Beware of the NGOs that come with money to silence the poor

Shackdwellers International (SDI) is USAID funded NGO created to set up and support shackdweller organisations around the world. In other words shut them up. The South African branch of the SDI works closely with the local and national government and we all know how supportive they have been of the shackdweller movement in Durban, Cape Town, Johannesburg and the rural areas. Enter the Gates Foundation with a $10million handout to help the South African government put an end to the shackdwellers movement.

Abahlali base Mjondolo have responded to SDI, the Bill Gates Foundation and the latest scheme to silence and kill off the poor.

We have a clear analysis on what the money that our government and the Gates Foundation have given SDI is for. It is true that some of it will go to build houses. But it is important to remember that there are two kinds of houses. Some houses are built in human dumping grounds outside of the cities and people are forced to go to these houses against their will. In these houses people sometimes just rot. These houses are often worse for people than shacks. They are a kind of oppression just like forced removal to townships outside the cities was a kind of oppression under apartheid. Other houses are planed with people and are built where people need them. In these houses people can grow.

If Gate’s $10 millions builds some of the right kind of houses we will welcome them as fruits of the long struggles of Abahlali baseMjondolo, the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, the Landless People’s Movement and all the communities that have been blockading roads and organising protests around the country for the last few years. These protests have created such a crisis that the government here, and its supporters outside, recognise that something has to be done. Therefore the houses built will be fruits of struggle even though they will not be given to the people who have struggled. They will be a reward for obedience. This is how things work. We therefore see the risk that these fruits of struggle will be used to try and persuade people in movements and organisations that struggle to give up their autonomy and to cease struggling which means to stop thinking and to stop demanding the right of ordinary people to also be able to plan thefuture of our cities.

It is clear to us that everyone wants to speak and act in the name of the poor but that very, very few organisations are willing to speak to the poor. At first the government wanted the councillors to speak for us. Most times this failed completely. Most times the councillors spoke for the rich in their wards. If the ratepayer’s association wanted shack dwellers chased out of a ward and the shack dwellers wanted houses built in that ward the councillor would work with the ratepayers’ association to chase the shack dwellers out. This is why we buried out councillors in 2005. This is why people have been protesting against their councillors all over the country. The councillors have failed the poor and they continue to fail the poor – right now in MotalaHeights both the Ward Councillor (Dimba) and the PR Councillor (Naranjee) are working with the gangster businessman Ricky Govender to chase the poor out of MotalaHeights. - African Path - Black Looks

Protesters want affordable houses

A crowd of about 300 mostly Joe Slovo residents marched on government housing agency Thubelisha and the First National Bank (FNB) on Wednesday in protest over the N2 Gateway bonded houses they say are being sold at unaffordable prices.

The marchers, led by the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, are also against the government's decision to sell a part of the Joe Slovo land, which is earmarked for the N2 Gateway project's second phase.

Campaign leader Mzonke Poni said FNB has been contracted by the government to build "unaffordable" bonded houses costing between R150,000 and R300,000. He said as a result of this public-private partnership, banks were also responsible for the "forced" removal of Joe Slovo residents.

'we want affordable houses for everyone'

"As the Anti-Eviction Campaign, it is simple: we want affordable houses for everyone. (The) government must build public housing, down with bond houses. We support the N2 Gateway but we are against the manner in which the development and process has been handled. When they build they hire these (private) companies, and communities aren't given an opportunity to give input on what kind of houses they want," said Poni.

Thubelisha general manager Prince Xhanti Sigcawu said the company would respond soon.

Head of FNB's housing finance division Marius Marais said the land allocated for the development of 35 show-houses is currently vacant.

"FNB also addressed the issue of affordability, stating that the show-houses are part of the government's integrated plan to provide affordable housing. The bank has already announced its development of 3,000 houses in the N2 Gateway Project that will be affordable to Joe Slovo residents, which in the main will be in the range between R150,000 and R300,000 per unit," said Marais.

Meanwhile the first 1 000 completed houses at Delft Symphony will be handed to the new owners on Sunday by Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu. Most of the families who will move into these houses are former fire victims from Joe Slovo.

Another 1,000 houses will be ready for occupation early next year.

The handover comes just weeks before thousands of former Joe Slovo residents will contest their eviction by the national housing department in the Cape High Court on December 12. They refused to move from informal settlements in Joe Slovo to temporary relocation areas (TRAs).

Itumelang Kotsoane, Director-General of the national department of housing, said residents from other informal settlements would move into the TRAs in place of the Joe Slovo fire victims.

"The N2 Gateway development cycle involves moving people from shacks to temporary relocation areas, to permanent homes. The faster we move people through temporary relocation areas, the faster we eradicate informal settlements," he observed.

The department plans to build 12 000 new units as part of the N2 Gateway development next year. - Cape Times

Housing woes

Residents of Cape Town's Joe Slovo informal settlement, facing eviction, marched on Wednesday to the offices of Thubelitsha Homes and First National Bank to air their grievances. The march was organised by the National Democratic Convention.

David Harrison

Joe Slovo housing saga continues

Hundreds of residents from the Joe Slovo informal settlement marched into the offices of FNB and Thubelisha in Cape Town today. They were demanding the withdrawal of FNB from a housing development, which forms part of the N2 Gateway Housing Project.

The protestors are against houses being built on the piece of land currently occupied by Joe Slovo residents in Langa. Residents say the bank is fully aware that they are refusing to vacate the land, which they have occupied for the past 10 years.

Earlier this month, the housing department and housing company Thubelisha Homes, recently obtained an interim interdict to have an estimated 4 500 people evicted to make way for phase two of the N2 Gateway Housing project.

Dimakatso Moraka, the Chairperson of Thubelisha Homes, told reporters: "They are against being moved out of Joe Slovo and being moved to Delft again, but the reality of the solution is that there is very little ground in Joe Slovo for us to give meaningful houses."

Their next stop was the FNB offices. The protestors denounced the bank's involvement in the housing project and with the provincial government. According to a contract with the housing department, the bank will build houses ranging from R150 000 to R300 000. But, to do so, scores of shack dwellers would have to be moved to clear way for the development.

Mzwanele Zulu, from the Joe Slovo Task Team, says: "We demand that FNB withdraw from the N2 gateway project." The protesters have vowed to march again if their demands are not met. - SABC

Joe Slovo residents take to streets again

Joe Slovo residents marched in the Cape Town CBD on Wednesday to protest against Thubelitsha homes and First National Bank.

The informal settlement residents are demanding not to evict them from the area.

While many residents have already been relocated to Delft, many have vowed that they will not leave the area, as work and school will be too far for them to travel.

“We are told by residents in Tsunami from Delft that many of the public toilets have been closed for a year and that people must relieve themselves in the bushes. This is unsatisfactory,” says Mzwanele Zulu representative of the Joe Slovo task team.

In the memorandum handover to First National Bank the demands listed to the bank is to withdraw from the N2 Gateway Project, and to put communities’ needs first before contracts and profits.

“What I want see happening here is for people to face reality, and not for people to be informed by people who undermine the policies of the government,” says the Project Manager of the N2 Gateway Project and representative of Thubelitsha Homes Prince Xhanti Sigcawu.

First National Bank and Thubelitsha Homes accepted the memorandums. - Bush Radio

Stones Unturned in Crackdown On Housing Graft

ON THE face of it, the government appears to be cracking down on housing fraud.

According to recent media reports, more than 50,000 public servants who appear to have been receiving low-cost houses irregularly have been identified, and the state is in the process of bringing them to book.

The Special Investigating Unit has also started investigations into an estimated R3bn fraud committed between 1994 and 2004 by unscrupulous housing developers and contractors. Does this therefore suggest the government is nipping the problem in the bud? Unscrupulous public servants, private developers and contractors are indeed part of the problem, but they are not the exclusive culprits. For a start, the risk posed by private developers is no longer significant. The increasing emphasis on municipalities as developers removes the private developer from the payment transaction chain.

As a result, municipalities are increasingly taking on the risk of fraud and corruption associated with developing low-cost housing. This is evident from the numerous reported instances of housing fraud and corruption perpetrated at municipal level. Antifraud crackdowns are yet to deal systematically with this.

