Shack fire leaves families homeless

A fire destroyed two shacks in Du Noon on Monday night, leaving eight people homeless.

Glen Marais, a senior firefighter with Fire and Rescue, said that while it was impossible to know what had started the fire, it had probably been an accident, such as a candle falling over.

The fire left two families of four displaced and all their belongings destroyed.

Marais said no one was injured and the families were being cared for by the City's Disaster Management office.

Cape Argus photographer Cindy Waxa was at the scene and said the blaze had reached electric cables overhead, but it could not be established if the power supply had been affected.

- Cape Argus

Eskom vows not to stop low-cost housing estates

Eskom and the national housing department were adamant last week that low-income housing projects were exempt from the moratorium on electricity application approvals for new developments requiring more than 100 kilovolt-amperes (kVA) of electricity.

This is despite some flagship low-income housing projects undertaken by public-private partnerships being grounded because Eskom has rejected their electricity applications.

Housing minister Lindiwe Sisulu said the government again confirmed that the moratorium had always excluded low-cost housing developments, projects that had already obtained the required electricity certificates and any property developments requiring less than 100kVA.

Andrew Etzinger, Eskom's general manager of resources and investment strategies, also confirmed that this was the official policy.

Sisulu issued this assurance after discussions with minerals and energy minister Buyelwa Sonjica and public enterprises minister Alec Erwin.

She said the power supply challenges could not be allowed to affect housing delivery to South Africa's poor and any lingering doubts on this matter must be laid to rest.

However, Sipho Mashini, the managing executive of Absa DevCo, confirmed last month that its appeal against the rejection of an application for bulk electricity supply to a flagship public-private partnership, mixed-housing development had been unsuccessful. The development, near Kagiso in Mogale City, was going to provide 9,315 residential units.

The Kagiso Azaadville development is a joint initiative between the Mogale City municipality, the Gauteng department of housing and Absa.

The Banking Association of SA said last month that Eskom's electricity supply problems had caused a major crisis for the low-cost housing market and warned that the move could unleash social instability if houses could not be built for this market over the next six years.

Pierre Venter, the association's financial services charter housing initiative co-ordinator, said property development had stopped because of the electricity crisis, while new approvals had been shelved.

In the Eastern Cape, a flagship R600 million low-income housing project in Port Alfred submitted an application to Eskom in February last year, but the project managers were told they must wait until the end of June or July for a response.

Called the Thornhill property development, it is being developed by Absa Devco, the Ndlambe local authority and the Eastern Cape housing department and aims to provide about 5,000 residential units.

Etzinger said he suspected the "apparent contradiction" between the official policy for low-cost housing and these examples stemmed from the definition applied by Eskom.

Eskom defined low-cost housing developments as those for which the government provided a subsidy towards the electricity infrastructure for the poor.

Etzinger advised developers that believed their applications had been wrongly rejected to approach Eskom's general manager responsible for the region where they planned to develop the project. He admitted that the policy was sometimes misinterpreted and it was appropriate for Eskom's general managers to handle appeals.

"It's a very sensitive issue and Eskom is happy to work with project developers and they must not think they have come up against a brick wall."

Etzinger said the criteria to be used by Eskom in prioritising new developments were in the final stages of development. They would be released next month, after approval by the government.

Eskom has not issued any new application approvals since it announced a moratorium, despite continuing to work on the technical evaluation and the infrastructure required for particular projects. - Business Report

Landless people march in W Cape

The Mawubuye Landless people's movement on Monday marched to the Western Cape local government offices in Robertson demanding delivery on government promises of land access for the poor, said the organisation.

"There are a lot of commercial farmers in the Brede River Wineland municipality and they do not want to hand over this land to the people.

"We have been speaking to the municipality, local and provincial government - and they are not working together in the process to hand over land to landless people by the 2014 (deadline)," said Mawubuye spokesperson Henry Michaels.

Six hundred people marched to the mayor's office in Roberston near Worcester to hand over the memorandum.

The movement demanded transparency on land held by the municipality and that it take necessary measures to make land accessible to the poor.

"(We demanded that) the contracts of farmers using municipal land not be renewed and that the land be given to small scale farmers and also that they stop the sale of municipal land to developers," he said.

The memorandum was handed over to the municipality mayor who promised to respond to the memorandum within 30 days.

"We are then going to sit down, put the matter on the table and discuss a way forward together," said Michaels. - NEWS24

Why did the chicken migrate to the other side of the Limpopo?

Morgan Tsvangirai: Because it wanted a taste of life on the other
side of the road. It was exercising its right.

Patrick Chinamasa: No. The chicken did not cross the road. In fact we need to verify whether in fact it was a chicken. As far as we know, the chicken is still there. It could have been an eagle. We have to wait until verification is done.

Didymus Mutasa: I do not think it crossed the road. If it crossed the road it's because the white farmer dragged it. But we cannot allow that to happen. It will have to come back.

Joseph Chinotimba: The kichen, no, chicken is a sell-out against the revolution. The `O' vets will have to eat it!

Robert Mugabe: The chicken will never be allowed to cross the road. Not in my life time! Let those that run away to Bush and Brown do so. Not my chicken! My chicken will never cross the road. It will never be colonised again!

Thabo Mbeki: Er . uhm . I don't see any chicken at the moment. Er. I think it is right for us to wait and see. Let things take the natural course. If. if. if it did cross the road we will be told officially. If it wants to cross the road we will see it when it crosses. There is nothing to talk about at the moment. Er. I don't see any problem right now.

Tendai Biti: We have irrefutable evidence from those who were at the road that the chicken has, indeed, without any shadow of doubt, crossed the road. I hereby declare that Chicken Huku Inkuku is now the legitimate resident of the other side of the road.

Bright Matonga: At the moment we know that it has not crossed the road, despite imperialist efforts to push it. We know they will try again and are now preparing to unleash the remaining 75 percent of our effort so that it can never be pushed again next time.

Nathaniel Manheru a.k.a. George Charamba: How can a chicken, itself a hapless bird, be expected to cross the road unless it is pushed deviously and surreptitiously by the hand of the vicious and uncouth imperialists? The only chicken that can cross that road is a stooge, a puppet, an instrument of the West that will be rocket-propelled by the loud fart of Brown and Bush . Icho!

Levy Mwanawasa: It knew the ground on that side was sinking like the Titanic. It had to cross.

General Chiwenga: It can't.

Commissioner-General Chihuri: It can't cross the road.

Gordon Brown: It was running away from Mugabe.

Jacob Zuma: I think it is important that we be told whether or not the chicken actually crossed road. That should be very easy to do.

Jonathan Moyo: Of course, the chicken crossed the road because it could not stand the nonsense on the other side. But the shameless securocrats will do everything in their power to prevent everyone from knowing that it, indeed, and unequivocally crossed the road.

Judge of the High Court: Whether or not it crossed the road is a matter for the officials to declare at their own time. They have the power to order a re-check and verification as to whether it crossed the road before they can make the declaration.

Zimbabwe Electoral Commission: We are not in a position to say whether or not the chicken crossed the road. There are some people who have complained that it probably wasn't a chicken at all and others saying it was being pushed or dragged against its will. We are currently considering whether to do a re-check before we can officially declare if the chicken crossed the road. We will take as long as we want to be fully certain that it was a chicken that crossed the road.

Ban Ki-Moon: Is pleased the AU has chickens that cross the road in transparency; L'ONU, l'UA SADC empereur poulets usure pas de vêtements de traverser la route.

Dalai Lama: Too the chicken - Vote Like it matters...

Desmond Tutu: Let the chickens be !

Zimbabwean: Too avoid political persecution, too earn a living, too eat, too seek medical treatment; too avoid financial persecution and an inflation rate with the most zeros in recent history...

SA must address poverty, unemployment: Sachs

Constitutional Court Judge Albie Sachs has warned that as South Africa celebrates its 14th anniversary of freedom, it must address poverty levels and unemployment among poor people.

Justice Sachs was speaking in New York during Freedom Day celebrations organised by the South African Consulate. He warned that though South Africa has an internationally celebrated constitution, it does not provide houses and jobs.

