Calm returns after service delivery protest

Calm has returned to the Malawi informal settlement near Bishop Lavis after service delivery protests rocked the community on Wednesday morning.

Nearly 200 residents threw stones at passing vehicles, demonstrating against a lack of electricity and housing.

The road leading to the informal settlement was still barricaded with tyres and rubbish bins.

The residents were slowly returning to the settlement and only a few remained singing along the Stellenbosch Arterial road.

They claim Cape Town Mayor Dan Plato failed to deliver on the promises he made to them last year.

A few police officials kept a watchful eye on protestors. - Eyewitness News

Housing Finance Systems in South Africa

Housing Finance Systems in South Africa

State approves funding of rental properties

National government has approved funding worth billions to refurbish rental properties belonging to the State in Cape Town.

The project will be done in phases, starting with upgrades of rental units in Kewtown near Athlone. Mayor Dan Plato says they will also provide fencing, plant trees and build more parking areas in the city. His spokesperson, Rulleska Singh, says the project will begin next month. Singh says the first phase of the project is set to incorporate over 7 500 rental stock units in 11 areas in Cape Town.

Singh says the project is to upgrade the current rental units of the council, to move the people who are in the rental stocks into temporary housing while the refurbishment is being done and then to move them back block by block. - SABC

Model Communities and Respectable Residents? Home and Housing in a Low-income Residential Estate in the Western Cape, South Africa - Journal of Southern African Studies

Recent work on the post-apartheid city has paid little attention to how people grapple with new opportunities for urban living. This article explores the ways in which housing provision precipitated complex moral reasoning and social reorganisation among impoverished residents of a Cape Town shantytown as they attempted to actualise their ideals of respectability.

These ideals overlapped with those of the state and planners associated with the housing project, but also differed in significant respects. For residents, ordentlikheid (decency, respectability) is concerned with appearances and with cementing reciprocal relationships, while for bureaucrats, respectability is an individual characteristic, fostered and manifested via education, responsibility and appearances.

Tracing out the relationship between material conditions and ideational constructs, this article argues that, at certain moments, ongoing processes crystallise discursive forms and material practices in ways that draw attention to the grounds of their making and simultaneously make clear their unfinished nature.

- download the full paper from informaworld - JSAS

Police swoop on what could be 144 built homes raw material

Police late this afternoon swooped on a dagga plantation barely outside of the western outskirts of Pretoria. The land apparently belongs to the provincial government and the dagga will be destroyed as soon as possible. No arrests were made.

The plantation, barely 50m from a major road connecting Pretoria to the North West Province, had plants some reaching more than 2m high and is growing undisturbed on about 12 square kilometres. Police started gathering intelligence on the site late last year.

The police’s Tummi Golding says they are worried about the land itself because they want to investigate further who the land belongs to. Golding says if the land does not belong to anybody it will go back to government. The area is informally used to grow vegetables and maize, but the land, usually bustling with people working in their crops, grew eerily deserted as police arrived.

A police helicopter was also used to do an aerial survey of the dagga field. The police investigation will continue but the dagga will be destroyed as soon as possible. Captain Meshack Mthembi of the police’s Forensic Science Laboratory’s Drug Section says they will use a special kind of weed killer which will slowly kill off the plant material. Samples of the dagga plants were also collected to be tested.

- SABC

14 shacks gutted ... because of hubby's rage?

A Masiphumelele resident is expected to appear in court today on suspicion of having murdered his wife and then set alight their shack, which was gutted along with 14 others.

The couple's three children, aged six, 10 and 13, were in the shack when their father allegedly started beating their mother, but they escaped.

On Tuesday, they were receiving trauma counselling. They were placed in the care of relatives.

Their 49-year-old father is expected to appear in the Simon's Town Magistrate's Court on Wednesday, facing charges of murder and arson.

Police would not divulge his wife's name, as police were still tracking down some family members to inform them of the death.

Ocean View police station spokesperson Nkosikho Mzuku said the incident happened in the informal settlement early on Tuesday. "The parents were inside the shack with the children.

"An argument broke out between the husband and (his 38-year-old) wife and he apparently started hitting her. That's when the children ran out to neighbours," he said.

