Cape Town housing: City spinning its wheels?

The vast majority of people still on the City of Cape Town's housing waiting list after 30 or more years are there because they don't want to move to drug and crime-infested areas such as Manenberg and Hanover Park.

Daphne King, communications manager for the City of Cape Town's housing directorate, said the older people, especially, were very specific about where they were prepared to live. The more sought-after suburbs were Kew Town, Bridgetown, Retreat and Grassy Park.

King said people would rather linger on the waiting list than move to remote areas far from economic activity.

'A flat in Kew Town is preferable to a house in Delft'

"A flat in Kew Town is preferable to a house in Delft, for example," she said.

There are more than 300,000 applicants on the housing database, and an estimated 100,000 more who need housing but haven't registered yet.

King said that every month about 1 700 people were added to this list, which added up to 20,400 a year.

Last year the city was able to supply just over 9,000 units - nowhere near enough to make even a dent in the backlog.

"Sometimes it feels like we are wiping up under a dripping tap," King said.

'In many instances the contact details have changed'

She said the city had started buying up land and "banking it", but the release of land was a problem, as it was scarce and expensive.

Many applicants have also remained on the list, termed the Housing Need Database, for long periods of time because they had not updated their contact information. The city's existing housing policy - drawn up in 2004 - shows that an onus was placed on people who applied for housing to "inform council of any change to personal particulars and circumstances".

The policy refers to "dated information" on the database. "In many instances the contact details have changed, while in others the applicant's circumstances have changed, which may mean they no longer qualify for a subsidy."

The housing policy proposes "an ongoing registration process" to update information that was submitted in an original application.

The database that now forms the city's housing list has a long and complicated past due to differing policies within various local authorities and the fact that separate lists were not combined until recently.

The first waiting lists to be computerised were processed by the former Divisional Council of the Cape between 1983 and 1984 and contained about 10,000 applications.

A database that combined the various lists in existence was not established until June 2006. This is now controlled by Brian Shelton, the head of "Housing Information" at the city, and currently holds 322 619 applications for housing.

This figure has often been reported as "400,000" because this includes officials' estimate of 100,000 people living in informal settlements who have a "need" for housing but are not registered on the database.

The housing policy passed by the city to Weekend Argus has also allowed a partial clarification of the application process that has been in place for five years, but has appeared to many as unclear.

According to the document, to qualify for rental housing, "applicants cannot be the current owners of any property and their gross monthly income may not exceed R7 ,000 a month. They must be at least 18 years of age and able to legally contract."

The document states that to qualify for subsidised housing, applicants must meet guidelines set by the National Department of Housing, which stipulates that applicants "must be married or have other dependents"; neither applicants nor their partners may have owned a house before; and their combined income must not exceed R3 500 a month.

"The Provincial Housing Board" receives a list of new registrations every three months so it can confirm the eligibility of applicants. If someone is not eligible, then the province will inform both the individual concerned and the city, so that a note can be placed on the database.

The application for a particular housing project is a separate process to registration. Based on an indication from the province that they qualify for inclusion on the list, the city will send out confirmation to newly-registered individuals that they are on the database.

For each new housing project an "Initial Project List" is drawn up which comprises names of those who existed on the database. Anyone on the city's list who qualifies for subsidised housing may apply for a house, and the council is required to notify all those on the list who have requested housing in the geographical area of the project. Applications for this list will then be "taken on a first-come first-served basis".

This list will then be approved by the province once it again checks that all applicants are eligible and that the process was "fair and transparent". The province then forwards the approved list to the MEC responsible for housing, who will award the relevant subsidies.

"A full screening" is also conducted by government bodies, including the Deeds Office - to check property ownership - and the National Department of Home Affairs - to check marital status and identification numbers.

The policy also noted that an updated National Housing policy required a contribution of R2 479 from people applying for subsidised housing. Therefore, "those who save fastest are served first".

Housing officials said a "revised policy" had been drawn up and was waiting approval from the council.

- Cape Argus

Sexwale's Slumber parties fail to impress NGOs and Cynical residents

Residents of Diepsloot were less than starry-eyed this week after a visit by Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale. Diepsloot is one of many areas where service delivery failures have provoked incensed community members to take to the streets in protest.

Sexwale confidently made his way through the smelly sludge in narrow alleyways in Diepsloot on Monday.

