Homeless kick the ball around as president watches

‘We really can help change the world, end poverty and homelessness,” organiser Mel Young says. “All we have to do is take a little round ball and start kicking it around.”

And for the nearly 500 drug addicts, alcoholics, orphans and vagrants, who kicked off the Homeless World Cup soccer tournament in Cape Town this weekend, there is indeed great self-belief. For them, society’s most marginalised, this is a chance to make a new start in life.

President Thabo Mbeki and thousands of spectators gathered in the centre of the Mother City to salute Sunday’s parade of flag-waving teams from 48 nations as diverse as Afghanistan, Australia, Britain, Sweden, the United States, Liberia and Zimbabwe. Yet, while it is a completely global event now, the idea for the street soccer tournament was born in Cape Town in 2001 after an international meeting of editors of street newspapers like the Big Issue, which is sold by the homeless in Britain, Australia, Namibia and here… Full Story - The Star

Habitat Day

This year InternAfrica and the United Nations Habitat Program (UN-Habitat) invites the world to celebrate Habitat Day with the theme: “Cities, Magnets of Hope.” For its part, HIC and other international networks have called on their constituencies and communities throughout the world to organize broad mobilization against evictions and forced displacements and growing processes of privatization of land, social housing, water, and other basic services. Habitat International

Khayelitsha filth ‘causing high TB rate’

Khayelitsha residents in Cape Town are concerned about the high tuberculosis (TB) rates in their area, say leaking taps, putrid pools of water and uncollected rubbish are the main causes.

Residents, of K2 section of Site B informal settlement in Khayelitsha, blame the local ANC councillor, Lulama Jelele, for not pushing the city to improve their living conditions which, they say, were resulting in serious illness and death. Full Story Cape Argus

Fears that Cape faces executive paralysis

In the past seven years, the City of Cape Town has seen five mayors and an acting mayor, three municipal managers and a high turnover of senior officials.

Now it is feared the proposed replacement of the mayoral committee by a collective system will result in executive paralysis.

Political instability has already damaged service delivery and the morale of city staff.



Political analyst Jonathan Faull of the Institute for Democracy in SA said the rapid changes had made for “inconsistent policy implementation, unsustainable time horizons for policy implementations, and uncertainty”.

“This led to low morale, because the staff do not know if the decisions they are asked to implement will be the same tomorrow or whether the boss they have today will be the one they have tomorrow.”

This had compromised the ability of the city to fulfil its mandate for service delivery, “which has disproportionally affected the poor who are dependent on (it)”. Full Story Cape Argus

Floods left over 3 200 homeless

THE recent floods in the Eastern Cape caused about R446,5-million of damage and left 3,262 families homeless, Housing and Local Government MEC Sam Kwelita told the legislature.Replying to a written question from Veliswa Mvenya (DA), the MEC said 1,347 homes had been destroyed by the floods and 2,347 damaged.

Kwelita said the department had provided funding for emergency housing to the tune of R32-million, and R4-million had been allocated to the Nelson Mandela Bay metro and Cacadu district municipality from the disaster fund for post-disaster relief and rehabilitation.

The renovation of damaged homes and the provision of new homes were provided for under the emergency housing programme and subsidised low-cost housing.

He said Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi had convened an inter-ministerial committee for disaster management on September 15 to discuss flood damage in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape. The Herald

Cape Town lags in SA’s big-city growth stakes

Cape Town’s economic growth has fallen behind that of the country’s other large metropolitan areas and the city has failed to spend more than 60 percent of its operating and capital budgets in the 2004-2005 financial year.

These were some of the findings of a special report on the country’s major cities, in which economic growth, governance, development and the economic welfare of the population were examined.

A city’s failure to spend its budget effectively indicated poor governance, the report says. And Cape Town performed worst in this field, despite having the highest-paid city manager at the time.

‘South African cities continue to have inequality measures’
Cape Town had economic growth of only 2,9 percent between 2001 and 2004, compared to Johannesburg’s 5 percent, Tshwane and eThekwini’s 4,5 percent and Ekurhuleni’s 4,8 percent.

And while the city’s poorest population segment has seen a marginal increase in living standards, its middle class has lost out.

