XDR-TB claims another victim in W Cape

An 18-year-old youth has died of extreme drug resistant tuberculosis, the fifth death from the deadly strain of TB in the Western Cape as Brooklyn Chest Hospital runs out of space in its special isolation ward.

The 22-bed isolation unit, specially set up to address the rising incidence of XDR-TB in the province, is now 100 percent full, as provincial health authorities move fast to identify further space to address the demand.

The issue of isolation of patients with XDR-TB and the slightly less dangerous multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) is in the spotlight following news on Monday that Delft doctors were forced to send home a highly-infectious female patient because of a shortage of isolation unit beds… Steyn said there were currently 37 confirmed XDR-TB patients in the Western Cape… Cape Argus

Gateway residents to decide on rent boycott

Residents of the government’s flagship N2 Gateway housing project in Cape Town will meet on Tuesday to decide whether to embark on a rent boycott.

The government has received many complaints from residents about the high rents.

Initially, residents were told they would pay R165 for rent. After consultations with the Department of Housing, the rent changed to between R500 and R1050 a month…

In 2006, Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu acknowledged that the N2 Gateway rents were beyond the reach of most people on the waiting list.

Sisulu proposed that Thubelisha Homes liaise with people on the waiting list who cannot pay the rent of R1050 for flats, with the idea of provision ultimately being made for them (to live there).

Addressing Joe Slovo residents about the second and third phases of the project last week, Dyantyi said the changes to the rent were discussed with the residents during workshops and interviews before they moved in. - Cape Times

N2 Gateway to cost R3bn

The beleaguered flagship N2 Gateway housing project, originally scheduled for completion in June 2006, will cost R3-billion when the 22,000 units are finally completed in around three years’ time.

This is R700-million more than the R2,3-billion initially projected by the national housing department for its flagship development when the project was launched in 2005. Project costs have already overrun the budget by R135-million.

Thery Ndopu, spokesperson for Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, said R200-million had already been spent on the project. So far 705 flats in Joe Slovo have been built…

While funding had been the first key challenge, Dyantyi said the relocation of families in Joe Slovo was now one of the project’s biggest obstacles.

He said the shacks at Joe Slovo needed to be removed so that essential services could be installed for Gap houses that would be built in the area.

However, the shack dwellers have refused to move.

Dyantyi said his department risked underspending on its N2 Gateway budget this year if these families wouldn’t move.

The project, a flagship pilot launched by the national government as part of its housing policy, has been mired in controversy. The project has been delayed by mismanagement, funding shortfalls, disputes with contractors about payments and complaints of inferior construction of units.

The National Home Builders Registration Council had to inspect some of the completed units earlier this year after complaints about shoddy construction work.

Residents who moved into the 705 completed units in September have complained about the high rents. Ndopu said the average rent was R750, going up to R1 100 for some tenants.

Thubelisha Homes, meanwhile, has issued a stern warning to residents who are refusing to pay rent…

In March, sub-contractors downed tools because they claimed they had not been paid. Dyantyi said no complaints had been received from contractors. Ndopu said sub-contractors worked for contractors and consortiums, such as Ibuyile, and that any payment dispute had to be dealt with by them.

With the findings of the city’s forensic audit and the auditor-general’s report on the N2 Gateway outstanding, allegations of work being done without signed contracts have yet to be refuted or confirmed.

Former mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo said in 2005: “This project is about rapid delivery. We have moved from concept to having the first contractor on site in only a few months. To achieve this we have had to push very hard. We have had to get rid of all unnecessary bureaucracy.”

The new DA-led administration sounded alarm bells about the reported absence of signed contracts for phase one. Mayor Helen Zille said in a letter to Sisulu in June last year: “The Joe Slovo 1 project has been undertaken without a proper policy framework and often without signed contracts.”

But Dyantyi and Ndopu denied that contracts were never signed. Dyantyi said bureaucracy had hindered the implementation of the project.

A reliable source who was closely involved with the N2 project, said the city failed to finalise its contract with Sombambisana, one of the consortiums working on phase one because of disagreement about the price. - Cape Times

Shack fire leaves 35 homeless

Thirty-five people were left homeless when their shacks were razed by fire early on Saturday in Du Noon informal settlement near Milnerton, said Cape Town disaster management services.

Spokesperson Johan Minnie said the fire started in one of the shacks at 1.30am and spread to 19 other shacks.

The cause of fire was unknown and no injuries were reported.

He says a number of shacks were also destroyed by fire in several areas around Cape Town on Friday night.

No one was injured in those fires either. - Sapa

Adamant Cape squatters refuse to move

Squatters who live under Cape Town’s freeway bridges are defying city council attempts to move them and say they will resist evictions because they don’t want to be moved to “shanty towns” like Happy Valley near Blackheath.

At least two major bridges are still being used as shelters by homeless people despite the city’s efforts to remove them.

These include the N7 bridge near Acacia Park and the M5 bridge near Maitland.