Attended mostly by members of his department, local councillors and journalists, he said government officials need to expose themselves to the conditions in which poor people live. "I am here today on a listening campaign," he said. "I want to know, who are you, what are you doing here, what do you want and what made you come here?"

He was embarking on a "journey" to assure residents that the government wants to put an end to informal settlements, he said.

Most residents felt that it was just another political campaign.

Even the minister's three-hour nap in one of Diepsloot's cold, windowless shacks failed to impress residents.

"I don't buy into this publicity stunt," said Tshediso Kesi (30), a shack dweller who has lived in Diepsloot since 2000. Kesi said Sexwale's visit and sleeping in a shack was a joke and very patronising.

"Look, the minister only wanted to calm us down after the protest. He is not the first top politician to visit Diepsloot and he is not the last. He thinks sleeping in a shack makes a difference ... we have been sleeping in them for years."

Thamaga Masekoameng (24), who is unemployed, thought the minister sounded genuine and that his visit showed that he is concerned. But "that's how all politicians operate", he said. "We have heard it all before and unfortunately we will continue hearing these empty promises."

Masekoameng and his mother, Mmamoshibudi, settled in their one-room shack in the mid-1990s and said they have applied for RDP housing more than five times.

Said Masekoameng: "When we asked Tokyo about houses, he did not give us a clear answer ... he only gave us a lecture on government budgets and history. He only came here to console us.

"He is fooling us ... there's no way that this matter is going to be solved now. We'll just wait for the next elections."

Political analysts NGOs and service delivery experts agree with Diepsloot & Joe Slovo residents.

"Indeed, it was a PR campaign," said Dr Ubesh Pillay, a service delivery specialist at the Human Sciences Research Council.

"Since communities feel that conventional mechanisms of dealing with local government have failed, some form of higher-level intervention is necessary."

Pillay said that after Sexwale's visit to Diepsloot, Joe Slovo, Langa, Guguethu, Delft and President Jacob Zuma's to Balfour, residents will expect follow-through. Without that, perceptions will strengthen that the visits are no more than PR exercises.

Pillay said building houses in Diepsloot and other informal settlements is not a solution.

"Many communities would like their informal dwellings and shacks upgraded.

"In some cases residents prefer this to formal housing, as an informal settlement may be closer to economic opportunities."

To deal effectively with poor service delivery, a short-term improvement plan in the most affected areas is necessary in addition to more ambitious national goals.

Aubrey Matshiqi , an independent political observer, said the PR aspect of Sexwale's visit does not mean the government is unconcerned about the problems poor people were facing.

"The visit shows that the minister cares -- but it should not suggest that the residents' problems will be solved any time soon," he said.

Sexwale and his team will visit other townships across the country where there have been reports of poor service delivery, including the N2 Gateway in Cape Town and some townships in the Buffalo City, Mangaung and Durban areas.

- M&G

Clinton visits housing projects in Cape Flats

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rounded off the South African leg of her African tour on Saturday with a visit to housing projects on the Cape Flats.

At the Victoria Mxenge project at Philippi, a marimba choir welcomed her with a rousing version of "Daar kom die Alibama", a song about the arrival of a Confederate raider in Table Bay during the American Civil War.

Clinton laid a symbolic brick for one of the project houses during a previous visit in 1998, with her husband former president Bill Clinton.

The Mxenge project, named after an assassinated anti-apartheid activist, consists of self-help housing erected mostly by women under the auspices of the South African Homeless People's Federation.

The US government has contributed $300 000 to the project.

Clinton was accompanied by two members of congress, Donald Payne and Nita Lowey, Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson, and ambassador-designate to South Africa Donald Gips.

Their bus was met by dancing women in traditional Xhosa dress, accompanied by the T Ngwenya Gospel Brass Band.

After a brief meeting with Western Cape housing MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela, Clinton spoke to Vayithi Mkhize, owner of the house she helped with in 1998, who showed her the completed dwelling as well as the Zama Zama spaza shop and a garage he had built on to it.

Clinton also posed with the choir for media photos and television footage, joining in their dancing.

From Philippi she and her entourage went on to another federation project, at Site C in Khayelitsha. She was scheduled to hold a closed meeting with former president FW de Klerk at a city hotel later Saturday afternoon.

Clinton is on an 11-day trip to the continent. She has already visited Kenya and after South Africa will travel to Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Liberia and Cape Verde.