The model used in investigating housing fraud and corruption by public servants at national level could prove effective in identifying unscrupulous employees at local government level. In this case, investigators had only to run the electronic government personnel salary database against the national housing subsidy database (NHSDB), which generated more than 50,000 cases of suspected housing fraud and corruption by public servants. A similar exercise with municipal employees in all 283 local authorities may present instructive findings. Housing fraud probes at municipal level are mostly ad hoc and narrow in focus. They tend to be strictly restricted to those local authorities where fraudulent activity has already been uncovered.

The numerous instances of reported low-cost housing fraud at municipal level should be enough to spur a national probe into the affairs of local government. This would not be the first time localised corruption triggered a comprehensive national investigation. The irregularities uncovered during an audit of KwaZulu-Natal provincial government employees, who were accessing housing subsidies, were enough to urge the government to institute a nationwide probe against public servants. This yielded more than 50,000 suspected cases of fraud and corruption. More than 30,000 of these are now being investigated for possible prosecution.

Considering the increased risk at municipal level, it is crucial for the government to take the next logical step and look into the affairs of municipal employees.

Perhaps the most serious risk is that posed by low-cost housing beneficiaries employed neither in the public service nor in local government. Numerically, these individuals are far more significant than municipal employees, and the cumulative effect of the fraud is therefore likely to be more devastating. Once again, applying the model used to investigate private beneficiaries, who were fraudulently accessing social grants, may present illuminating findings. This involved comparing the social pension system against other private databases such as the Unemployment Insurance Fund , which revealed nearly 50,0000 suspected cases of social grant fraud by private beneficiaries.

A similar comparison of the NHSDB against databases such as the South African Revenue Service (SARS) may yield intriguing results. It is already fairly easy to verify subsidy eligibility criteria, such as whether the applicant is married, is a citizen of SA, is competent to contract, has not yet benefited from government housing, and is a first-time property buyer. This is achieved by means of the following tests, among others:

* comparing the housing subsidy application to the population register to ensure that applicant and spouse have valid ID numbers, and are not dead;

* comparing the application to the NHSDB to ensure applicant and spouse have not previously benefited from government housing assistance; and

* comparing the application to the registrar of deeds to ensure that neither applicant nor spouse has previously owned property.

But there has not been a reliable way of determining if an applicant's monthly household income does or does not exceed R3,500. The current approach of relying on the prospective beneficiary's goodwill to submit adequate proof of income is not particularly judicious. Proof of income can easily be falsified. For this reason, national housing needs to consider seriously the possibility of using the SARS and other private employee databases to verify incomes.

To properly address the low-cost housing fraud problem, nationwide probes into non-qualifying private beneficiaries and municipal employees are imperative. The scale of the problem is likely to be far bigger than just public servants, private developers and contractors. Left unchecked, low-cost housing fraud may thwart the government's quest to eliminate informal settlements by 2014.

Sokomani is a researcher in the Institute for Security Studies' Corruption and Governance Programme... (http://www.iss.co.za/ or http://www.iss.org.za/ or http://www.issafrica.org/)

- Business Day - NEWS Worth Knowing

Disgruntled Cape residents stage protest

Disgruntled community members from informal settlements on the Cape Flats are marching through the Cape Town city centre. They are protesting against a housing development which forms part of the N2 Gateway Housing Project.

They are against houses being built on the piece of land currently occupied by Joe Slovo residents in Langa. The group is also questioning FNBs partnership with the provincial government. Residents say the bank is fully aware that they are refusing to vacate the land which they have occupied for the past 10 years. It is alleged that FNB has been contracted by the provincial government to build houses costing between R150,000 – R300,000.

They are expected to hand over a memorandum at the offices of government's housing agency, Thubelitsha. - SABC

Asiyi eDelft! - WE won't go to Delft!

The Joe Slovo community and dozens of other communities affiliated to the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign will march on First National Bank in Cape Town tomorrow (28 November 2007).

The march will leave from Cape Town station at 9am under the theme "Asiyi eDelft!" (We won't go to Delft)

The communities want to show their support for the Joe Slovo residents, who are currently resisting a forced removal to Delft, and also to protest about evictions and water cut offs in their own communities.

Mzonke Poni of QQ Section Campaign, and a Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign leader, says that the Temporary Relocation Areas (TRA's) in Delft "are like a concentration camp. No tarred roads, rubbish in the streets, public toilets only many of which have been closed for a year so people must relieve themselves in the bush. People in the TRA's are living in limbo, unhappy, tolerating the awful conditions only in the hope that they will get a real house. But Thubelisha has promised 9500 houses to more than 20,000 families -- from Joe Slovo, New Rest, Barcelona, Boys Town Crossroads etc, as well as to Delft backyarders and to people from Nyanga, Malawi and many other places. It is a recipe for conflict, misery, and disaster."

Mncedisi Twala, Chaiperson of the Gugulethu Backyard Dwellers Forum said that "Delft is the dumping place for the poor. The ANC's economic policy is chasing the previously and currently disadvantaged people. First National Bank contributed to the killing of black people in the past by giving millions of rands to the apartheid regime and now FNB is taking the land of the poor people everywhere in the townships."

Jane Roberts and Margaret Lotz, from the Leiden Delft Anti-Eviction Campaign said that they did not advise anyone to accept forced removal to Delft. "Crime and violence are extremely high in Delft. There are frequent water cut-offs. Where will the Langa children go to school because Delft schools are already very overcrowded. Children play in the streets here and get run over by cars frequently. As the Leiden Anti-Eviction Campaign we support the idea that houses must be built for people where they are already staying," said Roberts and Lotz.

Willie Heyn, Chairperson of the Gympie Street Residents Committee said that the Gympie Street residents have pledged their support for the Joe Slovo residents because they face the same problem. "The residents of Joe Slovo received an eviction letter from Lindiwe Sisulu's office with an alternative of moving to an area far away, while Gympie Street received an eviction letter/threat from a landlord to move 'peacefully' or face the consequences. Our young democracy is falling into ruin," said Heyn.

Professor Emeritus Martin Legassick, and an Anti-Eviction campaign activist said that "Thubelisha Housing Company wrongly accuses the Joe Slovo task team of 'intimidating' people into opposing going to Delft. When people were moved from Joe Slovo after the 2005 fire, cranes loomed over their houses and they were told "move, or all your belongings will be gone." Was that not intimidation?"

…/ends

For further comment please call Abahlali baseMjondolo :

* Mzwanele Zulu – Joe Slovo Task Team representative – 076 385 2369
* Mzonke Poni – QQ Section, Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign – 073 2562036
* Ashraf Cassiem – Tafelsig, Western Cape Anti-Eviction campaign – 076 1861408
* Mncedisi Twala – Gugulethu Backyard Dwellers, WC AEC - 078 5808646
* Gary Hartzenberg – Newfields Village, WC AEC – 072 3925859

Downpours drive many back to shelters

More rain has pounded the already flood-ravaged Eden district in the southern Cape, sending hundreds of residents scrambling back to community halls as their homes were drenched again and clean-up operations became "useless" as more damage was caused.

The SA Weather Service warned "scattered thundershowers" of up to 30mm were expected in the area but would likely subside by Tuesday.

Last week torrential rains battered the southern Cape and Overberg for four days, resulting in more than 1 500 people having to be evacuated and a man and child drowning in the flood waters.

'The rain is less than last week but it's very difficult to clean up in these conditions'

It was also estimated flooding caused more than R600-million in damage, and this figure was likely to climb.

Monday, just as the Eden district geared up for the second day to try to clear roads and open access points to the clusters of residents still cut off by water, more rain fell.

Gerard Otto, the Eden District Municipality's Disaster Management spokesperson, said mop-up operations had to be called off as it was "useless trying to clean up" in the wet weather.

"The rain is less than last week but it's very difficult to clean up in these conditions.

"The big machinery can't be used and we'll have to wait for better weather.

'But we expect the rain to stop (today) and will begin mopping up again'

"We're expecting between 1 000 and 1 200 residents to come back to the community halls because their (homes) damaged last week are wet again because of this rain," he said.

Otto said only about 300 of the 1 500 people evacuated last week were staying in community halls by Sunday.

"It's almost like we've taken a step back.

"But we expect the rain to stop (today) and will begin mopping up again.

"There are a few groups of residents isolated by the water and we hope to open access points for them," he said.

Meanwhile, in the Overberg District Municipality on Monday it was "wet again" and minor flooding was reported near Swellendam.

The municipality's Disaster Management spokesperson, Reinard Geldenhuys, said clean-up operations were on schedule and conditions were not as bad as in the southern Cape.