The current energy crisis which threatens investors has been described as temporary and an indication of its fast growing economy, overwhelming the infrastructure. But poverty was singled out as its most stubborn challenge. - SABC

Informal settlement burns

A fire destroyed 50 shacks in the Masiphumelele informal settlement in Hout Bay early on Saturday, said Cape Town disaster management.

Spokesperson Charlotte Powell said 75 people were displaced in the fire, which broke out at 2.30am.

"The Historically Disadvantaged Individual organisation, an NGO, provided relief and support," she said.

Powell said the displaced people were staying with friends and relatives while they waited to rebuild.

"The City of Cape Town housing department is giving them starter packs and building material to rebuild."

She said no-one was hurt in the fire and the cause was not known. - Sapa

Police protect Taliban settlers

About 250 Mfuleni residents and police engaged in a tense five-hour stand-off as residents unsuccessfully tried to prevent squatters from Taliban informal settlement in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, being moved onto plots in the area.

On Thursday, about 200 officers from the SAPS, Metro Police and Traffic Police created a barrier between protesting Mfuleni residents and the land on which the new arrivals from Taliban were to settle, which had been demarcated with barbed wire.

Mfuleni residents had set tyres alight on the streets the previous evening.

'This time we are not going back to Khayelitsha'

Despite the threats, of the 1,800 families scheduled to relocate to Mfuleni, 50 families had their shacks relocated on Thursday by eight trucks supplied by the City of Cape Town.

The remaining families, who are living on Metrorail property adjacent to the railway line between Nolungile and Nonkqubela stations in Khayelitsha, were to be moved over the next four to six weeks.

Mfuleni residents said half the plots set aside for the Taliban informal settlers should be given to Mfuleni backyard dwellers.

The conflict has been in the offing for over three years when the move to Mfuleni was mooted.

When Metrorail, which owns the land on which the Taliban informal settlement mushroomed in 2001, tried to move them to the Mfuleni plots on December 6 last year, Mfuleni residents chased them away, destroying those shacks which had been set up.

But the settlers from Taliban say they are now moving to their new plots permanently.

"This time we are not going back to Khayelitsha. Whatever happens we will refuse to give in to what the Mfuleni people demand.

We are not going back to the dangers of living next to railway lines," said Taliban's executive committee member Nomonde Mphithi.

Ward councillors from both areas say they have facilitated numerous meetings between the communities to no avail.

But Mfuleni councillor Fundile Maxakatho indicated that Thursday's move was premature as there had been agreement at a previous meeting with Local Government and Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi.

"Mfuleni residents are sad and angry that they are not going to have a share in the development."

Mfuleni executive committee member Thembile George said: "We are not going to sleep while these people are still here. We want half of the plots because we are also faced with housing problems."

The city's Charles Cooper confirmed that 1,800 Khayelitsha families are being relocated to partially serviced sites in Bardale, Mfuleni.

Cooper said the relocation had been discussed with Dyantyi and the city's councillor for housing, Dan Plato, on three occasions, together with the leadership in Mfuleni and that some Mfuleni residents would also get plots. - Cape Argus

AEC to invade MEC Richard Dyantyi’s office today

CAPE TOWN - At 1pm today, hundreds of members of the Gugulethu and surrounding areas Anti-Eviction Campaign will occupy the offices of the MEC for Housing and Local Government, Richard Dyantyi.

Dyantyi and Premier Ebrahim Rasool have been playing hide and seek with the community, despite our frequent written requests to them for a meeting. There is a high rate of evictions of pensioners in Gugulethu and we also want to talk to them about other issues.

First, Dyantyi’s office said they had received our letters and would get back to us. Now they say they never received any letter from us, despite us having the fax receipts as proof.

We are sick and tired of government officials who do not want to meet with the people. Mayor of Cape Town Helen Zille did come to meet us although she also told us a lot of nonsense about how we should not put evicted pensioners back in their houses, because by so doing, we were deterring “investors” from investing in Gugulethu.

We demand that all those responsible for housing have proper meetings with us where they commit to solving the problems they have created for us. - WC Anti-Eviction Campaign

Power crisis 'won't affect low-income housing projects'

New residential property developments will not be affected by electricity supply shortages, said Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu on Wednesday.

"She wants to reassure South Africans that electricity supply shortages will not affect new residential property developments requiring less than 100 kilowatts and low-income housing projects," the department said in a statement.

The Banking Association of SA last month raised concerns that perceptions created after Eskom's announcement of a "so-called moratorium" could negatively affect all future housing developments.

Sisulu said any lingering doubts on this matter now had to be laid to rest, particularly as Eskom itself on March 5 said it was not stopping any developments.

All those residential developments that had already applied and that had been given quotations, would see those quotations honoured.

"The power supply challenges can not be allowed to affect housing delivery to SA's poor and government's commitment to improve the living conditions of its citizens," Sisulu said. - Sapa

80 children die from tap water

But municipality has failed to act

Nearly 80 children have died in an Eastern Cape district over three months, while the authorities sat on an explosive report that largely blamed deadly tap water for the spate of deaths.

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Related story

Read the Daily Dispatch’s Killer Water special report

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Despite clear evidence of a lethal epidemic in the Ukhahlamba District Municipality, which includes Barkly East, Maclear, Sterkspruit and Elliot, municipal authorities have yet to issue a public warning.

An official health report pointed to a breakdown in a water purification works in October last year and called for urgent action — but no action has been taken.

Now the health emergency is spreading. Bhisho health officials confirmed yesterday that another 62 children, ranging from infants to primary school children, had died in similar circumstances in neighbouring Sterkspruit. This is over and above the official figure of 15 deaths of children under the age of two in Barkly East.

The Sterkspruit deaths were also related to the water supply, the provincial health department confirmed last night.

“These babies are dying because of the dirty water they drink,” confirmed Siyanda Manana, director of communications at the health department in Bhisho.

The Daily Dispatch has a copy of the Barkly East report, which shows that the municipality’s health service was alerted a month ago and began investigating the deaths of 15 babies .

The babies had died from diarrhoea and other complications.

The report, only tabled last week at a closed council meeting and which has yet to be made public, exposed a public health disaster.

“Though there could be a multitude of issues that could contribute to the rise in diarrhoea cases during this period, and the consequential deaths, the most probable contributing factor could be ascribed to the microbiological water quality that did not meet the standards together with the way it is kept inside the houses,” the report concluded.

It recommended urgent action, including declaring an emergency in the area to save further lives, but to date this has not been done.

According to the Ukhahlamba’s Health Service section report it was “highly likely” that bacteria and other foreign particles in the water lay behind the deaths.

The report details the breakdown in the water purification system, saying the water quality had not met the required standards since October. It said the area’s chlorine pump had been malfunctioning, requiring chlorine to be manually added to the reservoir.

But the municipality blames the Cloete Joubert Hospital in Barkly East for the high number of deaths, saying the hospital failed to report them in time for a proper investigation to be done.

However, a senior hospital manager, who asked not be named, said they had informed the municipality but nothing was done until 15 deaths had been reported. — The Times

Free houses and jobs for government and their friends

More than 400 public servants have escaped criminal prosecution and retained their jobs by owning up to housing subsidy fraud and agreeing to repay the government.

But 3 800 of their colleagues did not escape prosecution, following a year-long investigation by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) into fraud involving low-cost housing for the poor, the Housing Department said yesterday.

A total of 31 000 public servants are under investigation.

Housing spokesperson Xolani Xundu said the 443 public servants were let off the hook because they had come forward and acknowledged their crimes.

"These are the people who came up to say that they are willing to repay the money - they owned up. Their cases didn't even go to court," said Xundu.

He hoped this would be viewed by others as an "incentive" to also come forward and pay up.

The 443 had signed acknowledgements of debt with the SIU totalling R9,3-million, which had to be repaid over a period of up to 60 months, Xundu said.

Nearly R1-million of this had been paid back.

If people failed to honour their commitment, their cases would be handed to the department for further action, or to the State Attorney," said Xundu.