Both bridges are in need of repair work after they were damaged by shack fires.

In October 2006, the N7 bridge was closed for several days after a shack fire, in which two people died, caused structural damage to the concrete and steel reinforcing.

This prompted the city to move people living under bridges to temporary relocation areas like Happy Valley and a site in Factreton.

Seth Maqethuka, the city’s director for Integrated Human Settlements, said the city was not aware of any bridges that still had squatters living under them.

“We would welcome any information on this,” he said.

He said all the city’s bridges were cleared of squatters and that court orders had also been issued for those who resisted moving.

He said the city had evicted squatters from several bridges including the M5, Eastern Boulevard, Langa, Vanguard Drive and Koeberg interchange.

But when the Cape Argus visited the M5 Bridge near Maitland on Thursday, some of the squatters confirmed that they were still living under the bridge because of poor living conditions in Happy Valley, where the municipality moved them.

They also admitted they were still making fires to keep warm and to cook.

Squatters living near the N7 bridge at Acacia Park say they had been ordered to appear in the Goodwood magistrate’s court on June 21 for illegally occupying the land.

They had moved back to the land just metres from the bridge.

They cite poor living conditions, victimisation and lack of privacy at Factreton as reasons for moving back.

Waleed Sebrane, 31, said he had moved back to the M5 Bridge to be close to his work and his children’s schools.

“My children go to school in Maitland and Brooklyn. I couldn’t afford their transport as it was too far. There was also no work for me there.

“That place is like a shanty town where all the homeless people get dumped. No one wants to stay there. The city didn’t give us proper homes as promised. We were just given a few poles, zinc sheets and a roll of plastic to make our own hokkies. That life is no different from living under the bridge. It’s actually better here because there’s work to do and we are close to amenities. That is why we won’t move,” he said.

Cecilia Ruiters, who has lived under the M5 Bridge for the past 11 years, said she enjoyed living there because it was “peaceful”.

This mother of three, who is six months pregnant with her fourth child, said she refused to move when other squatters were evicted from the bridge and were relocated to Happy Valley late in 2006.

She lives in a make-shift shack with her common-law husband and her 21-month-old son Lawandre.

“As long as conditions are still poor there, I won’t move. We need proper homes and not shacks that can burn down tomorrow,” she said, while sitting next to her wood fire.

“The municipal staff have come here several times to chuck us out they even issued a court order demanding that we move out, but I’ve resisted that. I refuse to be moved because to me this is like home.

“I’ve had all my three children here and I’m hoping to give birth to my baby here.” - Cape Argus

Bucket toilets to be flushed out

MEMBERS of the National Council of Province (NCOP) visited Grahamstown to check on Makana's progress to eradicate the bucket sewage system. Under the Bucket Eradication Programme (BEP), the Makana Municipality has already eradicated 4 261 buckets since a project team that was commissioned by the municipality in 2004 found that 5 391 households had bucket toilets.

In line with President Thabo Mbeki's national target, the municipality has set December 2007 as its deadline for the eradication of the remaining 1 130 buckets in the formal settlements. The bucket system will be replaced with flush toilets and a water-borne sewerage system.

Makana presented a report showing that 1 489 bucket toilets have been eradicated in the last year alone. Only 1 285 remain. According to the report the main challenge the municipality faces includes dealing with the buckets in informal areas. Another challenge is that contractors do not always perform as instructed. Representatives from the engineers' department said Makana has resolved to penalise contractors who do not perform. This will be incorporated in the supply chain management unit which, according to Makana councillor Julie Wells, is under construction.

The bucket eradication programme has been slowest in the Eastern Cape. However, Beauty Dlulane, the head of the NCOP, said that Makana proved to be the “most organised” and she was happy that there is evidence that work was being done to eradicate bucket toilets.

Buckets in informal settlements
The bad news is that BEP does not include the buckets in informal settlements. Thus people settled in non-residential zones without consent from the municipality will not be considered. Phakama Booi from the City Engineers Department said the buckets in the informal settlements cannot be eradicated until the areas have been “formalised”.

The problem with them is that, legally, they do not have owners. By law, municipal services can only be provided to legal owners of property. Therefore, the Department for Provincial and Local Government (DPLG) cannot release funds for informal areas. Renier van der Merwe, the town planner, said that this is why efforts are being made to formalise informal settlements. He said “We cannot sell the land without pegging the land”.

'Pegging' is where the land is physically marked with x and y co-ordinates for each stand. This is done after the town planner has drawn a map of the town with all boundaries marked on paper.

The formalisation of areas will be carried out under the Sanitation Programme whose target is December 2010. Booi said that the municipality is concentrating on the BEP. The Sanitation Programme has not started yet, but plans are under way for it to commence. Under this programme, the Ventilated Improved Pit (VIP) toilets will also be removed.