At the weekend, Premier Ebrahim Rasool flew over the Eden district and estimated the damage caused by flooding would turn out to be more than R600-million.

A final figure would be available in the first week of December. - Cape Times

Joe Slovo community and Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign mass march on FNB this Wed 28 Nov

Thousands of people will march on FNB Bank in Cape Town this Wednesday 28th November 2007 at 10am.

The communities who are marching include Joe Slovo, Langa; Gugulethu Backyard Dwellers; QQ Section; Mandela Park; Site C Khayelitsha; Tafelsig; Blue Downs; Hanover Park; Gympie Street; Newfields Village.

The organisations are marching on First National Bank because the bank has bought the land currently housing the Joe Slovo community, knowing full well that this community is refusing to move from the place where they have stayed for the past 10 or more years. FNB has also contracted with government to build houses costing R150 - R300 000. This means that FNB is directly complicit in the forced removal of the citizens of Joe Slovo. We do not accept their argument that they only bought the land because they are working in partnership with the government to deliver to the people. This is a bald-faced lie as they know that 6000 people live in Joe Slovo now and yet they are building only a few hundred expensive houses which will not even accommodate 1% of the current community, who are overwhelmingly jobless and cannot afford them anyway.

All the communities are against the privatised, poorly built housing and the partnership between the ANC, DA and the Banks with regards to housing. These housing projects are plaguing the country currently and are making the lives of the poor a misery because they are so badly built that they force the poor to spend what little money they have on repairs. After this the banks/government hike the rents and when the poor cannot pay, having spent their money on repairing the houses, they are evicted.

The march starts at 9am at Cape Town station on Wednesday 28th November.

A FULL PRESS STATEMENT WILL BE ISSUED LATER TODAY.

This will be part of a continuing campaign against the bank.

For comment call:
Mzwanele Zulu – Joe Slovo Task Team representative – 076 385 2369
Mzonke Poni – QQ Section, Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign – 073 2562036
Ashraf Cassiem – Tafelsig, Western Cape Anti-Eviction campaign – 076 1861408
Mncedisi Twala – Gugulethu Backyard Dwellers, WC AEC - 078 5808646
Gary Hartzenberg – Newfields Village, WC AEC – 072 3925859

Storm: 2 dead, 1 500 evacuated

Two people, one of them a state vet, are feared drowned and more than 1 500 people were evacuated from their homes along the Garden Route as heavy rain continued to pelt down on Friday.

The two believed to have died are a 12-year-old boy who was playing with friends close to the swollen Kraanskop river, and a 65-year-old man, reported to be a state vet, who was trying to save a pump from the Diep River near Hoekwil. His body has not been recovered... - Cape Argus

Shack Dwellers Reject Bill Gates $10 Million for Embedded Organisations...

Bill Gates has given $10 Million to the World Bank approved international NGO SDI

In South Africa various popular massed based organisations, some that are very much anarchist in their orientation (although they don't describe themselves in this way), have militantly put the housing crisis on the agenda.

But now the state and the Bill Gates Foundation are uniting to invest millions of dollars to try and replace popular organisations with a World Bank approved and USAid supported international NGO that pretends to be a genuine popular organisations. Genuine mass based organisations are facing severe police repression while the national and global elite are investing in fake embedded movements.

Thursday, 22 November 2007
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Release
12:02

Neither the March nor the Money are Ours

The phones of the Abahlali spokespeople have been ringing all day with calls from journalists wanting to know about the shack dweller's march that was meant to happen today and the 10 Million dollars from the Gates Foundation for Housing. We thank all the journalists for their interest. We always appreciate it. But we need to explain some things. The march is not ours and the money is not for us.

In eThekwini alone there are more than 500 shack settlements and the people living in these settlements are represented by many organisations. We speak only for our members in 34 settlements. We work with all organisations with which we can find or build some common ground but we don't speak for anyone else. The many other organisations all speak for themselves. This is how it should be. The march that was scheduled for today was organised by the South African Shack Dwellers' Organisation (SASDO) and not by Abahlali baseMjondolo. Like Abahlali the roots of their struggle are in a 2005 road blockade (Cato Manor) and they have faced state repression with members spending time at the University of Westville Prison. But unlike Abahlali they have chosen the route of party politics. That is their choice but Abahlali is not SASDO. We are finished with putting people above us and trusting them to speak for us only to be betrayed. We speak for ourselves. Today SADSO intended to march on the City with shack dwellers from 5 wards including people from Cato Manor, Chatsworth and Chesterville. At the time of writing this press release we are informed that SADSO were persuaded to abandon the march by the National Intelligence Agency on the grounds that it would embarrass the country at the 2010 draw. They were promised a top level meeting instead. They accepted it but are still standing outside the City Hall, waiting.

There is also a big confusion between Shack Dwellers' International (SDI) and Abahlali baseMjondolo. Many journalists are phoning us and asking us how we are celebrating the $10 million received by SDI from the Gates Foundation.

There is something that we need to explain. Late last year we finally got a meeting with the provincial Housing Department. We had high hopes for that meeting. It came after a huge march on Mike Mabuyakulu that was first (illegally) banned by Michael Sutcliffe and then unbanned by the court. We thought that we would be heard at last and that this meeting would mark the beginning of some progress. But when we got there they started by accusing us of working with an agent of a foreign intelligence agency paid to destabilize the country and threatening us with arrest. We were then told that if we wanted to be able to meet with the government regularly and to be able to get houses we must join SDI. The instruction was clear: stay on our own and keep thinking and speaking for ourselves and be arrested, or join SDI and be obedient and be rewarded. We refused to join SDI. We announced this on the radio. Within days the arrests and beatings started and they have not stopped since even though we are currently suing the Minister of Safety & Security and even though we have marched on the Sydenham Police. The money for SDI is not money for us Abahlali baseMjondolo ... ANARKISMO.net

Gates Foundation Gives U.S.$10 Million

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will provide U.S.$10 million to the nongovernmental organisation Slum/Shack Dwellers International (SDI) to support the urban poor in Africa, Asia and Latin America to take action to improve their housing, water and sanitation.

It is the first time a major U.S. foundation has made a significant investment to address urban poverty in these regions. The grant is also unusual in that it will go direct to grassroots groups that gather under the umbrella of SDI, enabling them to improve their living conditions and their capacity to negotiate with governments to secure rights to land.

In addition to acting as the intermediary for funding, the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) will provide academic support for the national programmes.

Sheela Patel, chair of SDI's board says: "This grant is to build the capacity of poor communities to demonstrate to their municipalities, governments and international development agencies that self-organised communities of the poor are partners in addressing urban poverty. This assistance will help to build local dialogue and locally sustainable solutions."

To date, these grassroots groups have built or upgraded more than 200,000 homes (see table below). Worldwide, however, about a billion people live in slums or shacks, most of which lack safe water and toilets.

This work urgently needs to be scaled up. The urban poor are tired of waiting for governments to meet their needs. They are ready and willing to improve their living conditions but need financial support to do so.

"It is the poor who will change the city's living conditions," says Jockin Arputham, president of SDI and founder of the National Slum Dwellers Federation in India. "This grant to SDI from the Gates Foundation has enormous potential to show how cities can work for the poor as well as for the rich."

The grant will be channelled over three years into The International Urban Poor Fund, which SDI manages in association which the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).

Funds from this grant will be used to support the activities of federations of informal savings groups formed by slum or shack dwellers to collectively save money and improve their neighbourhoods by securing tenure, installing toilets, improving water supplies and in some cases building houses.

Improving the physical infrastructure is half the battle. The urban poor need the security that comes with knowing they have the right to live where they do. It is easier to negotiate with governments to gain these rights if

officials can see the improvements the federations have made, especially as they are usually cheaper and of better quality than anything local contractors can build. "This fund is a breakthrough for slum dwellers to achieve their dreams and the opportunity to do things themselves," says Rose Molokoane, chair of the South African Federation of the Urban Poor and an SDI board member.

National and local governments in countries such as Brazil, Malawi, Namibia, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Zambia have recognised the role of the federations and have worked with them as partners in urban development. But more often than not, governments see the urban poor as problems rather than part of the solution.

"Most governments and aid agencies still pay little attention to urban poverty," says Diana Mitlin of IIED's Human Settlements Group. "And when they do, it is to finance professionally designed programmes that struggle to address this problem at an appropriate scale."

"With this funding, the Gates Foundation is sending a much-needed signal to such agencies to rethink their approach. This funding will greatly increase the scale at which the national federations can operate and will support the growth of new federations."