Of the 31 000 under investigation, 9 235 were from Gauteng, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 6 755. The Western Cape had the sixth highest number of public servants under investigation with 2 279, while the Northern Cape has the lowest number, 475.

Most of the suspects were people with salaries ranging from R3 501 upwards and therefore could not qualify for subsidies

The SIU's investigation was prompted by the Auditor-General's report in 2006 that concluded that there was possible fraud, corruption and maladministration in the housing subsidy system.

President Thabo Mbeki authorised the SIU in April last year to begin investigations.

Housing Director-General Itumeleng Kotsoane explained that most of the fraudulent activity took place in the late 1990s and early 2000 due to the "failure of our systems to detect and verify some of the applicants' details".

He said: "The department has improved its monitoring and verification systems and is able to detect and prevent fraudulent application by verifying the applicants' details with the SA Revenue Services, the Department of Home Affairs, Deeds Office and other institutions of government."

The SIU will today and tomorrow prosecute 34 public servants in Pietermaritzburg for fraudulently obtaining subsidised houses.

Ten more will appear in the Venterstad magistrates' court in the Eastern Cape on Friday.

Xundu said the SIU investigations focused on irregular awarding of subsidies to non-qualifying beneficiaries, especially government employees. - Pretoria News

Volunteers demand jobs from housing MEC

About 200 volunteers who have helped build houses in Wallacedene claim Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi promised them jobs, but then failed to hire them.

This comes after Dyantyi launched the 1,000 Volunteer Housing Programme in February.

When the Cape Argus visited the area on Tuesday, the volunteers held up placards and sang freedom songs.

The volunteers from Nyanga, Langa, Delft, Khayelitsha, Wallacedene and Mfuleni, include builders, painters, bricklayers and carpenters.

Volunteer Nokwanda Mathanda said Dyantyi also told volunteers they would get scholarships for their children.

"There were bushes when we started the project in January. We have cleared them and have built more than 215 houses," she said.

Mathanda said Dyantyi had failed to honour his promises to the volunteer workforce.

Dyantyi's spokesman, Vusi Tshose, confirmed that the project had been launched in February but denied that people were promised jobs.

Dyantyi has been promoting the People's Housing Programme (PHP) which was based on voluntarism and had valued the role played by volunteers to ensure the programme was a success, said Tshose.

Tshose said about 277 houses had been completed in Wallacedene and the volunteers would be moved to a new site in Kew Town. - Cape Argus

Families fear defective homes will collapse

A number of families in Roosendal, Delft, fear for their lives and are having sleepless nights because their homes have such serious defects they could collapse at any moment.

The houses were built in the early 1990s by the apartheid-era Divisional Council.

In Ertjiebos street, one house has collapsed and has had to be rebuilt, while the foundations of another have given way, bringing down the walls of two rooms.

"It used to be a three bedroomed house, but now I have only part of the bathroom, one bedroom and the kitchen," said owner Rachel Simons.

'I've had no joy from housing officials'

"It happened in October and I have feared the worst since. My children went to live with relatives in Atlantis after we became scared the rest of the house would fall on them.

"I've had no joy from housing officials. I'm worried because the winter rains are coming and there could be more damage."

Simons obtained the house 17 years ago with a rent-to-buy agreement after paying a R135 deposit.

"It is obvious it was not built properly because the foundation cracked and later the walls came tumbling down. I'm afraid to use electricity because the wires seem damaged."

The house next to Simons's has a long, straight crack where walls join, while the foundation of another down the road is exposed and walls are cracked.

'I negotiated with the provincial authorities to rebuild a house that had collapsed'

Across the road, the home of the Brooks family has been split in half by cracks, with large gaps next to the window frames and bricks that have shifted out of position.

"The foundation is loose," owner Mervyn Brooks said.

"If one wall breaks, the rest of the house will go.

"There are small children in our family and we always worry. It is terrible to live like this."

Brooks's wife, Mathilda, said: "We reported this to the provincial department of housing, who inspected and took pictures.

"In 2007, we also asked the local councillor for help, but nothing happened. We are not getting anywhere."

Councillor for the ward Pumeleli Mgodeli (ANC) said: "Yes, I remember the lady asking me.

"I told her I should go and have a look, but was busy at the time and said she should come and see me the following day, but she never did. I will follow this up, but the owners must come and see me."

Councillor Frank Martin (DA) said Roosendal was not part of his ward, but because people approached him for help, he assisted them.

"With a lot of persistence, I negotiated with the provincial authorities to rebuild a house that had collapsed.

"People tried to speak to their councillor, but it seems they were ignored.

"I then took it upon myself to do something and deal with the province.

"One expects the government to give the people of Delft proper assistance."

The provincial housing department had not responded to questions by deadline. - Cape Times

Fire destroys 20 homes in Western Cape

About 20 shacks have been destroyed in a fire in the Nomzano informal settlement, near the Strand in the Western Cape.

There are currently two fire trucks, a rescue vehicle, and a water tender on the scene. The cause of the fire has not yet been established. No deaths or injuries have been reported.

Meanwhile, more than 1,500 shack dwellers have been given temporary accommodation at a local crèche after a fire destroyed their shacks at Jadu Place near Springfield in Durban this morning.

Over 500 shacks were razed, apparently after a candle was left burning in one of the shacks.

No one was injured in the fire. Chairperson of the development Committee in Ward 5, Dumisani Mkhize, has pleaded with the municipality to take care of the residents who have been left homeless. - SABC

An executive-minded decision

The issue of land claims and homelessness continues to be one of the most pressing of our social problems. Unsurprisingly, the courts have been drawn into the intricacies of this problem, particularly when it comes to squatters and their removal.

Recently, in the Johannesburg City case, the Constitutional Court sought to guide authorities confronted with the dilemma of the removal of a large group of people who reside in unsafe buildings but who have nowhere else to live.

The court's judgement ruled that the relevant authority engaged with the affected dwellers before eviction could take place: "Engagement is a two-way process in which the city and those about to become homeless would talk to each other meaningfully in order to achieve certain objectives."

This follows earlier qualifications to the previously absolute right of an authority or land owner to evict persons, but its full implications do not appear to have reached Cape Town. On March 10, the Cape High Court ordered the eviction of about 20 000 residents from the Joe Slovo settlement.

The residents argued that the parties that sought their removal -- a company charged with the task of transforming the settlement into formal housing and the provincial and national ministries -- had no legal standing to bring an application for eviction.

They also argued they had a expectation that 70% of the opportunities afforded by the new housing at Joe Slovo would be awarded to their community.

The decision on the argument regarding legitimate expectations is illuminating. Their claim on 70% of Joe Slovo was not denied by the applicants for their eviction.

The court accepted this and the entitlement would act as a defence against eviction.

But the court also found that the initial occupation was unlawful, which can never give rise to a legitimate expectation, so the residents could not rely in law upon the undertaking that had been given to them.

This is surely a controversial judgment. It cites but one decision as authority for this finding. Although there is no unanimity on the point, there is alternative authority that supports the argument that there is a substantive legitimate expectation, where such an undertaking is given, except if the undertaking is made in violation of a statute or when it is not in the public interest. Neither was the case in this dispute; hence there appears to be a significant injustice if people were removed from land where clear promises had been made to them.

But more problematic is the absence of any engagement as set out by the Constitutional Court. Though the Cape High Court found compliance with the Johannesburg City case, the residents asserted that no meaningful consultation had taken place. The applicants conceded that consultation had been limited. No evidence of such engagement was shown.

A unilateral decision was made to move the residents more then 37km, far from where their children went to school and where many were employed.

Of course a court must seek to balance the state's attempt to give effect to its constitutional obligation to provide housing with the rights of those who are homeless but whose actions may frustrate the housing programme. That will often prove to be a difficult balancing exercise, hence some sympathy for the judicial dilemma. But in this case the court manifestly glossed over the undertaking given to the residents and the legal implications of meaningful engagement before any removal could take place. It is this deference to developers and the diminution of the importance of consultation that makes this judgement so problematic.

This case must raise a debate about the meaning of legal transformation.