Residents complain about bucket system
Bucket users are desperate to see the back of this inhumane system. There are times when the buckets are not emptied and they overflow. Flies and dirt-loving microbes thrive in these conditions, undermining human dignity and posing a potential health hazard.

"The worst is when it's hot – the toilets smell to the extent that one cannot bear it. We live in totally inhuman conditions,” says Jeanette Salman of Extension 6. “Bucket collectors also exacerbate the problem for us because when the bucket is full to capacity they just tip some of it on the ground, fearing that it will spill onto them when they carry it,” she continued.

“I wish the government would do something about this,” she adds.
There is good and bad news.

The blind also find themselves walking into dirty buckets in the streets of the township. Salman said: “When there are ceremonies or family gatherings we experience lots of problems because the bucket gets full quickly and our neighbours complain when we ask to use their toilets.” Bucket collectors are equally unhappy. Ndokweni Sithembele, 43, has been a bucket collector for more than two years and says the reason he is still doing it is because there are no jobs. “Not everybody will be happy doing this kind of job. It is not a pleasant job at all but somebody has to do it. People in the township call us all sorts of names, forgetting that we are actually helping them,” said Sithembele, a father of three.

Health hazard
According to David Render from the Environmental Biotechnology Research Unit (EBRU), the bucket system is a health hazard to users and collectors. He said that VIP toilets are environmentally friendly. However, the VIP toilet cannot be used on rocky ground or where there is underground water but can only be dug where there is good soil. Pit latrines must be dug a minimum of 100m away from any underground fresh water to avoid contaminating a useful source of drinking water. The pit latrine is used in many rural areas in South Africa, however, they also fill up and have posed health threats to residents.

In Grahamstown the bucket system is being replaced with water-borne sewerage, a technology which Render says is by far the best environmentally. The water-borne sewerage system has been criticised as a water-intensive system which may not be sustainable considering the fact that Makana has experienced severe water shortages in the past. However, Pinky Hermanus, acting director of technical infrastructure and development, does not believe that this will be a problem in Grahamstown.

It is estimated that it will take at most another three years to eradicate the bucket system in our city, a legacy that has painful associations with our apartheid past. - Grocott's Mail

‘No going back on N2 Gateway’ - Sisulu

Cape Town - No one would change the allocation plan of the N2 Gateway housing project in Cape Town, Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu told parliamentarians on Wednesday.

That was 30% of all units would go to “backyarders” and 70% to residents of informal settlements.

In a clear reference to the change of government in the Cape Town metro - now led by a Democratic Alliance administration, together with smaller opposition parties - the minister told MPs, during her budget debate in the national assembly, that the allocation plan for the project - not far from Cape Town International Airport - was detailed in the business plan of the project adopted in 2005.

She noted that the first phase consisting of 705 units would be ready at the end of May.

Sisulu said: “The construction phase took longer than we expected. I also want to reassure all citizens of the City of Cape Town that no one will change the allocation plan.”

The Western Cape government had guided the allocation model and a housing database developed and audited by independent auditors would decide when people would move in, said the minister.

“I have cautioned the (African National Congress) MEC (Richard Dyantyi) in the province that the process of moving people into phase one cannot be rushed, care must be taken.

“No amount of pressure must force us to move people when we are not ready to do so.”

Earlier this month 30 residents of the adjacent Joe Slovo informal settlement invaded the flats after a fire left about 200 people without homes in the area.

Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille has promoted a policy of getting 100,000 of the 250,000 Capetonians off the housing list by getting banks to finance housing for those in the R3,500 to R7,000 a month income category. This would allow public housing to be provided to the poorest of the poor.

She has criticised the N2 Gateway project flats for being three or four times the price of an average RDP (Reconstruction and Development Programme) house.

She has also argued that the Gateway flats had reduced the capacity of government to deliver housing to the poor as more money had been spent on fewer housing units. FIN24

Winter chill nips homeless on the streets

(IRIN) - An unusually severe blast of winter weather has swept across South Africa, killing at least 17 people through exposure and highlighting the country’s ongoing and chronic housing shortages.

South Africa’s several million strong homeless population, was particularly hard hit as temperatures plunged to record lows in many parts of the country.

“I really thought my baby would die if I didn’t get her somewhere warm,” said a 22-year-old Zimbabwean woman speaking inside the crowded corridors of a Methodist church in central Johannesburg. “I have nowhere else to go”.

The woman, who declined to give her name, was wrapped in an old sweater. Two scarves were tied around her neck. She was one of more than 900 people who crammed inside the drafty church as plunging temperatures chased Johannesburg’s homeless from the streets.

The South African Weather Service said 54 temperature records were set as snow, hail and heavy rain descended on the country. Many cities recorded record low temperatures while others hit new marks for the heaviest one-day rainfall.

Some commentators suggested climate change might be at least partly to blame for the icy weather, although a weather service spokesman said it was not unusual for two or three particularly bad spells to hit the country during the winter months.