Cape Town has been credited with improved service delivery, but was found to have spent too little of its budgets for development.

The State of the Cities report indicates that Cape Town, with Johannesburg and Tshwane, had the highest gross value added (GVA) figure per capita of the metro areas surveyed.

Cape Town’s economic growth (2,9 percent) was considerably lower than the average (just 4 percent) of South Africa’s nine largest cities.

The report was the second State of the Cities report released by the South African Cities Network, identifying the weaknesses and strengths in the way municipalities manage urbanisation and economic activity.

The municipalities surveyed include Buffalo City (East London), Cape Town, Ekurhuleni Metro, eThekwini, Johannesburg, Mangaung (Bloemfontein), Msunduzi (Pietermaritzburg), Nelson Mandela (Port Elizabeth) Metro and Tshwane.

The report notes that growth in these metros was driven mainly by the commercial and finance sectors and that consumer and property booms had been particularly noticeable.

The report says Cape Town has also shown very little change between 2002 and 2004 in living standards measure (LSM) with modest losses to the middle bands, but small gains in the lowest and highest categories.

The household Gini coefficients for the nine areas suggest that there has been a small reduction in the levels of economic inequality between 2001 and 2005, but the report still remarks that inequality in the cities remains “dramatically high”.

“South African cities continue to have inequality measures similar to some of the world’s most unequal societies,” it says.

Even in Cape Town, which has the lowest Gini coefficient of the nine, the report describes the inequality in the city as “comparatively high”.

“This worryingly high level of inequality points to an urgent need to address equity concerns and implement poverty reduction strategies,” the report says.

The Gini coefficient is an indicator of income distribution, taking into account the highest and lowest incomes of a population.

While all nine cities would be classified as having medium levels of human development, Cape Town, Tshwane, Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni fall in the above-average city score.

Of the nine cities surveyed, Cape Town spent the least of its budget, which is the third largest (R17,1-billion), after Johannesburg and eThekwini.

The proportion of the budget spent provides an indication of good governance. If a municipality has the capacity to spend close to all of its budget, this indicates that systems such as financial services and service delivery are working well.

In the 2004/05 financial year, Cape Town spent just over 60 percent of both its operating and capital budget, while Johannesburg spent more than 100 percent.

eThekwini spent 90 percent and 95 percent of its capital and operating budget respectively, while Tshwane spent almost 98 percent and 89 percent respectively.

Despite the poor performance, Cape Town had the highest-paid city manager of the nine cities in 2004/05, earning an annual salary of R1,104-million.

Considered far better off now than they were in 2000, the cities surveyed have a firm foundation for improved performance over the next five years, the report says. Cape Argus
R8,5m Western Cape land remains unclaimed

More than R8,5-million is still waiting to be collected by 662 land restitution claimants in the Western Cape.

The Western Cape Land Claims Commission said the claimants had not collected the funds, which were available in cash vouchers, and the process had been suspended until the applicants were located.

“These are the people whose claims were settled from 2003 onwards and who, during the land claims process, opted for financial compensation instead of getting their land back,” said commission spokesperson Franz Zottl. Full Story

High rent shuts shack dwellers out of Gateway

Residents hoping to move into the first of the 705 completed N2 Gateway units say they cannot afford the high rent.

After initially being told that it would cost less than R500 a month to rent a unit, former Joe Slovo and Langa shack-dwellers say they have been told by the national Department of Housing they must come up with R1,050.

A deputation of community leaders from these areas met Dan Plato, the city’s mayoral committee member for housing, on Thursday.

“They reckon (they were misled) and that the new rental structures exclude the poor,” said Plato.

A few families have moved into the housing project, almost two months after housing minister Lindiwe Hendricks handed over the first keys.

Promises lacking delivery

National housing spokesperson Monwabisi Maclean confirmed that the rent ranged from R500 upwards.

Only 705 units are available in the first phase, but the provincial and national housing departments received close to 7 000 applications.

Maclean said beneficiaries would move in “as and when” the screening process was completed. Successful applicants are required to attend a series of workshops before they receive their keys.

