Focus on EC’s growing informal housing

HE provincial Human Settlement Department is crafting a law aimed at preventing the mushrooming of informal settlements and backyard shacks in the province.

Yesterday the department and stakeholders gathered in East London to consider arguments for a White Paper that could lead eventually to the promulgation of an Act.

MEC Nombulelo Mabandla said they wanted to ensure there was shared appreciation of the magnitude and challenges posed by informal settlements.

“We desire to have a collective identification of other measures to prevent the re-emergence and mushrooming of informal settlements in both rural and urban areas,” she said.

Mabandla also said their initiative was prompted by a resolution taken by a forum including the department and other MECs in 2008 that provinces should formulate legislation preventing the proliferation of shacks.

The provincial department already has a Green Paper on the issue, which sets out issues to be tackled in relation to the eradication of shacks.

The document said the housing backlog and the shortage of housing subsidies left many people with no alternative but to live in informal settlements.

It said informal settlements posed a major challenge for managers and planners.

“Failure to intervene in a manner that improves residents’ quality of life may lead to social and political turbulence,” it said.

The Green Paper proposes the need for policy to be developed to stop people from illegally occupying land or buildings, among other things, as well as proper planning to upgrade informal settlements.

The department has already commissioned the Human Sciences Research Council to do a study, preliminary results of which were presented yesterday.

The findings show that 70 percent of the province’s informal households were in Buffalo City and Nelson Mandela Bay.

Researcher Stephen Rule said about half of the 2878 people who participated in the study wanted to remain permanently where their shacks were.

“It is quite significant that three- quarters say they want to stay there permanently, which suggests that the province must look into in-situ upgrades rather than relocation.”

Jan Tladi, the national department’s chief director of legal services, said government faced a real problem with informal settlements because people wanted to be nearer to economic opportunities.

“We need to come up with legislation and other appropriate measures to try and prevent mushrooming of informal settlements by housing our people in decent shelters,” he said.

Jay Kruuse of the Public Service Accountability Monitor said millions lived in inadequate houses.

“The solution will require an input from a range of stakeholders. Part of the solution may be legislation,” Kruuse said.

He said, however, the department should upscale housing provision.

Mabandla said her department would visit municipalities and district settlement forums as part of the consultation process.

- Daily Dispatch

A crisis of dignity - 5 humiliating years later

The humiliating ritual has become a way of life for the 19-year-old, who lives in a shack with her parents in a section of the sprawling township of Khayelitsha in Cape Town.

There are no toilets for the hundreds of families crammed into the shantytown known as QQ section.

Those who need to relieve themselves can beg to use a neighbour's toilet in exchange for some form of payment, use a plastic bucket in their own shack, go to the toilet in the bush or join long queues to use one of four communal toilets in another section.

The Sunday Times discovered the plight of Mdibaniso and her neighbours five years ago - she was then aged 13 - during turbulent protests over poor service delivery in the then ANC-run city and province. The young teen was reduced to tears by the filthy task.

Today the people of QQ section still face a crisis of dignity - under a city and province now run by the DA.

Minister of human settlements Tokyo Sexwale shed light on what was fuelling the crisis when he told MPs in parliament this week that the number of informal settlements in the country had soared from about 300 in 1994 to more than 2600 .

"Millions of our people are squatting ... It's a disaster in our country, it's Haiti every day," he told the portfolio committee on human settlements.

Another toilet crisis in Khayelitsha made headlines this week after the ANC Youth League accused the DA of violating people's rights in nearby Makhaza. There, the city built more than 1000 toilets for residents on condition they erected their own walls around them. The furore has led to a probe by the Human Rights Commission.

Odd that the ANC youth League had to file a report. Tokyo Sexwale walked Cape Town's squatter camps [sic Human Settlements] with his own shiny shoes and flashy camera; yet the minister of Human Settlements [sic squatter camps] produced no report, plan of action of his own...

But Mdibaniso said this week that having a toilet without walls would be better than nothing at all. "Things are much better in the rural areas where one will have a tap and a (pit latrine) toilet in the yard," she said.

Mzonke Poni, a housing activist with Abahlali Basemjondolo - a community group fighting for better housing - described the situation in QQ section as a gross violation of human rights.

