BBC in pictures leaving Cape Town Shacks

The challenges for other families remain vast. The Western Cape has a housing backlog of 320,000 families. Each year, 48,000 people arrive in the province from elsewhere in search of work, yet the current budget allows the province to build only 18,000 houses per year.

BBC Pictorial

Deadline for N2 Gateway applications extended

The deadline for applications for homes in the first phase of the N2 Gateway development has been extended because of the large number of people wanting to apply.

Applications were to have closed on Monday before the housing and local government department began vetting them and allocating the units.

"Because of (the large number of) people wanting to get their applications in at the last minute, the MEC decided to extend the deadline to Friday," Vusi Tshose, spokesperson for Western Cape MEC for Local Government and Housing Richard Dyantyi.

While remaining tight-lipped about what the allocations process would entail, he said Dyantyi hoped to complete it "as soon as possible... We want to get the N2 Gateway Phase One behind us," said Tshose.

He could not provide a timeline, however. The first phase comprises 705 rental units.

Tshose said it was "difficult" to say how many applications had been received, but judging from the number of telephone calls, there was strong interest.

Tshose said the picture was likely to be clearer today.

The department called last week for applications and 60 community development workers were deployed to distribute application forms.

People living in shacks or backyard accommodation in Langa, Gugulethu, Bonteheuwel, Joe Slovo, Bokmakierie and Nyanga were invited to apply.

Tshose said that among the criteria for applicants was that they should be South African citizens, older than 21 years and have "some form of income".

Meanwhile, the Gugulethu Backyard Dwellers' Association says it is to go ahead with plans to stage a protest on Friday.

The protest would be against the criteria for applicants for N2 Gateway homes as they excluded the unemployed, association chairperson Mncedisi Twalo said.

The association hoped to hand housing officials a memorandum outlining their grievances, he said.

Chief of these was that people had to have a basic income to qualify to apply - a requirement that ruled out most residents.

"(The government is) playing its cards close to its chest," Twalo said.

"Our people are not part of the decision-making process about issues taking place in their area. We are demanding houses for everyone. There needs to be a system of consultation and engagement."

Tshose said, however, that the association's grievances were not valid as the units being advertised were for rental only. Also, these homes were in what was only the first phase of the N2 Gateway project.

Affordable housing and government-subsidised homes were under construction, he said.

These are being built in Joe Slovo Phase Two, which was to comprise 1 000 houses, New Rest (1 154), Boystown (1 500), Delft Symphony (6 240 houses and 600 rental units) and Delft Towns (4 500 houses and about 800 rental units).

"A rental unit means a person will have to pay," Tshose said.

"This is only one section of the N2 Gateway, so the statement that the unemployed are not being provided for is incorrect. There will be a variety of options for people." - Cape Times

Nation in the Making demands we take a new look at housing

ONE of the great policy ironies of SA’s first decade of democracy is that the more houses government dispensed, the more the housing backlog grew.

The backlog stood at 1,2-million in 1994. Government has since provided more than 1,6-million subsidised houses for the poor. Now Gauteng alone is short of 600000 houses, the province reported recently.

Housing delivery in recent years has fallen far short of what’s needed to meet demand. But the backlog has grown in part precisely because government has delivered some houses to the poor. And it reflects far-reaching changes in how and where low income South Africans live and work.

One of the most striking changes is that the size of the average South African household has fallen significantly, with the number of households growing much faster than the population…

Take housing policy. There are lots of good aspects to the strategy minister Lindiwe Sisulu launched a couple of years ago. But the central objective of government policy, as she frequently emphasises, is “that we eradicate informal settlements by 2014”. Eradicate, not upgrade. The policy is, in fact, more ambiguous.

But the rhetoric certainly suggests the aim is to abolish SA’s squatter camps in coming years. Not only is this unrealistic, but one wonders why there is an obsession with it — rather than, say, simply with ensuring people have a suitable roof over their head…

The minister’s own figures show there are 2,4-million households in informal settlements. More importantly, we have plenty of anecdotal evidence that people choose shacks even when they have access to formal houses. An office worker who can afford to rent in town might instead live in a squatter camp and spend her money on good schools for her children. And a huge number of lower income people have multiple households. One reason is high transport costs, so working adults may live in shacks close to work while other family members occupy the awkwardly situated RDP house, or rent it out. New migrants to the cities will often find temporary accommodation in township backyards or informal settlements.

So the expansion of informal settlements reflects household and migration patterns, and helps to solve the problems those patterns create. Not that informal settlements should be idealised. They are often unsanitary and unsafe. But even if SA builds a lot more houses, as it must, shacks are likely to continue to provide homes for the poor for a long time to come. So could the minister please stop threatening to eradicate them?

Business Day - News Worthing Knowing

N2 Gateway second phase ‘to start soon’ - InternAfrica Calls for public & civil participation

CAPE TOWN — Work on the second phase of the controversial N2 Gateway project to upgrade housing in informal settlements along Cape Town’s N2 highway was expected to start soon, Western Cape housing MEC Richard Dyantyi told residents of Langa last week.

Dyantyi said the project, known as Joe Slovo phase two, would yield 1000 houses, consisting of a mixture of bonded “gap” housing and fully subsidised units. At least 706 rental units were built in the first phase.

The project caused a skirmish between the newly elected Democratic Alliance-led multiparty government in the city and the African National Congress (ANC)-led province over claims of mismanagement and about R28min overruns.

Following the row, responsibility for the project was moved from the city to a government housing agency, a section 21 company called Thubelisha Homes.

The N2 Gateway project was a pilot project that formed part of the national housing department’s “breaking new ground” policy aimed at providing 22000 houses for ownership and rental, said Dyantyi. This project had sought an “urgent but sensitive response” to Cape Town’s housing needs, and the first phase had provided many lessons on how to tackle the project, he said.

The provincial housing department will be responsible for allocating the accommodation, and Dyantyi said applications were being invited from Langa, Gugulethu, Bonteheuwel, Joe Slovo, Bokmakierie and Nyanga.

He said rental costs were being finalised, and that 60 community development workers had been “deployed” to distribute the application forms and assist the applicants.

Dyantyi said the closing date for this process was today. Once the contractual issues and the process of allocation were complete, he would announce the moving-in date.

Business Day - News Worth Knowing

WUF4 Nanjing China 2008

China’s approach to rapid urbanization will influence the global urban agenda for the foreseeable future. This session will explore the changes and opportunities for urbanization in China and elsewhere, and provide insight on the issues that will table at the WUF4.

