Service delivery Slows as Informal Settlements Grow

Cape Town - Electricity provision has reached 81 percent of the country' households, up from 76 percent a few years ago, according to the Local Government Research Centre. The centre cites this figure as proof that the provinces are making progress in providing households with major services.

The centre, headed by Clive Keegan, monitored the latest general household survey released by Statistics SA. It noted that the only unfavourable indicator was the growth in the number of informal settlements in just about all provinces.

While the survey showed clear progress, especially in the provision of water and sanitation, Keegan said the speed of urbanisation accounted for the growing figures for shacks.

In Gauteng, about 26 percent of households now live in shacks, compared with 18.7 percent in 2002. In the Western Cape, slightly more than 21 percent live in shacks, compared with 15 percent in 2002.

However, the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo have bucked the trend. In 2002 in the Eastern Cape, about 9.4 percent lived in shacks, dropping to 8.3 percent last year. The figure dropped from 11.4 percent to 8.4 percent in KwaZulu-Natal and from 5 percent to 4.4 percent in Limpopo.

The national average rose from 12.7 percent to 15.4 percent.

The survey, conducted last year, indicates that Eastern Cape is the province with the lowest electrification level - 70 percent of households. However, this is an improvement from 54.6 percent in 2002.

The increase in power connections has translated into a decline in the use of paraffin and wood for cooking, from about 38 percent of households to less than 30 percent.

However, rapid urbanisation to Gauteng - and mushrooming shack settlement - set the province against the national trend: households using paraffin and wood for cooking rose from 13.6 percent to 18.5 percent.

On the positive side, only 1.8 percent of households nationally still use the bucket system, down from 2.3 percent in 2002. The provinces furthest behind in providing sanitation facilities are the Free State, with 12.4 percent using the bucket system, the Eastern Cape with 4.7 percent and the Northern Cape with 3.7 percent.

In eight provinces the percentage of households with no toilet facility - using the bucket system instead - had declined.

In Gauteng this proportion dropped from 1.8 percent to 1.3 percent; in the Western Cape from 5.7 percent to 4.1 percent. Only in the North West did the figure increase, from 7 percent to 7.5 percent.

Keegan noted that although the percentage of households that used safe offsite water sources - a neighbour's tap, a communal tap or an offsite borehole - had increased from 17.9 percent to 22 percent, this shift reflected a drop in the use of unsafe sources.

In spite of this improvement, there were still big differences between population groups, he said: nearly 28 percent of black Africans had to use offsite safe water sources, compared with only 2.2 percent of other population groups. - Business Report

'Heroine' dies while still waiting

Only days after speaking of her desire for a proper house, Irene Grootboom, who spearheaded a Constitutional Court case in 2000 for proper housing for the poor, died in her shack in Wallacedene. She was 39.

Grootboom died last Wednesday night in Wallacedene informal settlement after a short illness, her partner Peter Roman said on Sunday.

Grootboom's family declined to divulge the cause of her death.

Irene Grootboom - Google News Time line
Eight years ago Grootboom brought an application to court on behalf of 510 children and 290 adults living in deplorable conditions in Wallacedene, demanding better housing.

The benchmark judgment declared that the state was obliged to devise and implement "a comprehensive and co-ordinated programme to realise the right of access to adequate housing".

However, Grootboom has died "sick and tired" of being on the housing list.

Last Monday, when the Cape Argus visited her, she said: "When it rains water seeps through every crevice. I try to repair it but I can't do much.

"I was supposed to get a house but I'm still in a shack with my sister-in-law and her three children. They keep promising us. I'm sick and tired of the whole thing."

She said she was proud of the judgment and what it meant for the poor.

"Everybody was scared to go forward. I decided to go forward because we were poor and wanted a place to live."

On Sunday when the Cape Argus visited her family, residents on Grootboom street, named after her, and those in surrounding areas, said they had lost a heroine.

"She was the first person to get the struggle on its feet," said Magdalene May who also lives in a shack.

Roman, 46, said: "She was a lovely woman and fought for the poor. We started staying together since the time of the struggle for housing."

Roman said for the past six years he and Grootboom had lived on empty promises of better housing.

Grootboom's sister-in-law, Mary Baadtjies, said through tears: "During her last moment I was with her."