The foundation's grant to SDI is part of the Special Initiatives portfolio of its Global Development Program, which works with motivated partners on focused strategies to increase opportunities for people in the developing world to lift themselves out of hunger and poverty.

Special Initiatives grants allow the foundation to fund compelling, specific opportunities to advance development and to learn about new approaches that can inform and improve the strategies and grant-making of the Global Development Program.

The foundation will also share results and lessons learned with a wide variety of institutions-including municipalities and national governments responsible for urban poor communities-in order to showcase how the poor can become active partners rather than beneficiaries of aid.

"We are pleased to support Slum/Shack Dwellers International and the Urban Poor Fund," said Charles Lyons, director of special initiatives at the Gates Foundation's Global Development Program.

"This grant will allow SDI to expand on its proven track record and demand-driven model and develop new, innovative ways to give the urban poor effective voices in their communities and nations." - Accra Mail

Bill Gates donates $10 million to SAfrica human habitat

Cape Town: Software tycoon Bill Gates and his wife Melinda have donated $10-million for the improvement of the living conditions of the urban poor in South Africa.

The South African Federation of the Urban Poor on Thursday disclosed this in statement saying the money was donated by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The money would be directed through the Slum/Shack Dwellers International, which is based in South Africa.

"The money will go directly to grassroots groups who are members of the Federation and SDI," said the Federation.

"The Federation has constructed more than 13,000 housing units and provided tenure security to an additional 20,000 families since 1995. The fund is a breakthrough for slum dwellers to achieve their dreams and improve their housing, water and sanitation."

It said the Federation and the SDI had signed a memorandum of understanding in 2006 with South Africa's national housing department in which the department pledged $40-million worth of subsidies to the federation.

"We believe the fund will also help to build local dialogue and sustainable solutions," the statement said.

Since 1994, all the cities and towns in South Africa have become burdened by the emergence of huge shack or informal settlements. In Durban alone, more than two million people are reported to be living in informal settlements in and around the city.

The Government and the local municipalities built thousands of low cost housing complexes to cater for the slum dwellers but are unable to meet the expectations of all the shack dwellers. - DNA

Gates pledges millions for poor and homeless

Johannesburg - The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will provide $10-million to Slum/Shack Dwellers International (SDI) to help the urban poor improve their housing, water and sanitation.

The grant would go directly to grassroots groups that gather under the umbrella of SDI, enabling them to improve their living conditions and their capacity to negotiate with governments to secure rights to land, the foundations said in a statement.

The SDI's affiliate, the Federation of the Urban Poor (FEDUP), has constructed over 13,000 housing units since 1995 and provided tenure security to an additional 20 000 families, the foundation said.

SDI and FEDUP signed a memorandum of understanding with the department of housing in South Africa in May last year.

In terms of this agreement, the department has pledged R280-million worth of subsidies to the federation.

Sheela Patel, chair of SDI's board, said the grant would help to build local dialogue and locally sustainable solutions.

Worldwide about a billion people live in slums or shacks, most of which lack safe water and toilets.

"This fund is a breakthrough for slum dwellers to achieve their dreams and the opportunity to do things themselves," said Rose Molokoane, chair of the South African Federation of the Urban Poor and an SDI board member.

The foundation will share results and lessons learned with a wide variety of institutions - including municipalities and national governments responsible for urban poor communities in order to showcase how the poor can become active partners rather than beneficiaries of aid.

SDI, based in South Africa, has affiliates in 33 countries, including 17 countries in Africa. - Sapa

Cape reels from widespread flooding

As rescue personnel in the Overberg and Southern Cape brace themselves for a third day of torrential rain which has already "wreaked absolute havoc", the southern Karoo could be next in line for widespread flooding.

Power failures, road closures, water-filled houses and the evacuation of residents have plagued the areas already battered by rain. On Wednesday, more than 200 homes had been damaged by rain, and scores of people evacuated.

And on Thursday, just as rescuers began thinking the worst was over, the SA Weather Service issued a warning that the heavy rain had spread to the southern Karoo and was affecting areas including the N1 between Touws River and Prince Albert...

the flooding was so bad in Greyton some residents had to be plucked from the rooftops of their "drowned homes".

"Six residents got trapped by rising flood waters. An SA Air Force Oryx (helicopter) airlifted them from their rooftops, and also two from islands in the middle of the rising water. In Swellendam there was wide flash flooding... - Cape Times

Southern Cape closed after floods

Yesterday, the NSRI used rescue boats to save 20 people from their flooded homes after the Great Brak River, near George, burst its banks.

More than 700 people, mainly from informal settlements, have been displaced. Heavy rains have soaked the Eden, Witsand, Caledon and Heidelberg areas. Parts of the Overberg Region of the Western Cape are flooded. - SABC

More shacks invading Mama's Housing Project land

RESIDENTS of Eagle Park and Pelican Park are concerned about the number of illegal dwellings that have been erected on the land earmarked for the Mama's Housing Project.

People's Post reported in previous articles that earlier this year 20 illegal dwellings were erected on the land between Lotus River and Pelican Park earmarked for the project.

People said at the time they were erecting the dwellings as they were tired of waiting for houses after they had already paid money into the project.

It was alleged that 374 beneficiaries had paid money for houses, but the money has not been accounted for.

It was also said that the last house was built two years ago.

It was alleged that there was a possibility of fraud occurring and the project was stopped.

It was explained by Xolani Tyilani of the Western Cape Department of Local Government and Housing that after the news of the fraud allegations, the department intervened and commissioned an in-house investigation. During the investigation, the project's bank account was frozen.

The findings of the investigation resulted in the termination of the contract between the service provider, Mama's Housing Company, and the department.

A meeting was arranged in April, at which the MEC for Local Government and Housing, Richard Dyantyi, met with the beneficiaries of the project.

It was reported to the beneficiaries that the department was taking over the project and that people would receive their houses, but it would be a "process, not an event".

However, six months later, people are still waiting for their houses.

Desperation has risen and people have of their own accord moved onto the land earmarked for the housing project.

Residents in the area are not happy with the current land invasion and although they have sympathy for these beneficiaries, they still believe that something needs to be done.

Residents say there are about 50 shacks on the land. Rashieda Roman explains that the sight of the shacks is shocking.

"Everybody is putting up shacks; you should see what it looks like."

She says that besides the state of the area, another concern is safety.

"Some of the wendy houses are vacant. Our children can be pulled into these shacks while walking to school. I do not approve of these shacks."

She says something needs to be done.

As an estate agent, she says she can safely say that due to the erection of the shacks the value of the area will reduce.

This seemed to be the general concern for a number of the residents.

"The types of the shacks they are putting up is devaluing the area. I do feel for the people, but there is no control," says Hassen Ganie, a resident and member of the Pelican Park Ratepayers' and Residents' Association.

Nisha Ishmael, also a resident, agrees with Ganie that there needs to be more control.

"From a humanitarian point of view there is no point in throwing the people off the land."

She suggests that the land invasion, especially by those who are not beneficiaries of the project, be stopped.

"They need to find out exactly who is occupying the land and whether or not they are beneficiaries."

She says the so-called illegal land invaders should be served with an interdict, preventing those who are not beneficiaries from invading the land.

As the land is owned by provincial government and due to the project being taken over by the Western Cape Department of Local Government and Housing, they were approached for comment.

However, at the time of going to print, People's Post had not received any comment.

Comment will be published as soon as it is forthcoming... People's Post

'Cape of storms' lives up to its name

More than 200 homes in the Overberg were damaged in Wednesday's torrential rain and scores of residents evacuated - but disaster management officials fear "the worst is yet to come".

This as the South African Weather Service warned that the stormy and rainy conditions are expected to continue on Thursday with a high risk of more flash floods, and the severe weather would also spread inland.

Hermanus, Greyton, Genadendal, Caledon, Riviersonderend and Stanford were among the harder hit towns.

'The weather seems to be going from one extreme to the next'

Working on Fire (WoF), the organisation of firefighting volunteers trained to extinguish blazes, has been put on standby in case Disaster Management needs assistance in evacuating people and monitoring the "hectic and heavy flash floods"... - Cape Times

Eco-friendly buildings will be the norm

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DOWN TO EARTH: Cannabrick

The South African property sector is aiming to go green by 2009.According to the Clinton Climate Initiative, urban areas are responsible for about three-quarters of global energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Buildings are said to contribute 40percent to global carbon dioxide emissions.