- Sapa

Sexwale puts eviction to Delft on hold

Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale has promised the residents of Joe Slovo informal settlement a reprieve, saying they will not be removed from the area to Delft.

"You don't come to people brandishing a judgment and saying move."

Sexwale said he was not defying a court decision, but that his own decision was to say "hold on, but I cannot implement the ruling now. I'm not moving my people until I've worked with them".

"we want to make this thing as humane and sensitive as possible," he said adding that the court ruling was an "activism judgment" and sensitive to the feelings and desires of the people.

He said the government wanted to correct its mistakes, and do the right thing.

Sexwale spent the the whole day interacting with residents, from Langa, Guguethu and Delft. At each visit, he was bombarded with a barrage of complaints, ranging from long waiting lists to defectd in government-provided houses, and corruption.

Read the full story in the Cape Argus

Why are there so many shacks today?

Understanding the problem is often a big part of the problem. It's an injustice that there are so many poor people living in shacks today. The phenomenon of renting the shack to be miserable and landless in adds injury to the insult. While some backyarders' shacks are on private land, most of the shacks where the poor are being unlawfully milked is someone else's abandoned private land or state land.

The “shacklords” are effectively unjustly enriching themselves at the expense of the private landowner or, worse still, the state. This is not a hand up, it's a foot on the back. The iniquity of having to pay some “shacklord” to live in a shack without a proper toilet, electricity and water is doubled by the fact that it's the poor and refugees who are being exploited in such an ugly fashion.

I too would stand in the road burning tyres and throwing rocks if I were being exploited like this.

Being poor and standing on the bottom rung of society should at least be free. As long as people are collecting rent from shacks and there is money to be made in this way more shacks will be constructed in double quick time.

Tackling the problem of shacklords will not be easy. Acknowledging that it is a problem would be a start. Minister Sexwale met a “landlord” in Diepsloot who has 4 shacks and is worried about his “business”. That this “business” adds directly to the “service delivery” problem did not occur to the minister is a real pity.

Minister Sexwale is talking houses that rock, but failed to tell the “landlord” to supply the water, electricity and toilet to the tenants!

I ask you:

"Should it not be illegal to rent out “accommodation” without a proper toilet, water and electricity?"

Sexwale wants 'a win-win situation'

Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale is confident a meeting on Friday with "his sister", DA leader Helen Zille, can resolve a dispute over large tracts of land the then ANC provincial government handed to the national Housing Development Agency the day before the April elections it looked set to lose.

"What we want is a win-win solution. At the end of the day this land belongs to the Republic of South Africa - not to Tokyo Sexwale or my sister Helen Zille or the MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela. It belongs to the country."

"From my side as the minister, I have the money and the dispute should be resolved so that the (homeless) people are not delayed, so that they don't suffer," he said on a visit to N2 Gateway housing projects on Thursday.

"We'll have open, frank and candid discussions (with) no baggage, all of us, so that at the end of the day the people must benefit. I think all of us want to solve the problem."

When the DA took control of the province from the ANC after winning the election outright, it uncovered the huge transfer.

Zille cried foul, saying it was an ANC conspiracy to prevent her party from delivering houses to the poor.

About 1 050 hectares, worth R500-million and enough for 100 000 houses, was transferred to the Housing Development Agency the day before the April 22 elections.

Another 350ha, large enough for 35 000 houses, was also transferred.

Zille's predecessor as premier, Lynne Brown, rejected the allegation and said the land transfers, initiated in 2008, were in terms of an agreement between the then-housing MEC Marius Fransman of the ANC and Sexwale's predecessor, Lindiwe Sisulu.

Sexwale said the dispute should be resolved speedily because the housing need was huge.

Madikizela agreed, saying the province was committed to working in unison with other spheres of government to ensure housing challenges were confronted.

Sexwale said his visit was to gather information about people's experiences of the N2 Gateway project.

He said there were about 2 000 informal settlements in the country and, while the government had delivered about 2,8 million houses in recent years, the national housing backlog was about 2,2 million.

About 10 million people did not have houses, he said.

Sexwale said that due to the global economic recession, he doubted the country would reach the goal of eradicating all informal settlements by 2014.

