Homeless kick the ball around as president watches

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

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

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

Habitat Day

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

Khayelitsha filth ‘causing high TB rate’

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

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

Fears that Cape faces executive paralysis

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

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

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



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

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

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

Floods left over 3 200 homeless

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

High rent shuts shack dwellers out of Gateway

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

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

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

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

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

Promises lacking delivery

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This rate is currently 11 percent.

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

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

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

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

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

N2 Gateway residents move in

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

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

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

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

March draws attention to plight of homeless

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fire leaves scores homeless in Khayelitsha

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

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

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

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

Housing fraud plagues WCape

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I-Net Bridge

City Releases Land for Affordable Housing

SOURCE: City of Cape Town

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shack dwellers held after clash with police

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Housing & Service delivery turns ugly

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

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

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

‘Volatile’

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

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

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

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

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

People fume as unbuilt houses wait for audit

Frustrated Masiphumelele residents, the intended beneficiaries of a housing scheme, are still waiting for their unfinished homes to be built more than a year after being ditched by a contracted builder.

The provincial authorities said that construction would resume once an “audit” of the unfinished scheme was assessed. The audit was expected to be completed soon.

The intended occupants of the 43 unfinished houses, however, say they are still living in damp backyard shacks and their patience is running out.

The houses were being built as part of the local People’s Housing Project (PHP)

Most of the unfinished houses do not have roofs, windows or doors. In some cases, the only sign of construction is a concrete floor.

The building of the houses was abandoned when the company disappeared without finishing the project midway through last year.

One of those still waiting for the completion of her house is Siziwe Silolo, 38. She has been living in a shack with 10 members of her family for 19 years.

“These walls that you see were built more than two years ago - there is no roof on top or windows to make it a proper house. We still live in bad conditions in a shack because we don’t have money for building material. We are still waiting for a contractor to finish up the work,” said Silolo.

“We’ve heard the contractor that built them has gone off with government subsidy money. But we don’t know what’s happening. No one is telling us anything - we are just sitting in the dark. We are hoping for a miracle that our houses will be completed tomorrow.” - Cape Argus

Political call to monitor housing contracts

A housing company that left Masiphumelele residents with only toilets and showers after claiming R10-million of a project’s R13,7m budget some years ago, has been appointed to help the city meet its backlog of 400,000 houses.

The Communicare housing company was appointed by a full sitting of the council despite concerns raised by the ANC and the ID.

Mayoral committee member for housing Dan Plato said he was confident Communicare would do a good job as the company was using its own resources to build the houses. He said their appointment as the city’s third social housing partner would not be a financial liability to the city, as had been the case with the Cape Town Community Housing Company.

The city resolved last month to spend R1,3m on fixing houses built by this company, an amount matched by the National Housing Finance Corporation.

The ANC’s regional secretary, Mbulelo Ncedana, called for Communicare to be closely monitored.

The ID’s Simon Grindrod said he had reservations about whether the company was the best applicant. DA councillor Clive Justus, a director of Communicare, recused himself from discussions on the matter.

Ncedana said the ANC supported the move but noted that Communicare had had positive and negative developments in its past when Masiphumelele residents were left with toilets and showers and no houses some years ago, after Communicare said it needed at least R10m of the R13,7m budgeted for buying and servicing the land.

Grindrod said he failed to understand how the city had scored the company a five-out-of-five given its track record.

The company said it had talked to Masiphumelele residents about whether the remaining money be used to benefit them all because there was not enough money left in the project to build everyone houses.

The ANC also refused to endorse a mayoral committee recommendation that The Housing Association, another housing company, be placed on a reserve list for a year as a potential housing partner.

Ncedana said there could be another company better able to meet the city’s expectations in the interim. Plato agreed to drop the recommendation.

The city had hoped to build 5,000 rental units by 2008 but, with its housing backlog now almost double that originally thought, it said it would have to re-think its targets. - Cape Argus

Langa residents evict families

Langa residents took the law into their own hands when they illegally evicted eight families who were temporarily housed at a hall in a council-owned block of flats in Langa, saying they had overstayed their welcome…

Part of a group from Joe Slovo displaced by a devastating fire in the informal settlement two years ago, the families were being accommodated at the block temporarily until they could be accommodated at the N2 Gateway project. - Cape Times

Cape Town housing woes continue

There has been a confrontation between Joe Slovo fire victims and residents of the Old Flats hostel complex on the Cape Flats. A group of about 40 people was removed by residents of the hostel complex.

The group was housed in the hall after last year’s devastating fire in the Joe Slovo informal settlement. Police have moved in and are monitoring the situation.

Meanwhile the fire victims are standing around waiting to see if they will be allowed back into their residence.

Minister meets with flood victims
Lindiwe Sisulu, the housing minister, is on a return visit today to some of the flood ravaged areas of the Nelson Mandela Metro in the Eastern Cape. Sisulu and Sam Kwelitha, the housing MEC, are receiving a full briefing from officials.

The areas of Soweto-on Sea, Veeplaas and Chetty, were among those worst hit. About 6,000 families were either displaced or otherwise affected by the recent floods. Assessments conducted by local government to date have put the cost of the damage at R120 million. - SABC

Mbeki's mansion revealed...

The Independent on Saturday can reveal for the first time a unique aerial photograph of President Thabo Mbeki's sprawling new retirement home in Riviera, Johannesburg, under construction by a company with controversial links to a former cabinet minister.

With original wooden floors, crystal chandeliers and a steel strong room, the house also includes an extensive outdoor entertainment area with a lapa and a plunge pool.