In cities such as London and New York, building emissions are estimated to constitute 70percent of emissions.

The local property industry is hoping to influence change by establishing the Green Building Council of South Africa, championed by the SA Property Owners’ Association, the World Green Building Council, and former US president Bill Clinton’s Clinton Climate Initiative.

The council will set standards for eco- friendly buildings with which all property developers will have to comply.

The Green Building Council will formulate a “leadership in energy and environmental design” rating system.

The World Green Building Council’s former executive director, Huston Eubank, said he was in South Africa to finalise the structure of the local council, which is expected to be operating by 2009.

Eubank said individual and corporate adoption of green building guidelines had made them affordable for residential, commercial or industrial use.

He said South Africa’s system was necessary because poor countries always suffered the worst from environmental disasters.

Eubank said eco-friendly measures had made companies competitive and more profitable.

He said projects such as the Western Cape’s Woodstock Upper East mixed-use development were a good indicator of initiatives to come.

Part of the project is the conversion of a 47-year-old building into 139 units.

Solar heat insulators, used bricks, and recycling rain and air- conditioning water for irrigation is part of the development. - The Times

Land inequality in SA a 'ticking time bomb'

For more than a decade, Molefi Selibo has been sent from pillar to post by the South African authorities in a futile quest to own a plot of land for his family.

"Land to us, it is a very key issue. There is a hunger for land in South Africa," says Selibo as he looks out across the rolling green hills of Muldersdrift which he still one day hopes to transform into a thriving village.

"It is very, very, very frustrating. It is more than 10 years. People become disillusioned, they start questioning whether this thing is progressing," says Selibo, eyeing the land which lies fallow.

His frustration is indicative of a wider sense of disillusionment about the pace of land reforms in post-apartheid South Africa.

Thirteen years on from the end of white rule, the World Bank is warning the issue of land ownership, which has already proved toxic across the border in Zimbabwe, is "a time bomb" that could blow up if not defused.

The land at Muldersdrift, about 30km west of Johannesburg, is the third property the Ethembalethu (Our Hope) community has tried to buy and develop in a ten-year battle with stubborn white land-owners, conflicting government policies and miles of bureaucratic red tape.

South Africa's land ministry admitted earlier this month that drastic measures were necessary to save the country's land reform programme, whose slow delivery has sparked anger and fears of Zimbabwe-style land grabs.

Despite the government maintaining it is "committed to stability" and using a system of payment for land and negotiation with white farmers, patience is wearing thin for those awaiting land.

At the onset of democracy in 1994, about 87% of agricultural land in the country was owned by white South Africans, who form less than 10% of the population.

Thirteen years later only 4% of land, or four-million hectares has been transferred to black South Africans, and the ministry's annual report says it will be a "serious challenge" to reach its target of 30% -- 25-million hectares -- by 2014.

In 1996, Selibo and others living in Muldersdrift had a dream to become self-sufficient.

A group of about 250 families started putting away R100 a month, until they saved enough to make their first purchase offer.

The community has since faced numerous obstacles, two cancelled sale agreements, court battles, as well as an out-of-court settlement where white landowners paid them not to move into their neighbourhood.

Now, since 2001, they have an agreement to occupy the 30,8ha property owned by the municipality, but have still not won the right to develop or farm on the land.

"It has cost us almost all the money we have saved," said Selibo.

"It has gone to paying the consultants to do the studies that are required. We have been going from pillar to post."

The land ministry has come under fire for its chaotic record-keeping, its failure to fill staff vacancies and the dismal state of its financial affairs, with the department's director general ousted last month.

Chief land claims commissioner Tozi Gwanya said that land reform had been hampered by opposition from landowners who dispute the validity of land claims and demand exorbitant prices.

He said when the government tried to fast-track the process, "prophets of doom" suggested the country was going the same route as neighbouring Zimbabwe.

"We do not want to see what has happened in Zimbabwe and we will always ensure that our land reform programme remains socially, economically and politically sound."

However Rogier van den Brink, World Bank country economist to South Africa, said time was running out to resolve the land issue peacefully.

"The World Bank has always said that a land inequality of this magnitude is a ticking time bomb, at some point some politician will run with this.

"What happened in Zimbabwe, little did we know it was the president of the country who would run with this issue. You cannot predict when and how a land crisis will emerge."

Back at Muldersdrift, Selibo says the community has been battling an absence of any clear policy to help black South Africans buy land in areas near towns.

However over the hill, a high-income development which will eventually include 120 houses, has surged ahead, easily gaining planning permission.

"Each and every landowner is opposing this development. People go far to prevent others from having a better life," said Selibo, who is employed as a civil servant dealing with land issues.

He said the community did not want to build another township where people lived in appalling conditions.

"We have now allocated a site for a primary school. We also planned to have community facilities, a hall and a taxi rank.

"The difference is here we also look at the agricultural side. Here there are no shacks."

Van den Brink says the country is missing out on massive growth opportunities by not using agriculture or land reform to its full potential.

"Countries with more equal land distribution grow faster, permanently," he said. - Sapa-AFP

Thubelisha back in spotlight over capacity claim

THE controversial Zanemvula settlement project is again in the spotlight following allegations by the municipality that government- appointed private housing developer Thubelisha, which took over the project, does not have the capacity to run it.

Sources in the provincial housing department confirm that they have “queried” the competence and capacity of Thubelisha to deliver on the Zanemvula project.

Zanemvula (“bring the rain”) is a R1-billion project initiated by the national housing department to relocate people living in the floodplains of Veeplaas and Soweto- on-Sea to the safer Chatty 3 and 4.

Thubelisha has denied the allegations, saying the agreement which allowed them to take over the administration of the project was only signed last month.

Thubelisha says it is on track, and that delays have also been caused by a lack of municipal co-operation, as officials were not happy that the project had been taken away from them.

Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu is expected in Nelson Mandela Bay today to receive a joint progress report from Thubelisha and other stakeholders on the project.

In an interview at the weekend, Thubelisha Western and Eastern Cape regional manager Prince Xhanti Sigcawu said he was “shocked” by the allegations. “The agreement allowing us to take over the administration of the project was only signed at the end of last month.

“Thubelisha could not just take over the project without knowing its background, what work had been done and how the existing contracts were operating. Since the end of last month, we have performed well.

“For Zanemvula, we had to establish a special team solely to deal with this project and we are currently filling positions. We have a separate organogram for Zanemvula, totally independent from the Eastern Cape Thubelisha organogram,” Sigcawu said.

He said regular meetings were held with the municipality and with national and provincial government to discuss the project, but at no point was the issue of a lack of capacity raised.

He said the municipality provided funds for servicing the sites and the land, while the province funded the top structures.

“We need co-operation from everyone involved, and not to start pointing fingers.”

Sisulu took the project away from the municipality in August because of slow progress and handed it over to Thubelisha.

At the launch of the municipality‘s turnaround housing strategy recently, the housing and land committee was told about numerous implementation problems facing the project, among which were lack of capacity by Thubelisha.

Housing committee councillors expressed concern at the “confusion” within the implementation of the project.

It was agreed during the meeting that there should be a clear demarcation of roles and responsibilities between the government, province, Thubelisha and the municipality. - The Herald

It's back to shacks for new home owners

Imizamo Yethu residents who have been provided with brick houses by Irish billionaire Niall Mellon are letting the houses for up to R2,000 a month and moving into shacks in their own backyards.

In 2003, Mellon, who has an apartment in central Cape Town, arranged for Irish volunteer builders to come to Hout Bay to build houses for the poor in a week-long blitz.

Over the next two years, in a number of lightning-quick visits they built a total of 448 brick houses for people who had lived in shacks.

'I chose to rent out my house'

But their good intentions are coming up against the reality of poverty in South Africa. Many of the brick houses have disappeared behind a screen of corrugated iron as owners move into shacks in their own back yards.

A house owned by Imizamo Yethu resident Thuletu Jwara is now a clothing shop rented by Chinese, while she lives in a shack behind the house.

Jwara said: "I chose to rent out my house because I am unemployed and need the money to pay the bond and help my family. The bond is R300 every month and my tenants are paying me R1 500 a month. When I've finished paying the bond I would love to move back to my house but it will depend on whether I can feed my family."

Another house in the area, complete with lounge, three bedrooms, a kitchen and a bathroom, has been divided into six bedrooms with each accommodating a rent-paying tenant.