By the way, the judge who decided the case was Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe.

Lead counsel for the 20,000 evicted persons was Geoff Budlender, a man turned down three times for a post as a judge in the Western Cape. I wonder how 20,000 historically disadvantaged homeless people understand the idea of legal transformation? - MG

Children die in blaze

THREE young children burnt to death in Chris Hani informal settlement yesterday after their mother had left them alone while she went to the shops.

Police had to step in to prevent the mother from being beaten up by angry neighbours after the horror death in the informal settlement near New Brighton in Port Elizabeth.

The Vena children – Nkosinathi, 5, Jonela, 3, and Nokuthula, aged 18 months – were burnt beyond recognition and their humble shack reduced to cinders at 7.30am yesterday.

Distraught mother Phamela Vena said: “I just left to go to the shops to buy my daughter a Coke. One of my neighbours came running up to me and told me that my home was on fire. When I arrived, I saw my house was on fire and my neighbours were trying to fight (it) with buckets of water.”

She said the children had been awake and playing when she left.

The eldest child, Nkosinathi, was physically disabled and unable to walk. His body was found lying on the bed, and Vena‘s daughters were found sitting together on the floor.

Vena said she did not know how the fire had started nor why the children had not tried to flee.

Police, who have opened an inquest docket, said the fire could have started when a paraffin lamp was knocked over.

Local residents held a prayer service around the smoldering ruins of the home.

One of Vena‘s neighbours said: “This was totally avoidable. We told her she must stop leaving her children alone.

“All she had to do was ask one of us to look after them, but she never brought them to us.”

Police spokesman Captain Hazel Mqala said: “The mother is lucky that the police and emergency services arrived when they did, as the local community members were threatening to beat the mother for her negligence. We were able to defuse the situation.” - The Herald

Western Cape housing project launches today

The province has a housing backlog of more than 400 000 units

Western Cape Local Government and Housing Minister, Richard Dyantyi, says his department will increase its annual target of building 16,000 houses now to 20,000.

The province has a housing backlog of more than 400,000 units. Dyantyi today launches a Housing project in Khayamandi near Stellenbosch.

The project, known as the Khayamandi Master Plan, aims to ease the plight of the shack fire victims currently housed in temporary structures.

- SABC

E Cape housing in big trouble

A team of administrators has been appointed to run Eastern Cape’s housing department after a government report showed that the department was failing to meet its mandate.

Pretoria has warned the Eastern Cape government that it might take control of the department if the situation does not improve within a year.

Government spokesman Themba Maseko said no discussion had taken place in the national cabinet about the future of Eastern Cape housing MEC Thoko Xasa, the political head of the department.

Late last year, Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu warned that “somebody’s head will be cut off” if the department remained incapable of spending its budget.

She took the R500-million the provincial department had failed to spend and gave it to Western Cape and North West.

Xasa responded by announcing a new low-cost housing project earlier this year.

But it would appear that Sisulu is not satisfied.

A report presented to the cabinet on Wednesday said that housing delivery in the Eastern Cape had declined from 37000 houses a year in 2005 to only 11750 in the past 12 months.

Maseko said the cabinet’s decision to assign a team of administrators to the provincial department was in line with the Housing Act, and that it would accelerate the provision of housing in Eastern Cape. - The Times

Province 'to hold R300m' from Gateway

The Western Cape provincial treasury is withholding at least R300-million meant for the N2 Gateway Housing Project until the ongoing problems engulfing it are resolved.

It was revealed at a budget committee briefing in the provincial legislature yesterday that millions of rands allocated for the project in the 2007/08 financial year have not been spent and that the department will hold on to a further R300m set aside for this (2008/09) financial year.

The issue was raised after ANC MPL Patrick McKenzie asked whether the Treasury had plans to combat organisations holding up construction on any of the government's housing projects.

The project first encountered problems when Joe Slovo informal settlement dwellers refused to be relocated to Delft - 15km away - to make way for the housing development.

This prompted Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, government-appointed housing company Thubelisha and Local Government and Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi to ask the Cape High Court to order that the squatters be moved to temporary housing in Delft last September.

The more than 4 000 households, who were going to be moved over 45 weeks, opposed the application for their eviction. A long legal squabble, which has now gone to the Constitutional Court, ensued.

The court is yet to decide whether to allow residents to appeal a Cape High Court judgment which last month ordered them to be temporarily relocated to Delft.

This is the delay that has led the Treasury to hold on to the funding until the N2 Gateway legal issue is solved.

The head of public finance in the Treasury, Harry Malila, said that given the problems associated with the N2 Gateway, there was an agreement between the provincial and national governments that any underspending will be rolled over to 2008/09.

Malila said that once everything had been sorted out, the Treasury will then transfer the money to the account of the administrator (Thubelisha).

He said that in the last fin-ancial year, the department had paid only for the work done - from April until about October/November 2007, when problems started.

Part of the underspending - from October/November 2007 to March this year - had been rolled over to the current financial year.

Malila said he wasn't sure of the exact figure of the money to be rolled over.

Sources close to the Cape Argus estimate this amount to be about R80-million.

The Treasury has set aside a further R400m for development for the 2009/10 financial year.

"Among other reasons to withhold the funds was that we also have to look at whether conditions for the conditional grant were being met," added Malila.

The head of the N2 Gateway project, Prince Xhanti Sigcawu, told the Cape Argus that the legal issues had badly affected the development and caused enormous delays to the whole process.

"If people had relocated (last year) and we never went to the courts, we would have gone far with the project," he said.

Sigcawu said massive development in Joe Slovo had not started because of the courts and people refusing to relocate.

"There are other approved funds, even by the city, which are sitting there unless people relocate," said Sigcawu.

Other issues revealed at the meeting were how the energy crisis, high inflation and interest rate climate, coupled with skills shortage, international financial marketing crisis and slow growth in manufacturing and agriculture, were posing risks to the economic outlook of the Western Cape.

- Cape Argus

Five toilets for 200 families @ Die Gaatjie

DIE Gaatjie, an informal settlement in Smutsville near Sedgefield that 200 families call home, has only five toilets to serve the entire settlement, which means one is shared by 40 families.

The settlement was built on an old dumping ground. Only three communal water taps are available.

Smutsville is between the N2 and the ocean, next to Sedgefield, and falls in the Knysna municipal area.

The Knysna municipality was asked yesterday what was being done about the situation, but said it did not have enough time before The Herald‘s deadline to formulate a comprehensive reply. The municipality said it would respond today.

A resident of Die Gaatjie said their home was close to the toilets, which was a big problem because the drain overflowed continually and the smell was terrible.

Another resident, Angeline Matthys, also said the toilets were a big problem and made people ill. She said electricity supply for the residents was high on her list of priorities.

“We don‘t get enough help from the municipality,” she said.

During a whistle-stop visit by various government officials as part of Project Dialogue, a communication initiative driven by DA Western Cape leader Theuns Botha, local community leader James Booysen welcomed the delegation and explained that the main issues for the community were decent housing, water, electricity and toilet facilities.

A high point is that a brand-new school building was recently completed in Smutsville which takes children from Die Gaatjie.

Doris Nayler, DA councillor for Sedgefield, said the municipality owned ground at the sports field and the brickworks, and recommended that the people of Die Gaatjie be moved there.

In addition to the conditions at Die Gaatjie, a potential disaster is waiting to happen in another area of Smutsville.

Nayler says some residents of Smutsville have dug platforms out of a massive, steep sand dune in the vicinity and erected homes there. If a big flood were to occur, she said, the dune could shift and bury the houses at the bottom. The RDP houses at the bottom of the dune were already cracking. - The Herald

Township time bomb is ticking...

To a naive eye, a cursory glance at the township in Hout Bay, Imizamo Yethu, would appear to reveal a bustling place of chaotic yet somehow cohesive co-existence.

On a Thursday afternoon, children are running and playing as women are keeping a watchful eye, preparing dinner and chatting. The men are playing pool and talking in their own circles. With limited space and both economic and social constraints it seems there would be a strong community-based understanding of a shared situation.

