Woman, toddler die in shack fire

A 24-year-old pregnant woman and her four-year-old daughter were burnt to death after their shack was set on fire in Heinz Park, Cape Town on Wednesday morning, Western Cape police said.

The woman was sleeping with her mother, brother and four-year-old daughter when their shack was doused with petrol at 4am, said Captain Ntomboxolo Sitshitshi.

"Two family members (her mother and brother) managed to escape the fire with slight burns to their faces and necks... but the woman and her baby girl were trapped inside the house and burnt to death," she said.

Two men were seen running away from the shack after it was set alight but no arrests have been made, Sitshitshi said.

"The motive and circumstances are being investigated and a case of murder has been opened." -Sapa

Fire causes Strand residents to loose homes

Yesterday sixteen shacks were gutted after a shack fire ravaged the informal settlement of Wag ‘n Bietjie in the Strand.

According to Bush Radio’s Cindy Witten, Cape Town’s Disaster Risk Management officials say 60 people have been left destitute in the blaze. Spokesperson Greg Pillay says the city has arranged disaster relief support, including food and building kits, to enable victims to rebuild their shacks.

Western Cape Police have meanwhile launched an investigation into the cause of the fire.

- BushRadio NEWS

Shack fire leaves 1 000 homeless near Hout Bay

Nearly 1 000 people have been left destitute after a devastating fire early this morning destroyed about a 150 shacks. The fire allegedly started in one of the shacks in the Imizamo Yethu informal settlement near Hout Bay.

Some are working feverishly to rebuild their shacks. No one was seriously injured.

The shaken families say they watched helplessly while their homes were devoured by the flames. Looking tired and despondent they went through the debris at first light this morning, in the hope of salvaging whatever valuables they could find. Others started preparing the charred remains of the burnt out corrugated iron to rebuild their homes.

Residents say apart from loosing all they had it would be a double struggle finding employment again for those that burnt important documents such as identity documents.

- SABC

Residential building continues to slow down

RESIDENTIAL building activity continued to slow considerably in October compared with the same period a year ago, as demand and supply in the housing sector continued to feel the effects of the economic downturn.

Between January and October the real value — adjusted for inflation — of building plans approved by local authorities for new residential buildings was down 24,2% year on year to R16,7bn, according to figures released by Stats SA yesterday.

This was R5,32bn less than the R22bn recorded in the same period last year, and followed a 22,6% drop to R15,29bn in the nine months to September in the real value of building plans.

All real values are at constant 2000 prices.

Analysts have forecast that residential building activity will remain under pressure in coming months as tough economic conditions are expected to persist well into next year.

Absa senior property analyst Jacques du Toit said recently that the continued decline in plans approved for new housing would result in fewer units being constructed towards the end of this year and into next year.

“In view of current economic conditions and expectations into next year, which are having and will have an adverse effect on the household sector, residential building activity is forecast to remain under pressure for most of the next 12 months.”

The real value of new residential buildings completed was down 8,7% year on year to R13,5bn between January and October, which was R1,3bn less than the R14,8bn recorded in the first 10 months last year.

At a regional level, the number of plans approved for new housing units in January-October was down about 25% year on year in the two most prominent provinces — Western Cape and Gauteng.

KwaZulu-Natal continued to register growth over the period, supported by the lower end of the market.

In terms of the number of housing units completed at provincial level, year on year in January to September this year; again largely driven by the lower end of the market:

• Western Cape registered decline of 30,9%
• Mpumalanga registered growth of 0,5%
• KwaZulu-Natal registered growth of 22,4%
• Gauteng registered growth of 33,4%

The residential building sector has been the worst affected by the economic turmoil so far, with building activity declining significantly in the first three quarters of the year, as the downturn in the economy put the brakes on demand for housing.

High interest rates, more stringent requirements for credit and economic uncertainty have caused a severe drop in building activity, with municipalities passing fewer building plans this year.

The slowdown in residential building has already had negative effects on contractors, brick manufacturers and materials suppliers. - Business Day - News Worth Knowing

Minister covers SA brick by brick - well, not quite

The road to election promises is paved with good intentions in the Housing Ministry.

On Monday, Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu proudly announced that 10-billion bricks were used to build 2,8-million houses since 1994 - enough to pave the whole country.

The minister seems to live in a very small country.

Assuming those 2,8-million government-subsidised houses were built with the bigger cement brick measuring 390mm by 140mm, that's a surface area of 0.0546 square metres per brick.

That means those 10-billion bricks (that's 10,000,000,000 bricks with all the zeroes) laid next to each other have a total surface area of 546,000,000 square metres, or 546 square kilometres.

That's not even enough to cover Joburg, which has an area of 1,644 square km.

Sisulu was briefing the media on the achievements of her department since the launch of the Breaking New Ground (BNG) project in 2004.

She said 13,5-million people, or one-third of the country's population, was now housed.

She gave an undertaking that every person over the age of 70 who qualified, and who has been living in the city for more than 10 years, should contact her department and they would be given a house as a matter of urgency. She didn't specify a deadline.

She also promised that the country's 10,000 military veterans would be given houses by December next year.

- The Star

Housing Fraud - Crooked officials in trouble with the law

About 30 000 government officials are facing legal or court action for housing fraud, Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said on Monday.

"We are in the process of taking close to 30 000 government officials through a legal and prosecution process to recover the subsidy money they obtain[ed] fraudulently," said a statement released after a briefing in Johannesburg on the department's progress.

Over 600 have been convicted and punished so far.

"We will not rest until all of them are dealt with both by the courts and also by the government as an employer."

In addition, crooked developers who bribed officials to have projects cleared, would be taken through the courts, then blacklisted for further housing projects.

Sisulu urged people over 70 who were still on housing waiting lists, but had not yet received their house, to contact the department.

"If there is an elder who is above 70 years, who is still waiting for a house, please contact our call centre (0800-146873) and we will ensure that you have a house the soonest."

Sisulu said there was a growing number of younger people receiving houses, leading them to believe that they could have passed the phase where those over 70 were still waiting for their houses.

Military veterans would also receive some of the 10 000 houses allocated to those who qualify by December 2009.

The department had built 2,7 million houses so far and hoped to reach 2,8 million by March 2009, the end of the financial year.

"What we are most proud of is that from 2004 we have built 1,2 million houses. In other words, in just fours years we have provided shelter to more than five million people."

Partnerships with the private sector, non-governmental organisations and banks had accelerated housing delivery, she added. - Sapa

Fires leave two dead, destroy 10 homes

While firefighters monitored an area in the Overberg where a blaze raged for nearly a week, a Nyanga man and an unidentified Eerste River resident were killed in two separate shack fires.

From 11pm on Saturday to on Sunday, five fires broke out in various informal settlements across the Peninsula, leaving 10 shacks gutted and more than a dozen residents homeless.

Wilfred Solomons-Johannes, acting head of the city's Disaster Risk Management Centre, said one person was killed in KTC, Nyanga.

'Don't leave open flames unattended, especially while we're in the fire season'

Gugulethu Police Station spokesperson Elliot Sinyangana said a 24-year-old man burnt to death in his Mbewana Street home. The man may not be named until his relatives have been informed. Sinyangana said the cause of the blaze was being investigated.

Another resident was killed in Boekenhout Street, Eerste River, when a shack burnt down. The identity of the Eerste River resident was not yet known.

A Wendy house burnt down in Somerset Heights, Eerste River, on Saturday. Solomons-Johannes said fire destroyed four shacks early on Sunday in the Samora Machel settlement, leaving five residents homeless.

Three dwellings were gutted in Langverwacht Street in Fisantekraal, Durbanville. Solomons-Johannes said fire destroyed another shack in Europe, Nyanga. The causes of the fires were not yet known and were being investigated.

A few firefighters monitored the area above Gordon's Bay where a blaze had raged for nearly a week, but was extinguished by on Sunday. Two Gordon's Bay homes were gutted and seven others damaged. At least 21,000ha in the Steenbras Dam catchment area was destroyed.

Solomons-Johannes urged residents to be careful when making fires, and using candles and paraffin stoves.