Housing backlog

Whatever the weather’s cause, South Africa’s homeless and poor were left particularly vulnerable. The ruling African National Congress government, led by President Thabo Mbeki, has been on a furious building spree during the dozen years since the fall of apartheid, but the housing shortfall still stands at an estimated 2.5 million homes.

According to the Geneva-based nongovernmental organisation, the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, 7.5 million South Africans lack access to adequate housing and secure tenure in South Africa. At least one-third of the population lives in poverty and while the official unemployment rate is given as around 20 percent, unofficial estimates put the number closer to 40 percent.

Even those with homes remain vulnerable during the harsh winter. Millions live in small, poorly-ventilated, poorly-insulated wooden shacks built on informal settlements, the structures offering little protection from the cold. Many of the 17 deaths recorded during the past week were caused by shack fires when braziers or gas heaters ignited. Others died from asphyxiation, while faulty – and often illegal – electrical connections have also been blamed for shack-fire deaths.

Community Service teams and charities in Johannesburg and other cities worked to prevent winter deaths by handing out blankets and warning of the dangers of faulty or unguarded heaters.

Packed shelters

But for those without a home to go to – especially the millions of refugees who have flocked to South Africa from across the continent – churches, mosques and hostels are often the only shelters available during winter.

“We don’t discriminate here, we have people from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Kenya, Burundi, Swaziland, from right across Africa and of course from South Africa too”, said Paul Verryn, Bishop of Johannesburg’s central Methodist church. “This has been a very bad start to winter, but we do our best to feed the people who come here and give them what bedding we can”.

Innocent,21, a South African who finds what work he can in Johannesburg’s central business district, huddled with dozens of others on a stairwell inside the church. “Sometimes I stay with a friend, sometimes I go to my parents, but they’re a long way from here, so sometimes I have nowhere else to go,” he said. “I get some soup here in the church and I am out of the cold”.

Among the refugees gathered inside the church were doctors, accountants, teachers and businessmen.

“South Africa must be hospitable and generous to these people”, said Verryn. “Instead of seeing them as refugees we should see them as people who should be helped and who might, in turn, help our country because we have such a huge skills shortage here”.

Hostels were filled to capacity as temperatures dipped across the country in the coastal city, Cape Town.

“We have 14 shelters and house about 1,500 people per night but we are planning to build more”, said Hassan Khan, director of the charitable organisation Haven Night Shelters. “We need a great deal more blankets and food…We are under a tremendous amount of pressure to care for the many who need it, especially during the winter months when sleeping on the streets is no longer an option”.

Khan said his group was working closely with both municipal and provincial authorities to find a long-term solution to South Africa’s almost overwhelming housing woes.

“I would have to say the problem is getting worse”, Khan said. “If people give a little bit of money to children on the streets, they are actually increasing the problem because they are making it possible for someone to continue living on the streets, but that is no solution. We need to get these people off the streets for good”.

Many are pinning their hopes of a housing renaissance on the massive infrastructure development and job creation expected to accompany the arrival to South Africa of the World Cup football tournament in 2010.

“Government has provided two million homes in a dozen years, but the big challenge will be getting the whole country working together on this problem”, Khan said. “We hope 2010 will be the real push against homelessness…We need to get the message out to the world”.

- Reuters AlertNet - Alerting humanitarians to emergencies

Squatter upgrade plan for Cape Town

The City of Cape Town has unveiled a two year plan to provide essential services to all 222 informal settlements within its boundary.

The plan, which would see every household given access to water, sanitation and area lighting, would cost R63.4 million, mayor Helen Zille told a media briefing.

She also announced that the city’s metro police were forming a unit to combat land invasions.

“The city will adopt a policy of zero tolerance on land invasions,” she said.

The city has priority-ranked every settlement in terms of factors including length of settlement, flooding and fire risk, and the availability of water and sanitation.

The list shows that 47,166 of the 135,693 households need to the re-located, some of them because shacks are so closely packed that there is no way to provide services.

At the top of the list is Kanana, partly located in what Zille said was a “swamp” in Gugulethu.

The plan calls for relocation of the whole settlement to homes already earmarked in the N2 Gateway project.

Controversial Hout Bay settlement Imizamo Yethu is 27th on the list.

The plan calls for it to be “de-densified” by 3,064 of its current 5,460 dwellings, but Zille said this would be accomplished by consultation, in a process “completely different” from forced removals.

She said a later phase of the plan would involve fully formalising the settlements by providing security of tenure and assisting with the completion of homes.

When it came to homes, those who had been waiting the longest would get helped first.

“In this regard, we are developing a policy to give preference in new developments to backyarders who have not tried to jump the housing waiting list by invading land,” she said.

“And those people who do try to jump the housing queue by invading land in future will be dropped to the bottom of the waiting list.”

The city says it needs some 1,000 hectares of land for the re-locations.

Mayco member for housing Dan Plato told the briefing the Western Cape provincial government and national government would have to release the large tracts of land they controlled in the city.