In recognition of the significance of China’s contribution to the international urban dialogue, the Fourth Session of the World Urban Forum in 2008 will be hosted by the Ministry of Construction of China and the City of Nanjing.

InternAfrica will be there.

Child-headed families increasing at alarming rate

The number of child-headed families is increasing every day and in South Africa more than two million children were orphaned in 2004, nearly half of them by Aids, according to the Joint UN Programme of HIV/Aids (UNAids) statistics.

The burden of caring for the younger children usually falls on the oldest sibling as is being experienced by a family of three in Kimberley. They are currently struggling because the eldest is too young to apply for a grant. Naledi and Akanyang have a home, lots of love and occasionally a full stomach and they have an elder sister, 17-year-old Kelebogile. She helps her sisters with their homework, clothes them and cooks their food, in short, she’s their mother.

InternAfrica has its key focus set on assisting HIV+ women with dependants. We recognise the UN Data and the problem this will be on society shortly.

Our core focus is to ensure mothers the security and knowledge that their children will survive them in a secure fire proof home.

Social Impact sans Compact

35 000 child-headed homes exist across the country already.

Things InternAfrica has learnt from WUF3

Many new ideas are coming from the World Urban Forum 3 being held in Vancouver Canada.

The most important of which we are making plans to share with Local Government and Housing. Planning is very important to sustainable development.

Eg. Planning development with the 50-year flood plain in mind.

Important Notes:

• Make planning the tool for effective urban governance

• No sustainable development without sustainable urbanisation

  No sustainable urbanisation without effective and accountable planning

• Urban planning is a precondition of sustainability

• NO Development without open transparent public participation and consultation!
  

  DIALOGUE 2
  The Shape of Cities: Urban Planning and Management

• WUF3 Webcast
  

Langa outrage over Gateway integration

Emotions ran high as Langa residents demanded answers from Local Government and Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi in a meeting over the controversial N2 Gateway housing project on Thursday night.

It was evident that Dyantyi would have his work cut out for him at the community hall, packed with more than 1 000 residents begging for clarity.

‘People from other areas are going to apply’

Dyantyi said: “The demand for housing is big and the backlog is growing each year. One of the mistakes that we have made with this project was to think of housing the people living in shacks without thinking of those living in back yards. But this is a lesson that there are other things we must take into account.”

He later added that the 70-30 split between Joe Slovo fire victims and shack dwellers (70 percent) and backyard dwellers still applied, but there was room for that policy to be revised depending on the outcome of the application process.

A particular bone of contention was the assertion by the government that would open the application process for the now complete phase one to residents in Bonteheuwel and Bokmakierie.

Resident Pamela Ngcayi was upset about people from outside of Langa being allowed to apply.

“My concern is that I have been staying in a bungalow where I was born in the back yard of my family’s house for years,” she said.

‘The N2 project is going to be benefit all the communities along the N2′

“I am now 45 years old and I still don’t have a house. Government is too slow. These houses are not enough and now people from other areas are going to apply.”

Dyantyi said the application process for the first 705 flats remained open to residents from Bonteheuwel, Bokmakierie, Crossroads, District Six and other areas that will eventually form part of the N2 Gateway project.

“The N2 project is going to be benefit all the communities along the N2. That includes District Six, Crossroads, Bokmakierie, Bonteheuwel and other areas.

“We won’t leave them behind.”

To promote integration, the application process included residents of the traditionally coloured areas of Bokmakierie and Bonteheuwel.

Other residents were concerned that very few specifics were included in the information given by the housing department, and the city before them.

The meeting heard that:

Applications for housing in phase one of the N2 Gateway project close on Monday.

Phase one flats will be rental units.

Phase two will consist of 1 000 houses with yards. It was not clear how large these houses would be.

Rent for the flats would be between R165 and R200 for “small flats” and R690 for larger units.

Cape Argus

Allocation of Gateway units extended

The process of allocating the 705 completed housing units to all eligible beneficiaries on the N2 Gateway Housing Project at Langa on the Cape Flats could be extended until the end of the month. It was due to end on Monday.

The possible extension has emerged after Richard Dyantyi, Western Cape housing and local government minister, addressed hundreds of residents at a public meeting at Langa last night. Dyantyi says the allocation of residents to the double-storied flats will be done on an affordability basis. ~ SABC

NO Development without open transparent public participation and consultation!

InternAfrica has Joined FEDUP - in this monkeybusiness of local or national housing.

This has become a sideshow of note: Restraining our severe urge to comment harshly:

Gateway not supposed to follow rules - MEC

Housing and Local Government MEC Richard Dyantyi has shrugged off investigations by the DA-led City of Cape Town administration into N2 Gateway tenders, saying it was not intended that they would “follow normal bureaucracy”.

The need for houses was so urgent that the project had to be “fast-tracked”.

When the city council stopped playing “games”, the provincial and national governments’ doors would be “open for them to come back”, Dyantyi said during a debate in the National Council of Provinces.

“So what if work began before contracts were signed? This is a pilot project that we are testing in this province. So, if it happened that we put the first brick down before the contract was signed, so what?

“The houses are standing.”…

“The N2 project is not funds-driven, it is needs-driven,” Dyantyi said.

Idea: 5.2 Visionary Design: Circular Cities and Biomimicry

Conventional buildings are huge energy consumers, challenging those who aspire to use ecological principles and tap into nature’s solutions Some visionaries are going beyond energy efficiency and traditional techniques of passive solar heating, daylighting, and natural ventilation to take design in bold new directions. If the vision holds true, these cities will generate more power than they consume through smart building techniques and solar technology.

William McDonough, an architect and author of the landmark book Cradle to Cradle, contends that every material used in the manufacturing process should ultimately either biodegrade harmlessly or be reusable with no loss of quality.

World Urban Forum 3 - Actionable Ideas

Cannabrick reduce the carbon footprint. Naturally.

“Build a Cannabrick Home” Manual

N2 Gateway audit ‘to continue’

Cape Town - The forensic audit, ordered by the multi-party Cape Town government, into the N2 Gateway housing project will continue, Democratic Alliance MP Denise Robinson told the National Council of Provinces on Wednesday.

Robinson, a former city councillor, said this would happen in spite of Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu’s decision to kick the city - which in March voted the African National Congress out of the local government - off the project.

The project adjacent to the Joe Slovo informal settlement is not far from the city’s international airport.