"Don't leave open flames unattended, especially while we're in the fire season. Put out candles and switch off lamps and paraffin stoves before you go to sleep. People who braai must not make fires in prohibited areas, and don't throw cigarette (butts) out of (car) windows." - Cape Times

Manmade Fires

A roof over one's own head

Free government houses suffering from construction faults are at last being repaired or demolished and rebuilt. This rectification process is under way in two provinces and is being planned for the rest of the country. "Where we find that there's a fault and that it's due to the contractor we force him to go back," Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu told the Mail & Guardian this month.

In a wide-ranging interview she reviewed progress on housing delivery since she took office in 2004, commenting on overall delivery as well as on specific flashpoints such as the N2 Gateway project in the Western Cape.

The government has provided 2,6-million houses since 1994, but complaints about poor quality have been prolific. Sisulu said she felt comforted by the progress she saw in housing delivery, but that the challenges her ministry faces "have been particularly bruising. It's not nice to wake up and think 'I'm doing this for the people' and the feedback you get is the protesters."

Since 2006 the housing department has worked with the Special Investigating Unit to trace unscrupulous contractors who, if found guilty of shoddy construction, are required either to repair faults or to return government money.

If a construction company refuses to rectify its sub-standard work, it is blacklisted and denied any further government contracts, Sisulu said.

About 60% of low-cost houses in the Western Cape had serious defects. The defects included severe cracks in walls and foundations, leaking roofs and windows and doors that did not function properly. Dampness was found in nearly half the houses audited.

Sisulu noted that many houses found to be faulty were built between 1994 and 2002 -- before the introduction of the National Home Builders Registration Council building standards. Since 2002 the council has been responsible for ensuring the quality of government-built houses.

The rectification process is under way in Khahlamba, Ugie and Zanemvula in the Eastern Cape. In the Western Cape it includes the Delft part of the N2 Gateway project as well the N2 Gateway's phase 1 project next to the Joe Slovo settlement.

Prince Xhanti Sigcawu, general manager of Thubelisha Homes -- which is responsible for houses in both provinces -- confirmed that the rectification process involves several construction companies subcontracted by Thubelisha. He said the faults being addressed included poor workmanship, roofs that are easily blown away by wind and walls built with an inappropriate mixture of cement and sand.

The rectification process will be extended to other provinces. A turnaround team led by the housing department's director general, Itumeleng Kotsoane, is driving the project. "We concede that some of those houses did not bring dignity to our people," Kotsoane said. Temporary shelters will be provided for people whose houses are being fixed or rebuilt.

But the biggest challenge to housing delivery continues to be the backlog in delivery, Sisulu told the M&G. The Housing Department has spent more than 90% of this year's R10,6-billion budget, but Sisulu has since last year pleaded for a one-off rescue package of R26-billion from the treasury.

However, the government would spend more money on rectifying faults arising from poorly built houses than it had previously. Kotsoane said provinces are now allowed to spend 10% of their budget on this.

Regarding delivery, Sisulu noted that the Cabinet has in principle approved proposals to authorise municipalities to drive the process of building houses, a responsibility that is in the hands of the national housing department. But the ministry is unwilling to implement the proposals in cases where municipalities are not adequately capacitated.

"The reason blocked projects [incomplete houses] exist is that some of them were done by municipalities that lacked the capacity to complete them. If we get to a stage where that capacity is proved to exist, I'm sure municipalities will be given that function," she said.

Sisulu also spoke about protests by residents in the past year in the Joe Slovo settlement near Cape Town who have demanded houses from the government in the expectation of being accommodated by the N2 Gateway's phase 1 project.

The government offers people a number of tenure options. Sisulu said these options were explained to shack dwellers in Cape Town, but that people's impatience and hunger for housing had driven them to rush into occupying rental flats.

"When you see somebody receiving a house you become impatient -- you're like, when do I get mine?"
she said.

People think they automatically qualify for free houses, she said. The government's priority is to house the elderly, child-headed households, the disabled and people who have been on the housing list the longest. - M&G

Buckets kicked as Khayelitsha waits to flush

After waiting for years for access to flushing toilets, residents of the BM Section informal settlement in Khayelitsha have finally had 280 of them installed by the city.

About 5 000 residents, who have until now been using bucket toilets, will benefit from the new flushing toilets.

The city plans to install the next 140 toilets by next March.

A resident of the area, Nokuzola Nedala, said she was very happy that she now had access to a flushing toilet.

The ward councillor for the area, Nosakhele Jelele, said the community was delighted to have the flushing toilets available to them.

"There were about 48 bucket system toilets that the whole community relied on.

"I'm so happy that they are getting proper toilets.

"We hope they will keep them in a good condition," said Jelele.

Blommie Hendricks, the city's Director of Development Services, said that because the area was densely occupied, it was not possible to install sewerage pipes in the middle of the settlement.

"So the BM community agreed that the city should place the toilets on the outside boundary," said Hendricks.

Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille told residents that the BM Section was one of five informal settlements where the city was planning to apply its new approach of providing a comprehensive raft of basic services.

According to Hendricks, the city will launch a survey of all informal settlement households in February, so that it can plan together with the community to put in roads, water, electricity, toilets and rubbish removal.

- Cape Argus

Three die in Cape's fires

Three people died in shack fires around Cape Town at the weekend, while the first major mountain fire of the summer has hit the heart of the Cape floral kingdom - the Unesco-registered Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve - as it continues to rage through the mountains above Gordon's Bay.

Three people died in separate incidents when fires destroyed their homes in informal settlements. The fatalities included:

A 46-year-old woman who burnt to death after a fire broke out and destroyed several shacks in the Freedom Farm informal settlement near Cape Town International Airport on Saturday. A man who died early yesterday when six shacks burnt down in Never-Never in Symphony Way, Philippi. Here, 20 people were left homeless. A five-year-old boy who was killed on Sunday in the early hours of the morning when four shacks were gutted in Soli Town in Strand. A further 12 people were left destitute.

Also on Sunday, at 8pm, one shack was destroyed, leaving three destitute in Fisantekraal, Durbanville.

A man suffered 60 percent burn wounds in the blaze.

At least 200 people have been left homeless in the wake of the fires in informal settlements.

The blaze above Gordon's Bay began on Saturday night and immediately threatened tourist sites in the Elgin Valley.

Large tracts of fynbos were burnt and early today, smoke from the fire hung like a haze over Cape Town, as far as Table Bay and Table View.

Orchards were scorched in the Elgin and Grabouw areas, but damage to commercial interests was minimal and no infrastructure was destroyed, said Overberg fire chief Reinard Geldenhuys.

The fynbos areas were mostly 12 to 13 years old and ready to burn, he said.

At Buttonquail Private Nature Reserve, the flames sped towards the reserve's luxury tented camp, but was mercifully arrested by the Palmiet River.

The reserve's owners, volunteers from Mofam River Lodge and farmers and workers from neighbouring fruit farms fought throughout Saturday night and the whole of Sunday to try to keep the fire from leaping the river and raging into the Elgin valley's productive fruit and wine farms.

Buttonquail owner Ralph Garlick said: "We fought side by side all night. We are black and blue."

Garlick and his team also saved an indigenous forest estimated to be hundreds of years old.

"Somehow the flames spared it. It was like the hand of God," he said.

Firefighters from the valley, Overberg fire services and Cape Nature managed to keep the flames from Elgin valley's orchards, but fierce south-easterly winds fanned the fire and drove it in a north-westerly towards the Steenbras dam catchment area.

Geldenhuys said a major fire in 2006 had left a long strip of fynbos with only virgin growth.

This had served as a firebreak which protected another recreational facility, Mizpah youth camp, from being destroyed.

Not spared have been more than 2 500 hectares within the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve.

The reserve stretches over 100 000ha between the Hottentots Holland Mountains and the mountains that ring the eastern shores of False Bay between Gordon's Bay and Kleinmond, and it enjoys formal recognition and protection from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural organisation.

The biosphere reserve's Mark Johns said this morning: "It's 13-year-old veld, which is the minimum recovery age. It's not an ecological disaster yet. We're hoping that all the antelope will have been able to escape to the lower areas."

The fire was still burning at the time of going to press today and the flames were cresting the watershed on the mountains between the Elgin valley and the coast road, Clarence Drive, with thick smoke being driven down the Steenbras River gorge.