Yet that is not the case. The clusters of people are calculated and defined not by proximity or personality, but by ethnicity. There are schisms in the community between South Africans and refugees. Xenophobia simmers in the back of minds and all it takes sometimes is a bad day to elicit it. In an 18-hectare area designated for about 2,500 people, but with an actual population of about 35,000, it is a time bomb waiting to happen, said councillor Marga Haywood.

'I'm friends with the good ones. But 99 percent of them are not right'

"Some of the refugees are right," said Pinky Dungelo, a South African. "I'm friends with the good ones. But 99 percent of them are not right. They must go back."

Dungelo, born and raised in Hout Bay, said her major complaints about refugees were that they were sick, dishonest and rude.

"We've got no problems with them; they have problems with us by stealing from us," she said. "They're dangerous. They act like they're looking for jobs, but their details are fake and we don't know their real names."

According to Dungelo, the refugees get women pregnant then disappear. Relationships between locals and foreigners are trouble. "If they have a Xhosa girlfriend and they fight, they beat the girl. They're not hitting her like the way a South African man would. They fight like she's a man."

Fear also exists on issues of safety and health. Dungelo believes refugees spread diseases. "Zimbabweans have worms and you get it from sex with them." Dungelo said she had never seen the worms before or knew of anyone who had, but she heard about it from other people.

'Several South Africans told me to go back to Zimbabwe and that I don't belong'

Around the corner, no more than a few metres away, sat Hango Jose, a Zimbabwean refugee who has lived in Hout Bay since 2003. Jose came in the hope of finding economic opportunities. At present, he is unemployed. He has experienced xenophobic remarks before, but never any acts of violence.

"Several South Africans told me to go back to Zimbabwe and that I don't belong," Jose said. He doesn't feel the remarks are warranted or that refugees are taking jobs away from South Africans. "Most of the refugees here take the jobs at bars others don't want," he said. "The contractors are employing Zimbabweans. They believe Zims are stronger than South Africans." - Cape Times

Urbanisation to put pressure on cities

Worldwide urban populations are expected to double within 10 to 15 years, presenting threats and opportunities, city planners said at the Planning Africa conference on Monday.

Urban planners from 26 commonwealth countries met in Sandton to debate three global challenges facing all cities -- urbanisation, poverty and climate change.

"The way cities are growing is unsustainable, as is the government's approach to urbanisation," president of the Commonwealth Association of Planners Christine Blatt said.

A developed country's urban population stabilises at about 80% of its national population. If this trend is true for Africa, this will require 43 cities the size of New York to house urban populations, she said.

"Global collective action is required to address these challenges," Blatt said.

"Sixty-thousand people are urbanised every day in the Commonwealth of Nations."

Planning is critical to success and needs to be future-oriented and focused on capacity building.

Planning has a huge impact on societies and has to be an integrated developmental tool for all government institutions, said Lechesa Tsenoli, chair of the parliamentary portfolio committee on provincial and local government.

Tsenoli said planning has to continually improve. Planners have to identify the needs of the community and have to secure the resources from provincial and national departments. These plans then have to feed into broader development and growth strategies.

The key challenge in terms of South African urban planning is the lack of capacity and skills to meet requirements for service delivery.

Ebrahim Fakir, researcher for Centre for Policy Studies, said that planning has to be multi-disciplinary and be able to differentiate between the particular needs and universal needs of people.

Planners have to be cognisant of state needs and market needs and have to engage with a society holistically, he said.

"Such engagement is the hallmark of social capital."

One planning programme in Johannesburg has been short-listed to be presented at the World Urban Forum in November 2008.

"Local examples and ideas get global recognition," said Tsenoli. - Sapa

World Cup building ban 'could cost jobs'

Plans to ban construction during the 2010 World Cup could have a negative impact on the city's economy and jobs in the construction industry, business says.

Both the Cape Town Regional Chamber and the Chamber of Commerce of South Africa (Chamsa) have warned that the move could be detrimental to economic growth if it was widespread.

The city, as part of the Fifa Host City Agreement, is required to halt construction near stadiums and roadworks on major roads during the six week period of the tournament.

Dr Laurine Platzky, the Western Cape co-ordinator for the 2010 World Cup, said the same principle was applied in other host countries such as Germany and was implemented for safety and health reasons and to allow free movement of people and traffic.

'We know the ban is part of Fifa's requirement'

But chamber president Gerald Woolman called on the World Cup organisers to provide the agreement of the plan, saying it was difficult to plan ahead if the business community, including construction companies, had no clarity of what would happen.

"We know the ban is part of Fifa's requirement, that has to be adhered to.

"But our concern is that we don't know the extent of it and how is it going to affect companies and jobs. There's no real clarity. We need to know the parameters in advance so that we can we can plan our programmes on time.

"The plan could cause a lot of hardship, especially for smaller construction companies," he said.

Chamsa chairperson Janine Myburgh warned the plan could bring the industry to its knees.

"The poor are most probably going to suffer in the process and what will happen to their jobs if construction is halted?"

It was difficult to understand the rationale behind the plan if construction did not to affect the tournament.

Platzky said the ban would be kept to the immediate vicinity of the stadium.

She was unable to pinpoint the exact area as this was still under discussion, but areas that were likely to be affected were Green Point, Athlone and Philippi areas which would be to be used for practice venues, Platzky said.

"There are lots of things to be looked at around the stadiums such as noise, dust and movement of people. If you've got construction equipment stationed there it becomes unsafe for everyone," she said.

Platzky said the construction companies in affected areas would finish work on time because they knew about this clause in the contract.

The SA Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors said it was not worried about the ban because it planned its programmes accordingly.

Executive director Henk Langehoven said companies were already making arrangements with their workforce, such as working overtime before the World Cup, so that they would not feel the pinch of not working for a month. Another option was to deploy them in areas where construction work could still be done.

The city's executive director Eddie Chinnappen said roadworks would only be carried out in residential streets where construction would not have a direct impact on traffic flow at main arterials.

The city planned to finish all its major roadworks by March 2010, three months before the World Cup. - Cape Argus

Mayor Zille on the Cape Habitat Crisis

After a decade of optimism and growth, many South African cities now face a new challenge compared to competing international locations, Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille said on Wednesday.

These include perceptions of instability and uncertainty, growing urban poverty, increased crime, conflict and corruption, she told the United Nations (UN) commission on population and development in New York.

Governments, especially local government, had a key role to play in halting and reversing this trend.

"But, neither the state nor the private sector can reverse this cycle on their own - both have a role to play in the right mix," she said...

About 1,5-million citizens of Cape Town had not finished school, and the city was simultaneously facing an escalating skills exodus.

"We also have a housing waiting list of about 460,000 and 222 informal settlements around the city (150,000 shacks compared with 28,000 in 1994), and a growing crime rate," Zille said.

- Sapa

UN forum examines positive impact of urbanization on development

Urbanization can have a positive impact on development issues such as poverty, inequality and environmental degradation, so long as the appropriate policies are in place to manage the problems and challenges, experts attending the current session of the United Nations population body said today.

The meeting of the Commission on Population and Development, which began yesterday and concludes on Friday, is focusing on the opportunities and challenges posed by increasing urbanization. The UN estimates that, by the end of this year, half of the world’s 6.7 billion people will live in urban areas.

This session of the Commission is “particularly interesting” because the topic of urbanization and its implications has not been dealt with for 10 years, said Hania Zlotnik, Director of the Population Division in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA).

“What we’re finding is that, as we expected, there’s still great reluctance by governments to acknowledge that urbanization can have even positive effects,” she said at a press conference earlier today.

While urbanization poses a number of challenges to local government in terms of governance and the provision of basic services to an increasing population, it also offers opportunities for economic growth. The South African city of Cape Town has been rapidly urbanizing for the past three or four decades.

“Ironically, much of the urbanization is happening to Cape Town precisely because there is a viable, vibrant economy that has been booming for the last 10 years and attracting people from across the sub-continent,” the city’s Mayor, Helen Zille, pointed out.

