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