Firefighters are anticipating an extremely tough wildfire season in the Western Cape this summer with an increasing number of runaway blazes driven by what is predicted to be exceptionally hot and dry weather.

Working on Fire (WoF) teams who enjoyed only a brief respite after a hectic winter fire season in the north-eastern parts of the country, such as Mpumalanga, Limpopo and northern KwaZulu-Natal, have been thrown headlong into the Western Cape's summer fire season.

The organisation's "Wildland firefighters" were deployed to assist in putting out 737 wildfires that burnt across 236 000-plus hectares of veld and forest between May and November. August was their busiest month, with teams being dispatched on 203 occasions.

WoF general manager Johan Heine said the firefighters had at times been forced to work back-to-back shifts.

Weather forecasts showed the province was entering a five-year-phase of longer, wetter winters with windier, drier summers that meant more wild fires.

- Cape Argus

Homes destroyed in Hout Bay fire

More than 100 shacks were destroyed and about 800 people left homeless in a shack fire at Mandela Park in Hout Bay on Friday, Cape Town fire control said.

Between 150 and 200 shacks were destroyed in the fire which started around 3am, said Goodwood fire control supervisor Paul Joseph.

By 6.30am the fire had been brought under control. There were 13 fire engines on scene containing the blaze, said Joseph.

He said the cause of the fire or the number of people injured was not yet known. - Sapa

Hard times will strain our delicate social order

As the world economy teeters on the brink of recession, many developing countries brace themselves for the potential developmental fall-out that such economic contractions may have.

Ironically, while the epicentre of this crisis is located in the developed North, developing nations like ours will bear its brunt. In terms of the latest projections, this global economic downturn will make it increasingly difficult for several developing nations, including South Africa, to meet their UN Millennium Development Goals, particularly as they relate to the elimination of poverty and inequality, which are intimately connected to lack of access to resources.

Yet the strain this tension will place on these societies is not only financial, but also social, as increasing volatility will expose multiple fault lines that run through communities.

To ignore the warnings contained in the UN and ORG reports would be unwise

Two recent reports allude to this danger.

According to the United Nations' (UN) 2008 World Economic and Social Survey, increased economic insecurity has in several countries led to the deepening of social divisions and the exacerbation of political instability.

The report warns that: "Their fragile societies are vulnerable to a multiplicity of threats ranging from natural disasters and food shortages to financial shocks, rising inequality and badly handled elections, any of which could tip them into widespread, and even genocidal, levels of violence."

It goes further to note that because governments are restricted in their ability to deliver basic services, the global crisis also has implications for their political legitimacy and hence the rule of law.

In a similar vein, the Oxford Research Group (ORG) in its 2008 International Security Report warns that in the absence of a concerted effort to alleviate the impact of the crisis on the most vulnerable segments of the global populations, "the most serious effect of the crisis will be a substantial increase in radical and violent social movements in direct response to marginalisation".

GDP growth slowed down to 0,2 percent during the third quarter

From a policy perspective, it is of critical importance for South Africa to consider carefully how it will chart its way through this impending storm.

When Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, in mid-November, briefed Parliament on the country's preparedness for the escalating global crisis, he also articulated this concern when he remarked that the crisis would place strain on the government's social contract with the South African people, compelling the government to consider its "ability to contribute to a deep and durable democracy that will lift millions of people out of poverty".

The message is unambiguous.

As unemployment rises and more South Africans are added to the ranks of the impoverished, the government will come under increased pressure to expand its support to marginalised citizens under circumstances that will almost certainly see a contraction in the resources at its disposal.

The manner in which the state manages these circumstances will be critical to the longer-term resilience of the South African state.

To ignore the warnings contained in the UN and ORG reports would be unwise.

Those who dismiss such scenarios out of hand need only to be reminded of the wave of xenophobic violence that washed over the country in May.

When we look more closely at the major accusations that perpetrators levelled against their victims during this period, it becomes apparent that although the conflict manifested along an entrenched xenophobic fault line, its roots were essentially located in the same economic vulnerability that was experienced by poor communities elsewhere in the world, who during the same period resorted to violent actions against the rapid rise of food prices.

In South Africa, the attacks were directed at those whom poor and marginalised communities regarded as the most immediate threat to their livelihoods and their charges focused on three key concerns:

• That migrant Africans took away jobs from South Africans.
  
  
• That their uncompetitive business practices undermined the ability of local entrepreneurs to make a living.
  
  
• And that they were behind the high levels of criminality within the areas where they reside.

All of these issues relate to the question of human security, as well as a sense of disillusionment with a state that has not managed to provide them with the protection that they require.

The Institute for Justice and Reconciliation conducted its annual SA Reconciliation Barometer Survey during April and May, as this shameful chain of events unfolded across the country. The results of the survey, drawn from a nationally representative sample of 3 500 South Africans, provides valuable insights into the context that informed these xenophobic attacks.

In comparison with the results of two years ago, when the country was riding the crest of the economic growth wave, citizens felt economically far more vulnerable, physically less secure, and increasingly pessimistic about the direction the country was moving in.

In April 2006, 57 percent of respondents, for example, felt that their personal economic prospects would improve over the next two years. This statistic has shrunk to 39 percent in April this year.

Similarly, optimism about the prospects for an improvement in the physical safety of respondents declined from 51 percent to 34 percent for the comparable period.

Not surprisingly, therefore, fewer respondents in 2008 felt that the country was moving in the right direction. In 2006, the figure of approval stood at 69 percent, compared to the 43 percent in 2008.

Six months after this survey was conducted and the occurrence of one of the most reprehensible moments in the country's short democratic history, this material vulnerability is unlikely to have improved.

In fact, as GDP growth slowed down to 0,2 percent during the third quarter, more people are likely to find themselves jobless or facing the real prospect of joining the unemployment line in the not-too-distant future.

The insecurity that this condition breeds is likely to raise levels of perceived volatility, and with it intolerance among groups or institutions that find themselves on opposite sides of the fault lines that run through South African society. Nothing suggests that such ruptures are imminent, but fertile ground for it certainly exists. How this situation is managed will be an important test for the resilience of this young democracy.

Against this background, it has been extremely disconcerting to note the polarising tone that election rhetoric has already taken in the early stages in the run-up to the country's fourth democratic poll, to be held sometime during the first four months of next year.

Citizens, more than in previous election years, may be looking in desperation towards political parties and leaders for solutions and answers.

History has shown time and again that under such circumstances, the susceptibility of citizenries to short-sighted populist rhetoric increases exponentially. The recurring theme of violence in songs that call people to arms or degrading references to political opponents as rats, snakes, and most recently - chillingly reminiscent of the Rwandan genocide - cockroaches, are not only blatantly opportunistic; they are extremely dangerous.

When South Africans started to pick up the pieces in the wake of the xenophobic violence earlier this year, we had to admit to each other that the warning signs had been visible well in advance of the attacks.

Not only were the material conditions ripe for violence, but these conditions were also fanned by offensive rhetoric that became acceptable in our day-to-day life. Hopefully, we will not make the same mistake twice.

Hofmeyr is the programme manager of the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation's Political Analysis Programme. This article is part of a monthly series of articles made available to the Cape Times by the Institute.

Govt intensifies efforts to curb selling of RDP houses

Western Cape Housing Minister, Whitey Jacobs, says government is intensifying its programme to deal with people who are selling or renting government houses in Delft in the Cape Peninsula. Jacobs was speaking at a handing over ceremony of two houses to beneficiaries in Delft. He says government is serious about moving people out of squalid informal settlements into decent houses.

Jacobs says they are sending a message to everyone who is selling the houses that the practice is unacceptable. He says they have started a campaign, sending letters to alleged perpetrators, requesting reasons why government should not withdraw their subsidies. According to Jacobs, those who bought or are renting the dwellings in question, have to be out by the end of the month.

Meanwhile, beneficiaries of new two-bedroom houses expressed gratitude after Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu handed over the keys. A former Joe Slovo resident, Zola Mjatya, says he's been waiting for a house for the past five years.

Sisulu, on the other hand, has appealed to Joe Slovo informal settlement residents in Langa on the Cape Flats to cooperate with authorities regarding their removal to Delft. Her statement comes as more than 1 000 residents are resisting their removal following a Cape High Court order to evict them from a tract of land earmarked for part of the N2 Gateway Housing Project.