Robinson said the new city government had, nevertheless, committed itself to finishing the N2 Gateway but only “as and when the national government made funds available”.

She noted that the project - expected to house 22 000 families - had cost nearly R135m more than originally intended.

As of June this year only 705 housing units were ready - 3% of the target.

The units, which were all rental units, would not be owned by their intended occupants “as they are completely unaffordable to the people most in need of homes”.

In addition the project was being built on a 50-year floodplain “adding to the city’s costs”, while contractors were still owed millions of rands. - FIN24

Lawyers warned city about N2 project firm

As the row over the controversial and costly N2 Gateway project flares again on Wednesday with renewed debate in the city and in parliament, the spotlight falls on a top-level hazard warning by lawyers more than a year ago.

It has emerged that in a confidential memorandum to Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, provincial Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi and former mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo, Cape Town law firm Cheadle, Thompson & Haysom highlighted concerns about the appointment of Johannesburg firm Cyberia Technologies - an IT company - as project managers for the N2 Gateway scheme.

The lawyers’ investigation, in March 2005, was apparently commissioned by the political threesome, known as “M3″.

It is understood that the report found that while the tender adjudicators in the city rated Cyberia the least favourite of six rivals for the job, the council’s Goods and Services Property Advisory Board placed it first.

They lost millions as a result of the bungled handling of the development

The contract, which was eventually increased to more than R12m from R5m, was approved in a closed tender process.

More than R4m was injected into the project a month before Cyberia’s contract was terminated in January this year.

The city law firm’s memorandum concluded that while the appointment process may have been flawed, there was “no conclusive evidence of direct political interference in the process” or of “improper behaviour by the project managers”.

The memorandum does advise that “concerns about the competencies of the project managers” be dealt with.

It also highlights “possible problems in the procurement process” and the “lack of integration” between the three spheres of government involved.

It is apparent from the multimillion-rand cost overruns, and claims by developers who say they lost millions as a result of the bungled handling of the development that last year’s warnings were not heeded or acted on.

The row over the project escalated last week when Sisulu cut the city out of the project in the wake of Mayco’s pointed questioning of officials about who approved funding or issued instructions on the project.

Mayco decided it could not foot the bill for overruns or contractors’ claims until these questions were answered.

At the last Mayco meeting, councillors were told that some of the problems were “to a degree a result of poor project management and a lack of capacity in oversight on what those managers were doing at that time”.

The N2 Gateway controversy is a hot topic again today with a fresh round of debate in Mayco and also in the National Council of Provinces.

Several other housing matters account for a significant portion of Mayco’s 1 008-page agenda for its last meeting on Wednesday before the holiday recess starts.

Councillors are being asked to approve a key shift from delivering “full package” (a completed house) to “incremental” (site and service, or informal settlement upgrades) solutions, and also to find an extra R120m to push up the total delivery for the year from 8 000 to 20 000 “housing opportunities”.

A report notes “the present housing delivery approach is not denting the housing backlog significantly” and that “the demand of housing is more than the available resources” and needs accelerated delivery.

Mayco is being asked to enter into urgent discussions with the SA National Defence Force over the city’s plan to use Wingfield land to build about 4 200 houses. - Cape Argus

W Cape lags badly in low-cost housing

If figures issued by Statistics South Africa can be believed, the Western Cape lagged badly behind the other provinces in providing low-cost subsidised housing in the year ended March.

According to these figures, only 2 040 low-cost houses were built in the province in this period. This compares with 16 874 built in the Eastern Cape, 17 635 in the Free State, 21 603 in KwaZulu-Natal, 23 409 in Gauteng and 21 973 in Limpopo. These houses all cost just under R26 000.

However, the provision of low-cost housing in the Western Cape province has been on a downward path for some years. In 2002 a total of 19 534 houses were built. This number fell to 16 926 in 2003 and to 12 751 in 2004.

This does not seem sufficient to provide for the more than 30 000 people which Statistics South Africa reported migrate to the Western Cape every year.

In the private sector there are signs of some levelling off in new construction. In the four months ended April, local authorities approved the construction of new buildings worth R5.2 billion. This was 8.1% more than in the same period last year. However, when increases in costs are taken into account the physical volume of work is probably no more than last year.

There was a big increase in the first four months of this year in the number of small houses (less than 80m2) built. However, there was a marked falling off in the construction of new houses, flats and apartments. There was also a significant decline in cost increases and it seems possible that this and the reduced amount of business on offer could be connected.

Plans for 2 088 houses with a floor area of less than 80m2 were approved. The average cost was R67 562, which was only 1.6% above the 2005 price.

In contrast there was a distinct drop from last year in the number of houses planned with a floor area of 80m2 from 2 627 to 2 274.

But the average cost rose some 4% from R649 000 in the first four months of last year to R676 000 in the same period this year.

A little surprising was the decline in the number of flats and townhouses planned.

In the four months ended April this year only 1 603 were approved, which was sharply down from 1 941 last year. However, the 12% increase in average prices from R345 000 last year to R386 000 this year is possibly constraining developers.

But a development that should gladden the local construction industry is the big increase in the number of commercial buildings in the pipeline.

Plans for office and banking space costing R277 million were approved, which was 144% higher than last year. The amount of money to be spent on new industrial and warehousing space was also substantially higher, jumping 82% from R408m to R742m.

The strong increase in the cost of new buildings over the years has made it more effective for house owners to improve their existing houses.

This resulted in plans for additions and alterations to dwelling houses costing R1.24bn to be submitted to local authorities in the Western Cape for their approval this year.

Alterations and additions to non-residential buildings costing R444.5m were also approved. This was 16% more than last year.
The half-a-percent increase earlier this month in the interest rate is not likely to have much effect on the building industry.

The increase is seen as extremely modest and not likely to push up building costs.

Only if it is regarded as the start of a trend towards dearer money will the increase in rates begin to have an impact on building plans. - Cape Argus

Inspired by Rose & WUF3

Having just watched the web cast of the WUF3 day one plenary session we are inspired that people around the world are realising the complexity of the issues, and key issues we all experience in the global human habitat appear to be the same.

If you want to meet the Cities without slums and MDG by 2020 do it yourself.

Following the SABC 3 Special Assignment on the N2 Gateway Project - Housed in Controversy. It is clear that government members are very well dressed, and unable to deliver. Thus being FEDUP is quite understandable.