It is now difficult to move around in the house because of the many partitions, and there is nowhere to put appliances like the fridge.

'We do understand that it is a survival mechanism'

One of the tenants of this house, Lisa Makoma of Malawi, said the rooms were very small and the rent was high - she paid a total of R1 200 a month for one of the larger rooms. "The owners are now divorced and living separately so when it is the end of the month they come one by one to collect the rent money. So we pay twice - I pay R600 to her and R600 to him."

Deirdre Grant, spokesperson for the Niall Mellon Township Trust, said: "Legislation on housing bars the owners from selling the house within five years but it doesn't prevent them from renting it out, or letting a room and the backyard."

She said the trust was disappointed that the beneficiaries were renting out the houses and moving back to shacks. "But we do understand that it is a survival mechanism."

The trust has so far built a total of 5,000 brick houses between Johannesburg and Cape Town, the last being 200 in Freedom Park in Mitchells Plain earlier this month. - Cape Argus

Gugulethu residence against moving

The city's housing portfolio committee is being forced to decide whether it will take responsibility for dilapidated hostels in Gugulethu, which officials have described as a health hazard.

Residents of Masonwabe Park said the hostels, which house an estimated 40 families, were initially used by employees of Sun International Hotel.

But, said Dan Plato, mayoral committee member for housing, the ownership of the hostels is still in question.

'Children often get sick here, they cough a lot because they play in the water'

"There was a collection of community trusts which were tasked to manage the hostels but the trustees have since disappeared because the tenants refused to pay rent, making it difficult to maintain the building.

"I am not really sure who owns the buildings," Plato said.

The picture that greeted a Cape Argus team who arrived Friday was one of broken and blocked drains, which gave rise to an overflow of urine; and children playing in large puddles of dirty water in the courtyard.

"Children often get sick here, they cough a lot because they play in the water," said resident Monde Salmana. Salmana admitted that residents did not pay rent and would resist any moves to have the buildings demolished.

"They are totally against moving, although the conditions are bad," Salmana said.

'We still need to decide whether the city will take over this liability'

It is understood that the city has received correspondence from health officials who have suggested that Masonwabe and Sharpeville hostels be demolished.

Broken showers, toilets, sinks, a lack of stair rails, leaking roofs, cracked walls and sloping foundations are just some of the reasons cited.

However, Plato said no such decision had yet been made. "We still need to decide whether the city will take over this liability - are we willing to take it over."

Plato could not supply a time-frame for the decision, saying only that they needed to look at it urgently.

"If we do take over, we will need to manage and maintain it and residents will be expected to pay rent so that we can ensure that it doesn't return to its current state," he said.

Meanwhile, tenants of a neighbouring hostel are reportedly still living in the flats despite past attempts to evict them.

Last year residents of the Somafho hostel, a former Peninsula Technikon residence, received eviction notices from a board of trustees that includes Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Western Cape provincial secretary Mcebesi Skwatsha and MPs David Dlali and Mildred Lesiea.

The residents were accused of non-payments which led to the disconnection of their electricity supply and, ultimately, to the threat of evictions.

Plato warned that if the seven hostels in question - Masonwabe, Dairymaid, Dairybelle, Lingelihle, Ethembeni, Nobantu and Sharpeville - were not dealt with properly the residents might face the same fate as those living in Somafho. - Cape Argus

Bush Radio!

Bush Radio - News

MPs to take on city over land for N2 Gateway

Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has welcomed the national assembly housing portfolio committee's decision to invite the Cape Town council to a meeting about land the city offered but later withdrew from the N2 Gateway Project.

When the N2 Gateway Project was launched the city had been run by the ANC, which made commitments of land and money, but these were cancelled when the DA took over, Sisulu said.

Greg Schneeman (ANC) suggested that fellow committee member Butch Steyn (DA) approach the city because it was DA-run.

Steyn said he had tried to discuss the issue with a number of city officials and their responses had varied.

"I agree the city be asked to come to the portfolio committee," he said.

Sisulu said the withdrawal of land last year had affected plans for the project.

Speaking after the briefing, Sisulu said: "Not only the withdrawal, but also the process we had to be involved in to get the land were protracted.

"That is water under the bridge now, but if the portfolio committee would like to take this on, it would be of great assistance to us so that we can recommit to the project."

Land had been provided by the provincial government and negotiations were under way to acquire some from Transnet. But it was hoped the city could be persuaded to provide land.

All three of the N2 Gateway's phases, providing 15 000 homes, would be completed by the end of next year. Some homes would be for rent and others for sale.

"It has gone more slowly than we anticipated, but we had to work out the problems we encountered." - Cape Times

Little Mbali can play again

After 18 months of bandages and surgery, six-year old Mbali Mahlangu is finally able to play with other children again.

Her mother, Leon, said it was the first time in a very long time she had seen her daughter, who was badly burnt in a shack fire, happy and well.

Tshepo and Leon Mahlangu still vividly remember the morning their daughter, then four, was caught in the fire at their home in Hlalanikahle, outside Witbank in Mpumalanga.

Tshepo said he and Leon had walked to a nearby shop about 6am while Mbali was still asleep to buy something for her lunch.

"It didn't even take 10 minutes." The couple panicked on returning to a burning house.

"While I was still looking for her inside she woke up - she didn't even cry or scream - she touched me on the leg so I knew she was there," said Leon.

Leon escaped with Mbali in her arms. The child was kept in isolation for nine months undergoing skin grafts at Witbank Hospital, but was taken to a hospital in Pretoria after open wounds continued to peel and bleed.

After visiting several hospitals, the Mahlangus travelled to the Red Cross Children's Hospital in Cape Town, aided by a R200 000 trust set up by a community member. As the treatment was free, the balance of this fund will be used to safeguard Mbali's future, her parents said.

Mbali will return home for the first time after receiving a final operation on her ears on Friday.

"She's asking a lot of questions. Sometimes it's hard because we don't know what to say," said her father.

"She always asks me why the doctors can't give her medicine to have her hair back again," he said. "I know she's concerned about her beauty, but it's not beauty that makes a child powerful."

After six months of continued physiotherapy in Johannesburg, Mbali will return to Cape Town for further plastic surgery. - Cape Times

Fracas at temporary camp after evictions

Grime-streaked toddlers run past a forlorn "no dumping" sign as other members of their tent community try to bring some semblance of normality to daily life.

Yet a long road lies ahead before any normality will return for the 98 families which have been dumped at a dusty piece of council land in Joyce Road, and who are now at the centre of a political and social spat that could have major ramifications for the city.

While irate Sea Cow Lake residents and local councillor Preeth Ramchuran are preparing to lock horns over the displaced people at a ratepayers' association meeting tonight (Tuesday), the more than 300 people who now live under council provided tents are hatching desperate plans to find alternate housing.

'many people believe they were living better when they were in shacks'

Evicted from a piece of private property within the Peter Road informal settlement last Tuesday, the residents marched to a local municipal office where they demanded action from the council.

Faced with a "humanitarian crisis", Ramchuran suggested that the city erect a series of tents on a vacant piece of land just across the N2 in Joyce Road.

His decision and subsequent backing from city manager Dr Michael Sutcliffe has sparked outrage from the Democratic Alliance and Bakerville Ratepayers' Association, who have warned that the city is setting a dangerous precedent.

DA chief whip Colin Gaillard lamented the fact that Sutcliffe and Ramchuran had authorised the tented community to be erected, while association chairperson Robin Lalla lashed out at council for allowing people to live in squalid conditions.

Set on a tiny piece of land near the busy freeway, the site has no water or electricity connections, while children play among the broken furniture and wooden stacking palates that lie scattered among the tents.

According to resident Bernard Makhoba, the situation has reached critical proportions.

"We had been living on that land for 17 years when they came and bulldozed us. My uncle was in a shack that caught alight and died, but no one wants to listen to us. The children are now getting sick; we have no water, and many people believe they were living better when they were in shacks," Makhoba said.

While conscious of the humanitarian implications, Gaillard said council was treading on dangerous ground by intervening in what was essentially a private land eviction.

"One would understand if the council was going to develop this site for housing, but where do we now draw the line? What the people are living in now is even worse than shacks.

The council should have rather used its muscle to assist the people to stay the eviction than create another informal settlement," Gaillard said.

Ramchuran, however, said efforts to stay the eviction were fruitless, and confirmed that he was helping residents launch an appeal against the eviction.