They would also have to provide funding.

The city’s manager for housing and land, Basil Davidson, said farmland on the urban fringe was going for about R1 million a hectare before improvements were factored in, which was ten times Gauteng prices and 14 times those around Durban.

Some 50 to 60,000 people migrate to Cape Town every year, many from the Eastern Cape, but internal growth also places a demand on housing.

The housing backlog in the city at the moment is 400,000 units. - Sapa

A miss in CT is worse than a mile

Rasool yesterday welcomed the findings but said it proved the point that the 2009 election battle will be fought around service delivery.

He said that while he was confident of the ANC’s position, which according to approval ratings was on the increase, the electorate was aware there was an alternative government in the province.

But, he said, the surveys also showed that service delivery in the Western Cape …

- apart from housing and crime -

was on a firm footing even in the economic arena…
Rasool blows his own trumpet

InternAfrica would like to point out, that the majority of Cape Town’s cityzens do not enjoy the benefits of the firm footing in the economic arena; and that to these people provincial support for bulk sewage, water and land could make a better life of their own. Particularly with regard to housing.

It is a misnomer to say the province is doing well economically - in contrast to crime, which is caused by lack of access to the economy… in a province where no local buying power can match the price of an international wishing to purchase land and housing in the beautiful Cape.

Let’s hear SA’s cities loud and clear

EFFECTIVE government requires well-designed decentralisation. One of the more serious shortcomings of the provincial system is the way in which it has failed to support local government or, indeed, has even undermined it. The constitution sought to create three “spheres” of government that are “distinctive, interdependent and interrelated” — referring to “spheres” and not “tiers” to emphasise that the relationship between them is not hierarchical.

Yet the system has been run hierarchically, making the voice of local government very weak in crucial respects. The problem is most severe in the bigger cities. The six metropolitan areas and a handful of the next-largest cities account for half of SA’s population and represent the core of the economy; their effective functioning is critical to the country’s success. A number of the metropolitan governments have bigger budgets than some provinces. Yet they have almost no voice at the centre, because national government seeks to relate to them via the provinces.

The provinces, in turn, have tended to compete with the big cities. The best illustration of this is the way in which provinces have continually blocked the devolution of functions such as housing to the bigger cities, most of which are in a far better position to deliver the function.

The hierarchical functioning has become a feature of the institutions created to deal with the intergovernmental system. The minmecs — or meetings between the national minister of each function and the nine provincial MECs — are a crucial mechanism yet exclude local government. All the provincial premiers attend cabinet lekgotlas; yet only the head of the South African Local Government Association (Salga) is present from local government… Business Day - News Worth Knowing

17 die in icy weather

Johannesburg - At least 17 people were reported dead from exposure or in fires trying to keep warm in the icy wet weather gripping the country on Tuesday.

In the Eastern Cape, rescuers using helicopters were trying late on Tuesday afternoon to get to two telephone technicians who were trapped in the Katberg mountains.

Captain John Fobian said the two were apparently trying to repair cellphone or telephone infrastructure when they were trapped.

Police, military and Lukhanji municipal rescue teams were trying to reach them.

Snow has been reported on all the high-lying areas of the Eastern Cape.

Fobian said 13 people were known to have died from exposure in the province.

These were four people from Port Elizabeth, two in East London, two in Zwelitsha, two in Cofimvaba, two in villages near King William’s Town and one in Dimbaza.

Captain Ernest Sigobe said the four men who died in Port Elizabeth were all found outside on Tuesday morning, had no visible injuries and were believed to have died of exposure.

One was found in Zwide, one in Walmer, one in Greenbushes and one in Motherwell.

Fobian said more bad weather was forecast for the Eastern Cape. “Look for shelter,” he warned… NEWS24

Three killed in shack fire

As very cold conditions are expected over the central interior of South Africa in the coming week, police have appealed to people to take special care of the way they use heating appliances.

This followed a shack fire over the weekend in which three men were burnt to death at Green Point, near Kimberley.

Northern Cape police spokesperson Captain Tshepo Mofokeng appealed to people not to leave candles, paraffin lamps, heaters and wood or coal stoves on while sleeping… SAPA

Torrential rains wreak havoc

Mopping-up work and debris-clearing operations were under way across the Western Cape on Sunday after a vicious storm made landfall on Saturday.

Disaster Management spokesperson Johan Minnie said the areas worst affected by the foul weather were Philippi, Gugulethu, Mitchells Plain and Langa .

He said 80 structures were destroyed in floods and 300 people were displaced in the Lotus informal settlement in Gugulethu. NGOs were distributing meals and blankets to those in need.

“They are receiving shelter in an educare centre in the community,” he said. Fifteen shacks were also affected at the Langa Intersite temporary settlement. He said other areas were still being investigated… Cape Times

Hout Bay mansions and shacks

The residents of Imizamo Yethu emerge from corrugated iron shacks every day to one of the breathtaking sights that make Cape Town South Africa’s top tourist attraction.