Ward councillor Magwetshu Ndumiso said the community was shattered by the death of a woman dedicated to improving the lot of others.

"Most developments in this community are through her."

The funeral is scheduled to take place on Saturday . - Cape Argus

Mbeki says his conscience is clear over housing & arms deal

Mbeki has rejected claims surrounding the arms deal

President Thabo Mbeki has rejected allegations that he received a R30 million bribe from a leading German arms manufacturer. A Sunday newspaper has alleged that the President received the money as a kickback in the controversial multibillion rand arms deal.

Mbeki is also alleged to have given the ANC R28 million and Jacob Zuma R2 million. But the President told SABC News that his conscience is clear.

The arms deal has already landed senior ANC bigwigs in hot water. Party President Zuma is facing criminal charges related to the deal. The deal saw South Africa purchasing a fleet of corvettes, frigates and submarines, and the President has again been implicated. While on an Imbizo in the Free State, Mbeki dealt with the allegations.

But the housing backlog and slow delivery of services were the President's main concerns today. Behind closed doors officials were taken to task as Mbeki demanded an explanation about why the community was not getting the services that government had promised.

This was president Mbeki's last Imbizo to the Free State. - SABC

Housing protesters tell of 'horror' attack

Gugulethu backyard dwellers who tried to occupy unfinished flats in Langa at the weekend, on Sunday told of the "horror" they experienced when people armed with knobkieries and bricks launched a violent attack on them.

Saturday's occupation, led by the Anti-Eviction Campaign (AEC,) was meant to be peaceful and to protest against the long wait for housing, but yesterday a number of its supporters told how the vicious attack left them with bruised limbs, fractured ribs and head injuries.

"I've got stitches in my head and the doctors told me I've got a cracked skull. They were shouting that the houses belonged to them and nobody else will have it.

"They started beating us and even called young boys to join them. We ran in different directions and some of us managed to get to Bonteheuwel station," Gugulethu resident Lennox Ntungo said.

He was among about 80 other backyard dwellers who had wanted to occupy unfinished flats being built as part of the city council's upgrading of the area.

Another protester, Feziwe Mtshoniswa, said: "They shouted 'kill them, kill them'. It was horrible the way they carried on. They beat us with sticks and it was clear they were determined to kill us. I could not get away. They threw me on the floor and beat me."

The attack had stopped by the time police arrived and she was taken to the Vanguard Day Hospital where she was treated for head injury, Mtshoniswa said.

At an Anti-Eviction Campaign meeting yesterday to discuss the incident, some speakers claimed that the attack was planned because news of the invasion had reached Langa before the backyard dwellers arrived.

Langa resident Signoria Tshabalala, who came to sympathise, said: "Together we all started this campaign for houses, but I'm against this brutal attack. I will support you."

Also injured were two Cape Argus journalists who were attacked by a mob, which smashed their company vehicle with stones and iron bars.

Anti-Eviction Campaign leader Mncedisi Twalo blamed the government for the housing crisis and said people were desperate for houses.

He said backyard dwellers who had been on the housing waiting list for years were overlooked while the government gave preference to squatters affected by fires in informal settlements.

Twalo vowed that the fight for housing would continue and that an alternative under consideration was to invade open spaces in the Gugulethu area.

"There is no turning back. There are many open spaces - next to Lansdowne Road and at NY 112. We won't discuss details now," he said.

Some injured backyard dwellers at the meeting claimed that their attackers were from the Joe Slovo informal settlement next to Langa, but Joe Slovo community leader Mzwanele Zulu denied this.

He said the informal settlement's residents were not expecting to benefit from housing opportunities in Langa.

Joe Slovo residents are fighting an attempt to have them moved to Delft and want houses built for them where they live.

Meanwhile, no further incidents were reported and police said they would monitor the situation. Only one criminal complaint was lodged, Langa police spokesman Odwa Makuphula said.

"There have been no arrests. We'll keep a close eye on the situation because we do not want people to get hurt," he said.

- Cape Times

'Angry mob tried to kill us'

The angry mob were shouting that they would kill us if we did not leave but our car was parked in and a sea of people had surrounded the vehicle.