She added that modern cities succeed to the extent that they link their populations with the nation’s economy and the nation’s economy with the global economy. “The city has to get both of those right to improve life for the very poor and to enable all to have opportunities in the city,” she stated.

David Satterthwaite, from the International Institute for Environment and Development, emphasized that compact, well-designed and well-managed cities can generate a “fantastic” quality of life at a relatively low level of greenhouse gas emissions.

“So not only are cities very important for poverty reduction, they’re also very important for reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” he said. - UN News

UN singles out Cape Town

Cape Town has been singled out as the model city that manages rapid urbanisation

The city of Cape Town has been singled out as a model city that manages rapid urbanization and its implications with impressive results. A conference is currently underway at the United Nations headquarters in New York looking at challenges of people moving out of the rural areas to the cities.

Mayor of Cape Town Helen Zille has attended the conference where a call has been issued to national governments to support successful cities which are battling with urbanisation. The UN says people are migrating from rural areas in droves to live in the cities for economic survival.

The UN Commission on Population Development is meeting to examine the socio-economic implications of such influx, focusing on sustainability and provision of services to informal settlements. They invited the Mayor of Cape Town in South Africa, Helen Zille to use her city as a case study to help the commission understand the circumstances under which urbanisation can enable people to improve their lives, and the role of the city in creating such circumstances.

In the 2006 municipal elections, the Democratic Alliance, the official opposition in SA, became the single largest party in Cape Town with 42% of the vote, and Zille the city's mayor. Zille is currently long listed for the 2008 World Mayor award.

Zille highlighted the challenges of governing a city that is urbanising at an alarming rate and the apparent tensions between the city and the provincial government with her city, Cape Town, singled out as an example of a city that has a booming economy and yet has both extreme wealth and poverty side by side.

The UN says over the coming decades, world population growth will largely be determined by growth in the urban areas of developing countries, due to urbanisation. - SABC

UN body confronts new world, made up of a majority of urban dwellers

As the number of people living in cities this year outranks the number living in rural areas for the first time, and 19 ‘megacities’ emerge with more than 10 million inhabitants, top United Nations officials today stressed the importance of understanding how successful cities have dealt with pollution, slums and other ills.

“Despite their problems, large cities produced better health outcomes than smaller ones,” said Sha Zukang, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, as he opened this year’s session of the UN Commission on Population and Development.

He said that, as they confront additional population and uneven access to services and resources, local authorities must be able to tailor assistance to their particular settings.

Resources for planning must be made available, however, other officials warned. The Executive Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, said that the decline in international funding for family planning would slow global efforts to reduce poverty, improve health and empower women.

“In fact, funding for family planning as a percentage of all population assistance has dropped considerably, from 55 per cent in 1995 to 7 per cent in 2005,” she said.

“The victims of this funding gap,” Ms. Obaid said, “are poor women in poor countries who cannot exercise their reproductive rights and plan their families. It is a serious problem that needs to be urgently addressed.”

The Commission’s session, focusing on the growing urbanization of the world population and its implications for development issues such as poverty and the environment, will run until 11 April.- UN News

Residents patch up houses as winter looms

With repairs to their homes delayed by several months, some residents of the more than 2,400 faulty houses built by the Cape Town Community Housing Company have expressed their distress at the delay.

On Monday, company executive Fungai Mudimu told the city's housing portfolio committee that the provincial housing department had agreed to pay the extra costs of repairs to houses in Manenberg, Philippi, Mitchells Plain and Gugulethu.

The costs had shot up from the initial R35-million to more than R90-million.

Sindiswa Mponze, who lives in Luyoloville, said many of her neighbours had refused to pay their rents of between R400 and R800 because of the shoddy construction.

'There has not been a single winter where rain has not seeped through the roof or the walls'

"I moved into my house in 2001 and there has not been a single winter where rain has not seeped through the roof or the walls.

"How can they demand rent from me when we have to deal with this every winter?" Mponze said as she pointed out several cracks in her living room.

Some residents of Luyoloville, tired of waiting for teams to fix their homes, have attempted repairs with varying degrees of success, most of them by filling cracks with plaster and painting over damp walls.

Rizaan Young, whose Heideveld home was being repaired by an independent contractor, said her first winter in the house seven years ago had shown up the shoddiness of the construction.

"Before the repairs, there were two holes in the living room floor and my windows could not be shut properly as they had become rusted."

Young said she was happy with the improvements to her house, which had included installing an insulated ceiling and waterproofing the inside and outer walls.

A foreman on the site said repairs included "lifting up" floors that were sagging and cracking.

Sagging ceilings were also being repaired. Waterjets were being used to strip off old paint before applying waterproof paint to walls.

"The main problem that tenants experienced was water penetration, especially during the winter," said the foreman. - Cape Times

Cape Town mayor addresses UN on Migration

Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille is to speak at the 41st session of the United Nations commission on population and development in New York on Tuesday, her office said in a statement.

It said the commission oversaw a set of strategies to address issues of population growth, urbanisation and migration.

This session was focusing on urban growth, sustainability, and issues like internally displaced persons, such as informal settlement dwellers.

Zille had been asked by the commission to address it on Cape Town's lessons and challenges in the field of urban governance. - Sapa

Housing agent seeks to bar 'rogue' councillor

The housing agent for the N2 Gateway is seeking to bar "rogue" councillor Frank Martin from the Delft site, fearing he could again incite squatters to invade incomplete houses.

Thubelisha Homes said it had instructed its lawyers to investigate the possibility of taking legal steps against the Delft ward councillor in an effort to prevent him from setting foot on the property.

Martin has already landed in a heap of trouble with the City of Cape Town for his involvement in the invasion of the unfinished houses.

He was found guilty of contravening the councillor's code of conduct and now faces disciplinary action.

'He was found guilty of contravening the councillor's code of conduct'

However, Martin has retained community support amongst the squatters, all of whom were evicted in February, and met with them last week.

But in spite of his calls for calm, many residents told the Cape Argus that they would consider reinvading the houses if it became too cold for the children in their tents.

In a statement on Monday, the developer accused Martin of being a "rogue" councillor who used the "same crude and divisive racial arguments used to incite the December invasion".

This comes after Martin claimed that 138 of the 738 people allocated houses had never been on a waiting list.

"They are all African and that is not a racist remark, it is a fact," he said in Thursday's meeting.

'They are all African and that is not a racist remark, it is a fact'

Thubelisha said it already planned to take legal action against Martin for damage caused to the houses while they were occupied by the evictees.

"Thubelisha, which is already pursuing the DA councillor for damages for inciting the Delft home invasion in December, has reason to fear that Martin is intent on inciting another invasion," it said.

"Martin's allegation that the N2 Gateway discriminates in the allocation of housing on the basis of people's race is a deliberate lie intended to inflame racial tensions, and presumably win votes for his political party."

But Martin retaliated on Monday, accusing the housing agent of not being open with the community about the allocation of houses.

"I am the local ward councillor and I have a responsibility to give people truthful information.

"If they (Thubelisha) don't give the people the information, I will," he said. "I will be the eyes and the watchdog for the people to ensure fair distribution of housing in the Western Cape."

Meanwhile, Martin is expected to face a council disciplinary committee hearing in early June.

The chairperson of the council's disciplinary committee Anthea Serritslev said that after considering speaker Dirk Smit's report on the investigation into claims of misconduct by Martin, it had agreed to proceed with a disciplinary process.

Martin is also to appear in the Bellville magistrate's court on charges of inciting violence on April 25, after being pointed out as the key figure behind the illegal occupation of the N2 Gateway houses.

- Cape Argus

Delft squatters mop up after floods

Some backyard dwellers squatting in Delft, near houses from which they were evicted, spent Sunday mopping up after being woken by heavy rain that seeped into tents erected as temporary shelters.

Community activist Beverley Jacobs said some families living in the tents simply fled, overwhelmed by the rain and prospect of more wet weather.

Last week, the city council announced that it would take another three months to move the 840 families who had been evicted from the incomplete houses meant for N2 Gateway beneficiaries.

This came after steep increases in the steel price meant that suppliers could not be paid prices at which tenders were awarded.