From the squalor of their overcrowded existence, the shantytown inhabitants share a spectacular view of the Hout Bay harbour and surrounding mountains with millionaire neighbours in one of the city’s most valuable property markets.

Rising tensions

But living within a stone’s throw from each other, the communities have little else in common and tensions are rising as squatters grow impatient with delivery of government housing and threats of land grabs make headlines…

A few hundred metres away, swimming pools and tennis courts are commonplace and mansions can fetch prices in excess of R20-million.

“Hout Bay is a microcosm of the problems in South Africa,” Ehrenreich said.

The government aims to eradicate shantytowns, currently housing about 2.4 million families, by 2014.

Nomxolisi Mgedezi (26), who has lived in Imizamo Yethu for 15 years, is among thousands on a waiting-list for a government-subsidised brick house.

“It is cold here,” she says, inviting AFP into her neat single-room shack.

The inside hardboard walls are painted a calm green and enclose a single bed, a crate for a bedside table, a two-door cabinet with a two-plate stove and a television set.

“I want a proper house, a toilet, water and electricity,” Mgedezi says — a wish echoed by neighbours.

“Life here is difficult,” laments Maphelo Skade (23). “It is difficult to keep out the wind and rain. When it’s hot it’s really hot and when it’s cold it’s really cold.” … - AFP

Township exodus growing

More than 12000 Black Diamond families — or 50000 people — are moving from the townships into the suburbs of South Africa’s metro areas each month, says the Black Diamonds 2 survey.

This rapid migration will help fire up the struggling property market, say industry pundits. The latest Standard Bank residential property gauge shows flat growth month-on-month.

Marketers say the mass migration is the “most powerful trend we’ve seen in marketing over the last 10 years”. About 95% of Black Diamonds interviewed considered property to be an important investment tool.

Although they remain fiercely loyal to township life and communities, Black Diamonds move to the suburbs to show they have succeeded in life, and as an investment. This is reflected in the survey, where 85% of Black Diamonds said it was important to buy property in an expensive area as an investment.

However, the data also showed that 42% of Black Diamonds living in the suburbs would prefer to live in townships. “One needs to question if the functional aspect of moving to the suburb has been given less credit than is due,” said Neil Higgs, director of TNS Research Surveys.

Functional reasons could include wanting to live closer to work or closer to a child’s private school. Other functional reasons could include unavailability of property in the townships.

Pam Golding Property, which has 10 empowerment offices in townships countrywide, said its capital growth in township homes was between 30% and 40% in 2006, compared with 12% to 15% in suburbs.

Andrew Golding, group chief executive, said this was an indication of increased demand for properties in townships and not enough supply.

“It is possible that Black Diamonds end up opting to move to the suburbs because of unavailability of property in the townships,” he added.

• 92% say that ’the community in which you live is very important to you
• 61% still think of more than one place when thinking about their home.

Clearly there is a desire to project one’s status through the home:

• 85% believe that your home reflects your position in society
• 92% agree that it’s important that your home creates the best impression possible.
• About 77% of those who took part in the survey said that when they had extra money they spent it on buying things for the home.

Sunday Times

“Black Diamond” is a term coined by TNS Research Surveys and the UCT Unilever Institute to describe the South Africans that comprise the country’s fast-growing and affluent black middle class.

These 2 million Black Diamonds have an estimated annual spending power of R130-billion (and growing). While they represent only 10% of the Black SA population, they comprise 43% of black consumer spend and 23% of total SA consumer spend.

SA protests taking a violent turn

Violent protests have almost become a norm in South Africa, as more citizens take their grievances - ranging from demarcation to poor service delivery - to the streets. And hooligans are cashing in, tearing at the country’s fragile social fabric.

This morning, Mamelodi residents fed up with the housing shortage left, a scene of destruction and chaos. In Wolmaranstad, poor service delivery also ignited a rampage - and as often, foreign nationals bore the brunt of their anger. Not far away in Ottosdal, 15 foreigners’ shops were looted. Last week, 45 people were arrested in Maqhwasi, protesting the lack of service delivery.

Khutsong has been at it for nearly two years over incorporation into the North West. Three weeks ago, Malboro residents, north of Johannesburg, took to the streets over eviction from factories.

Children taking the forefront
It is not uncommon that the situation gets out of control and things turn ugly. During last year’s security guards strike, people were killed and property damaged all over the country.

The culture of peaceful protests, seemed to have made way for mayhem and violence and it has been become commonplace to see children as the ringleaders of the violent factions.

Dale McKinley, an independent political analyst, says: “They raise their issues and they’re ignored and as a result of that ignorance, I think it gives the impetus to people to up the ante. Once the protest gets to a particular point it opens space for criminal elements to come in.”