- Cape Times

N2 officials asked to return money or else

At least two former top City of Cape Town officials involved in authorising a R12-million contract for an IT company to manage the N2 Gateway project could be prosecuted for their "negligence" and "wasteful expenditure" - three years after leaving the city council.

The contracts were approved by former city manager Wallace Mgoqi and his chief financial officer Ike Nxedlana.

City manager Achmat Ebrahim on Thursday told Parliament's Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) that he had legal advice from Ashley Binns-Ward SC that the "entire N2 Gateway project was done in a statutory vacuum" and that there was evidence of financial negligence by Nxedlana.

Mgoqi, who signed off Cyberia's payments, also authorised the irregular expenditure of R9m for a consultant for the Jewellery City project that never got off the ground.

Ebrahim said the legal opinion, received this week, indicated the city could take action against the former senior employees.

The nature of this action still had to be decided and Ebrahim said the legal opinion would be referred to the council in the next two months.

The Scopa said those involved had to be brought to book.

"Someone has to go to jail," said Inkatha Freedom Party MP Narend Singh.

Democratic Alliance MP Mark Steele said the Cyberia contract, because of the irregularities, could be null and void.

"We are looking for the recovery (of money) or prosecution."

Scopa chair Themba Godi said: "Action does need to be taken against anyone who played a role in this fruitless expenditure."

But Nxedlana, now with the Richard's Bay Industrial Development Zone, said on Thursday the allegations made in Scopa were "a joke". "I have a track record of keeping my hands clean. I have never misspent a penny." He said he would consider taking legal action to clear his name if necessary.

Mgoqi could not be reached for comment and former mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo's cellphone was off.

In response to questions by the Scopa following the release of a special audit on the N2 Gateway project, Ebrahim explained that a technical evaluation team had ranked Cyberia sixth of 11 bidders.

This recommendation should have been sent to the external Goods, Services and Property Advisory Board (GSPAB), but instead it was sent to Mgoqi and Mfeketo for an "emergency decision".

Instead of signing off the recommendation, they referred it to the GSPAB. The board convened an unscheduled meeting on December 17, 2004 with only four of seven members present. The recommendation for Cyberia was then sent to the city's Supply Chain Management Committee.

An independent forensic audit commissioned by the city found the board acted outside of its mandate by performing its own evaluation.

Nxedlana approved the appointment of Cyberia that same day, without first establishing whether there was a business plan or funding. Ebrahim said Cyberia had expertise in information technology, not construction. He said officials asked Mgoqi to do an audit of the adjudication, but the city manager said he did not want to interfere with Nxedlana's decision.

The city conducted a forensic audit of Cyberia's contract in 2006 when the DA administration took over.

Those findings were given to the Auditor- General for investigation.

Richardson said a paper trail proved some officials had voiced concerns about payments to Cyberia, but were over-ruled by former chief operations officer Rushj Lehutso and Mgoqi.

Ebrahim said the senior officials implicated in the Cyberia tender irregularity had left the city council. Mthuthuzeli Swartz, who was head of the executive management when he was suspended because of involvement in the Jewellery City tender, was part of the GSPAB that recommended Cyberia.

He later resigned, as did Lehutso who, with Mgoqi, extended Cyberia's contract without a competitive procurement process.

The other member of the GSPAB was Bulumko Msengana, who is currently executive director of utility services.

Housing director-general Itumelang Kotsoane admitted the national Housing Department allocated funding for N2 Gateway without a proper plan.

City service delivery integration executive director Mike Marsden said officials on the N2 Gateway steering committee had told political leaders the target of building 22,000 houses in six months was unrealistic.

"We were told the construction of the 22 000 units was non-negotiable," Marsden said.

- Cape Times

Billions wasted in Gateway housing project

The national Department of Housing has come under fire on the N2 Gateway programme for failing to ensure that social housing legislation was implemented ahead of beginning the massive housing project, according to auditor-general Terence Nombembe's report.

Nombembe revealed a four-year trail of mismanagement, irregular procedures and waste in the state housing project in Cape Town, which Parliament's standing committee on public accounts suggested could have involved fruitless expenditure to the tune of
R2 billion.

While Nombembe was careful to point out that his investigation "does not express an opinion on the legal effect of the facts or the guilt or innocence of any person or party", he said he had provided an objective evaluation complying with the request for an investigation he had received from the department.

The watchdog parliamentary committee asked the city what action it would take to recover the money.