"I've heard of incidents where women have been raped when either crossing the N2 to relieve themselves or walking to beg for the use of a toilet in another section," Poni said.

Said Mdibaniso: "When (neighbours) tell you that their toilets are blocked, you have no option but to use a bucket. If your house is in a dense area where there is no gap between the houses, the bucket will have to be used inside the house.

"One then has to walk with a full bucket to dump it in a drain along Lansdowne Road. It becomes a disaster when the drains are blocked," she said.

She said it was difficult to take the 15-minute walk across a bridge over the N2 freeway to conduct one's ablutions in what was once an open field, because of rapidly expanding shacks.

There are four communal toilets in a nearby section of the township, but Mdibaniso said there were long queues from dawn of people too afraid to relieve themselves outside at night.

City of Cape Town spokesman Kylie Hatton said authorities had wanted to provide portable toilets in QQ Section but residents rejected them because they wanted to be moved away to "formal erven and receive houses". She said 4000 rented chemical toilets had been placed in areas around the city to ease the ablutions crisis.

"The housing backlog is estimated at 400000 households," said Hatton.

Mdibaniso said: "What I want is for us to be moved from this place to a place where there is space so that we can get access to water, a working toilet and electricity."

Vuyelwa Cogwana, a squatter in Makhaza, where the city erected the controversial open-air toilets, said: "I have been moved three times in three years. I cannot build walls around that toilet or use it because this piece of land is not mine. The owner may move in tomorrow and what would happen to the material I've used?"

The toilets at Makhaza, most of which have been shielded from public view by residents, are part of the city's informal-settlement upgrading project.

There are nearly 4000 bucket toilets still in use in and around the city of Cape Town.

(Something the ANC promised to deliver on while in control of national, provincial and municipal goverment; The government budgeted about R1,8-billion for bucket eradication over the medium term expenditure from 2005/6 to 2007/8. Then the ANC government admitted it could not resolve the bucket situation and gave up...)

According to the Department of Water Affairs, over three million families and 828 schools in the country have no access to basic sanitation.

- TimesLive

Cape land transfer dispute resolved

A bitter dispute over a controversial land transfer by the former ANC-led government in the Western Cape has been resolved.

Over 1000 hectares were transferred to the national government by the then ANC-controlled provincial administration just days before last year’s election.

Premier Helen Zille threatened to take legal action, calling the deal illegal.

Helen Zille and the Human Settlements Ministry were posed and ready to go to court to battle it out over the controversial land transfer. Zille said the transfer was illegal and unprocedural. However she said the matter has since been resolved out of court.

“Minister Sexwhale has helped us get the 1400 hectares returned, and he helped us get that returned without a court case. That was very helpful,” she said.

Former premier Lynne Brown denied there was anything untoward about the deal.

It seems Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwhale and Zille have forged a close relationship over Cape housing issues in recent months.

This may have contributed to legal action being averted. - Eyewitness News

SA in 'Haiti-like' situation

Cape Town - South Africa is dealing with a "Haiti like situation" every day with squatters around the country enduring floods, fires and disease, Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale said on Thursday.

"We are dealing every day with a manmade disaster," Sexwale said during a briefing to Parliament's human settlements committee.

"It is Haiti every day. The earth broke there. Here the earth is not broken, but consequences are the same. It is a disaster."

Sexwale said that in 1994 there were around 300 informal settlements in South Africa, while today there were more than 2 600.

'Not government's fault'

The growth of informal settlements was not the fault of the government, he said.

"People have run away from many push factors."

"These are refugees in our own country. It is a disaster. This is disaster management, but with a view of creating assets, with a view of giving those people a better quality of life."

People were also being pulled towards built-up areas to find work, to reconnect with families broken up by single cell hostel systems created by mining houses and to be closer to amenities.

"They are like all of us. They want schools, cinemas. They want shopping malls. So when they park next to a highway don't blame them. They go [to] the highway because it brings them closer to getting bread."

Sexwale said in one informal settlement he come across children blowing up used condoms as though they were balloons.

"They pick up anything that shines," he said.