Plato said he had told the disgruntled shack-dwellers that “the city’s hands are tied”. The city was stripped of all responsibility for the N2 Gateway in June. Plato said he advised the delegation to contact the provincial government.

“But the city will look at providing erven for these people.”

Meanwhile, there has been a financial reprieve for the 27 500 tenants of council-owned properties who owe the city money for their home loans.

Plato announced on Thursday that the national Department of Housing had agreed to lower the fixed interest rate on municipal home loans from 13.5% to the external mortgage rate.

This rate is currently 11 percent.

“Previously it was a bit higher than the normal rate. Now this will assist the poorest of the poor.” Loans ranged from R16 500 to R32 700.

“From now on, interest rates applicable to the city’s home-ownership property loans will be linked to whatever mortgage rate the major banks are charging on January 1 and July 1 of each year - but not beyond a set maximum of 13,5 percent a year.

“This will enable homeowners to reap the benefits of lower interest rates. By paying less interest they will have some more money in their pockets.”

But Plato urged the debtors to keep their payments at the same level, despite the interest rate drop, so they would be able to pay off their loans.

The interest rate adjustment is to be reflected on the next city bill. - Cape Times

N2 Gateway residents move in

The first occupants of the N2 Gateway housing project quietly moved into their homes, almost two months after the first keys were handed over by Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu.

The minister handed over the keys to the homes of the first five beneficiaries in July but they couldn’t move in because the process had been held up by a lengthy screening of the city’s huge waiting list. The screening is being done by the city, the province and a national housing support institution, Thubelisha Homes.

A handful of families moved into their new homes last week.

Vusi Tshose, spokesperson for Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi, said the families had moved in with the permission of the authorities. Full Story

March draws attention to plight of homeless

Hundreds of people from the Landless People’s Movement and the Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF) gathered in central Johannesburg on Wednesday to protest against the slow delivery of services to the poor and the destitute.

About 1 600 people were expected to take part in the march to the Department of Home Affairs to hand over a memorandum requesting basic services that the APF believe have been ignored by the government for 20 years.

“There are people that have been living in shacks for 20 years, there are people that are homeless in their own communities … enough is enough and we are sick and tired,” said founder and chairperson of APF, Bricks Mokolo.

Dancing and singing along to struggle songs, 72-year-old Florence Mkhwashu from Soweto said: “We have had enough of struggling … People do not have houses. Those who put up something for themselves are forcibly removed.

“I personally had to deal with water and electricity cuts, although I always ensure that I pay for them every time I get my pension grant.”

The Landless People’s Movement had asked permission to march on August 29 and the APF had asked permission on September 12.

According to Silumko Radebe, spokesperson for the Landless People’s Movement, the state and the police had been trying to repress the march. Radebe said that the police had threatened the movement in a meeting on Tuesday, saying that if the march went ahead the police would be there to intimidate the crowds and perhaps “open fire” on them.

“But they gave us no legal reason for why we can’t march,” he said.

“The Gatherings Act requires organisations to notify authorities not later than seven days before the date of the event … In our case, they had more than three weeks’ [notice].”

“They did not get back to us until yesterday [Tuesday] … notifying us that the march will not be allowed to take place.”

A spokesperson for the SAPS said that metro police would be at the march to “monitor the situation”.

Eric Siswane, an unemployed 64-year-old, made the trip up to Johannesburg from the Eastern Cape to show his support.

“We have the same problems with housing in the Eastern Cape, even worse problems.”

Thandi Uxolo (19) lives with seven people in a two-bedroom house in District Six after being evicted from their house in Orange Farm. “In our place there are only streets and sharks. There’s no electricity, no water; we have to go to rivers that are diseased. When it rains our houses fill with water. We’re tired of paraffin; we want electricity.”

“[The government] keeps making promises that they don’t keep … My sister’s small child must sleep down on the floor because there is no space,” said Xolani Mnuni (21).

The memorandum, which is expected to be passed on to the mayoral committee of Johannesburg and Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu. The memorandum requests basic services such as electricity, 100% free water, sanitation and housing.

“Housing, water and electricity are a priority and come before the 2010 World Cup; people don’t care about soccer, they just want water,” said Mokolo.