The city's chief financial officer, Mike Richardson, said yesterday that this figure was probably in the region of a much lower R90 million, but in any case the city had had no contractual arrangement with Thubelisha Homes, which was the project manager from early 2006. It is being replaced by the state Housing Development Agency.

Nombembe reported that Thubelisha, a section 21 company, had been appointed by the province without a proper procurement process and therefore "it cannot be concluded whether a proper assessment of their capacity to manage a project of this size and complexity had been performed".

He reported that, although a contract was entered into between the Western Cape provincial government and Thubelisha, it was cancelled by the province in September 2006 due to a breach of contract. However, a meeting in September 2006 of the national housing minister - Lindiwe Sisulu at the time - and provincial ministers agreed that the project was still the responsibility of Thubelisha.

Nombembe said it operated thereafter without a contract "or specific terms of reference". In addition, the Department of Housing should have ensured the Social Housing Act was promulgated before the Gateway project began, he said.

The director-general of human settlements, Itumeleng Kotsoane, Western Cape human settlements and local government department head Dave Daniels and Cape Town city manager Achmat Ebrahim reported that there was no evidence of formal resolutions why the city of Cape Town - by early 2006 in opposition party control - had been removed as implementing agent.

Nombembe also reported that funding to complete the project was not secured before it began, as required by law. In July 2007, only R2.5bn of the projected cost of R4.2bn had been budgeted for.

He said R3.4bn was needed to finish the project this year. It has provided 16 737 units, whereas 22 000 units were meant to have been built in six months during 2005. Nombembe said there was a shortfall of R1.7bn, the bulk of which was meant to be paid for by the national Housing Department.

- Business Report

Former Cape Town mayors face off

A sequel in the battle for political control over the City of Cape Town began yesterday before Parliament's standing committee on public accounts (Scopa). Fingers were pointed at two former mayors - one ANC and the other DA - for allegedly meddling in the government's N2 Gateway housing project .

MPs, mainly from the ANC, asked why action had not been taken against city officials, including former city manager Wallace Mgoqi, who, together with former mayor and now ANC MP Nomaindia Mfeketo, apparently rammed through a decision by an advisory board to overturn a bid committee's recommendation over appointment of a management team for the housing project.

A black empowerment company, Cyberia Technologies, was recommended for appointment by the goods, services and property advisory board, overturning a bid committee decision recommending a company called Africon. Although a top city official tried to convince Mfeketo not to follow the board's recommendation, Mgoqi signed it off.

Cyberia - whose directors were Achmad Fuad Udemans, Taherah Matthews and Brian Shamrock - was paid R12.6 million before the contract was ended in January 2006. This included an amount of R5m paid at the end of 2004 and other payments of R3m and R4.6m. The city told Scopa that Mgoqi twice extended the contract.

ANC MP Roy Ainslie accused Mfeketo's successor, Helen Zille, now Western Cape premier, of "sabotaging" the N2 Gateway project. As mayor, he claimed, she instructed city officials not to attend the project's steering committee meetings, which included the provincial and national departments of housing. Zille, the DA leader, served as mayor from March 2006 until April this year.

DA MP Mark Steele objected to the inference, noting that city involvement had been removed - by the central government - from the housing project ahead of the March 2006 election when the DA coalition took power from the ANC.

It emerged that recently the city took the decision to participate again, but failed to attend a recent meeting. - Business Report

Sexwale tours CT townships

Cape Town - Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale has begun meeting with communities in various informal settlements in Cape Town on the second leg of his "fact-finding" mission.

Sexwale made headlines when he spent Monday night in a shack in Diepsloot to experience disgruntled residents' problems firsthand.

Now the former mining magnate is bringing his listening ear to the opposition-led city of Cape Town, and is also reportedly planning visits to informal settlements in Bloemfontein and Durban.

"It's a listening exercise - but we also want to see how government's money is being spent," special advisor to the minister, Chris Vick, told News24.

He noted that R12bn was being spent on provinces.

Sexwale, who himself was born in Orlando West informal settlement in Soweto,

may also spend the night in a shack in Cape Town...

View the informal settlements of Cape Town.

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Walk-about

On Thursday morning, he met with Joe Slovo informal settlement community leaders and the local MEC for housing.

A walk-about was planned for the shack areas in Joe Slovo as well as rental flats built by government.

