...This was all a big con trick of course.
In the run-up to that election, the ANC promised that the N2 Gateway would produce 22,000 houses before 2006. The result was the same as all its promises. It delivered 700 flats in Joe Slovo, and about 16 houses in New Rest. That is 3% of what was originally promised. That symbolises the ANC in government.
And worst of all, Speaker, those housing units, on well located land near to town, were allocated exclusively to middle class people while the poor residents of Joe Slovo, who had previously endured repeated fires and other miseries, were pushed 15 kilometres away, to the perimeter of the City. Amazingly, only one original Joe Slovo family qualified for a flat in the project.
The rest have been left to the pitiless mercy of Thubelisha Homes, who have dismally failed in their management tasks to communicate or facilitate the allocations process.
They have even stubbornly failed to keep the City informed, despite the fact that we nominally chair the allocations process.
It is my strong contention that had Thubelisha Homes done its job properly, communicating and explaining the beneficiary list allocations transparently and properly, these invasions could have been avoided.
Instead they aggravated the impression of massive favouritism through their secrecy and issue avoidance.
They behaved exactly like the ANC, which is not surprising, because just as the anger and resentment in Delft was reaching its peak in December, the CEO of Thubelisha was in Polokwane at the ANC's conference instead of being on the ground dealing with a crisis of his company's making.
That just proves exactly how much the Thubelisha process is an extension of the ANC.
That is why the ANC and Thubelisha have helped to pit community against community in the struggle for the Delft houses offered in a scheme that massively favours shack dwellers, who had only recently been included on the housing database, over backyarders, some of whom had been on the waiting list for over 20 years.
It was a recipe for conflict, and I warned of this from the start.
When we inherited this project, we worked hard to change the grossly unfair allocation ratio of 80:20 in favour of one group over another. We were only partially successful, bringing it down to a still hopelessly unfair 70:30 ratio. When I continued to protest the inequities and injustices of this project, I was kicked off it by the national Minister, but typically, this did not stop her from blaming the City at every turn for all the project's failures.
Despite the fact that the City had been removed from the project, the government demanded the transfer of the City's best located housing land, and when I protested, I was repeatedly accused of blocking housing delivery.
The subsequent transfer of the land under extreme duress has done nothing to accelerate housing delivery.
On the contrary, our best land has been allocated to a project that is unviable, designed to generate conflict, and that allocates many times the available housing subsidy per family to middle class housing, that could and should be delivered through financial institutions and developers without state subsidies, while the poor are marginalised and disadvantaged further.
When I made an appointment to see the Minister and warn her of latent conflict in the project, she granted me an interview but failed to arrive, leaving me to wait in vain for two hours.
I also met with representatives from Thubelisha homes to discuss the allocation process in an attempt to avoid conflict. All of this was fruitless. In the normal arrogant way, the ANC/Thubelisha coalition dismissed us, failed to provide the information we required, continued on the fateful path, and then tried to blame us when things went wrong, as we will again see here today.
It has taken me weeks of asking to actually get a beneficiary list out of the Province and Thubelisha. I am now insisting on an audit of the people actually in the homes to ensure that we have been given the right list.
Let me say it plainly, Speaker: It is the ANC's policy, arrogance and incompetence that lies at the root of this tragedy.
But their approach of providing houses for a small group of elite, well-connected people should not surprise us at all.
It is exactly the same as their so-called transformation policy that provides jobs to a small group of politically well-connected cronies instead or broadening opportunities for all. Their jobs for pals approach resulted in the Eskom crisis.
Their houses for pals approach has resulted in the Delft tragedy. That is the truth, Speaker.
- This is part of the prepared text of a speech delivered by the Mayor of Cape Town, Helen Zille, at a Special Council Meeting at the Cape Town Civic Centre, March 6 2006
In the run-up to that election, the ANC promised that the N2 Gateway would produce 22,000 houses before 2006. The result was the same as all its promises. It delivered 700 flats in Joe Slovo, and about 16 houses in New Rest. That is 3% of what was originally promised. That symbolises the ANC in government.
And worst of all, Speaker, those housing units, on well located land near to town, were allocated exclusively to middle class people while the poor residents of Joe Slovo, who had previously endured repeated fires and other miseries, were pushed 15 kilometres away, to the perimeter of the City. Amazingly, only one original Joe Slovo family qualified for a flat in the project.
The rest have been left to the pitiless mercy of Thubelisha Homes, who have dismally failed in their management tasks to communicate or facilitate the allocations process.
They have even stubbornly failed to keep the City informed, despite the fact that we nominally chair the allocations process.
It is my strong contention that had Thubelisha Homes done its job properly, communicating and explaining the beneficiary list allocations transparently and properly, these invasions could have been avoided.
Instead they aggravated the impression of massive favouritism through their secrecy and issue avoidance.
They behaved exactly like the ANC, which is not surprising, because just as the anger and resentment in Delft was reaching its peak in December, the CEO of Thubelisha was in Polokwane at the ANC's conference instead of being on the ground dealing with a crisis of his company's making.
That just proves exactly how much the Thubelisha process is an extension of the ANC.
That is why the ANC and Thubelisha have helped to pit community against community in the struggle for the Delft houses offered in a scheme that massively favours shack dwellers, who had only recently been included on the housing database, over backyarders, some of whom had been on the waiting list for over 20 years.
It was a recipe for conflict, and I warned of this from the start.
When we inherited this project, we worked hard to change the grossly unfair allocation ratio of 80:20 in favour of one group over another. We were only partially successful, bringing it down to a still hopelessly unfair 70:30 ratio. When I continued to protest the inequities and injustices of this project, I was kicked off it by the national Minister, but typically, this did not stop her from blaming the City at every turn for all the project's failures.
Despite the fact that the City had been removed from the project, the government demanded the transfer of the City's best located housing land, and when I protested, I was repeatedly accused of blocking housing delivery.
The subsequent transfer of the land under extreme duress has done nothing to accelerate housing delivery.
On the contrary, our best land has been allocated to a project that is unviable, designed to generate conflict, and that allocates many times the available housing subsidy per family to middle class housing, that could and should be delivered through financial institutions and developers without state subsidies, while the poor are marginalised and disadvantaged further.
When I made an appointment to see the Minister and warn her of latent conflict in the project, she granted me an interview but failed to arrive, leaving me to wait in vain for two hours.
I also met with representatives from Thubelisha homes to discuss the allocation process in an attempt to avoid conflict. All of this was fruitless. In the normal arrogant way, the ANC/Thubelisha coalition dismissed us, failed to provide the information we required, continued on the fateful path, and then tried to blame us when things went wrong, as we will again see here today.
It has taken me weeks of asking to actually get a beneficiary list out of the Province and Thubelisha. I am now insisting on an audit of the people actually in the homes to ensure that we have been given the right list.
Let me say it plainly, Speaker: It is the ANC's policy, arrogance and incompetence that lies at the root of this tragedy.
But their approach of providing houses for a small group of elite, well-connected people should not surprise us at all.
It is exactly the same as their so-called transformation policy that provides jobs to a small group of politically well-connected cronies instead or broadening opportunities for all. Their jobs for pals approach resulted in the Eskom crisis.
Their houses for pals approach has resulted in the Delft tragedy. That is the truth, Speaker.
- This is part of the prepared text of a speech delivered by the Mayor of Cape Town, Helen Zille, at a Special Council Meeting at the Cape Town Civic Centre, March 6 2006
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