"On the one hand the residents don't want the shack dwellers there. But this is a temporary situation which I believe is better than having them just gate-crash anywhere in the area," Ramchuran said.

Sutcliffe said the situation would definitely not be permanent.

"We are trying to deal with a difficult situation in the most practical way," he said. - Daily News

Hiding the shame of poverty for 2010

The shacklands of post-apartheid South Africa, which would surely have been seen by tourists coming to South Africa for the 2010 World Cup, will be removed to hide the shame of poverty.

Speaking this week at the second KwaZulu-Natal 2010 sports Indaba, provincial director-general Kwazi Mbanjwa, announced that more than R1,4-billion would be spent in eradicating slums in townships where soccer training camps would be held.

Mbanjwa said more than R22-million would be used to clear shacks at Umlazi near the KwaMnyandu Railway Station.

A further R92-million would be spent in clearing slums in Lamontville, while R1,2-billion would be spent upgrading hostels in KwaMashu.

R112-million would also be spent on rebuilding housing developments in Mpofana and Umsunduzi.

Residents in Mpofana (Mooi River) had complained of sewage problems, as their toilets had not been connected to the main sewerage lines.

Sewage was flowing into residents' yards, down the roads and storm water drains and, ultimately, into the Mooi River.

Plans for the 2010 World Cup include billions of rands being pumped into upgrading transport systems such as the building of new roads in areas which will serve as training camps for visiting teams.

Stadiums which will be used as training grounds include the King Zwelithini Stadium in Umlazi, Princess Magogo in KwaMashu, Sugar Ray Xulu in Clermont and the Harry Gwala Stadium in Pietermaritzburg.

They will be upgraded at a cost of R184,5-million.

About R183-million will also be spent on building multi-purpose sports academies in Port Shepstone, Newcastle and Richards Bay.

"By providing the four district municipalities and eThekwini Metro with suitable and sustainable sports facilities, we want to increase opportunities for them to host the World Cup participants and other sports codes beyond," said Mbanjwa.

He said the use of township stadiums by visiting teams as training sites had led to their decision to redevelop townships and to remove slums.

But the shackdwellers, who say they are unaware of their imminent eviction, have described the government plan as a way of hiding the shame of the real South Africa.

Monica Mjuqu, a shack dweller at KwaMyandu, said the government didn't want visiting tourists to see that millions were being spent on a single event while the rank and file people of the country still lived in poverty.

"They are just ashamed of us and want us out of the way so that visitors coming to the country won't see the conditions we live under," said Mjuqu.

"They know that tourists travelling to the Zwelithini Stadium will come in by train and will not be impressed by the slums. But why hide what we are? If they were truly concerned about us they would have built us houses long ago. They would not have waited for 2010," said Mjuqu.

Sources of income

Mjuqu, who has lived in shacks for 13 years, said housing officials had come to put them on housing lists last year, but that nothing had happened since.

Thembisile Mkhize, who is among the many dwellers who have spaza shops which line KwaMnyandu Station, said the evictions would see them lose their sources of income.

"I survive on this spaza shop. I hope that when they remove us and take us to our new houses, they will also provide us with an area where we can carry on with our business," said Mkhize.

However, provincial government spokesperson Mandla Msomi said the decision to remove slums was part of the government's continuing service delivery programme.

"The issue of slums being removed was there, even before it was announced that SA would host 2010. The 2010 World Cup will not happen in isolation, it will go hand in hand with service delivery," said Msomi.

ethekwini City Manager Mike Sutcliffe said all would be done to ensure that communities that were removed from their shacks were housed nearby.

"We will be building houses in those areas where the shacks will be brought down. Obviously not everyone can be housed in that place, but we will ensure that everyone is located within the vicinity of where their old homes used to be," said Sutcliffe.

"The issue of providing housing to those living in slums has always been there, but we have had to prioritise certain areas due to the World Cup," said Sutcliffe.

Fifa has laid down tough laws about the appearance of host cities during the World Cup.

With the World Cup being screened worldwide, Fifa has instructed that the locations of stadiums have picturesque surroundings.

One Fifa rule, for broadcst states that no cranes or building sites should be visible on any city's skyline during the World Cup. This was one of the reasons the proposed Athlone stadium was turned down.

Cape Town's Green Point, with its backdrop of Table Mountain, was considered to be the perfect location, as opposed to the Cape Flats.

Cities such as Johannesburg have also started evicting inner-city dwellers so that footage shown of South Africa will project a good, clean country.

- Tribune

Police probe R600m land deal

Cape Town police are investigating a corruption complaint while the city council and the Land Claims Commission (LCC) have promised to halt a R600-million deal to sell to developers land at Wingfield that was earmarked for people evicted from Ndabeni years ago.

A member of the Ndabeni Communal Property Trust (NCPT), a trust serving about 500 claimants, and a claimant have asked police to probe the circumstances that led to a pre-sale agreement to sell the land near Maitland for commercial and residential use.

"Two people, allegedly former trustees, are being implicated. We have to conduct a thorough investigation, interview and obtain statements from all relevant people, consult with the DPP (Directorate of Public Prosecutions), and when it is required in terms of the law, make arrests," said police spokesperson Billy Jones.

Documents in the possession of the Cape Times include a "Heads of Agreement Wingfield" which trustees, property consultants Amdec and the Wingfield City Advice and Management (WCAM) signed on July 10.

'The state attorney is looking into this matter'

It gives the trust 27.5 percent and Amdec 72.5 percent stakes respectively in the development company Devco. Amdec would provide the capital while it and NCPT would each have three directors on Devco.

A week later, an NCPT meeting decided against the deal and barred trustees from communicating with Amdec, WCAM or any other developer. Beneficiaries' approval and proper legal advice were not obtained prior to the agreement, a trust resolution read.

NCPT's lawyer, Brent Williams of Cliffe Dekker Incorporated, then wrote to Amdec and WCAM managing directors James Wilson and Kent Kihl respectively, informing them of the decision.

Some trustees alleged their "consent" for the agreement appeared to have been obtained fraudulently on their behalf, Williams's letter said.

On Amdec's behalf, Theuns Steyn of Deneys Reitz Attorneys responded to Williams and said Kihl had approached Wilson and informed him that the trust had mandated WCAM to advise it on Wingfield's development.

'The city has only heard it via the grapevine'

"Negotiations were entered into between Mr Wilson and Mr Kihl, the outcome of which was the signature of Heads of Agreement on July 10 and 11 2007.

"The signatories were Mr Wilson, on behalf of the consortium, Mr Kihl, on behalf of WCAM, and five trustees reflected as the current trustees of the Trust on the Master's Certificate dated March 23, 2007," Steyn's response read.

Steyn's letter also objected to allegations of fraud contained in correspondence from Williams.

Among the documents in the Cape Times's possession is a letter from Divaris Property Brokers to Kihl indicating seven of 11 potential buyers that showed interest in the property. These included Old Mutual Properties, with an offer of R350-million - later withdrawn - and a R660-million offer from Property Partners.

There are also monthly reports - apparently from Kihl - to the trust. One states that the land value would be low if split between 496 beneficiaries.

The Amdec deal meant each beneficiary could get R1,2-million in cash and have shares in the venture. If kept, shares could generate about R150 000 a year for each beneficiary.

"It has been reiterated many times that beneficiaries are old and they cannot wait much longer to see the benefits of this land," another report read.

In a separate report Kihl proposes paying the trustees for "the work they have done and the enormous work that lays (sic) ahead".

Pogiso Molapo, City Council manager for land restitution, said it was government policy that land meant for restitution could not be sold within 10 years of its return to claimants.

"The state attorney is looking into this matter. The city has only heard it via the grapevine.

"It has never happened that land to claimants gets sold to developers.

"The Ndabeni restitution claimants' land is a government donation which cannot be sold without the state's consent.

"We are working closely with the LCC and will be watching this matter. The city has spent about R30-million installing bulk services for that area and can't allow some developer to come and do as they please," he said.

Sam Molepo, LCC deputy director (post settlement), said: "It came to our attention that there are problems about the sale of land.

"We referred the matter to the state attorney and expect some feedback.

"The purpose of land restitution is to give people land, and if we allow them to sell it, it defeats the purpose. This commission's view is that the land should not be sold." - Cape Times

Housing crisis at critical mass

YESTERDAY’S news that the Eastern Cape’s housing budget was set to be slashed by hundreds of millions of rands is, indeed, a severe shock.