Mzuku said it was not yet clear what the couple had been arguing about. He said the husband was suspected of beating, strangling and choking his wife, who died inside their shack.

Neighbours heard shouting and screaming, but before they had managed to intervene, the man had allegedly set the shack alight with his wife's body still inside.

Mzuku said the blaze spread rapidly and 14 other shacks were also gutted.

Although scores of residents were left homeless, no one was injured.

Mzuku said the man was arrested near his shack. - Cape Times

Sexwale P.I. [Party Investigator] - Booooo

Party veteran and Minister of Human Settlements Tokyo Sexwale has been charged with investigating the events that led to Malema being booed by SACP delegates. - Sowetan

At Friday's meeting, the minister of human settlements, Tokyo Sexwale, presented an official report of what transpired at the SACP conference.

The report focused on the booing of Malema and other ANC leaders, such as Tony Yengeni and Billy Masetlha, and blamed the SACP leadership for failing to condemn the behaviour of its members.

According to NEC members, the report appeared to criticise both Mantashe and Nzimande, whose intervention was said to be more advisory than condemnatory.

The booing occurred when SACP national treasurer Phumulo Masualle was introducing ANC guests. As a result, Malema and Yengeni stormed out of the conference.

On Friday, Sexwale distributed copies of his report.

NEC members said Sexwale stated in the report that he had volunteered to write the report following a meeting with Motlanthe. The office of the secretary-general was also informed, he told the NEC.

NEC members who attended the SACP congress were also informed, although they did not contribute to the drafting of the report.

Sexwale attended the conference as a cabinet minister at the invitation of the SACP.

An NEC member said the report explained that the booing of ANC leaders was a sign of accumulated and unresolved tensions within the alliance.

It also stated that the singing was mild, but when Malema and Masetlha appeared, delegates sang loudly, an indication of anger against them.

Sexwale is said to have reported that Malema had whispered to those who were near him at the time that they would be booed. But Sexwale added that he did not know how Malema knew the incident would occur. - Timeslive

200 homes razed in fire

At least 200 homes in Khayelitsha's Site C were reduced to ashes early Thursday morning when a blaze ripped through the area.

Details of any injuries and the origins of the fire were not immediately available.

Firefighters were still working to bring the blaze under control hours later. - Cape Argus

60 families destitute after fire

Cape Town - Sixty households were left destitute after veld fires ravaged through Kwanokuthula township near Plettenberg Bay, the Bitou municipality said on Thursday.

"The fires started on Tuesday, but it was not threatening then," said municipality administration director, Thomas Nqolo.

"The fire became threatening when a strong breeze blew it to Kwanokuthula and the neighbouring Ladywood area."

Thirty-five houses and backyard shacks were destroyed.

Firefighters from the district municipality and neighbouring municipalities as well as a helicopter were called in to assist in dousing the flames.

"The helicopter arrived at about 14:00 yesterday [Wednesday] and it helped put out the fire quickly."

Sixty families affected by the fires were being accommodated in community halls. They were given food parcels, mattresses and blankets.

Although the cause of the fire was not yet known, Nqolo said the area was prone to fires during this time of the season due to drought in the area.

"We can say the fire is now extinguished, there are flare-ups here and there, but it's being monitored," he said.

- SAPA

State casts shadow over Sea Kay

Late payments by government clients are a threat to low-cost housing specialist Sea Kay's continued existence as a going concern.

The auditors of the firm have warned serious cash flow problems are causing "considerable doubt" about the company's ability to continue operating as a viable business.

Executive director Pieter van der Schyf said these problems can be attributed directly to late payments by government clients, but feels that Sea Kay should be over its troubles before the end of February.

The auditors' statement comes after repeated requests by Sea Kay directors for government to speed up its payments, and despite an undertaking by President Jacob Zuma that companies doing business with the state will be paid within 30 days.

"We do not want to quarrel in the media with the government, which is our biggest client, but we are bound by the JSE's rules. Shareholders are entitled to know what's going on," Van der Schyf said.

He said the company has requested speedier payment up to cabinet level. In September, when it announced its annual results, Sea Kay said its debtor payment period had already gone down from 238 days to 161 days.