Mokolo said that the apartheid government provides a poor standard of comparing municipality houses. “The size is 30m squared and eight to ten people live in that house … the apartheid government made houses that were 48m squared … it’s an insult and a sign of disrespect,” he said. - M&G

Fire leaves scores homeless in Khayelitsha

A man was taken to hospital after sustaining “severe burns” as two fires swept through Khayelitsha outside Cape Town early on Monday, displacing 79 people and destroying some 31 dwellings.

Wilfred Solomons, Cape Town city’s disaster manager, said both fires occurred in the early hours of Monday morning.

The first fire, in Town Two close to Lansdowne road, destroyed 29 shacks. Seventy five people were being supplied with building material, clothing, food parcels and blankets.

The second fire, in which the hospitalised man was injured, destroyed two shacks and left four people homeless. - Sapa

Housing fraud plagues WCape

The Auditor-General’s performance audit on the approval and allocation of housing subsidies by the Western Cape Department of Housing has highlighted irregularities of almost 4.9 million rand in subsidy allocation.

These figures were revealed in the performance audit report tabled in the Western Cape Provincial legislature. The figures are based on actual subsidies paid as well as a calculated potential amount of 15,000 rand per applicant and were found in 1,449 exceptions out of a national total of 53,426.

On a national level, subsidies incorrectly awarded, across all nine provinces represents a monetary value of some 322 million rand.

The audit procedures applied during the performance audit stemmed mainly from the comparison of the Housing Subsidy System (HSS) with various databases to create exception reports.

Of the 180,742 beneficiaries approved in the Western Cape, irregularities found were - 572 applicants were government employees earning salaries in excess of the housing subsidy threshold (national figure: 7,353); - 376 subsidy approvals after the applicant’s date of death (national figure: 5,335); - 256 duplicate subsidy approvals for the same applicant (national figure 1,618); and 245 potential instances where subsidies were approved for individuals under the age of 21 (national figure: 6,708).

Inadequate management measures identified included, among others, the following:

• Applicants made misrepresentations and supplied outdated information to the department on their subsidy application forms;
• Subsidy application forms were not always verified for correctness and completeness by users and system administrators;
• The HSS system failed to detect that applicants were deceased at the time that the subsidy application was approved; and
• The department did not have adequate management measures to ensure the safekeeping of completed subsidy application forms.

Says Auditor-General Shauket Fakie: “The purpose of this report is to facilitate public accountability by bringing the irregularities and limitation in the current low-cost housing subsidy process to the attention of the legislature, and to assist in improving service delivery and value for the taxpayers’ money.

“It is further hoped that this report will enable the Western Cape Housing Department to take corrective steps required to improve the management measures, controls, processes and systems in the approval and allocation process of low-cost housing subsidies.”

Separate reports on similar performance audits conducted in the eight other provincial housing departments have been or will be submitted to the respective provincial legislatures for consideration. Most of the findings originated from deficient management measures that were generic throughout.

I-Net Bridge

City Releases Land for Affordable Housing

SOURCE: City of Cape Town

The City of Cape Town has provisionally approved the release of eight tracts of land totalling some 42 hectares to be developed by banks for affordable housing for the so called GAP market.

This follows the signing of a groundbreaking agreement by Executive Mayor Helen Zille with three commercial banks - Absa, Nedbank and Standard Bank - in May this year. A fourth bank, First National Bank, may also be participating.

The GAP market consists of people who earn between R3,500 and R10,000(household income) per month. Within this bracket they do not qualify for state housing subsidies, but also don’t earn enough to participate in the competitive property market in Cape Town which escalated dramatically over the last five years. People who are earning between R3,500- R7,500 will qualify for a subsidy deposit from government, about 50% of the required deposit.

“We estimate that 165,000 people in the city fall in the GAP and affordable housing markets,” says Cllr Dan Plato, Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlements.

“With innovative financial mechanisms we can help Capetonians who are living in backyards or informal settlements to buy their own homes. This will go a long way in alleviating the massive housing shortage in the city.