Sisulu was speaking during the hand-over ceremony in Delft. She says Joe Slovo residents will have a better life if they cooperate with government.

- SABC

Xenophobia: the bill

The City of Cape Town spent at least R108-million on relief to victims of xenophobia, but so far has only been reimbursed R17-million by the provincial and national governments.

City chief financial officer Mike Richardson said the R91-million shortfall, which had to be siphoned from various council departments, would affect their budgets.

Housing mayoral committee member Dan Plato said the money used for xenophobia relief measures were needed for other projects.

"We need to tell citizens out there that we can't afford to spend money like this."

In a report to the city's mayoral committee on Tuesday, Johan Steyl of the finance department said the city submitted reimbursement claims of R70,7-million, R5,6-million and R32-million to the the province and national government.

"The claims related to actual costs incurred," Steyl said.

The claims were submitted in June, August and September.

Since then, the city has racked up a further R1,9-million in xenophobia-related costs.

Meanwhile, the department of provincial and local government said in a letter to the provincial disaster management centre that the National Treasury had approved an amount of R12,8-million for the provincial departments and R17,3-million for the City of Cape Town.

Steyl said it was not clear whether this amount would cover all claims, including costs incurred after the submission of the last invoices, or only a part of the claims.

The city was then told by the National Treasury that the allocation was evaluated on the basis of whether the claim was reasonable and whether the expenditure was deemed appropriate.

Steyl said the city did not make provision in its budgets for the xenophobic attacks, which erupted without warning in May.

Relief measures, including shelter and support for the thousands of people who were displaced and housed in safety sites, put the budgets of the city's departments "under considerable strain".

- Cape Times

Housing policy - Xenophobia / Shack fires / Floods We PAY 3X

Housing policy was identified as a trigger for the outbreak of xenophobic attacks, a report by the Human Science Research Council (HSRC) revealed on Wednesday.

The report, in response to the outbreak of violence in May, was based on a roundtable discussion involving 50 key stakeholders from government, civil society and affected communities.

"The housing policy needs to be revisited urgently. Housing is a complex issue and is one of the issues that sparked xenophobic violence in various areas around country," said HSRC director Adrian Hadland at the launch of the report in Alexandra.

Some of the recommendations made by the council was to convene a national indaba on xenophobia, open channels of communication among residents, through the empowering or establishment of local community forums, and the revision of the migration policy.

"Immigrants should be regulated. They need to be introduced to customs, practice and sensitivities of the country. The local councillors need to be educated about migration and South Africa's role globally," said Hadland.

South Africa was in need of immigrants because they brought skills resources.

British high commissioner Paul Boateng said xenophobia was a "weeping wound in the body of society" and it required attention.

"The UK can learn a lot from South Africa's experience... the dual purpose is for the issue to remain on the international agenda to ensure that there is no repeat to what happened," said Boateng.

- SAPA

Give us back our land

Angry residents barricaded Eisleben Road in Nyanga with burning tyres and temporary toilet structures during a protest against what they called unfair allocation of housing plots by their ward councillor.

The Black City community complained that the local Councillor Elese Depouch offered 21 serviced site housing plots which belonged to them to backyard dwellers from the nearby White City Section.

More than 50 residents who included teenagers set fire to the barricade of tyres, rubbish and overturned stinking temporal toilets structures erected across the road to block Eisleben Road near the old Nyanga Home Affairs offices on Friday.

Waving placards that demanded the plots back and defying the ward councillor while also chanting toyi-toyi songs to express their plight, the group caused disruption of traffic road for more than five hours.

They threatened to embark on a big mass action to disrupt council services and make the area ungovernable if they did not get the plots back and demanded an urgent meeting with the Cape Town housing portfolio committee as their community leader (Councillor Depouch) failed to co-operate with them when he was approached.

A large contingent of police were called to control the situation and calm down residents who threatened to express more of their anger to the councillor when he walks out of the offices which are currently being used by the council.

The Black City informal settlement established in 1985 had newly built RDP houses recently handed over to residents by the Provincial MEC for Housing, Whitey Jacobs.

Thandi Sopili who lived in the area for more than 20 years alleged that the Depouch practised favouritism and he told them that they were drunk when they confronted him about the plots.

“Those plots belong to us but our community leader tells us that he cannot listen to people who are being fed with the Democratic Alliance (DA) food parcels

Thobela Mqombothi complained that Depouch fooled around with them.

“Depouch uses us to campaign for the election and brings White City backyarders to Black City.

“He insults us that we are Democratic Alliance followers who are being used by white people to disrupt peace in the area,” said Mqombothi.

Simpiwe Ngece one of the White City Section backyarders, said people who were crammed into shacks in backyards deserved to be accommodated in the new housing development in the area.

Ngece says the MEC Jacobs even explained that the development was meant for the Black and White City residents.

A huge signage board in the area also bears the name of the Black and White City housing development.

Ngece said they expected the authorities to allocate the plots on 50/50 basis and it was unfair for the Black City residents to sideline them from the developed land.

He appealed to the provincial MEC for housing to intervene in the matter soon, as it will lead to bloodshed if Black City residents refused them a right to get their own plots.

Elese Depouch said at a recent public meeting Black City residents had reached an agreement to share the land with White City residents but have turned against the agreement.

Depouch said the authorities required that each housing development allocate 30% of the sites to backyarders.

However, residents walked out of another meeting with him and protested when they heard that backyarders would get sites in the development.

He appealed to residents to consult with their leaders instead of embarking on disruptive and potentially dangerous actions that could lead to disruption of services and arrests.

- City Vision

Gateway housing project in a shambles

Only five families out of an estimated 20,000 shack dwellers from one of South Africa’s poorest settlements have been accommodated at the state’s flagship housing development built on their doorstep.

Meant to showcase the country’s progressive housing policy promoting racially integrated cities, phase one of the N2 Gateway project next to the Joe Slovo shack settlement in Cape Town is instead a monument to a losing battle against the national housing backlog.

More than 1000 families from Joe Slovo have been relocated to make way for the housing project, which to date consists of only 704 state rental apartments costing R600 to R1050 a month and about 3500 free houses 10km away in Delft on the outskirts of the city. This despite the government’s promise of 20,000 free state Gateway houses by 2006.

The relocated shack dwellers now live in the new Delft houses or in under-serviced “temporary relocation areas”.

The remaining shack dwellers — about 3000 families — are challenging a High Court ruling ordering them to move to Delft so more free houses can be built where their shacks stand.

Construction of “bond market” houses has already begun for people earning between R3500 to R10000 a month next to Joe Slovo settlement.

Shack dwellers say they are being forced off their land without any guarantee of getting a new house.

“What we’re seeing at Gateway is more people falling out of the plan than into it,” said Steve Kahanovitz from the Legal Resources Centre. “Our information in the court case is that less than five (applicants) from Joe Slovo have benefited.”

“We are excluded,” Mzwanele Zulu, chairman of the Joe Slovo Residents Committee, said. “People living in informal settlements cannot afford those houses.

But the national government insists that all shack dwellers on the housing list will be accommodated either in the third phase of subsidised N2 Gateway houses or at an alternative site.

It concedes there are major challenges for housing delivery.

Housing Ministry spokesman Marianne Merten said: “Regardless of the challenges, government remains on track to eradicate informal settlements by 2014 as undertaken in terms of the UN Millennium Development Goals. Shacks and informal settlements are no places to live in dignity, to raise families, where people have access to services like ambulances and the postman.”

But academics and development experts say the Gateway fiasco exposes a flawed housing delivery strategy.

“What we are doing is perpetuating the urban planning of the apartheid period,” said Professor Sampie Terreblanche of the University of Stellenbosch’s economics department.

• The housing backlog in the Western Cape is growing by 12,000 to 18,000 a year – far more than the annual number of new state houses in that province
• Between 1996 and 2001 the number of shacks in Johannesburg increased by 36,451. Today, there are 209,381
• Despite lip service to the principle of creating integrated cities, inner-city evictions continue in Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria.
• Despite a countrywide roll-out of essential services such as water and electricity to poor areas, major metropolitan councils have begun cutting off services to shack settlements. Joburg and Durban are all embroiled in court cases stemming from cut-offs
• KZN has even passed its own slum-clearance law – which is being challenged in court
• Major housing developments like N2 Gateway are poorly managed and beset with dodgy building contractors. Thubelisha Homes, the state-appointed ‘housing support institution’ that appoints building contractors and collects rental at the Gateway apartments, has been a dismal failure, and received a tongue lashing from the Portfolio Committee on Housing.
  