'Is this a better life for all?'

Millicent Leibrand, 36, who is seven months pregnant and shares a tent with her husband, two children and three other families, said she was woken in the early hours by a damp mattress and bedding.

"Rain flowed down the centre pole holding up the tent," said Leibrand.

Nokuzola Ludidi, 41, who shares a tent with her mother and three children asked, while surveying a neighbour's tent, "Is this a better life for all?"

"My mother is blind, paralysed and she doesn't have a wheelchair. I've had to move with her from Barcelona (informal settlement) to Delft and now here," said Ludidi.

Her mother, Margaret Ludidi, 78, said she had difficulty moving because of her paralysis.

City housing executive director Hans Smit said a team had been sent to Delft to help repair some of the tents. - Cape Times

Zimbo's voted with their feet

Two Zimbabweans who were accused of robbing people at the Choba informal settlement near Olievenhoutbosch have been beaten to death.

The fatal xenophobic attack comes less than 48 hours after Tshwane executive mayor Dr Gwen Ramokgopa condemned widespread vigilante attacks on foreigners in the metro.

Police have appealed to local communities to refrain from taking the law into their own hands after Saturday's attack.

Wierdabrug police spokesperson Captain Agnes Huma said one of the three Zimbabweans - fearing for his life after his friends were killed - handed himself over to the police on Saturday.

It is alleged that three Zimbabweans held several people at gunpoint on Friday, demanding money and cellphones.... Pretoria News

Angry Delft residents refuse to relocate

The Delft residents were recently evicted from unfinished N2 Gateway houses

An angry crowd of people living in tents at Silversands in Delft on the Cape Flats have forced the member of the mayoral committee for housing in the City of Cape Town, Dan Plato, to leave the area. Plato earlier struggled to convince the people why the City cannot relocate them to temporary structures.

The group is part of the families that were recently evicted from unfinished N2 Gateway houses.

Meanwhile, the disciplinary hearing against a Democratic Alliance (DA) councillor in the City of Cape Town, Frank Martin, has been postponed to a date yet to be determined in June. Martin is facing charges of contravening the councillors' code of conduct.

He is accused of leading more than a thousand people to illegally occupy incomplete houses at the N2 Gateway Project in Delft. Martin allegedly issued notifications to the backyard dwellers bearing the City's letterhead.

Martin will also face a criminal trial later this month on charges relating to this incident.

- SABC

Agency to fast-track housing...

A government agency that aims to fast track housing delivery will be up and running by June, the Minister for Housing, Lindiwe Sisulu, said yesterday.

Sisulu said the go-ahead for the Housing Development Agency was passed by parliament’s housing portfolio committee. It will be the facilitator between the national department of housing and banks for annual housing delivery.

The department plans to increase delivery from 270,000 units to 500,000 annually, to house an estimated 2.3 million impoverished people awaiting shelter. It is estimated that the effort will cost the department R345-billion by 2014.

The agency’s main tasks will be to develop, manage and co-ordinate the development of housing .

The plan is to minimise red tape in the approval of developments by both the government and the private sector. It has been known to take as long as three years before developers can lay the first brick.

Sisulu said the agency was a critical element in meeting the 2014 deadline of a slum-free South Africa — and it would not be deterred by Eskom’s threats to halt the electrification of Breaking New Ground houses. She said the argument to halt electrification of the government houses to aid power supply constraints was unrealistic.

“We cannot avoid the growth brought by urbanisation. I have written to both (Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica and Eskom CEO Jacob Maroga) to clarify to us how housing delivery would be affected. “It is pure logic that housing must be provided. We have also informed Eskom that we are willing to participate in energy- saving education efforts.”

- The Times

Bad Ideas - Behind the scenes

Wild Lemon Productions, a leading Cape Town based video production company was recently awarded the contract to cover the Governance Summer School, a government initiated conference held at the 5 star Lord Charles Hotel in Somerset West.

The event was the brainchild of MEC Richard Dyantyi in an attempt at injecting a passion for learning into the leaders of local municipalities and districts, spanning the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Northern Cape.

From the outset delegates were told that for the duration of the 5 day “schooling” they held no job titles or positions of hierarchy, everyone was there as a “learner”. The intention was to bring leaders of the three provinces together to work as a team on overcoming realistic scenarios set by the organizers and academics in attendance. In addition the learners were guided by statisticians and local political heroes, including former MP Mac Maharaj.

The school was attended by more than three hundred local government officials from the three Cape Provinces. Among the delegates were the three MECs Richard Dyantyi from the Western Cape, JF Boeboe van Wyk of the Northern Cape and Toko Xasa from the Eastern Cape, Western Cape Premiere Ebrahim Rasool (who was interviewed by E-TV news reporter Lukhanyo Calato) and Harry Dugmore (from the South African Presidency’s Policy Co-ordination and Advisory Services).

The event was organized by Isandla Institute and covered by Wild Lemon Productions. The Wild Lemon team consisted of two videographers, Richard Sandy and Nic van der Westhuizen, and production and video editing manager, Kerrin Kokot.

Wild Lemon Productions is currently editing the footage. The planned release date is 31 April, 2008. - Filmmaker

Protester still homeless after 26 years

A Khayelitsha woman who was one of the 1982 St George's Cathedral squatters who fasted for 24 days over their lack of housing, still does not have a house.

Twenty-six years on, Kate Ncisana, 63, is living alone in a shack in Site C, Khayelitsha, where she has raised two children and she's not impressed with the government.

"To have a home is not a privilege at all, this is a right.

'To have a home is not a privilege at all, this is a right'

"Years ago we thought we'd have houses by now," she said.

The mother of two said both her children had married and started their own families while she was waiting for a house, which was promised by the previous government in 1982.

Ncisana says her children had yet to enjoy the comfort of having a real home.

Ncisana's story was featured in the Cape Argus on April 2, 1982, when she and 53 others broke their 24-day fast to force permission for them to stay in the Western Cape and to receive suitable housing.

The families, initially from the Eastern Cape, had moved to Cape Town to live with their husbands and male relatives who were construction workers and living in hostels.

At the time, "influx control" did not allow black people to move easily around South Africa.

"We were not allowed to live in the hostels with our husbands and we were kicked out time and time again," Ncisana recalled.

They were eventually forced to leave Saint George's Cathedral and obtained permission to squat at the Holy Cross Church in Nyanga.

Two years later the families eventually moved in 1985 on to very small plots in Khayelitsha.

- Cape Argus

Delft move (forced) delayed

Shortages of steel and massive price hikes mean that there will be a delay in moving thousands of Delft evictees to temporary homes, Cape Town's mayoral committee member for housing Dan Plato said on Wednesday.

He said the "three or four weeks" time frame that the city originally set for the move had already lapsed, and that it could now take months.

About 800 families have been living in council-provided marquees, or roadside shelters, after being evicted from newly-built homes in the area last month.

The homes are part of the N2 Gateway project, and meant largely for residents of the Joe Slovo informal settlement elsewhere on the Cape Flats.

Most of the 800 families were backyard dwellers in the Delft area, and all of them are on the city's housing waiting list.

Plato told a media briefing that the council had identified a nearby piece of land for the families, and had completed preparatory earthworks and services.

It had been the intention to get construction of the six-by-three metre temporary homes, with galvanised iron walls and roof, under way this week.

However the council had now learned that a result of power cuts there was now a shortage of iron from supplier ArcelorMittal, and the earliest expected delivery was the beginning of May.

In addition, there had been two massive steel price hikes, which meant that the prices on the supply tender the city had already secured were no longer feasible.

The city would have to put out a new call for tenders.

"That for us is a major setback, it's a dramatic setback," Plato said.

"It hit us like cold water in the face, and we have faced up to that challenge."

The news would be communicated to the evictees in the next 24 to 36 hours.

Plato said he appealed to them to bear with and trust the city.

He hoped the relocation would be completed "in the next two to three months", though it could drag on longer.

The city's director of housing Hans Smit said the price hikes, coming in the space of a single month, meant the cost of the galvanised iron for the homes had gone up from R4,9-million to R6,2-million.