Parliament’s portfolio committee was told that the province stood to lose R443 million of its R1.52 billion budget as a result of underspending as the financial year reached its halfway mark.

The reasons given for the underspending include problems with payment systems and municipal delays in providing serviced sites.

Poor performance among emerging contractors was cited as another problem.

So far, the province had only spent 26 percent of its budget on homes – far less than the two other worst performing provinces – Limpopo (55 percent) and the Free State (59 percent).

Because this province could not deliver, the money will now be channelled to the Northern Cape, Gauteng, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.

For the 6.9 million people living here, Deputy Director-General Mzi Dlabantu’s announcement is devastating news.

Many are without homes.

This newspaper has frequently reported on the severe housing shortage in the province, including Buffalo City, which by the middle of last year was burdened with a whopping 75000 housing backlog.

National government’s intervention is a sign that the Eastern Cape housing problem has reached critical mass.

National Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu even paid a personal visit to the province, including Ugie, where on Monday she addressed an angry crowd – more victims of shoddy workmanship.

The crowd repeated to the minister what is now a common lament – one of leaking roofs, faulty plumbing and cement crumbling underfoot.

At the meeting, Sisulu told the rightfully peeved residents that she had asked the National Home Builders’ Regulation Council to do a forensic audit on the houses built at Ugie.

“We need to send out a very strong message that if we encounter shoddy work we will ensure that those responsible rectify the situation,” Sisulu said.

Although the minister’s encouraging words should be applauded, one hopes that it is not a case of too little too late.

In January, the provincial housing department came up with a plan dubbed “Operation Thunderstorm” in which it planned to take millions in RDP housing contracts from non-performing emergent contractors and offer them to established “big league” construction companies.

At the time, provincial housing general manager Ngwadi Mzamo said the plan was the only way to reach the provincial target of building 2000 houses by March 2008.

Nine months later, it is quite clear that new strategies need to be devised, quickly! - Daily Dispatch

Bitch Fight!!! Neo Mamasa - Toko Xasa - Lindiwe Sisulu

Ultimatum after home building failure

NATIONAL Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu promised yesterday that “somebody’s head will be cut off” if the Eastern Cape Government does not create the capacity to spend its full housing budget by next year.

In an exclusive interview with the Daily Dispatch, Sisulu tore into her provincial counterparts for their dismal efforts in trying to spend their allocated money for the financial year. “Housing in your province is in a crisis,” Sisulu declared.

“I would very much like to see (the money) spent in the Eastern Cape and I will give the money back next year if you build the capacity (to spend it properly).”

Then she delivered her ultimatum:

Sisulu said she had told the Eastern Cape government to create a separate dedicated housing department, which to date has not been done.

“They asked for time to restructure but by next year it must be in place. I will cut somebody’s head off if this does not happen. The housing backlogs are just too big in your province.”

Eastern Cape Housing and Local Government spokesperson Phumlani Mdolomba yesterday said the process to create two separate departments had already started.

The former deputy director in the Premier’s Office, Nandi Sishuga, has been appointed to head the new housing department and oversee the restructuring process.

“We have two organograms and there are two financial oversight reports. The process is in place,” said Mdolomba.

Sisulu’s stinging words come just days after it was announced the province would lose R443million of its housing budget as punishment for spending just over a quarter of its allotted funds so far.

The money will be dispersed to other provinces who have made headway in spending their budgets. KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape will get R100m each, and Northern Cape and Gauteng will get R123m and R220m respectively.

Sisulu said it could have been worse for the province as she had initially intended taking R500m, which translates into an approximate 10000 homes or shelter for 60000 people.

She said she had no option but to take the money if it was not being spent because other provinces showed an ability to provide houses for people who needed them. And apart from the lack of spending taking place, Sisulu was infuriated with the quality of homes being built by contractors.

She said she was shocked to see the lousy workmanship on low-cost projects and vowed to drag people responsible for shoddy building to court.

“We are spending too much of our budget on fixing houses that were badly built. Others (contractors) do not even finish the job and run away. But they are traceable and we have already started the legal process. We want to set an example and get our money back.”

Referring to a housing project in Ugie, Sisulu said she had asked the National Home Builders Regulation Council to conduct a forensic audit after residents complained at a presidential imbizo two months ago. It would be completed next week.

Sisulu visited the community at the weekend and told them about the audit of the 2000-home project. “If work is sub-standard and they are unwilling to rectify it, the company will be denied any further government contracts,” she said.

Provincial spokesperson Phaphama Mfenyana said they were committed to achieving Sisulu’s goals. - Daily Dispatch

E.coli bacteria found in Cape Town river

Cape Town city officials have tracked dangerously high levels of e.coli bacteria and other serious pollutants in the city's Black River, said a citizen group called What-On-Earth-Is Happening (WOE), today.

The group co-ordinator Leila Beltramo said the pollution caused by the Athlone Sewage works poses a significant health hazard to residential areas the river passes through.

This includes informal settlements where some residents swim in the water or use it for cooking and cleaning.

"The pollution also threatens to eliminate at least four endangered species that rely on the river," said Beltramo. She said environmental and water specialists as well as the Department of Water Affairs will meet next week in Cape Town to discuss the dangerously high levels of pollution in river.

The WOE group was formed in July this year by a group of residents who were concerned about their environment.

Pressure intensified on the council after the citizen action group began lobbying the council and the department to clean the river. Beltramo said there were plans to clean up a section of the river on December 8.

"We will lead a massive campaign backed by the municipality, celebrities, other environmental and corporate partners to clean up the Black River in one of its most polluted stretches, close to where the N2 connects with the M5," she said.

Beltramo also said that there needed to be an assessment of why Athlone sewage works allow waste into the river. - Sapa

Three killed in Peninsula blaze

Three people have been killed in a blaze in an informal settlement in the Cape Peninsula. Cape Town Fire officials say a man, his wife and a teenager were burnt to death in their huts early this morning in the Doorenbacht settlement near Milnerton.

At least 10 people have been displaced. The cause of the fire is not known. - SABC

'Incredibly promising' TB drug trials

The trail-blazing development of new drugs, which could help revolutionise tuberculosis treatment and save millions of lives in South Africa and the rest of the world, was announced in Cape Town on Thursday.

Scientists attending the 38th Union Conference on lung health at the Cape Town International Convention Centre say two drugs with "incredible promise" are advancing in clinical trials in TB patients.

Dr Maria Freire, CEO and president of the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance) described the research advances as "an historic milestone" in the accelerated drive to halt the catastrophic number of lives still lost through a disease which, when treated correctly, is curable.

For thousands of TB sufferers, many with drug-resistant strains, a new arsenal of drugs is the life-saver they have been hoping and praying for.

Said a Khayelitsha clinic sister: "To tell someone there are no other drugs left is heart-breaking. Now we are seeing some light. This is great news."

One of the drugs, known as PA-824, is the first novel TB drug, developed on a not-for-profit basis, to enter testing in TB patients... - IOL

• Public Spin & Martial Health

Quality inspection ordered at Eastern Cape housing project

The National Home Building Regulation Council (NHBRC) began a forensic audit into the Ugie housing project in the Eastern Cape on Monday, after a number of residents complained about poor workmanship.

Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu visited Ugie, accompanied by Sam Dube, director of Power Construction, the company responsible for building the homes in the late nineties.

"The NHBRC audit will determine the quality of the building work. We need to understand what went wrong here. If the contractor was at fault, he is here and committed to making good. If the municipality was at fault, the municipality is here too," assured Sisulu.

Dube told the gathered residents of Ugie that his company did not turn its back on its projects, it would accept responsibility for fixing structures, and was committed to "making good" where its builders had been at fault.

Department of Housing (DoH) spokesperson Ndivhuwo Mabaya reiterated that the department was concerned about compromised quality among housing projects and was "first and foremost committed to the safety of residents".

He explained that the NHBRC had been building internal capacity since its inception in 1998, and now had the capacity to undertake audits and investigations into the quality of homes built in South Africa. He also said that the level of inspection and quality surveys had been increased, and each housing project currently under way would have a full time NHBRC inspector to monitor progress.

He added that since 2006, the NHBRC has been directed to inspect all homes built, enrol them and ensure that they qualify for a warranty, which would be given to residents when the homes were handed over.

"Government is committed to providing quality homes, that could become tradeable assets for the people," added Sisulu.

The DoH aims to double housing delivery and has set the ambitious goal of clearing the housing backlog by the end of 2008.

- Engineering News