“Latest figures indicate a backlog of some 400,000 units, which is virtually impossible to eradicate. The City can deliver a maximum of 7,500 houses per year whilst the influx of new residents stands at some 2,000 per month,” he says.

The home loan packages could include set-up loans whereby the interest rate is increased over the duration of the loan period, a system where equity on the housing unit is shared between the owner and the financial institution, or the reduction of legal and registration fees.

“The Council has identified eight areas where such innovations could be offered. These are Wallacedene (3,4ha), Maitland (0,87ha), Rugby (1,8ha), Westlake (22,1ha), Ottery (2ha), Wetton (6,6ha), Southfield (2,9ha) and Langa (2,4ha).

“These land parcels are well located in terms of public transport, access to work opportunities, educational facilities and recreational facilities, and can be easily incorporated into the City’s municipal service structure,” he says.

Once all provisions have been met, the City Manager will be authorised to approve the allocation of individual parcels of land to the bank which devises the most innovative development options.

“Plans are under way to establish a show village where prospective home buyers will be able to see what type of accommodation could be obtained within their specific income brackets. These eight pieces of land are the first to be identified, but several more are currently under investigation for release. Details of the show village will be announced once it is ready,” says Cllr Plato.

Issued by:
Directorate: Communication and Marketing
City of Cape Town
Tel: 021 400 2201
Fax: 021 957 0023

Shack dwellers held after clash with police

Two leaders of the shack dwellers’ movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo, were arrested and charged with resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer on Tuesday.

The organisation called the charges “crazy” and claimed that Sbu Zikode and Philani Zungu, the president and deputy president respectively, had been assaulted by police.

As tension over their arrests escalated, gunfire was exchanged between Kennedy Road informal settlement residents and the police.

Richard Pithouse, of the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Civil Development, who is closely aligned to Abahlali, said he had heard from witnesses that Zikode and Zungu had been stopped by police at the settlement as they were about to leave for a radio interview.

“They (Zikode and Zungu) were waiting in a car when police came to them and said the car was stolen. They (Zikode and Zungu) showed the car’s (licence) papers. The police assaulted them and pushed them to the ground,” Pithouse claimed, adding that other people, including Zikode’s wife, had been sworn at by police when they asked to see the pair.

“We have had no access to them and it’s outrageous. One of our members crept up to the (cell) bars and saw them lying on the floor. We haven’t been allowed to get a doctor to see them so we don’t know how badly they have been hurt.”

Police Captain Myentheran Lazarus said police had used “necessary force” to arrest the men, who had been approached on a routine search. “Our Crime Prevention Unit was on a routine patrol when we came across two or three Abahlali members. When the officers attempted to search them, they became violent and assaulted two officers. We used the necessary force to arrest them.”

Lazarus said eight shots had been fired at police during a march to the police station by residents. The police fired rubber bullets. - The Mercury

Housing & Service delivery turns ugly

Thick smoke billowed into the air. The sound of rubber bullets reverberated and people screamed hysterically as they scattered in different directions. Blood flowed on the tar.

This was the scene - reminiscent of apartheid-era South Africa - in Orange Farm, south of Johannesburg, on Wednesday when police used rubber bullets to disperse a crowd of protesters who had barricaded both sides of the Golden Highway.

At least four protesters, including three women, sustained serious injuries, bringing to eight the number injured since early Wednesday morning.

‘Volatile’

Waving a large placard reading “10 years of freedom without water, sewerage, electricity - South Africa f*** democracy” and chanting revolutionary slogans, the irate protesters toyi-toyied along the highway, which had been barricaded with large iron sheeting, burning tyres, rocks and tins. A heavy contingent of police officers kept close watch.

The defiant crowd had by then swelled to more than 500. No sooner had the councillor been whisked away, when mayhem again broke out, with police shooting indiscriminately into the crowd.

One woman lay writhing in pain as she bled profusely from a rubber-bullet wound to the back of her head.

Some residents threatened to block the adjacent N1 freeway between Johannesburg and Bloemfontein.

“We will continue to block the road because the local municipality is not serious about addressing our problems. We need water, electricity, houses, and toilets,” said Janet Setshedi, who lives in Ward 4, Orange Farm. - The Star