The city has been providing food, water, toilets and security for the evictees.

According to Plato the "whole exercise", including the still-to-be erected galvanised homes, would cost the city just over R20-million.

"We fulfilled out humanitarian obligation. We fulfilled our constitutional obligation... we have walked the extra mile to ultimately assist these people," he said. - Sapa

Thousands of civil servants caught seizing homes

More than 7,000 civil servants have acquired RDP houses illegally, according to the Department of Housing.

Simphiwe Damane-Mkhosana, head of an anti-corruption unit in the department, said yesterday: "We have 7,363 pending cases of fraudulently acquired RDP houses throughout the country by government officials.

"We are still investigating the cases but we intend to prosecute all the individuals who benefited."

She said the officials had obtained the houses by providing false information in the application forms.

Some of them said they were unemployed while others declared an income far lower than their actual salary.

Some of the civil servants were renting the houses out to tenants, she said.

"We discovered that some of these officials own about two houses from different provinces."

Gauteng has the most cases, with KwaZulu-Natal in second position, followed by the Western Cape and Eastern Cape.

Damane-Mkhosana said seven teachers, including a principal, were found guilty of fraud in Vryburg this week.

The seven were sentenced to five years in prison suspended for five years on condition they pay back the money the houses were valued at and not commit a similar offence in the given period.

They were also given an option of a R20,000 fine.

Damane-Mkhosana said the department was compiling a list of the people involved. It would be sent to their various departments. - Sapa

Man dies in shack fire

A Graaff-Reinet man died when his shack caught fire on Tuesday night, said Eastern Cape police.

Inspector Gerrie van Rooyen said it was thought the fire started when a candle, or a lamp, fell over in the shack in Umasizakhe.

He said there was no criminal investigation into the death of John Qwali, believed to be 47, but that the police had opened an inquest docket. - Sapa

7 000+ in RDP housing scam

More than 7 000 civil servants have acquired RDP houses illegally, the Housing Department said on Wednesday.

Simphiwe Damane-Mkhosana, head of an anti-corruption unit in the housing department, said: "We have 7 363 pending cases of fraudulently acquired RDP houses by government officials throughout the country.

"We are still investigating the cases, but we intend to prosecute all the individuals who benefited."

She said the officials were getting the houses by providing false information in the application forms.

"Some of them said they were unemployed when filling in the forms while others mis-declared (sic) their income to fit the criteria, so they could qualify for the houses," said Damane-Mkhosana.

Some of the civil servants were renting the houses out to tenants while others were living in them, she said.

"We discovered that some of these officials own about two houses in different provinces."

The bigger the province, more cases were uncovered according to the department.

Gauteng province had the highest number, KwaZulu-Natal was second, followed by the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and the rest of the other provinces depending on their population.

Seven teachers guilty

Damane-Mkhosana said seven teachers, one of them a principal, were found guilty of fraud in Vryburg on Tuesday.

The seven were sentenced to five years' in prison suspended for five years on condition they paid back the amount at which the houses were valued and not commit the same offences within the same period. They were also given an option of a R20 000 fine.

"We are expecting more cases because since yesterday I have been receiving calls from people who are prepared to report more officials who have benefited from the houses."

Damane-Mkhosana said the department was compiling a list of the people involved and this would be sent to various departments. - SAPA

Is the Western Cape prepared?

Global warming has made it inevitable that devastating disasters would befall the Western Cape, requiring all levels of local government to team up if the province was to cope, said Local Government and Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi.

He spoke on Tuesday at the launch of the Provincial Intergovernmental Disaster Management Structure.

The cost of disasters in the Western Cape exceeded R1-billion last year and research showed that the province was prone to 38 types of disasters, Dyantyi told officials from government, municipalities and state-owned enterprises, most notably Eskom, who teamed up for the launch of the initiative at the Provincial Emergency Management Centre in Tygerberg on Tuesday morning.

Premier Ebrahim Rasool also officially endorsed the launch of the initiative.

Dyantyi, who hosted the ceremony, said flooding and fires were of particular concern in the Western Cape and climate change was making things worse.

"In one year we'll have flooding, fire, swine fever, hail storms and drought. We're no longer in a situation of waiting for Hurricane Katrina to strike. We know we have fires every summer, we know we have floods in winter. This has forced us to become creative with our solutions," Dyantyi said in an interview.

Recent major disasters include flood damage of R2,5-million in Cape Town in January 2005; the destruction of 3 150 structures in a fire at Joe Slovo informal settlement, also in January 2005; drought reported by 13 municipalities in March 2005; flood damage of R605-million in the southern Cape in July and August 2006; hail damage of R9-million in Haarlem in November 2006; R1,2-billion of damage caused by flooding in the southern Cape in December 2007; and drought in the central Karoo in 2007 and 2008 amounting to R20-million in damages.

Dyantyi said each province had to implement the Disaster Management Act of 2002, requiring the establishment and maintenance of integrated and co-ordinated disaster management structures to prevent or reduce the risk of disasters and to mitigate their severity.

The act is also geared towards ensuring emergency preparedness, effective response and post-disaster recovery.

Dyantyi said the Western Cape was forced to be "more advanced" than other provinces in implementing the act, "because of the reality we are faced with".

On the first level of the initiative MECs, the SA Local Government Association (Salga) and state-owned enterprises would meet, probably on a quarterly basis, to discuss risks and plans for upcoming seasons.

The second level would be an advisory forum comprised of municipal and local government department heads to discuss concerns, budgetary needs and suggestions for managing disasters.

Thirdly, a steering committee headed by Hildegarde Fast, head of disaster management in the Department of Local Government and Housing, would have to meet regularly.

- Cape Times

Price hikes, steel shortage delay Delft move

Shortages of steel and massive price hikes mean that there will be a delay in moving thousands of Delft evictees to temporary homes, Cape Town mayoral committee member for housing Dan Plato said on Wednesday.

He said the "three- or four-week" time frame that the city originally set for the move had already lapsed, and that it could now take months.

About 800 families have been living in council-provided marquees, or roadside shelters, after being evicted from newly built homes in the area last month.

The homes are part of the N2 Gateway project, and are meant largely for residents of the Joe Slovo informal settlement elsewhere on the Cape Flats.

Most of the 800 families were backyard dwellers in the Delft area, and all of them are on the city's housing waiting list.

Plato told a media briefing that the council had identified a nearby piece of land for the families, and had completed preparatory earthworks and services.

It had been the intention to get construction of the 6m-by-3m temporary homes, with galvanised iron walls and roof, under way this week.

However, the council had now learned that a result of power cuts there was a shortage of iron from supplier ArcelorMittal, and the earliest expected delivery was the beginning of May.

In addition, there had been two massive steel price hikes, which meant that the prices on the supply tender the city had already secured were no longer feasible.

The city would have to put out a new call for tenders.

"That for us is a major setback, it's a dramatic setback," Plato said.

"It hit us like cold water in the face, and we have faced up to that challenge."

The news would be communicated to the evictees in the next 24 to 36 hours.

Plato said he appealed to them to bear with and trust the city.

He hoped the relocation would be completed "in the next two to three months", though it could drag on longer.

The city's director of housing, Hans Smit, said the price hikes, coming in the space of a single month, meant the cost of the galvanised iron for the homes had gone up from R4,9-million to R6,2-million.

The city has been providing food, water, toilets and security for the evictees.

According to Plato the "whole exercise", including the still-to-be-erected galvanised homes, would cost the city just over R20-million.

"We fulfilled our humanitarian obligation. We fulfilled our constitutional obligation ... we have walked the extra mile to ultimately assist these people," he said. -- Sapa

Cape Town fire victims' memorial service

Cape Town's latest fire victims were given a dignified memorial service when hundreds of KTC informal settlement residents turned up at a local community hall to pay their last respects. The four people who died during last week's devastating fire near Gugulethu were members of the same family.

The fire destroyed more than 100 shacks and left many people displaced.

The deceased are expected to be buried next weekend in the Eastern Cape. - SABC