  Meanwhile most of the 704 beneficiaries of the Gateway rental apartments have been served summons for refusing to pay rent. But they say the buildings are defective.The residents claim they will boycott payment until government fixes the cracks in their walls and floors
• Among the 5,000 families living in temporary Gateway accommodation waiting for accommodation, there are 1000 people who do not qualify for free state housing.

Notwithstanding the many problems there was also praise this week for the national housing roll out. Since 1994 the government has built over 2.6 Million houses, providing shelter to about 10 million poor people. — the biggest housing roll-out of its kind worldwide and comparable only with social housing programmes in China and Singapore. Commentators said the problem was not with government’s impressive human rights policy --dubbed Breaking New Ground – but with implementation. They said provincial and local governments were perverting the original spirit of the Housing Act, which was partly pioneered by the late Joe Slovo, Ironically the residents of Joe Slovo shack settlement are now in court fighting to save their roofs.

“What you’re doing effectively is keeping poor out of the city --that’s very, very serious because this goes back to apartheid influx control,” said Professor Marie Huchzermeyer from Wits University. “If go back to the 1997 Housing Act doesn’t talk about eradicating informal settlements. It talks about making land available to people so that they don’t have to invade land. It doesn’t talk about any forceful measures.”

One of SA’s top human-rights lawyers, Advocate Geoff Budlender, said: “Too many people in local, provincial and national government think that shacks are a problem and the solution is to demolish them, but one has to see shacks in a different light. They are a symptom of other problems --they are not themselves the problem.”

Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has pleaded for a once-off R12 billion injection to help speed up housing delivery.

- Sunday Times

Allocation of Nyanga plots causes mayhem

Angry residents barricaded Eisleben Road in Nyanga with burning tyres and portable toilets on Friday during a protest against what they called their ward councillor's "unfair" allocation of serviced plots.

The protesters complained that Councillor Elese Depouch had offered 21 serviced housing plots in a new housing development to backyard dwellers from nearby White City instead of them.

They also claimed that Depouch would not negotiate with them because they were DA supporters.

More than 50 residents set fire to the barricade of tyres, stinking portable toilets and rubbish that had been erected across the road near the old Nyanga Home Affairs offices, blocking off the street.

The police were called in to control the situation.

The protesters said they would embark on mass action to disrupt council services and make the area ungovernable if they did not get the plots back. They demanded an urgent meeting with the Cape Town housing portfolio committee because Depouch had "failed to co-operate" when he was approached.

Traffic was disrupted for five hours.

Residents at Black City informal settlement, established in 1985, were recently given new RDP houses by the provincial MEC for housing Whitey Jacobs.

Depouch said that at a recent public meeting Black City residents had agreed to share the land with White City residents, but the Black City residents later reneged on the agreement.

Depouch said authorities required that each housing development allocate 30 percent of the sites to backyarders but the residents had walked out of another meeting with him and protested when they heard that backyarders would get sites in the development.

He appealed to residents to consult with their leaders instead of embarking on disruptive and potentially dangerous actions.

Thandi Sopili, who has lived in the Black City area for more than 20 years, said that Depouch practised "favouritism" and had told them that they were drunk when they confronted him about the plots.

"Those plots belong to us, but our community leader tells us that he cannot listen to people who are being fed with Democratic Alliance food parcels."

Thobela Mqombothi complained that Depouch "fooled around" with them.

"Depouch insults us by saying that we are Democratic Alliance followers who are being used by white people to disrupt peace in the area," said Mqombothi.

But Simpiwe Ngece, of the White City Section backyarders, said people who were crammed into shacks in backyards deserved to be accommodated in the new housing development in the area.

Ngece said they expected the authorities to allocate the plots on a 50/50 basis and it was unfair for the Black City residents to sideline them from the developed land.

He appealed to Jacobs to intervene in the matter before it led to bloodshed.

- Cape Argus

One thousand homeless after fire

About 1 000 people have been left homeless by a fire that has swept through the informal settlement of Imizamo Yethu in Hout Bay, destroying 200 shacks.

For some, it was the second time they had lost their homes in a fire.


Residents scrambled to save what they could from the path of the blaze, and furniture and clothes soon lined Nelson Mandela Road leading into the informal settlement.

Scores of men and women came from other parts of Hout Bay to help the residents remove their possessions from their homes, carrying mattresses, TVs and fridges. Some even climbed on top of shacks with buckets and bottles of water to douse the flames.

Sharon Bosch, senior communications officer at the Cape Town Fire Control Centre, said 13 vehicles from stations across the city were sent to fight the fire.

Water tankers, pumps and a rescue service vehicle were sent from Constantia, Lakeside, Fish Hoek and Simon's Town about at 2.30pm when the blaze was reported, she said.

Theo Layne, platoon commander at the Fire Control Centre, said the fire had been brought under control by late afternoon.

Layne said about 200 shacks had been destroyed, leaving 1 000 people homeless.

Two people were treated for smoke inhalation, a child received head injuries - the cause of which was unknown, Layne said - and one person suffered "superficial burns".

Several trucks remained at the scene and some firefighters were working to dampen "hot spots", Layne said.

He could not yet say what had caused the blaze.

"I don't have a place to go. My money, my pool table, it's all burnt up," Sbongakonke Hlophe said, burying his head in his hands as he lay atop the clothes, mattress, and other possessions he was able to salvage before the flames engulfed his home.

Hlophe was asleep when his brother came to warn him the fire was closing in on their home.

The fire is the second Hlophe has experienced in the five years he has lived in Imizamo Yethu.

Speaking to a relative, Sbumnyatholi Khanyile cried into his cellphone: "Oh my God … all my stuff is gone, my home, it's all gone."

Khanyile and his brother arrived too late to save anything from the home they shared.

Mother and daughter Nobuntu Mawoko and Nobantu Paliso said by the time they arrived, the blaze was "too strong" for them to save anything. The fire was the second they, too, could remember in five years at Imizamo Yethu.

The home of Paliso's brother was also burnt down. Paliso was not sure where the family would spend the night.

"I don't know where we're going. I can't even think about tomorrow."

Boniswa Cempulana saved all she could from her home and had to be carried to an ambulance for treatment after she collapsed with "shock".

- Cape Times

Service delivery protest turns violent

Police quelled sporadic incidents of violence in De Doorns early on Tuesday as some angry residents from informal settlements intimidated workers and threw stones businesses in the town.

On Tuesday's action continues days of protest over poor service delivery that has gripped the Breede River Valley.

Police fired "a few" rubber bullets as stones were hurled at a Pep Stores branch and other businesses in the town as tensions flared when some residents headed to work earlier on Tuesday, according to police.

By around 7am police had the situation under control and maintained a heavy presence in the area.

Standoffs between residents of informal settlements in De Doorns and police continued throughout the day as residents vowed to keep up the fight for basic services.

Council workers arrived to clear the remains of burnt tyres, slabs of concrete and scattered rocks that were strewn across the N1 last night.

At around 7:30pm the community gathered to discuss their grievances with Provincial Housing Department authorities. Residents demanded to be addressed by Housing MEC Whitey Jacobs.

Authorities told the group they would get houses and asked for patience.

People living in Stofland, Hassie Square, Ekuphumuleni and Maseru settlements were warned that police would be patrolling and had deployed maximum security in the area, arresting anyone who broke the law.

At around 2pm police arrived and marched toward the protesters, opening fire with rubber bullets on residents who were toyi-toying.

The residents scattered quickly, running into their houses, shutting doors, closing spaza shops and heading for the mountain as the officers moved in.

Stofland resident Noluthando Mkhetsu said: "We were just singing and showing our dissatisfaction when they started shooting at us. We were not armed and we were no threat to them," she added.

Five residents were arrested and several others injured on Tuesday.

On Monday resident Freddie Louw was killed, 12 people were injured and three people were arrested.