Fire fumes kill dad and 2 children

A father and his two children died in their sleep, apparently of asphyxiation, after the family neglected to put out a brazier on Saturday night.

“It appears the man and his wife used the metal bin found in their bedroom to make a fire to warm the house but left it burning when they went to sleep,” Superintendent Billy Jones said on Sunday.

He said relatives who went to visit the family in Nyanga on Sunday had found the children - aged seven months and four years old - dead, and their parents unconscious. The two were rushed to hospital where the man later died. - Sapa

Africans struggling to prevent child burn injuries

CAPE TOWN — The cold of winter has arrived in the tiny shacks of Langa township, near the southern tip of Africa. People light small fires on dirt floors, warming their hands close to the blaze. In some homes, such as Nosathini Sikobongeli’s , kerosene cookers shoot flames a foot high.

Arrie Odendaal winced when he walked into Sikobongeli’s shack, which doubles as a shabeen, or local drinking spot. He started to reach out for her 2-year-old daughter, Sandra , as she skipped by the open flame. “I’m worried about that fire,” said Odendaal, a researcher on injury prevention for South Africa’s Medical Research Council .

“I know,” the mother replied. “But I don’t have anything else to keep us warm.”

Odendaal was working on a project studying safety attitudes and precautions among parents in South Africa’s townships. That work is part of a growing recognition around Africa of the extraordinary number of children who suffer from serious burns inside poor people’s homes and then receive almost no help afterward.

“It’s a pretty devastating injury, and it’s for life,” said Dr. Rene Albertyn, a pain specialist at Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town, the only hospital devoted solely to children south of the Sahara.

“There’s very little support for a burnt, disfigured child in Africa. If we push out 1,000 children after treating them each year, where are those children going? The answer is that they become hidden figures in society. It’s a desperate situation for them.”

…A household survey in Mozambique found that burns were the number one cause of injuries to children…

Everywhere in the world, young children are at a greater risk than adults of being burned. Their skin is much thinner than an adult’s. Their natural curiosity attracts them to many hot sources. Toddlers tip easily. - Boston Globe

WE TOLD YOU SO!!!

A geological setback, high rentals and a budget overrun throws the N2 housing project into a crisis.

The beleaguered N2 Gateway housing project in Cape Town has been dealt a further financial blow by the discovery that 705 units comprising the projects first phase have been built on a 50-year-flood plain.

The city has had to fork out a further R10m to build a culvert to divert possible flood waters, Democratic Alliance councillor, Niel Ross, chairperson of the city’s housing committee confirmed this week.

The floodplain setback was part of a triple whammy for the R1.2bn project this week, also including: The discovery that only 11 families of a sample of 200 waiting for houses in the city could afford rentals in phase one; and the disclosure in a council debate this week that the development had incurred a R35m overrun in building costs. SHF - M&G

Housed in Controversy

As you come in to land at Cape Town International, a near-endless sea of shacks is visible from the air. Every day people arrive in the Mother City from the rural areas, in search of greener pastures. They are desperate for jobs, they require health care. Most importantly, perhaps, they need housing. It’s a mammoth job, but one that demands political will and careful managing.

The politics of the Western Cape has in recent years been marked by uncertainty and inter-party squabbling. And it’s affecting the delivery of housing.

The N2 Gateway project probably has the highest profile of all housing projects undertaken since 1994. It aims to build houses for the poor along the N2, in line with government’s objective to eliminate the informal settlements that line the highway linking the airport to the city centre. But even this praiseworthy project has been bedevilled by politics. That the City Metro under Mayor Helen Zille has been “removed” from the project by the Minister of Housing is an indication of this political sensitivity.

On the ground, there is also tension. The first phase of the five-phase project is almost finished and has 705 units. Who gets to move in has become a source of conflict in the surrounding areas. Those living in informal settlements expect to be housed there first, especially the residents of the Joe Slovo settlement, who were originally re-located to make way for the construction.

Many would argue that one of the greatest challenges in post-apartheid South Africa is to integrate the poor into the life of the cities. So far the government has only paid lip service to the idea. The segregated landscape of the past is still intact and, in fact, has been perpetuated by the new government in its hurry to house the electorate.

In this investigation Special Assignment looks into other options available to house the poor in South Africa and assesses the effects of uncertainty and political in-fighting on delivery.

SABC Special Assignment Tuesday 19/6 SABC3 21:30

Cape Town’s great housing bungle

Dramatic revelations of the costly bungling in the controversial N2 Gateway project show that contractors started work without signed contracts, approved funding or even clear guidelines on what they were supposed to build.

The insights provided to the mayoral committee (Mayco) reveal the fullest picture yet of a politically driven development in which millions of rands were squandered because basic contractual procedures were abandoned in the haste to get housing on the ground.

The city is now set to call for a forensic audit of all contracts in relation to the N2 Gateway project.

The extent of the bungles came to light in a tense grilling of senior city officials by Mayco on Friday.

The public servants of Cape Town were all but powerless.

At issue was a R28-million tab the city was being asked to pick up for overruns and for multi-million rand claims by disgruntled contractors.

Mayco decided that in the absence of a thorough forensic audit, it would not accept liability.

City, provincial and national officials were fingered for their role in the saga.

In an uncharacteristic move, Mayco initially decided to close the meeting to the public because of the sensitivity of the matters under discussion. The press had to leave.

However, mayor Helen Zille, who was resting in her office because of an illness, was alerted and insisted the debate be opened. By then, most of the journalists had gone.

The N2 Gateway project was the ‘right’ kind for Cape Town.

What ensued was akin at times to a grand jury as Mayco pressed officials to provide clear answers.

What is apparent is that the public servants of Cape Town were all but powerless as they were caught up in a politically driven development agenda that took on a mad-cap quality because of the haste with which it was being implemented.

It emerged that contractors were on site, building structures at vast cost, in the absence of duly signed contracts or clear instructions on what was to be built, and before there was even a project budget.

Letters of appointment issued to contractors in the first phase of the rushed exercise, to which were attached a host of specifications, restrictions and objectives, were withdrawn halfway through the process, and new letters issued without any conditions at all.

The spotlight falls on six people - three politicians and three senior officials - who formed two committees that drove the project.

The politicians are former mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo, provincial housing MEC Richard Dyantyi and national Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu. The officials are acting director-general of the national Housing Department Ahmedi Vawda, provincial housing department head Shanaaz Majiet and city executive director Rushj Lehutso.

