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
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
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