Municipal speaker Joe January said residents should address their issues to the ward committee, which would inform the municipality.

Themba Mbali, a community leader, said residents were demanding electricity, sanitation and housing.

Problems surrounding the housing waiting lists and municipal funding of about R152 000, intended for De Doorns settlements that had been "pumped into" other settlements in Worcester were also among concerns raised.

Meanwhile, the ANC has laid responsibility for the violent protests in De Doorns at the door of its new nemesis, the Congress of the People (COPE).

Cope has denied the allegations, saying it was untrue. Issues raised by the community were not political and were about service delivery.

ANC Deputy Provincial Secretary Max Ozinsky told the Cape Argus that the new party had distributed pamphlets in the area and that they had mobilised people on Sunday evening.

The people organising the march were three former ANC members who had joined the new party, said Ozinsky, adding that they would probably be standing in the upcoming by-election.

COPE spokesperson Mbulelo Ncedana said: "It is untrue, it is a lie." He said ANC president Jacob Zuma had previously visited the area and had promised to contact the relevant authorities and send in a team to address their issues.

- Cape Argus

'We will keep blocking the N1'

Hundreds of De Doorns residents scrambled between their shacks and fled up mountain paths when police fired rubber bullets at a crowd of protesters for the second day in a row.

Officers opened fire on Tuesday to disperse the crowd.

The protesters are demanding better service delivery. They want access to water and electricity to be connected immediately to their homes in the Stofland informal settlement.

'We need electricity, more toilets and more taps'

Nearly 4 000 protesters blocked the N1 in De Doorns and threw stones at motorists on Monday.

Police responded with rubber bullets. Freddie Louw, 63, was injured and died in hospital. Eight other people were injured.

Louw's family said the father of four was a "peace-loving, quiet man".

On Wednesday, shortly before the N1 was cleared of stones and reopened, a group of protesters toyi-toyied through Stofland.

They confronted scores of police officers and two armoured vehicles that had taken up position on the N1, which is separated from the settlement by a fence and sandy strip of land.

'We'll block the N1 every day for seven days'

After police repeatedly warned the crowd to disperse, officers streamed through a small opening in the fence to get to the residents.

Two armoured vans entered the area and other vans were seen stationed around it.

When the group continued to refuse to disperse, officers began firing rubber bullets. Residents ran between the shacks to escape. Others ran for the mountain behind the settlement, with officers in pursuit.

Children were heard crying and a woman, her head bleeding, was seen running into a shack. "This is unnecessary," she shouted.

Officers walked through the streets shouting at residents to go back to their homes.

An hour later, the atmosphere remained tense. Stunned schoolchildren who were walking home stared at the armed police officers.

Earlier, residents met Breede Valley council Speaker Joe January. But community representative Anton Femboes said they had not been assured their needs would be met.

"We need electricity, more toilets and more taps. We'll block the N1 every day for seven days if we don't get this," Femboes said.

There was one toilet to about eight shacks. People wanted a toilet for every shack.

Another meeting had been planned for Stofland community leaders and municipal representatives. But Breede Valley municipal manager Allen Paulse said residents had not pitched up.

"They want to talk about foreigners coming into the area and taking their jobs, (which is a matter for) the Home Affairs Department. They also want electricity for their homes."

Paulse said Eskom was willing to provide the area with electricity if the shacks remained for three years.

Meanwhile, as the protests continued, Louw's family was in shock.

Louw's son, Freddie jun, was with his father when he was shot.

"He went to listen to the (Breede Valley) mayor (Charles Ntsomi) speak.

"A fight broke out afterwards, when the police captain said the people must move away and they didn't. They began throwing stones. That's when my father was shot. He wasn't throwing stones."

Louw's daughter, Maria Bezuidenhout, said she had seen her father 15 minutes before he left.

"The next thing I heard was he was shot. I ran next door and called the ambulance. When I got (to him), my father was on the ground with a bullet sticking out of his head. He was still breathing."

The De Doorns police said they had received no reports of injuries in yesterday's clashes.

- Cape Times

Too little to late

About 400 residents of Site B in Khayelitsha marched to the Lansdowne Fire Department on Monday to protest about its alleged slow response to a weekend fire in which one person died and about 100 shacks were destroyed.

Residents claimed the fire department responded 90 minutes late to the fire, which also left about 500 people homeless on Saturday night.

Wanda Bici, co-ordinator in the Khayelitsha branch for the Social Justice Coalition, which organised the march, said their members in R-R section of Site B had told them about the incident.

He said if the fire fighters had responded to the call in time, the fire might not have destroyed 100 shacks.

Senior operator of the Fire Department, Speedy Smit, told the Cape Argus it usually took fire fighters one to two minutes to respond to a call, but it often took longer at night.

"It also depends on the seriousness of the incidents. The fire fighters might have responded late because they were at the scene of another incident," Smit said.

The name of the person who died in the fire has not yet been released.

Social Justice Coalition organiser Aviwe Mtibe claimed the fire department was called at about 1am and they arrived at 2:10am.

"Two trucks arrived and they wasted time going round the settlement because they could not find a way in because there are no streets in the area," said Mtibe.

Resident Matukiso Lebese said she lost everything and did not know what to do.

- Cape Argus

Kosovo squatter camp see light

After years of relying on paraffin stoves and candles for light, residents of Kosovo in Philippi are celebrating their new electricity connections, especially ahead of Cape Town's notorious fire season.

The electrification of the area also marks the end of illegal connections from neighbouring communities, which were rife in the area.

Excited resident Nomazola Chivitte said the electrification had come at a "perfect" time.

"This is a time when there are a lot of fires in this area, caused by paraffin stoves and candles that blow over.

"They spread fast in the windy season."

Chivitte, who has lived in Kosovo for the past eight years, admitted that her previous supply was illegal.

"We used thin cables which were not safe, but now we have our own electricity boxes," she said.

They were also forced to pay heavily for the use of the illegal supply, and "sometimes they just switched it off without notifying us and we would stay in the dark".

Another resident, Buyisile Dlakile, said she had previously not looked forward to either summer or winter because the winters were extremely cold and the summer brought fires.

The city's Bonginkosi Madikizela said the electrification plan was complicated, and not simply a case of areas that had been there longest being pushed to the top of the list.

- Cape Argus

Man killed as flood protest turns ugly

A MAN was killed and eight people were injured during a protest in the Breede River Valley yesterday, Western Cape police said.

Residents of the Stofland informal settlement, and surrounding townships near De Doorns, were protesting on the N1 at 10am when the man was killed.

Residents protesting over service delivery and lack of assistance after the recent flooding threw stones after the mayor, Clarence Johnson, addressed them, said Inspector Andre Greyling.

“Police used rubber bullets to disperse the crowd. At the moment we are not sure if the man died from the stones which were thrown by the residents or if he died from the rubber bullets, which were fired by the police,” said Greyling.

The injured were taken to the Worcester hospital with minor injuries. No one was arrested and police are investigating a case of public violence and murder.

About 4000 protesters from townships in the De Doorns area took part in yesterday’s protest, blocking a section of the N1.

Earlier yesterday, Anele Nyembe, one of the protest leaders, said they had wanted to “close the national road to get the government’s attention” and had started protesting at 5am.

“We had floods for three days. The municipality focused only on people living on the river banks. They were given food parcels. But we were also flooded. The government did not help us, ” she said.

Meanwhile, police are still searching for Daniella de Wee, 17, who was swept away by the De Doorns River on Wednesday. - SAPA

Hundred Flooded Homes

Some 100 people left without homes in Hermanus are being sheltered by the Overstrand municipality as heavy rains continued to fall in the Western Cape.

According to the Overstrand municipality website, six other families in Protem were also being housed in a local hall and supplied with food.

An SA Air Force Oryx helicopter, from the Bredasdorp Air Base, was flying rescue missions in the Winelands region. It was airlifting people trapped by rising flood waters. One person was rescued in the Swellendam area by the community.

The municipality said rivers in the region had burst their banks after two days of heavy rain. This had also led to road closures.

Local radio stations report some communities have been cut off by flooding, and bridges have been washed away. Overberg disaster management said it was constantly monitoring the situation.