The grating of metal on metal could be heard as the mob used crowbars to try to force our doors open. They were rocking the car and above their angry cries we heard the explosion of glass behind us as the back window shattered.

Minutes earlier I had been speaking to Mncedisi Twalo, the Anti-Eviction Campaign co-ordinator, about their plan to invade empty flats in Langa.

The mob, armed with hammers, pangas and crowbars chased him

What had started out as a tense standoff between two groups of people erupted into violence, and neither group wanted the media watching.

Seconds later I saw stones flying and people attacking each other. I ran for cover, ducking under a stairwell.

Photographer Daylin Paul had become separated from me. He had been following the mob taking pictures, and was now in the nearby Joe Slovo informal settlement, taking pictures of old women being hit and kicked. A man in a brown jacket saw him and ordered him to leave. The mob, armed with hammers, pangas and crowbars chased him.

"Adrenalin kicked in and I just ran. I thought they were going to kill us, I thought this was it," he said later.

Paul ran towards me and we jumped into the car. There was a police van parked in front and we decided to stick with it, thinking we would be safe with police protection. But there were only two policemen, loading injured people into the van, and they could not do anything to control the situation.

'I thought they were going to kill us, I thought this was it'

Paul was still taking pictures as the angry crowd formed around us, yelling at us in Xhosa to leave or they would hurt us.

I told Paul we had to make a plan quickly, but this was when we realised we were parked in. Paul, who was behind the wheel, said: "I remained calm because I knew we had to get out. I'm pretty sure they would have killed us, I could see the anger and rage in their eyes."

In the melee the car's immobiliser had fallen to the floor and Paul was scrabbling for it. By now the grating of the crowbars on our locked doors was terrifying.

Paul's cameras were on the back seat, containing their evidence of the violence we had witnessed.

The crowd was shouting, and hammer blows were raining on the vehicle's sides. I was panicking, but I did not dare show it. A stone hurtled through the air, smashed the passenger window and struck me on the shoulder.

I heard an explosion as the back window shattered. Glass was flying everywhere; my face was bleeding.

Paul got the car to start and mounted the curb in an attempt to get away, but the crowd did not step back.

Paul put his foot down and we went, tyres screeching, hooting and revving, as people scattered and more stones crashed into the car.

- Cape Argus

InternAfrica is dismayed at the treatment of the media. The media is the only grouping of people who actually make it out to the informal settlements to cover stories.

It is unacceptable that people attack reporters who are putting in time and effort in the informal settlement human habitat to bring us this plight. Much more than any politician can lay claim too.

As such turning on reporters, reporting on the human habitat is utterly unacceptable.

SA climate-change crackdown may include carbon tax

The government has set out an ambitious proposal to deal with climate change in the coming years, including slapping a possible carbon tax on carbon-dioxide-spewing industries.

Saying the world faced "a global climate emergency", the Environment Ministry unveiled the strategy geared toward reducing greenhouse gases last week.

"The world faces a global climate emergency. It is now clear that only action by both developed and developing countries can prevent the climate crisis from deepening," Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said in a statement.

The plan, which includes stringent energy-efficiency measures, has been endorsed by the Cabinet, though Parliament must still approve it.

Finance officials are investigating ways of implementing the tax.

The United Nations's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said evidence of global warming is now "unequivocal" and that there is a probability of more than 90% that humans are the cause for it.

Human-generated greenhouse gases rose by 70% between 1970 and 2004.

South Africa emitted about 446-million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2003 and forecasts growth to a maximum of 550-million tonnes a year by 2025, according to the Environment Ministry.

Van Schalkwyk said greenhouse-gas emissions must stop increasing at the latest by 2020 to 2025, stabilise for up to 10 years, and then decline in absolute terms.

"The aim is to limit global temperature increases to two degrees [Celsius] above pre-industrial levels," he said.

The plan has been welcomed by business associations and environmentalists as a major step towards galvanising rich industrialised nations into addressing climate change.

"The time is right for the country's private sector to show leadership by partnering with government to develop a solutions-driven national climate-change mitigation and adaptation response," said Andre Fourie, chief executive of National Business Initiative, a group advocating sustainable development. "The cost of inaction far outweighs the cost of mitigating the effects of climate change."

South Africa's reliance on coal to generate electricity makes it a major emitter of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases per capita.