According to Van der Schyf, negotiations with authorities in the Western Cape on finalisation of the N2 Gateway project are at an advanced stage.

Biggest client, poorest payment record

Sake24 reported earlier that Sea Kay had sued the government for R144m in outstanding debt in connection with this project.

Van der Schyf hopes the problem will be resolved through independent arbitration by the end of January. If that happens, Sea Kay's cash flow will be sound again, he said.

In addition, the group will be able to go ahead with building a further 3 000 houses to the value of R400m in Delft, which forms part of the N2 Gateway.

Sea Kay has won R600m of new work for other clients in the Western Cape, and it can go ahead full steam with this if its cash flow improves, Van der Schyf said.

"Sea Kay is a fantastic business except that government, its biggest client, doesn't pay on time."

A further R100m owed by the Gauteng department of housing is still outstanding, Van der Schyf said.

Sea Kay at first considered taking the matter to court, but Van der Schyf said there have been strong indications from national and provincial government that the money will be paid in January or February.

- Sake24

2 humans die in settlement shack fire

Two men burnt to death in their shack in Capricorn over the weekend and Western Cape police believe the blaze was intentional.

Muizenburg police spokesperson Captain Stephan Knapp said on Monday that in the early hours of Saturday police were notified that shacks were burning in Doring Street, Capricorn.

"Upon arrival at the scene and after the blaze had been extinguished, police discovered the bodies of two badly charred males.

"It is believed that the blaze had been intentionally started after an altercation earlier in the evening with another resident of Capricorn." The deceased, who were both Malawian citizens, were estimated to be between 26- and 28-years-old. A case of murder and arson has been registered.

Anyone with information can contact Detective Constable Patrick Mdokwana on 079-894-1300. - Sapa

Overberg fires kills human, razes settlement shacks

In one of the latest fires to hit the Overberg, a man was killed when a blaze broke out in an informal settlement in Gansbaai.

Police said Rabukana Mothano, 31, was killed and about 10 shacks burnt down when the settlement caught alight. An inquest docket had been opened, said police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk.

Overberg District Municipality disaster and fire chief Reinard Geldenhuys said he was relieved that the fire in the Agulhas Plain had been extinguished. They were now focusing on the Botriver blaze.

- Cape Argus

8 homeless after blaze

It has been a miserable start to the New Year for dozens of informal settlers in Strand, outside Cape Town, following a shack fire.

City of Cape Town emergency officials say the blaze is believed to have started early on Friday morning. However, they say the exact cause of the fire, which destroyed about 10 shacks, is still being investigated. No injuries have been reported.

“Nine structures were destroyed and eight people have been displaced. We put out the fire and our vehicles are back at home,” said Emergency Services’ Paul Joseph. - Eyewitness News

2009

InternAfrica served information on the Western Cape Human Settlement and related South African Human Settlement crisis; reaching many more African countries this year, with a working solution.

This Information was accessed by:

102 Universities
35 Technicons

13 media houses including CNN, BBC & Al Jazeera.

In 2009
Fire displaced 6,129 humans, killing 20, maiming another 6 and destroyed 1,483 shacks. Floods displaced 36,399 humans from their settlements.

InternAfrica has not included Xenophobic displacements in this years tally.
(click here for 10 Year spreadsheet)

2000 - 2009 Affected by Fire & Flood

Number of Shacks: 52,875
Human Settlement Deaths: 281
Humans Displaced from Settlements: 220,302
Burn Victims: 88

2009 saw 3 international companies start their businesses building with cannabricks, including the 1st international conference; the year closed with the printing of an extraordinary gazette 6679 - where the city of Cape Town received R2,5 Million to research sustainable low-cost housing...

Measurable outputs: The research would result in:
(Please note this is as printed in the gazette)

• New businesses that could emerge from the project
• Ecological sound and energy efficient initiatives generated in the surrounding area;
• Reduced levels of local drug use and violence
• Percentage of food grown locally and energy produced locally;
• Amount of local currency in circulation as a percentage of total money in circulation;
• Quantity of renewable building materials produced locally
• Levels of pride and "ownership" displayed through maintenance of the settlement; and
• Contributions to the Cape town City targets (10% of houses in City with solar water heaters by 2010 and 10% renewable energy by 2020)