It is apparent the three officials were acting under political instructions, but it is not known what the specific instructions were, or on what authority they were given.

Mfeketo, Dyantyi and Sisulu - referred to in reports as “M3″ - may hold the key to the unanswered questions.

The city’s most senior planner, Stephen Boshoff, said the N2 Gateway project was the “right” kind for Cape Town, offering a development model the city should use on a wider scale.

And, as Mayco member Dan Plato repeatedly stated, the DA-led multi-party forum “is committed to the N2 Gateway project and to building houses for the poorest of the poor”.

However the focus of Mayco’s questions on Friday was the costly departures from standard approvals processes.

The questioning began with Mayco member for finance Ian Neilson wanting to “understand how this project unfolded”, and to know who was responsible for setting standards, approving designs and issuing orders.

It fell to senior officials - director of human settlements Seth Maquetuka, city project co-ordinator for the N2 Gateway Peter Oscroft and manager of finance: housing Wayne Muller - to try to give clarity on these matters.

Among the revelations were that:

• There was “such haste” with the project that the design work and the initial construction work were effectively “parallel processes”, Oscroft said. This led to some of the cost overruns because it was found that the ground was poor and additional foundation construction was needed. Further cost overruns arose because greening and landscaping of the sites were not part of the initial calculations.
  
  
• “Pricing was not determined before work was started,” said Oscroft. “We were a long way down the track with Joe Slovo phase one before the final prices were assembled. To a degree, this was as a result of poor project management by consultants and a lack of capacity in oversight on what those managers were doing at that time.”
  
  
• Initial letters of appointment to contractors on April 18 last year, which “set strict terms of compliance” with the Municipal Financial Management Act and with subsidy and grant funding requirements, were withdrawn on instruction from Ikhwezi, and were replaced, according to a city report, by “revised letters with the original restrictive conditions removed”.Oscroft told Mayco: “I cannot answer who instructed Ikhwezi, but the project managers, Cyberia, were given the instruction to withdraw the original letters and substitute them with letters of appointment which had less strenuous requirements.”
  
  
• Maquetuka told Mayco that the fact that this was a pilot project was the key context.He said: “The steering committee was given a mandate (by the politicians) to drive the process. A project management unit was appointed to deal with the day-to-day management. Most of the decisions flowed in that fashion.”On the question of a political mandate, Maquetuka said: “In terms of mandates, from a policy point of view, the highest decision-making body was M3 (Mfeketo, Dyantyi and Sisulu). That’s where the authority came from.”

Neilson wrapped up the meeting by saying: “From what we have heard - and it seems fuzzy as to who made what decisions to do what - I am not in a position to know to what extent the city is liable to pay the R28m cost overrun.

“It is not clear if it was the city, the province or the national government that made decisions which led to the overrun. Until we know that, we cannot make that decision.

“And clearly, the whole process was not a way to proceed in getting houses built. We cannot replicate this process in the city again. And calling it a pilot project is not an excuse not to do the job properly.

He said a thorough forensic investigation was needed. - Cape Argus

The June 16 Generation - It Can

With the 30 year anniversary having past 3 days ago for both, InternAfrica raises the struggle again, there are millions of people who need a sustainable way to build “City-Zenship” through reducing the ecological footprint, and use of renewable energies.

June 16 1976

* SA Student uprising - the begining of the end of apartheid
* The first Habitat Conference held in Vancouver - the begining of the end of slums

As the World Urban Forum3 Opens tonight - we step forward into the next 30 years.

Why do we still have these habitat problems? To build a home is a physical thing, far more achievable than a new political dispensation. We have accomplished that. We CAN resolve our habitat crisis.

Farm workers evicted for tourists

The controversial eviction of 300 workers’ families from estates in the Jonkershoek valley near Stellenbosch — including Christo Wiese’s wine estate, Lourensford — has been temporarily halted following a trade union protest campaign.

Farmers are planning to convert workers’ tied housing into tourist and student accommodation to generate extra income.

Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool last week called farm evictions the new “silent epidemic” in the Western Cape. “It has pushed the housing backlog to the rural towns,” he said. - M&G

MPs vent their frustration at housing department Scams

MPs roasted the Department of Housing on Wednesday for lacking control over its subsidy system, resulting in irregular awards exceeding R300-million to government employees.

Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts expressed dismay at the vagueness of answers from director general Itumeleng Kotsoane and deputy Mziwonke Dlabantu regarding systemic loopholes.

“We did not get a sense that you are with us in terms of concern,” committee chairperson Themba Godi said at the conclusion of a four-hour hearing.

“You at senior level, you either do not see it or you are shielding these people.”

The department’s responses to problems highlighted by Auditor General Shauket Fakie in January were generic and academic, said Godi.

“It was really a serious challenge to sit and listen to responses that did not show a sense of full appreciation of the problems,” he told departmental representatives.

Fakie’s report found that subsidies had been awarded to government employees whose earnings exceeded the threshold, to deceased individuals, people with invalid ID numbers and to applicants younger than 21. Some people got more than one subsidy.

Based on an average subsidy of R15 000, the loss from such irregularities was put at a minimum of R322-million.

Fakie said many of the original application forms had been lost, making his audit difficult.

Kotsoane, who is new to the job, sat with his head in his hands for most of the proceedings as committee members asked how this could have happened, and what was being done to avoid a repeat.

He referred most of the questions to his deputy.

Dlabantu explained that part of the problem arose because provincial housing departments used to have separate, unlinked data systems.

Prodded by MPs, he said a national system was introduced in 2000. Fakie’s audit was done on subsidies awarded up to March 2004.

Since then, close to 2 000 more irregular subsidies were awarded, representing about R30-million.

Dlabantu said a skills shortage was partly to blame, but gave no details of the department’s needs. He could also not provide data on disciplinary action taken.

Committee members reacted sharply to a statement by the director general that provincial departments should account for themselves.

The national department had given provinces the means to run their affairs, Kotsoane said, adding the committee had a duty to ensure provincial departments spent their budgets properly.

But committee members said this was the role of the national department.

“You are the overall accounting officer,” said member Thandi Tobias, to approving nods from her colleagues.

Eddie Trent pointed out that Fakie’s report did not cover subsidies to ordinary members of the public, meaning the full extent of the problem was much wider.

“What worries me is that this is the main function of your department … and you cannot even get that right.”

Committee member Vincent Smith expressed amazement that the very same provincial staff members the department claimed lacked capacity, were given powers to override national decisions to turn down subsidy applications.