The community has long been protesting their forced removal to make way for government's flagship N2 gateway housing project - which has been beset by problems and protests under former ministers.

Vick said the new model of renting flats may not work because of a lacking "culture of payment for rentals".

He said the department wanted to assess the situation on the ground ahead of budgeting and strategic planning for the next five years of Sexwale's term in office.

The charismatic leader, who starred in South Africa's version of The Apprentice, was also due to visit Delft later on Thursday.

- News24

'Unrealistic' expectations for N2 housing

Politicians placed "intense pressure" on officials to build an "unrealistic" 22,000 houses for Cape Town's troubled multi billion rand N2 Gateway Project, city officials said in Parliament on Thursday.

City manager Achmat Ebrahim said in a written reply to questions from Parliaments Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) that municipal, provincial and national politicians involved in the project had ignored concerns raised by city officials.

"The N2GP was intensely driven from a political level that totally ignored all protests from the administration," Ebrahim said.

The aim of the N2GP was to provide housing adjacent to the N2 Highway between Bhunga Avenue near Langa and Boys Town in Crossroads.

'The city attempted to do what was possible.'

A report by the Auditor General found a number of irregularities in the project, which since its launch had been dogged by protests and a series of court challenges over evictions from the informal settlements it was supposed to replace.

Concerns of city officials included the unrealistic timeframe of six months to build 22,000 houses, a lack of funding, land availability and resources and an "unacceptable policy background".

"It normally takes 28 months to commence such a project," Ebrahim said.

"There were a number of technical aspects that needed to be considered such as a feasibility study incorporating land, services and geo-technical aspects."

Ebrahim had been informed by officials involved in the project that they felt that they were left with only two options, either "resign" or "do your best".

'Somebody needs to go to jail.'

"They were of the opinion that once the project managers were appointed it would become clear that the political expectations were unreasonable and that there was no money," he said.

Mike Marsden, Cape Town's executive director of service delivery integration, told the committee that the politicians involved in the project were told "on a number of occasions" that the time frame for the project "was not achievable".

"The situation -- to provide 22,000 houses in six months -- was explained to politicians as not being realistic," Marsden said.

Despite this, it was indicated that the delivery of 22,000 houses was "not negotiable".

"The contention that we failed is against an unrealistic benchmark," Marsden said after a Scopa official accused the city of "failing" in the project and indulging in "fruitless" and "wasteful" expenditure.

"The city attempted to do what was possible."

Committee chairman Themba Godi said it was clear that decision on the project had been made at a political level.

"I am aware that when Cabinet approves something, it was brought to them by the Minister of Housing (at the time Lindiwe Sisulu)."

"The officials can't give us answers because the decisions were taken at a political level."

Committee member Mark Steele said if political pressure had been brought on the city it was necessary to bring the politicians who had approved the project before the committee.

Officials involved in the N2GP were also questioned on the decision to appoint an information technology company, Cyberia, to project manage N2GP.

Cyberia, which has since been removed from the project, had no experience in the construction industry and was initially listed as sixth on the list of recommended tenders.

It was selected after its tender was rescored by four members of The Goods Services and Property Advisory Board (GSPAB).

"Cyberia was experienced in IT and business skills which were not needed in this instance and therefore it is not understood why armed with this knowledge the GSPAB changed the score," Ebrahim said.

Cyberia, which was paid out around R12 million, was removed from the project in 20005 after it was felt that it was not doing the job.

Scopa member Narend Singh said somebody needed to be "brought to book" on the matter.

"That contract should not have been awarded," he said.

"Somebody needs to go to jail." - Sapa

Sexwale to visit Cape informal settlements

Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale will be visiting informal settlements in Cape Town this morning. Accompanied by his ministerial team, Sexwale will interact with residents in Joe Slovo and Delft settlements. They are on a fact-finding mission to experience first hand the harsh living conditions of the country's informal settlements.

Sexwale wants to upgrade informal settlements as part of government's commitment to improve living conditions in poor areas. His first point of call today is expected to be at Joe Slovo - an area often hit by devastating shack fires and mired in controversy over the N2 Gateway Project. He'll then be off to Delft - another flash point over housing which has often led to violent protests. It is in this area where backyard dwellers illegally occupied unfinished N2 Gateway homes and were subsequently evicted.