There were also concerns over the Theewaterskloof dam and the Buffeljags dam, which were overflowing. - SABC

Residents spurn aid

Hatred of foreigners is placing a R62-million housing project in a township outside Kommetjie at risk after a group of residents said they didn't want the project to receive donor money from "makwerekwere".

Two weeks ago about 200 people living in shacks in the small Masiphumelele settlement between Fish Hoek and Cape Point attacked and stabbed the chairperson of a local community housing organisation and threatened its fundraiser because he is a white man, originally from Europe.

Lutz van Dijk, fundraiser and board member of housing NGO Amakhaya Ngoku, which initiated the development, is according to locals opposed to the development a "kwerekwere".

"That man is a foreigner and he's forcing us to move. We don't want to live in flats -- we want houses and we don't want Lutz's money because he is a corrupt foreigner who doesn't belong in South Africa," said Simon Kiti, spokesperson for the group of residents opposed to the development.

"We don't want their money. We don't want money from the private sector. We want the government to come and build us houses -- the ANC is on our side on this issue and said we don't have to move," he said.

Kiti claims to represent 152 families, all members of the ANC, who refuse to move.

Amakhaya Ngoku (meaning "homes now") was formed in 2006 by local residents after a fire destroyed about 400 shacks, leaving more than 1 000 people homeless. After months of consultations and meetings residents agreed the shortage of land made free-standing houses impossible and settled for 352 sectional title flats. The project will offer residents a rent-to-buy scheme that allows them to rent their homes for four years at R400 a month, after which they can buy and own them.

Last week the chairperson of Amakhaya Ngoku, Themvinkosi Kitchen, was stabbed and stoned by residents opposed to the building project.

Amakhaya Ngoku is under immense pressure to start construction this week to fulfil the funding conditions of some of its 20 major international sponsors. Foreign donations are contributing more than R35-million to the project and failure to start building soon could put some of this money at risk, as well as increase building costs.

Kiti also objected to foreign nationals living in the temporary site to which Masiphumelele inhabitants have been relocated while construction is under way.

"We will not move from the school site [the area earmarked for the development] because some kwerekwere tells us to move. Why are foreigners the beneficiaries of houses when they don't even belong in South Africa? Those people come here with their corruption and drug money using bribes. Only government should build houses," Kiti said.

Originally from the Netherlands, Van Dijk came to South Africa to work for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission seven years ago and decided to settle in the country. He is the director of an orphanage in Masiphumelele. He receives no payment from Amakhaya Ngoku and will make no money out of the housing project.

The divisions within the community started after the city council identified 23 families set to receive flats on the school site as already having benefited from subsidised houses elsewhere. The families were told they couldn't receive subsidies twice and their names were removed from the list.

"When that happened, suddenly they started with all their other complaints against the project. Suddenly they didn't want flats, but wanted houses. Now they're jumping on this kwerekwere-wagon and the ANC leadership are not stopping them causing this problem to escalate," said Bulelwa Jafta, secretary of Amakhaya Ngoku.

Officials from local construction company Jolinde Construction tried to talk to Kiti and a group of about 15 men on Monday morning to try to convince them to vacate the land.

"You need a court interdict to come and stand here. This land is ours and we will not move. Go away," Kiti said. "This is not the old South Africa where whites can say 'go' and then we jump. Come back when you have a court order. The ANC said we're entitled to stay here."

Later that day Jolinde started clearing and fencing off the land around those families who refused to move. On Tuesday night the tyres of all the big construction vehicles were slashed, causing damage estimated at R40 000. On Wednesday the rest of the defiant community vowed to go ahead with the project, even though some shacks are still standing on the site.

Provincial ANC chair Mcebisi Skwatsha said the problem in Masiphumelele stems from the divisions within the ANC. "We need to address this issue urgently. If these people are discriminating against other people or foreigners, they're going to be very disappointed," Skwatsha said, promising to intervene speedily.

It took Amakhaya Ngoku two years to secure the land and get the go-ahead for the project. Earlier this year government pledged R27,5-million for the project. The shortfall was made up by donations from England, Germany, Holland and Australia, as well as from South African individuals. By far the smallest amount came from South Africans.

At a gratitude ceremony held this week at the nearby temporary relocation area for residents, mayor Helen Zille, who spoke in isiXhosa amid loud cheers and ululation from the community, said there comes a time when one can talk no more but has to start doing.

"We can't keep on talking about this development. Two years was long enough. It's now time for building. Amakhaya Ngoku! Not Amakhaya Landelayo! [subsequent houses, houses coming afterwards]".

University of Cape Town Professor Denis Goldberg, Rivonia trialist and member of the advisory committee of Amakhaya Ngoku, said on Wednesday last week: "You, as Amakhaya Ngoku, reinforce in me the belief that the long, long years in prison, in my case 22 years, were indeed worthwhile."

- Mail & Guardian

Thinking of selling your subsidised home?

Owners of government-subsidised homes who have sold or let these to other people may be blacklisted by the province.

Housing MEC Whitey Jacobs is awaiting responses to about 20 letters he hand-delivered to people who had sold or let their houses in Delft.

Lukhanyo Calata, spokesperson for Jacobs, said on Monday that letters had been handed to the owners of subsidised housing and the tenants.

He said tenants had been told to move out of the houses within a month, while the owners had been ordered to explain their actions to the department within 14 days.

Calata said the idea was to blacklist owners who abused what they had gained, while depriving someone else on the waiting list of a home.

If they sold their homes to move to better areas, this might be understandable, he said.

"But they go back to living in shacks that burn down in summer and flood in winter," said Calata.

He said poverty and unemployment should not be used as an excuse to abuse the fundamental right to better housing.

"The selling and unauthorised renting out of these government-subsidised houses is criminal and immoral, especially given the huge backlog of housing in the Western Cape," said ID secretary Rodney Lentit.

Lentit called on Jacobs to consider implementing a proposal by municipalities that would allow houses that were being let to be transferred to the tenant, if the tenant was on the housing list and qualified for a subsidy.

The provincial secretary of the South Africa National Civics Organisation (Sanco), Chris Stali, said the problem was widespread in the province.

He said Sanco had discussed the issue with communities, and it had emerged that they wanted those selling or letting their government-subsidised houses to be arrested and charged for making a profit out of state property.

While he is against blacklisting, Stali supports the idea of transferring the house to the tenant and taking the offending owner off the housing list.

He said the government should seek to tie together housing and employment creation policies and put more resources into the fight against the development of shacks.

- Cape Argus

BAD IDEA: Lindiwe Sisulu

BAD IDEA: Lindiwe Sisulu

Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has rejected a cabinet decision to transfer the function of building homes from provincial governments to municipalities.

“The recommendation will not find favour because the housing department had wanted to accredit municipalities before to deliver housing but it was discovered that they had no capacity,” Sisulu’s spokesman Marianne Merten said.

Len Verwey, of the think tank Institute for Democracy in South Africa’s, also disagreed with the cabinet decision.

“It is good that cabinet is considering other options but it is questionable if the municipalities can do what provinces can’t. Many municipalities would not have the staff and the capacity to deliver housing.

“Municipalities should receive a conditional grant where they need to account for how many houses they have built before the grant gets renewed the next year.” said Verwey.

Government figures indicate that for the plan to eradicate informal settlements by 2014 to succeed, the state would have to build 500,000 a year.

Earlier this year, Thubelisha Homes, the government’s housing company, collapsed under the weight of heavy losses and a poor delivery record.

Thubelisha was supposed to build thousands of low-cost homes but was instead declared “technically insolvent” in May after it made a loss of almost R68 million and failed to come close to its target of delivering over 16,290 low cost homes.

- Sowetan

Shack dwellers vow not to vote again

Traffic on Lansdowne Road in Site C, Khayelitsha was still restricted to one lane on Wednesday morning after chaos erupted at an informal settlement on Tuesday after city law enforcement officials tore down illegal cables connected to a legal electricity supply.

"We are waiting for them to put up their container or tent for registration and we are going to destroy them because we are not going to register and we are not interested in voting either," said Thozamile Boyi.

The angry residents of Island informal settlement blocked Lansdowne Road with stones and burning rubbish for about seven hours on Tuesday to protest against the removal.

They dispersed at 8pm, but on Wednesday morning another resident, Nothobekile Bhoki, said they would continue with their protest action on Wednesday.