“Clearly you have people incapable of doing their work and instead of restricting their authority you give them authority to go carte blanche,” he said.

“You can be assured that when we do our resolution you will feel the pain of these types of statements. This is not acceptable.”

Several committee members said it appeared departmental officials had not read Fakie’s report, and had failed to do much about his findings.

A joint steering committee promised by Minister of Housing Lindiwe Hendricks in November, for example, was set up in March and has met only once.

Housing portfolio committee chairperson Zoliswa Kota expressed concern that the department extended its own deadline for rectifying the situation to December.

“We are worried because [the bulk] of the budget of housing goes to the … provinces. If these kinds of challenges arise, the question of value for money for government becomes a key priority in our minds.”

Godi said strong departmental leadership was key to achieving government objectives.

“Officials must not lose the political imperative of doing the right thing,” he said. “We fought for liberation for the state machinery to serve the interests of our people.” — Sapa

World Urban Forum 3 - WUF3

In response to André du Plessis’s message below
——–
Thanks for your posting. In a day or two, please check out the summary of the 70 ideas-to-action being presented to Forum participants. It will be available at Habitat Jam.

Posted by: Charles Kelly | June 15, 2006 at 10:39

THE WORLD IS IN BIG TROUBLE

SYNOPSIS

Never before has the world had to face the massive problems it now does.The earth cannot sustain the current population with an acceptable lifestyle for all.

The following paper although only a few pages long sets out very clearly and simply why overpopulation greed and exploitation of resources (including labour) has led to these massive problems.It briefly outlines the causes of overpopulation and environmental degradation. More importantly it sets out clearly and succinctly the actions required both in the short and longer term, to effectively tackle overpopulation,environmental degradation and gross human suffering.

Please take a couple of minutes to read it : Commissioner General WUF3 - Charles Kelly

Business Day - Corrupt Housing officials

CAPE TOWN — Housing department officials failed to provide satisfactory answers to Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) yesterday about irregularities involving more than R300m in housing subsidies.

Senior department officials were called to account by Scopa on findings by auditor-general Shauket Fakie about lack of proper control in the country’s housing subsidy system. He found subsidies had been allocated irregularly to people who were dead, already beneficiaries, or who did not qualify.

His audit found that as at March 2004, 53426 subsidies worth R323m were granted irregularly. Among the irregular beneficiaries were more than 7000 government employees earning more than the maximum qualifying income and 6708 applicants under 21.

Heads of six provincial housing departments, the provincial accounts committee chairmen and members of the parliamentary housing portfolio committee also attended the hearing, which heard about problems such as missing subsidy application files, system failures and capacity problems.

Few of the issues raised by Fakie in his report, published in January, had been addressed, the committee heard.

A joint steering committee set up by Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu in November last year to deal with the issues had met only once, and would complete its work only by December, the committee heard. Housing portfolio committee chairwoman Zoe Kota said this was late, and stressed the need for government to get “value for money” from its expenditure.

One of the constraints on a full inquiry into subsidies is that housing department director-general Itumeleng Kotsoane has been in the job for only about six weeks. The committee said it was not satisfied with the general explanations given by the deputy director-general for strategic support, Mziwonke Dlabantu.

He said monitoring systems and capacity had been strengthened and additional government database searches would come into effect later in the year.

Of grave concern to Scopa members was the ability of provincial housing officials to override a rejection of an application by the national housing department after a check against the home affairs identification register and the deeds register.

African National Congress MP Vincent Smith said the officials “will feel the pain” of these kind of unacceptable explanations when Scopa formulated a resolution for adoption by the National Assembly on Fakie’s report.

He also stressed the urgency for the department to beef up its financial management and internal audit functions.

Scopa chairman Themba Godi said that the committee was not “100% satisfied” with the answers given.

Other members questioned the seriousness and commitment of the department to deal with the problems.

Godi criticised the department for not acting swiftly against corrupt officials.

Business Day - News Worth Knowing

N2 Gateway contractors to wait for payment

Contractors who have not been paid for work on the N2 Gateway housing project may have to wait until the auditor-general has reviewed the finances of the government’s flagship project before they recover their costs. Full Story

Cape housing beneficiaries have longer wait

Beneficiaries of the N2 Gateway housing project in Langa on the Cape Flats will have to wait for a longer period, as politicians try to out manoeuvre each other on the running of the project. The City of Cape Town under the Democratic Alliance (DA)-led multi-party coalition has been kicked out of the project.

A forum of the national housing minister and MEC’s has blamed Helen Zille, the Cape Town mayor, of undermining intergovernmental relations, by raising concerns around the project in the media. Richard Dyantyi, the Western Cape housing minister, has described the forum’s decision as an attempt to prevent the project from becoming a political football.

Dyantyi says they did recognise that things turned differently immediately after elections, when the city was in different hands and thinks that its an unfortunate thing. “Instead of an intensified co-operative governance issues, they are having a lot of issues being played out in the media without those being discussed in proper intergovernmental relations structures.”

Project to be audited
Zille, who was kicked out of the project after she halted all payments for the project, says contracts were not signed, budgets were overshot by millions of rands, and it there seems to have been some corruption in the process. This is the reason why they are doing a forensic audit, she says.

Zille says she accepts the fact that national government has taken over the project, however, she says government must also pay for problems caused by the project. The N2 Gateway housing project was created to decrease the maze of shacks along the highway. SABC

Cape council kicked off Gateway project

The City of Cape Town, accused of using the N2 Gateway as a “political football”, has been stripped by national government of all responsibilities relating to the housing project.

Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu declared a dispute against the City on Monday and instructed Mayor Helen Zille to recuse herself and the DA-led multiparty government from future involvement in the project.

But Zille said: “There is little new in today’s announcement. Province and (Sisulu) have already taken this project away from the City of Cape Town. This happened the day before the March 1 elections when an agreement was signed with Thubelisha Homes.”

‘The City’s remaining role in the N2 Gateway is to hand over all relevant information’

This agreement placed the next phase of the project in the hands of provincial and national government.

“The City’s remaining role in the N2 Gateway is to hand over all relevant information to Thubelisha, and to provide services to the flats,” she said.

Sisulu met with housing MECs and representatives of the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) on Monday in Gordon’s Bay to discuss the progress of government’s implementation of housing projects.

Their decision to freeze the City’s participation in the inter-governmental management of the government’s flagship project was announced at a hastily convened briefing late on Monday night.