McKinley says police reaction and media attention often fuel the flames, but in the end, he says, only the government can effectively tackle the problem. SABC

Housing Politics - National / Provincial / Municipal

Zille rejected all 11 of the ANC’s objections, and strongly refuted the allegation that the city had failed to provide housing opportunities.

She said national government was six weeks late in finalising this year’s subsidy programmes. This meant that, since April, no new municipal housing projects could be approved. The national housing department had also excluded housing services from national subsidies, meaning that it would only finance the building of top structures.

“This unilateral policy will have a serious impact on our housing projects.” She said the provincial government was “holding up delivery” by dragging its heels in giving accreditation to the city to deliver top structures. The city’s application was submitted six months ago.

National / Provincial / Municipal

WUF4 - Nanjing - Shelter for all

Fourth session of the World Urban Forum, 13-17 October 2008, Nanjing, China

The World Urban Forum was established by the United Nations to examine one of the most pressing issues facing the world today: rapid urbanization and its impact on communities, cities, economies and policies. It is projected that in the next fifty years, two-thirds of humanity will be living in towns and cities. A major challenge is to minimize burgeoning poverty in cities, improve the urban poor’s access to basic facilities such as shelter, clean water and sanitation and achieve environment-friendly, sustainable urban growth and development.

The World Urban Forum is a biennial gathering that is attended by a wide range of partners, from non-governmental organizations, community-based organizations, urban professionals, academics, to governments, local authorities and national and international associations of local governments. It gives all these actors a common platform to discuss urban issues in formal and informal ways and come up with action-oriented proposals to create sustainable cities.

Bucket system far from banished

Government has vowed to banish the bucket system by year end, yet on January 1 there will remain many South Africans who have no choice but to use this foul and undignified system of sewage disposal.

Briefing the media at Parliament on Tuesday, Water Affairs Minister Lindiwe Hendricks said while her department was on track to rid “formal” settlements of the bucket system by December 31, there were still 15,3-million people without access to basic sanitation services.

The figure included people in rural areas, as well as those in “informal” settlements.

“When we talk about the 15,3-million people who don’t have access to sanitation, we are counting people in the informal settlements as well as those in rural areas,” she told journalists.

The use of the bucket system is rife in informal settlements.

Asked how many South Africans lived in such communities, Hendricks said this was “very difficult” to say.

“It is a very difficult target… because informal settlements mushroom and develop daily. It’s a reality we must face because the population grows everyday. We have no control over population growth.

“Studies have shown that households are becoming smaller… so there are more people requiring housing units.”

Hendricks suggested government’s RDP housing programme was exacerbating the problem.

“It encourages people to move out of their homes and get into the informal settlements, to be in line for an RDP house,” she said.

She admitted that in January next year “you will still find the bucket system” among shack dwellers.

“That cannot be avoided completely; I think that’s the reality,” Hendricks said.

The media briefing comes a day before the minister’s Budget vote speech, set to be delivered in the National Assembly on Wednesday afternoon. - Sapa

Little boy dies trying to save siblings

Eastern Cape - As the flames engulfing his home home grew higher, a 10-year-old boy inside pounded against the windows in a vain bid to save his life and that of his two siblings.

The children’s mother and neighbours watched in horror as the shack burned down, killing Michaela Jones, Shahida Mohammed, six, and two-year-old Abubukar Mohammed.

“It was like hell,” said neighbour Heather Wagenaar. “The mother wasn’t able to stop the fire. She was going mad.”

It was just past midnight yesterday when Wagenaar, 18, heard an explosion “like a petrol bomb” from the home across the street. Wagenaar, her aunt and mother rushed out the street to see a fire destroying the home of Portia Mohammed and her three children.

Mohammed was outside the shack when the fire broke out.

Firefighters were at the scene quickly and with neighbours they worked desperately to put out the fire. They threw sand and water at the flames but the shack remained ablaze.

Where there was once a family of four, there remained a grief-stricken mother and the charred remains of a small tin shack. Scorched laundry, still on a line, lay in a tangled heap. Two dogs poked around.

The family had moved to Kabega Crescent in Wesbank only last year, neighbours said.

The deaths of the children bring to five the number of fire deaths in Cape Town since Friday, said Wilfred Solomons, of Disaster and Risk Management.

In Hout Bay 30 shacks caught fire at 4.45am yesterday at Imizamo Yethu leaving 100 people homeless. One adult burned to death, the body so badly damaged that police could not determine the gender, Solomons said.

In Palele Park, another body also was burned beyond recognition after a shack caught fire at 4am.

There were also fires in Bonteheuwel, Khayelitsha and Mfuleni. In those areas, 16 people were left homeless.

The cause for the Wesbank fire has not yet been determined, Solomons said, but police have opened an inquest.

Neighbour Malusi Mkhankamyeli woke up about 1am, thinking he could hear children throwing rocks at his shack.

“The air smelled like burning electric wires,” said Mkhankamyeli, 33. “There were a lot of people trying to use a hose pipe to put out the fire.”