The incomplete garden is a pet project of first lady Zanele Mbeki, according to builders, and the house is expected to be complete in a month's time.

The government has reacted angrily to suggestions that the state is sponsoring the multi-million-rand construction, saying that it is footing the bill for the security arrangements only.

This includes a Fort Knox-style wall, topped by electric fencing, and a bulletproof guardhouse at the foot of the extensive driveway.

Motheo Construction, the subject of a massive housing scandal nearly 10 years ago, was contracted by Zanele Mbeki to build the house in North Road on the cusp of Houghton Estate.

Founded in 1994 by current chairperson and executive director Thandi Ndlovu, a friend of former housing minister Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele, the Motheo name was dragged through the mud in 1997 after a massive housing scandal which led to the resignation of Saths Moodley, then executive chairperson of the Mpumalanga Housing Board.

Moodley bounced back last year as special adviser to current housing minister Lindiwe Sisulu.

Both the auditor-general and a provincial commission of inquiry were involved in an investigation into the irregular awarding of a R190-million low-cost housing contract to Motheo Construction after an exposé by the Mail & Guardian newspaper.

Fingers were pointed at Moodley after it was found that he had driven the deal at the housing board and had not provided sufficient information for the board to make a proper assessment of Motheo's application.

Director of Motheo Construction Gavin Munro said on Friday that the "so-called scandal" happened before his time and that the Motheo group had new management.

On Friday, as the public relations machine continued to churn about reports that taxpayers were footing the R8-million bill for the "African thatch-style" home near Oxford Road, the department of public works said that it was funding security for the project and that it was not for the taxpayer to query the amount.

The Independent on Saturday has established that the first lady bought the property in 2004. According to Motheo, the original house was razed and rebuilt to the Mbekis' specification.

The government had come out with guns blazing against suggestions that the department of public works had put up the R8-million building costs.

Departmental spokesperson Lucky Mochalibane said it was a "cabinet policy directive" that the department pay for the provision of security at the official as well as the private residences of presidents and former presidents.

"The issue concerns the security of the president and it is not for us to comment on it. Everything costs money... What's the point of throwing around figures? If I say we are spending R2-million, the logical next question will be: 'What is it being spent on?', and we can't answer that," he said.

He added that there was no truth in reports that the department was paying for the construction of the house itself, stressing it was being built "by the Mbeki family at their cost".

Chief government spokesperson Themba Maseko said it was "totally untrue" that the state was sponsoring a "retirement villa for the president".

Munro said the company was contracted by "a Miss Dlamini", the first lady's maiden name, and that the Mbekis were paying for the house.

He said that the department of public works was funding the security detail but would not say how much this amounted to, except to say that it was "a very small proportion" of the total R7,9-million contract cost for the "modest" home.

Democratic Alliance chief whip Douglas Gibson, who tried to gain access to the property along with a contingent of journalists on Friday, said in a statement that the government had "done its best" to keep the house under wraps when they should have acted in an open and transparent manner.

Dr Corne Mulder, of the Freedom Front Plus, said he hoped the house was not a "personal gift to the president on behalf of the taxpayers without asking them".

The house that former president P W Botha lives in near George was also purchased privately. Mbeki's new home is the third presidential retirement home on the continent to generate controversy in recent years.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was slammed last year for moving into a retirement palace north of Harare, built for a whopping R187-million.

Concerns were also raised last year about the luxury beachfront mansion built for Mozambique's former president, Joaquim Chissano. - The Independent

Spring Day - Brad Pitt shows New Orleans housing design

New Orleans - Actor Brad Pitt on Thursday unveiled a “green” housing design for New Orleans’s Lower Ninth Ward and said he was appalled by the slow pace of rebuilding since Hurricane Katrina hit last year.

Two New York City architects won a contest, underwritten by Pitt, for an affordable, environmentally sound housing design.

Their complex of single family homes and apartments would be built from modular pieces into long houses on a site that connects to the neighbouring Mississippi River levee with a wide pedestrian ramp.

But Pitt said the recovery would not work if the city did not assure critical services such as schools, and that he did not see much progress in the area that needed it most.

“I am appalled and embarrassed that residents still do not have the opportunity … to decide if they want to get back into their neighbourhoods and recreate their communities,” Pitt told a news conference.

While historic and tourist-friendly areas such as the French Quarter look barely touched by the storm that hit a year ago, killing about 1,500 across four states, many parts of New Orleans remain sparsely populated and full of ruined houses.

There is a housing shortage, which Pitt and partners said they hoped to help address.

Environmental group Global Green USA, which sponsored the effort with Pitt, is raising money to build the project for roughly $3.5 million to $5 million, a spokesman said.

Ninth Ward resident Pam Dashiell, a community association leader who was part of the jury for the contest, said that it was the first quasi-commercial development in the area since Katrina roared through, flooding 80 percent of the city.

Architects Andrew Kotchen and Matthew Berman of Workshop/APD dubbed their design Greenola, which plays on the nickname for New Orleans, Louisiana - NOLA.

The plan, modified after discussions with the community, calls for six houses, two multifamily units and services such as child care and a community garden.

Using resource-saving appliances and fixtures, solar electricity and hot water heaters, and recycled building materials, the team hopes to cut pollution and decrease operating energy use by 50 percent to 60 percent compared with traditional homes.

Whether the new homes will look like they belong in New Orleans may depend on the eye of the beholder. Berman said that exterior materials and the addition of porches, as well as the long forms, could make them echo other buildings in the area, but the core building is intended to be reproducible anywhere. - Reuters

Global Green USA’s Web site is GlobalGreen.org