularly or fraudulently granted between 1994 and 2004. Of this, duplicate subsidies paid on the same property accounted for nearly half of the irregularities.

Duplicate payments to the same individual or household accounted for seven percent of irregularities while fraudulent payments to government employees accounted for 14 percent of irregularities. In total, R323 million of taxpayers’ money has been lost.

Although each province has its own public accounts committee, the housing budget and housing subsidies are voted by parliament in the national budget, which provides Scopa with a window of oversight over provinces’ use of the money.

Scopa has never before flexed its muscle to include both spheres of government in a joint grilling. - Sunday Independent

Appeal by Minister Sisulu to solve Housing crisis

** High Priority **

Dear Mr. Du Plessis

Your letter dated 13 February ‘06 addressed to Minister Sisulu has reference. The matter has been delegated to Minister’s Special Advisor, Saths Moodley, and he will revert back to you at his earliest convenience.

Emelia Mulder
Personal Assistant to Saths Moodley Special Advisor to Minister

Sisuluemelia@housing.gov.za Phone 012 421 1345

www.housing.gov.za

“All these areas of rapid urbanisation are [at present] a crisis for us,” she said. Minister Sisulu appealed to the private sector and construction companies to help the government solve the housing crisis. M&G 14 October 2005

Original request sent on 30 October 2005

Housing Subsidy Scams

Housing minister Lindiwe Sisulu has appointed a committee to urgently examine the findings of an auditor-general’s report that found R323m worth of irregular housing subsidies were approved by provincial housing departments between 1995 and 2004.

About 3.6% of the 1.4 million individual housing subsidies approved in this period involving 53,426 beneficiaries were found to be irregular.

(The national average of 5 citizens per house means 266,000 people are affected by this)

The report identifies a number of different kinds of irregularities. Some subsidies had been granted to employees earning over the annual salary subsidy threshold, some beneficiaries had died or were under 21, and some subsidies were paid to the same applicant or household more than once.

There are thousands of cases of duplicate subsidies awarded for the same property.

Saturday Weekend Argus

Request for meeting with Ms LN Sisulu, Minister Of Housing

Dear Mr Du Plessis,

By direction of Ms L N Sisulu, Minister of Housing, I hereby acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 13th February 2006 with thanks. This serves to inform you that your letter has been forwarded to the Minister.Yours sincerely

Mareldia Chowglay (PA)

Ministry of Housing

021 466 7603 (tel)

021 465 3610 (fax)

082 808 5562

National Department of Housing (NDOH)

HOUSING INFORMATION: 0800 146 873

HOUSING FRAUD & CORRUPTION: 0800 701 701.


Request originally sent 30 October 2005.

Resubmitted (due to incorrect filing - despite electronic track backs) 10/02/2006 & 16/02/2006

Planning Africa

The past present and future; Local needs in a globalising world; Planning, governance and the development agenda; Planning, poverty and marginalisation ; Planning resources and equity; Beyond planning fantasies; Planning and disasters; The formal and informal; Planning and identity; Planning and communities; Spaces, places and people; The urban and the rural; The planners of Africa and allied professions.

“The Planning Africa 2006 conference presents an incredibly important opportunity for local and African planning professionals to meet and to present ideas and look for solutions to planning problems on the African continent. Resolutions will be passed, hopefully leading to positive action on the part of all the participants. From a South African perspective we will interact with other African delegates and endeavour to find solutions for our own specific planning needs, at a time when the country has to keep on course with its bold agenda to create housing, basic infrastructure and the upliftment of a large sector of the population.” - Cape Business News