Sexwale’s visits will touch all seven major metropolitan areas and are aimed at allowing the Minister to hear first-hand from residents about their living conditions. The Minister regards the upgrading of informal settlements as a priority and his visits are part of a process of confirming the facts rather than relying on hearsay. Earlier this week, he spent time in Diepsloot outside Johannesburg and spent the night in one of the local shacks. He said that because of the cold he got less than three hours sleep despite having brought blankets. – Additional reporting by Sapa

Commission blamed for District 6 delay

The redevelopment of District Six has suffered another setback, with the long-awaited business plan for the area - which was expected in June - now to be completed only in 2010.

And a pilot project of 114 houses has now been reduced to just 65 houses, thanks to a R22-million funding shortfall.

With the project beset by delays over the years, the City of Cape Town has now placed the blame for the latest delay squarely at the door of the Land Claims Commission, accusing it of not having the capacity and expertise to handle a project of this kind.

The business plan must be based on a development framework spelling out the spatial design of the area - the portions which would be used for residential, commercial and other uses.

But a report submitted to the council's housing committee yesterday said the Land Claims Commission had not appointed the necessary consultants to complete the development framework, and had regularly missed task team meetings.

Progress in compiling a business plan had also stalled because a socio-economic survey of the claimants' profiles had not been done either.

There had also been no progress on drafting special legislation for District Six.

City manager for land restitution Pogiso Molapo told the council committee that a business plan would not be complete until the new year.

He said the project had been dogged by delays because of infighting among the parties involved, and court battles waged by beneficiaries against the city's plans for appointing consultants to develop a business plan.

"It is very clear the Land Claims Commission doesn't have the capacity to drive a project of this magnitude. It doesn't have hard skills in terms of engineers and project managers," Molapo said.

City officials blamed the commission for failing to take the lead in the project, and for regularly cancelling meetings.

But Land Claims Commissioner Beverley Jansen hit back, saying the allegations were false and that these had not previously been raised with her by the city.

She said the commission would not be able to fund a billion-rand project of this nature, and that the delays were the result of politicking.

The project required a collaborative effort between different spheres of government.

Jansen said delays in the development of a business plan were because "along the way some work fell behind", and the commission was now playing catch-up.

"It's a complicated project fraught with politics. Our job is to settle the claim, bring the partners together and mediate," she said.

The council's committee heard that a meeting was being scheduled between Premier Helen Zille and mayor Dan Plato for later this week to discuss the latest problems.

Housing committee chairman Neil Ross said the situation was most unsatisfactory.

"I'm appalled by the delays, that have not been caused by the council. All we can do is throw up our hands in horror," he said.

The DA's Claude Ipser said the Land Claims Commission lacked responsibility for the project, and that it was "demoralising, disappointing and disgusting" that after all this time there was nothing to show for the project.

- Cape Argus

Fears of more service delivery protests

Protests could continue next week if the city authorities do not respond to a list of demands from a Khayelitsha community.

Simmering tensions in Khayelitsha's informal settlements were diffused two weeks after people marched to Mayor Dan Plato's office to hand over a list of demands for services.

The protesters laid down a two-week deadline but by yesterday Plato had not responded. If he misses Monday's deadline residents from parts of Khayelitsha and Macassar Village nearby say they will take to the streets.

Mzonke Poni, chairperson of lobby group Abahlali Basemjondolo, said residents will "express their outrage".

A shack dweller in Macassar Village, Andiswa Kolamisi, said, "Here in Macassar we live in the gutter in tattered structures, practically homeless. We live on a hilltop because we have no land to build anything on."

Rulleska Singh, Plato's spokesperson, said the city was working on assessing the memorandum and that they could possibly respond on Monday.

She added she was not aware of any potential protests, but "we have notified them that we are working on (the review)".

But on Friday Poni denied that the Abahlali leadership had been contacted by the city.

"They are lying. They had not notified us of anything."

On Thursday hundreds of Masiphumelele residents near Kommetjie took to the streets.

It was later revealed that they were refusing to move to a temporary site in Delft, to make way for a new housing project.

A violent clash resulted in chaos as police opened fire with rubber bullets on residents who threw rubbish and debris across streets.

Mayoral committee member Felicity Purchase was stoned while attempting to address the crowd. According to reports, she had to retreat under police guard.

Twelve people were arrested for public violence and will appear in the Simon's Town Magistrate's Court soon.

- Cape Argus