It is the second time in the past two months that law enforcement officials have removed cables providing electricity to the impoverished community from a formal neighbouring community.

On Tuesday, irate residents threw stones on to the road, despite police officers trying to control the situation by firing rubber bullets into the crowd.

Three people were injured by rubber bullets. Nevertheless, residents said they would continue to express their anger until their electricity cables had been returned.

"We are not going to sleep tonight until they bring our cables back," said an angry resident, Nontsapho Nodede.

Residents said they were going to connect the electricity again because it was their only way of survival.

Nodede, who has been living in Island since 1996, said the residents were now tired of empty promises and vowed not to vote in next year's elections.

"They are going to come here now and start making even more empty promises, but we are going to ignore them because we are no longer interested in what they have to say."

Boyi added that they were not going to allow any voter registration to take place at the weekend.

He said that when they voted before, they had expected service delivery, including electricity.

"They want us to become criminals now because we use this electricity they keep stripping away to make a living.

The things we sell in our fridge are going to rot and now we are going to start robbing people."

Bonginkosi Madikizela, communications officer in the mayor's office, said: "We can't condone illegal electricity connections and law enforcement was asked by Phambili Nombane (a company responsible for electricity in Khayelitsha) to help disconnect the illegally wired electricity."

Madikizela said that it was not as easy "as ABC" to install electricity as there were procedures to be followed.

"We will start upgrading and installing substations. There will be two new substations in Khayelitsha," he said.

Ward Councillor Mpendulo Solizwe said he had been trying to get the municipality to install electricity in the area or to move the people, but all his efforts had been unsuccessful.

"About two months back, I managed to get the mayor to come and have a look in the area but it also didn't help," said Solizwe.

He said the residents were also complaining about the rubbish container, saying it brought rats to their homes.

"I have been telling them to come and remove the container and now people have used the rubbish to cause damage," he said, referring to the burning mess on Lansdowne Road.

- Cape Argus

Five die in latest of suspected arson cases

Other than hundreds of accidental blazes, Cape Town fire-fighters have rushed to put out at least 30 fires thought to have been started deliberately this year.

In the most recent fire under a police inquest investigation, Theresa Jantjies, 26, who was pregnant and expecting twins, and her three small children were burnt to death in their shack in Tafelsig early on Monday.

Mitchells Plain police station spokesperson Ian Williams said arson and other causes had not been ruled out.

Between April 1 last year and March 31 this year, police investigated 629 cases of arson across the Western Cape - more than 100 more than the 595 cases recorded three years ago.

Theo Layne, a platoon commander at the Cape Town Fire Command and Control Centre, said a number of arson cases might have gone unreported.

This made it difficult to calculate how many people had died in fires that had been set deliberately.

From the beginning of this year up to last week, firefighters had attended to at least 18 fires reported to have been started intentionally.

Most involved cars that had been set alight, but shops and shacks had also been purposely burnt down, Lane said.

Nearly two weeks ago, six cars were torched at a parliamentary village in Goodwood. An MP believed the culprits were the children of other MPs.

In January, Philip Prins, manager of fire and technical services for Table Mountain National Park, said it was suspected that 12 fires, all of which broke out in less than a month between Red Hill and Ocean View, had been started deliberately.

Williams said that Jantjies's relatives had been questioned, as routine procedure, about the fire in which the young woman died with 11-month-old Aneke, three-year-old Antonio and six-year-old Preston.

Jantjies's family remained in shock yesterday.

The young woman's sister, Yumna Abrahams, said Jantjies's husband had awakened her and her mother about 3am.

They heard screaming and when they ran outside saw that Jantjies's shack was on fire.

It was not yet known what had caused the blaze, Abrahams said.

Marietta Neumann, a medical researcher for Children of Fire, a non-governmental organisation that helps young burn victims, said domestic disputes and emotions such as jealousy often spurred a person to start a fire to hurt those with whom they were in a relationship.

People targeted in arson attacks were often severely burnt because they were trapped in their homes, Neumann said.

- Cape Times

W Cape to make provision for backyard dwellers

Western Cape Housing Minister Whitey Jacobs says his department now insists that all tenders for housing projects should make provision for backyard dwellers. Earlier, Jacobs conceded that the provincial government and municipalities previously had no plans to cater for the housing needs of people who lived in backyards.

Jacobs was responding to complaints from 200 backyard dwellers at a community meeting in Gugulethu. The group has threatened not to vote in next year's general elections if it is not provided with housing.

Jacobs says he inherited a province, a department and municipalities that had no plan for backyard dwellers. He says the N2 Gateway project seemed to be the only solution on people’s tongues whenever questions were raised about plans to tackle the issue. He says he doesn’t believe the N2 Gateway project is a viable project.

- SABC

'Delft residents on their own'

Thubelisha Homes, the company responsible for the N2 Gateway housing project, has appealed to the City of Cape Town to provide basic services for nearly 5,000 families living in temporary accommodation in Delft and surrounding areas.

But the city said it only has a contract to provide services for the first three temporary relocation areas it set up with Thubelisha.

Thubelisha regional manager Xhanti Sigcawu said conditions in the temporary relocation areas were so dire that the housing agent was forced to send in its own team to clean up the streets.

He said the city had failed to main the sewerage systems in the area and refuse was not collected for weeks.

This was a "dereliction of the constitutional and legislative obligations of local government", said Sigcawu.

The relocation areas were supposed to be provided with basic services while waiting for permanent homes in the national government's N2 Gateway housing development.

But the city spokesperson, Charles Cooper, said the council's water and sanitation department had a contractor with a cleaning unit on site in Delft to clean all sewer blockages. A daily cleaning contractor was also on site.

Cooper said the poor workmanship and materials used in the construction of the ablution blocks had added to the high maintenance costs. "This will be the second time in two months that the sewer lines will be cleaned at a cost of about R25 000."

City officials said on Wednesday the original agreement be-tween Thubelisha and the city only applies to Delft temporary relocation areas one, two and three.

For any sites established after these, the responsibility for management and maintenance lies with Thubelisha.

"The city was not party to the Delft phase 4 site developed by Thubelisha."

The city was stripped of all responsibility for the N2 Gateway project in June 2006, following clashes between the municipality and the national government about the overrun costs of the project and other allegations of mismanagement.

Cooper confirmed that solid waste does a weekly bin collection in all formal areas, including Delft, and a black bag collection in informal areas.

"The city does not sweep suburban streets. We rely on residents to assist us by not littering or dumping, using the bins provided and cleaning the street in front of their property," said Cooper.

But Sigcawu said: "It is embarrassing to hear that (Cape Town Mayor Helen) Zille has won the World Mayor award, but back home the streets are dirty."

Sigcawu said Thubelisha did not have the budget for its own cleaning service. However, if the city did not pull its weight with the provision of essential services, the Section 21 company would have to appoint its own cleaning service.

- Cape Times

The poor must be part of anti-poverty drive: Mbete

Mbete says the success of an anti-poverty strategy will rely on its inclusion of the poor

Deputy President Baleka Mbete says the success of an anti-poverty strategy for South Africa will be judged on its ability to ensure that poor people are part of the process of drawing it up. She was speaking during a dialogue at the Union Buildings between government, business, labour and civil society organisations.

The debate is aimed at paving the way for the adoption and implementation of a co-ordinated, multi-sectoral strategy to fight poverty in the country. Poor people still generally receive poorer quality services, often in ways that undermine their ability to take advantage of economic policies.

Addressing the launch, Mbete said at the centre of poverty eradication is the creation of economic opportunities and enabling or empowering communities and individuals to access these opportunities. However, she said government cannot do it alone. She called on other structures, including Non-Government organisations (NGOs) and other community-based organisations to bring poverty into the mainstream of economic structures.

Strategy could be a success
The minister in the Presidency, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, echoed her sentiments as well. She said there’s a need to reverse the poverty situation that many young people are likely to inherit from their parents. Namhla Mniki from the African Monitor is of the view that if business partnerships, civil society and government are to effectively work together, the strategy could be a success.

But ineffective institutions are some of the challenges that government needs to address. Among those that need attention are some local government structures that are characterised by red tape, corruption and inefficiency.

- SABC