State-owned power generator Eskom gets 90% of its electricity from coal-generated plants, according to the company. The supplier plans to develop three more coal-generated power stations in the next eight years.

The government's proposal includes shifting to cleaner-burning coal by introducing more stringent thermal efficiency and emissions standards for coal-fired power stations.

It also proposes providing incentives to renewable energy through a tariff system due to be finalised by the middle of next year.

Other aspects of the strategy include reducing transport emissions by imposing stringent fuel-efficiency standards and promoting hybrid electric vehicles.

"Our emissions per capita are higher than many other developing countries. South Africa's emissions per capita are also high, due to our coal-based energy system," said Professor Harald Winkler from the University of Cape Town's climate-change department.

"Our analysis shows that putting a price on carbon has the single largest impact on emissions. By using the price signal, it sends signals to all actors in the economy, and can shift behaviour," said Winkler. -- Sapa-AFP

The everchanging political landscape seldom changes the habitat landscape

Whitey Jacobs (formerly Sport and Recreation) would be Housing MEC...

Richard Dyantyi has been dropped from the local government and housing post.

Brown said housing would be a portfolio on its own.

"Housing is one of the most difficult areas we have in the Western Cape with a backlog of 400,000 units. I think housing deserves somebody who will drive it and make sure we get the houses delivered as expeditiously as possible," Brown said.

- Cape Times

There is a god - Western Cape cabinet reshuffle claims Dyantyi

Dyantyi has confirmed that he has been axed

Western Cape Local Government and Housing Minister, Richard Dyantyi has become the first casualty of the Cabinet reshuffle in the province.

Dyantyi has confirmed that he has been axed. This comes as newly elected Premier, Lynne Brown, prepares to announce her new look cabinet later today. Dyantyi has been perceived as an ally of ousted Premier Ebrahim Rasool.

Brown says the announcement, expected earlier this week, was delayed as she had to consult with the ANC's National Executive Committee on the make-up of her new cabinet.

- SABC

Dyantyi in denial : being under pressure to resign

Dyantyi says he is not under pressure to resign

Western Cape Local Government and Housing Minister, Richard Dyantyi, says he is not under pressure to resign from his job.

He was speaking at the handing over of more than 200 houses to homeless people at Wallacedene near Cape Town this morning. Dyantyi's name is among a number of ministers who are expected to resign following the removal of former Premier, Ebrahim Rasool, last week.

Yesterday, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning Minister, Tasneem Essop, resigned from her post. However, Dyantyi says he will continue to do his job as mandated by the ANC.

- SABC

Housing summit to tackle growing slums in Africa

The conference seeks to find solutions for the growing number of slums across Africa

Delegates to a housing conference in the Nigerian capital are deliberating on how best to eradicate the continent's growing slums. Housing ministers from across the continent and representatives of international aid organisations have converged on Abuja as part of the second African Ministerial Conference on Housing and Urban Development.

With more than 70% of the continent's urban residents staying in slum areas, delegates are faced with an enormous challenge. They say the continued influx of people into Africa's cities and the pressing need to address the escalating housing needs of the poor is becoming more urgent.

The body was created in 2005 and South Africa has been chairing it ever since. South African Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu says the lack of proper housing in Africa is a crisis waiting to explode.

The summit is also looking at setting up a possible African Fund under the African Bank to eradicate slums on the continent.

The latest research indicates that more than 1.6 billion Africans will be living in slums by 2020. - SABC

Sewer leaks raise stink in Samora Machel

Sewer leakages in the Samora Machel informal settlement have become a daily challenge for residents who say pipe leaks are threatening not only their health but also their businesses.

And, they charge, city authorities take as long as three weeks to respond to their complaints.

Sanele Sigwegwe, assistant at a braai spot in the area, said his business was suffering because people did not want to buy food in an area where sewage was leaking out of pipes.

"People don't buy at my stall because it is smelly around here and they refuse to eat in a place like that," said an angry Sigwegwe.

Residents say the problem is not unusual and that sewers in the area have been leaking for weeks.

One, who did not want to be named, said he suspected the sewerage system was inferior.

The pipes, he believed, were overburdened because of the large number of people living in Samora Machel.