While it was impossible for most media representatives to attend the briefing, the Cape Times learned later that while project management was transferred from the City to the province and Thubelisha Homes in February, the City was still part of the M3 group comprising representatives of the three tiers of government.

‘The auditor general’s involvement is a welcome development’

The City has now been dropped from this inter-governmental oversight group, “in the context that housing is a national and provincial competency”.

The N2 Gateway project has been dogged by controversy since its launch last year.

Zille said last week that the City refused to pick up the tab of more than R200-million for overrun costs and claims by contractors against the City for payment delays.

It is still unclear how the first 705 completed units will be allocated. Building costs of the units have increased significantly since the project started, resulting in a R35-million budget overrun for the first phase.

Delegates attending the two-day meeting, which ends on Monday, reportedly welcomed Sisulu’s decision to wait until she could respond with the housing MECs to reports about the status of the pilot housing project.

The City was accused of contravening the Intergovernmental Relations Bill that regulates interaction between the three spheres of government.

Zille’s absence from a recent M3 meeting about the project was highlighted as a lack of willingness by the City to participate in formal discussions with the government and province.

The delegates supported Sisulu’s decision, announced last month, to place Auditor-General Shauket Fakie in control of financial aspects of the project.

Zille has welcomed this, saying: “The auditor general’s involvement is a welcome development. We are also committed to continuing our forensic audit into the matter.”

The City has referred one of the tenders for the management of the project’s first phase, awarded by the former ANC-led administration to Cyberia Technologies, for forensic audit.

Although Cyberia were awarded a R5m tender for project management, they were paid altogether R12m before their contract was terminated shortly before the local government election.

The question of the overruns remains unanswered, although it was suggested that the auditor-general would decide how much of this would be paid by the City.

Zille said she “welcomed the admission” by Sisulu that province and national government should “share in covering the outstanding costs of this project”. The City is still responsible for the funding and provision of bulk infrastructure for the development.

Local Government and Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi could not be reached for comment late on Monday night. Neither could Sisulu’s spokesperson, who did not return several messages.

* This article was originally published on page 1 of The Cape Times on June 13, 2006

Western Cape can’t keep it’s house/ing in order

The Western Cape department of local government and housing in Cape Town has had its electricity and water supply cut by the city council. The department is now running on emergency power.

The City says the department won’t be reconnected until the Province pays it R700 000 owing by this department alone. The city says it’s owed a total of R3.2 billion in outstanding water and lights, and has now started a name and shame campaign to recover this debt.

The City said it followed standard protocol, gave the Department repeated notification and a 48-hour final warning. It says it cut the water and electricity supply as a last resort.

Officials dispute amounts
Lynne Brown, the Western Cape finance minister,disputes the amount owed to the Cape Town Unicity for unpaid electricity, rates and water bills. Brown says the Provincial Government owes the Cape Town Unicity R6 million, while the City says the figure is R80 million. Brown’s response follows the city’s cutting of electricity and water to the provincial department of Local Government and Housing.

The City says this department owes it R700 000. Brown says it’s unfortunate that the municipality did not deal with the Provincial Cabinet about the outstanding debt or within inter-governmental structures. SABC

City cannot carry Gateway costs alone

The city of Cape Town should not be expected to carry on its own the N2 Gateway’s overrun costs and contractors’ claims of close to R200-million as the project was undertaken as an “unfunded mandate at the directive” of the national department of housing, says executive mayor Helen Zille.

In a letter sent to Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu on Monday, Zille said she would ask senior counsel to determine “how much of ratepayers’ money the city would have to pay” for a flagship project that had exceeded its budget and gone beyond its deadline for completion.

“While we concur with the broad objectives of Breaking New Ground (the national housing policy), we note that this statement of intent has not been costed or funded and therefore cannot be implemented.”

‘The project thus far is shocking to say the least’

Zille said that, “without prejudice”, the city would support the N2 Gateway only if it was tackled in accordance with established national policies and the city’s integrated development plan.

Sisulu said that, as the minister, she did not conduct relations with other spheres of government through the media. She said she “understood that Zille was new, but by now she should have familiarised herself with government protocol”.

The matter would be referred to the MEC for Local Government and Housing, Richard Dyantyi, to “whom Ms Zille accounts”, said Sisulu.

Dyantyi said he “respected the platforms of communication that had been created” and would comment on Zille’s letter only after a meeting of the three levels of government involved in the project.

Zille said the allocation of the units was the “most complex” aspect of the development and had to be shared by the city and the province.

“I am not passing the buck, but it should not just be the city’s responsibility.”

Dyantyi was on record as having said the N2 Gateway was not the city’s responsibility, Zille said.

Seth Maqetuka, city director of human settlements, said at the weekend that only 11 families had qualified for accommodation in the first phase of 705 units.

The ambitious 22 000-unit development has been mired in controversy since its launch last year as an intergovernmental initiative involving the city, province and national department of housing.

Responsibility for the project management of the development was transferred from the city to the province in February, shortly before the March 1 elections.

DA councillor Neil Ross, of the housing portfolio committee, told the council last week that overrun costs of more than R35-million would have to picked up by the city.

Zille said there were indications that each unit would cost R160 000, double the R80 000 initially estimated.

Ross said claims by contractors who had not been paid could cost the city a further R160-million.

Sisulu announced in her housing budget speech that the project would be finished within three years, but Ross said Thubelisha Homes estimated that it would take at least six years to complete.

Zille’s letter said: “What has emerged about the project thus far is shocking to say the least.

“The city was required to implement this unfunded mandate at the directive of your administration and the city now faces huge claims from various companies involved in the undertaking. This we cannot accept.”

She said many contractors had worked without contracts, allowing them to charge up to three times more for building structures.

Zille referred to the forensic audit of the Cyberia contract which was tendered at R5-million but eventually cost the city a total of R12-million.

Zille said the city could not be solely responsible for any part of a project that was pushed through by national government “without a proper policy framework”.

“Before we embark on any further aspect of this project, it is absolutely essential to establish the project’s protocols,” she said.

Funding and policy needed to be established by the national housing department so that province and the city could apply these guidelines.

ANC provincial secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha said there should have been better communication with the constituencies to warn them that houses would be available for specific groups of people.

Backyard dweller organisations have already warned that there could be chaos over allocation.

o This article was originally published on page 1 of Cape Times on June 06, 2006

705 N2 units ready, Only 11 families told

The first 705 units of the N2 Gateway project may be ready for occupation, but only 11 families have apparently been told by the City that they qualify to move in.