Police are guarding the Wesbank scene until forensic experts arrived from Port Elizabeth, police said.

The mother of the three Wesbank children has since gone to a relative’s home in Athlone and buried her two youngest children, Solomons said. Her first child, Michaela, is in a mortuary. Cape Argus

One killed in Western Cape shack fire

One person died in this morning’s fire at an informal settlement near Hout Bay outside Cape Town.

City fire and rescue authorities say one man was killed and another sustained light injuries when about 30 shacks were gutted in the Imizamo Yethu informal settlement.

The fire has been extinguished. The cause of the blaze has not yet been established. - SABC

Number of children deaths rise in shack fires

A 10-year-old boy inside pounded against the windows in a vain bid to save his life and that of his two siblings as the flames engulfed his Wesbank home.

The children’s mother and neighbour’s watched in horror as the shack burned down, killing Michaela Jones, Shahida Mohammed, six, and two-year-old Abubukar Mohammed.

It had just past midnight when a neighbour, Heather Wagenaar, 18, heard an explosion “like a petrol bomb” from the home across the street. Wagenaar, her aunt and mother rushed out the street to see a fire destroying the home of Portia Mohammed and her three children.

Where there was once a family of four, there remained a grief-stricken mother and the charred remains of a small tin shack.

Wilfred Solomons of Disaster and Risk Management says the number of deaths of children rose to five in Cape Town since Friday. Bush Radio

Creche fire delivers a double tragedy

Not only did Nolita Gwele have to watch her creche burn to the ground - the blaze claimed the life of her niece’s four-year-old daughter .

The creche in the Kayamandi settlement near Stellenbosch burnt down early on Monday morning. The fire also destroyed about 13 informal structures.

Gwele’s sister Grace was sleeping in the house next to the creche with two of her children and her granddaughter, Sinovuyo, when the fire started.

She said a neighbour had woken her at 11pm on Sunday, saying she smelled something burning. There was no sign of a fire, so they went back to sleep.

She woke up again at 1am, this time after hearing “loud” crackling sounds. When she went outside, she found a neighbour’s house had caught fire and warned all her neighbours to get out of their homes.

“But when I looked back at my house and the creche, it was burning and I couldn’t go back in to get the children. It happened so fast,” Grace Gwele said. The flames had spread quickly because the structures were wooden wendy houses.

Grace Gwele said she called for the children to run out of the house, but Sinovuyo, 4, could not. “I can’t sleep because my heart is sore when I think of the child (Sinovuyo) crying out for me (in the fire),” she said.

On the night of the fire, Sinovuyo’s mother had been working night shift, she said.

The children are now being cared for in her two-room Kayamandi house. It would be difficult to rebuild the creche because she charged parents R50 a month, just enough to cover costs.

“The parents have nowhere else to send them because it’s too expensive.” she said.

A funeral service will be held for Sinovuyo in Kayamandi on Saturday. Cape Argus

Sixteen municipalities pull out of Salga

16 municipalities in the Western Cape have terminated their membership of the South African Local Government Association (Salga) to form their own workers’ organisation, the South African Municipal Workers Union said on Thursday… SAPA

Six killed in Southern Cape fires

Six people, including an eighteen-month-old baby, died in fires in the Southern Cape, all occurring in the early parts of Sunday morning.

Two people died in a fire in Lavalia, George at around 4.05am, said police spokesperson Captain Malcolm Pojie.

A woman, Marilyn Schultz, 29, and her 18-month-old son Giano died during the fire.

At 2am, four people died in a shack fire at an informal settlement in Plettenberg Bay.

The bodies of Mkhulyli Goji, Xolani Maratshu, Vuyani Mangqasana and Mgudumi Maramba were found in separate shacks after the blaze had been extinguished.

Another fire broke out at the Touwsranten informal settlement at around 5am, also on Sunday. No one was injured in the incident.

The cause of the fires were unknown but were being investigated, Pojie said. - Sapa

Mayor attacked during protest

The executive mayor of Bitou in the Western Cape was admitted to a hospital in Plettenberg Bay following an attack by protesting residents.

Lulama Mvimbi’s attack was apparently sparked by a court order issued in April, which prevented local people from occupying a vacant municipal land, police spokesperson Ntobeko Mangqwengqwe said.

“Residents allegedly pelted his car with stones on Thursday… we are still waiting for a formal complaint before arresting anyone.”

He said five people arrested on Thursday following the protest were facing charges not related to Mvimbi’s attack.

“They were charged with public violence and for unlawfully erecting shacks in the area.”

The five are expected to appear in the Plettenberg magistrate’s court on Monday. - Sapa

Building the green way - how to save

Although they look like regular structures, green buildings are designed to have less negative impact on the environment, be healthier, boost the productivity of workers within, and have lower overhead costs. They also yield a greater return on investment. Building from a renewable resource raises you LEED rating, the isothermic properties recognised by the Minister of Housing - Build from a renewable resource