"The council needs to do something about this before we all get sick.

"And fixing the pipes is not going to make a difference. They must install new pipes," he said.

Residents reported children were experiencing skin rashes after playing near stagnant water.

Samora Machel ward councillor Monwabisi Mbaliswano said they were facing a huge challenge with the sewerage system.

He had been told that there were problems not only with the system, but also with the relevant employees.

The city's Eaton Oliver, responsible for sanitation in Mitchells Plain, said the pump station often filled up but that they were working to rectify the situation. - Cape Argus

Housing heroine still has no proper house

Irene Grootboom, the heroine who led the struggle for the homeless and landless of South Africa in the Grootboom Constitutional Court judgment of 2000, still does not have a proper roof over her head.

Eight years ago Grootboom brought an application to court on behalf of 510 children and 290 adults living in the Wallacedene informal settlement demanding housing and children's rights.

She won the case as the landmark judgment declared the state was obliged to devise and implement "a comprehensive and co-ordinated programme to realise the right of access to adequate housing".

But a visit by the Cape Argus on Monday found her "sick and tired" of promises.

Grootboom remains proud of the judgment and of herself for persevering when "everybody was scared to go forward - I decided to speak out because we were poor and wanted a place to live in," she said.

Wallacedene residents, without hot water or sewerage and having been on the housing waiting list for a long time, occupied private land meant for low-cost housing.

They were evicted, but the land they had previously lived on had been occupied. They settled on a sportsfield and in a community hall. They later occupied houses and shacks in other settlements.

"I was supposed to get a house a while back but I'm still in a shack which I share with my sister-in-law and her three children. They keep promising us ... I'm sick and tired of the whole thing," said Grootboom, 39.

"When it rains water seeps through every crevice and the thing is submerged in water. I try to repair it but I can't do much," she said.

Asked how she felt when the housing department handed over nearly 300 housing units at the weekend, under the People's Housing Process programme in her community, she said: "I can't feel good."

Grootboom said she had applied for a house under a different project, and hoped she would soon get one.

Ward councillor Ndumiso Magwetshu said a street in the community had been named after Grootboom as she was a symbol of the struggle for houses. "She has not been forgotten by the government, and my wish is to start by building a house for her in the next programme," said Magwetshu, adding that constitutionally everyone had a right to housing.

"I applaud her, the community loves her and we need to see her in a proper house," he said.

On Sunday Vusi Tshose, spokesperson for Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi, said Grootboom should benefit "in the next round".

Magwetshu said that, while the community was receiving better houses, the problem of backyard shacks still remained.

The government, he said, needed to develop a policy to the effect that, once a person was given a house, they should demolish their shack permanently.

"We want them in houses, not shacks," he said. - Cape Argus

Massive service delivery mess

More than 60,000 people in five provinces have been failed twice by the government in 14 years because they still don’t have a proper roof over their heads.

These citizens still live in shacks despite the fact that Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu set R2 billion aside three years ago to finish houses, which were promised to them in 1994.

The City Press yesterday said political analysts laid the problem at the door of the ANC and infighting, which had distracted officials from their service delivery mandate.

In some provinces slabs were laid for homes but the houses were never built.

Corruption has eaten into some projects where unscrupulous developers were paid but houses were never built.

National Housing spokesman Xolani Xundu said some projects had been blocked because contractors claimed they hadn’t been paid when, in fact, they had.

The department said it had asked the national treasury for more money to complete outstanding projects. - The Citizen

African informal settlements - "a crisis waiting to explode" - Lindiwe Sisulu

Ways of overcoming the crushing difficulties that African housing departments face are to be tackled at a conference of ministers of housing and urban development to be held in Abuja, Nigeria next week.

South Africa has been chairing and the housing department has provided the secretariat for the African ministerial conference on housing and urban development (Amchud) since its inception three years ago, when the first meeting was held in Durban.

African informal settlements - "a crisis waiting to explode" - Lindiwe Sisulu

Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu will report to next week’s plenary on progress so far, and will pass the baton to Nigeria.

The director general of South Africa’s department, Itumeleng Kotsoane said on Monday: "We have been working with our African partners, the UN Habitat and the African Union to find simple solutions and also share our experiences on how cities can respond to this challenge of the 21st century." - The Times