Seth Maqetuka, the City’s human settlement director, said that of the 200 candidates who had applied for accommodation, only 11 families would be able to afford the R300 to R500 monthly rental.

When contacted on Sunday for confirmation, Maqetuka said: “Yes, those are the facts.”

‘We must remember that everything on the N2 Gateway is a pilot project’

But ANC councillor Xolile Gophe said this figure of 11 families sounded “ridiculous”.

Gophe said the City had already sent out 200 letters to candidates drawn from various housing lists and that 150 had responded.


“We must remember that everything on the N2 Gateway is a pilot project and things are bound to change.”

He said the allocation split of 70 percent for shack dwellers and 30 percent for backyarders “was not set in stone”.

Backyard dweller organisations warned last week that there would be potential chaos when people did eventually move into the units.

They had appealed for a 50/50 allocation split that would give more backyarders an opportunity to qualify for housing.

Gophe said government stakeholders would meet today about the allocation policy.

“This is the first time we will know about the allocation. We have not yet received the report (that refers to the 11 families who qualified).”

Local government and housing MEC Richard Dyantyi confirmed that a consultative allocation process was taking place in the form of workshops.

“We are also acknowledging the fact that the process is not as fast as we would like it to be. We might not be talking numbers for now, as we still have the majority of families to be taken through the process, but we are committed to speeding up the process in the next two weeks so that we can come to the final stages of allocation.”

Dyantyi said a consortium of independent auditors was working on the City’s housing list.

Gophe said it was a “given” that not everyone on the waiting lists would be able to move into the settlement.

“In Joe Slovo there are more than 6 000 families. The 705 units are just a drop in the ocean and not everyone will benefit.”

An estimated 250 000 families are currently affected by the housing backlog.

The national housing department announced last week that the second phase of the development, which has already started, will be run entirely by Thubelisha Homes.

Existing Joe Slovo residents will be relocated to 1 400 temporary units at Delft during the construction of the next set of units.

o This article was originally published on page 4 of Cape Times on June 05, 2006

N2 Gateway claims threatens housing project

Contractors have threatened to bring claims amounting to more than R100-million against the city for mismanagement of the N2 Gateway housing project, says Democratic Alliance councillor Neil Ross.

“And the R35-million overrun in building the top structures are costs that council will also have to pick up.”

These revelations emerged during Thursday’s heated debate in full council about a recommendation to slash the N2 Gateway’s capital budget from R317-million to R86-million.

The city could still be liable for claims and overrun costs

While the management of the N2 Gateway was transferred from the city to the province and Thubelisha Homes in February, the city is still responsible for the funding and monitoring of bulk infrastructure.

Ross said that while this transfer was done shortly before the March 1 local government elections, the city could still be liable for claims and overrun costs of more than R35-million.

“We were given R80 000 per unit for the top structures, but they cost between R125 000 and R140 000. Who is responsible for this?” Tozama Bevu of the African National Congress (ANC) said the project was handed to the province “because they were the best to run it”.

Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said in parliament last week that 22 000 houses would be built within the next three years. Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi said earlier that construction of the next phases was already under way.

But Ross said Thubelisha Homes indicated at a recent presentation that the N2 Gateway project would take at least six years to complete.

National government wanted to change the facade of the N2

“It should have been done by December 2006, but only 10 percent has been completed,” said Ross.

Ross said tender irregularities for the N2 Gateway project had cost the city more than R12-million. “Cyberia Technologies tendered for R5-million but were paid R12-million. Where did the extra R7-million come from?”

Vincent Bergh of the African Christian Democratic Party accused the ANC of shrouding the N2 Gateway project in secrecy.

“The real reason for the N2 is because national government wanted to change the facade of the N2 between Cape Town and the airport before 2010.”

He said the ANC ignored the City’s “competent in-house staff” and opted instead to appoint consultants.

But Bevu said the former ANC administration terminated Cyberia’s contract.

“It is nonsense that the N2 was done in secret.”

She said the N2 Gateway was proof the ANC was delivering. Ross said the allocation of units, “promised to every one and his wife”, had created unrealistic expectations that were compounded by the “political meddling of the former executive mayor (Nomaindia Mfeketo)”.

Dan Plato, mayoral committee member for housing, said: “There have been lots of problems with the funding of the N2 and lots of mistakes have been made.”

He said he would meet today with stakeholders for a status report on the project.

“The multi-party government is not happy with this project. It has cost the City at this point millions of rands already.”

Xolile Gophe of the ANC rebutted these allegations, saying: “There is no problem whatsoever as far as the N2 Gateway is concerned.”

“We must learn from the N2 that we can build houses in a year,” said Bevu.

* This article was originally published on page 3 of The Cape Times on June 02, 2006

Backyarders warn of ‘chaos’ in Cape

As D-day for the occupation of homes in the N2 Gateway Project nears, backyard dweller organisations from Gugulethu and other areas are raising concerns about the allocation criteria, and are warning of potential “chaos” when people start moving in.

Mncedisi Twalo, head of the Gugulethu Backyarder’s Association said the backyarders from Nyanga, Philippi and Langa had met with Cape Town mayor Helen Zille, director for human settlements Seth Maqethuka, mayoral committee member for housing Dan Plato and city housing official Basil Davidson on Monday.

“We demanded an explanation about the allocation,” said Twalo.

“Province is in charge, but our questions are related to the criteria.

‘The backlog increases because of the influx of people and young people are also growing up’

They are talking about giving the houses to people earning R3 000. People being interviewed don’t qualify because they earn less than R3 000.

“And this 70 percent shack dwellers and 30 percent backyarders criteria, where does it come from? It’s painful for backyarders.

“We’re not happy, we want 50-50. The people being given 70 percent only arrived in Cape Town now and we have been living in backyards for years.

“Now we have to tell this news to the masses. It’s going to be chaos,” said Twalo.

He said the housing backlog was being politicised.

“There is also Zille’s pilot project for backyarders in Grassy Park. When they invaded land they were removed, but within 72 hours they had been given back their material and a parcel of land,” he said.

“Treatment is not the same. It’s excluding us. They tell us about other projects like the Mau Mau Project, but they are not getting implemented. It’s still in the pipeline.

“Bear in mind the backlog increases because of the influx of people and young people are also growing up.”

The housing department’s response was that the allocation stays. - Cape Times