- SAPA - NEWS24

Tokyo Sexwale’s specifies Skimplaster for refurbishment projects

One of Technical Finishes’ most successful products, Skimplaster, which was developed shortly after the chief executive, Mike Grose, founded the company 20 years ago, is enjoying almost unprecedented popularity at the moment as a result of Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale’s ongoing programme to improve some 40 000 houses countrywide.

Grose says that Skimplaster, which is a conventional cement based plaster supplied in a ready to mix form, to which are added certain carefully selected ingredients, has two characteristics that make it ideal for any refurbishment or new plaster projects.

These are that it can be applied only 3 to 6 mm thick (by contrast, most plasters are 12 to 15mm thick). It is also easy to apply and people can be taught to apply it in less than a day. These two factors, says Grose, make it far less expensive than other plasters.

While still being able to “breathe” Skimplaster is significantly resistant to moisture penetration which makes it particularly well suited to the slanting rain conditions of the Western Cape and the heavy summer thunderstorm downpours of the Highveld.

Unlike many plasters, it can be applied easily onto old PVA painted surfaces.

Grose says recently the orders for Skimplaster have been so big that the Cape factory had to remain in operation throughout the builders’ break. Much of the Western Cape low cost housing refurbishment orders have been completed but the Eastern Cape work is likely to be ongoing for many months to come.

Grose says most competitive products are imported and prohibitively expensive.

Technical Finishes was founded by Grose, a physics and chemistry graduate from UCT, in 1989. He has now had over 30 years’ experience in finding solutions for common problems in the building industry and, he says, been involved with the development of over 150 construction related products, the best known being Solidkote 2000, Hyseal 210, Smooth ‘n Patch and Floorskim.

“We are always interested to hear from people in the construction industry who have technical finishing problems,” says Grose. “Most of our best products have come about as a result of being confronted by a serious ongoing difficulty which affects many property owners or contractors.”

- SA Property NEWS

Sexwale: New strategy to fix housing problems

Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale assured MPs on Thursday that the problems of faulty construction that have been found in low-cost housing projects "are a drop in the ocean".

He told the human settlements portfolio committee that 2,3-million houses have been built and only 40 000 now need to be reconstructed or rectified, though he added that one house coming down is an entire failure.

Butch Steyn, for the Democratic Alliance, took issue with the total of 2,3-million houses built, saying that the figure really only refers to subsidies paid out, and not to houses actually built. Sexwale agreed with him and promised that his department would "dig deep" into the statistics available from provincial departments to get to the right figure.

Explaining a new vision for his ministry, which was demonstrated to and approved by the Cabinet lekgotla (meeting) last week, and which will figure in both the president's State of the Nation address, and his own budget speech, Sexwale said that "Silos will be brought down".

He said that he can't go from one ministry to another knocking on doors

"This Cabinet lekgotla has got a strategy, details of which I can't give you, so that I don't have to go from one door to another negotiating with ministers. Silos have been brought down."

He said this was a lesson learned from the private sector. "It doesn't allow for silos, otherwise you lose the company, let alone profits.

"The strategy of Cabinet is to make sure we have an over-arching approach. You can't integrate when you have got Chinese walls between departments. Or silos."

He said he will be working with Sicelo Shiceka, the Cooperative Governance Minister, making sure that land is made available for housing.

The minister also defended his predecessor at the department, Lindiwe Sisulu, over the N2 Gateway housing project in Cape Town. Saying she was brave to have taken it on, he explained that it was a pilot project for the rest of the country, and that mistakes were made. "We have learned a lot from those mistakes," he said.

One of the mistakes now being rectified was to have excluded the city of Cape Town from the project. The city is now being brought back into it. A letter has been sent to Dan Plato – the mayor of Cape Town -- letting him know.

"Helen [Zille – the Western Cape premier] and I are working very closely on this," he said. "That is why we agreed that Plato must come back."

Describing the problems that his department faces as "as bad as Haiti", he told MPs that there was a backlog of 2,1-million houses that needed to be built. But the rapid growth of urbanisation is making problems worse. He said that there are 2 629 informal settlements around the country at present. "In 1994 there were 300," he said. These are people who live in bad conditions but ran away from worse ones. "They are refugees," he said.

- M&G -- I-Net Bridge

Fly-by-night BEE companies taking us to the cleaners - Sexwale

Housing minister says 40,000 RDP houses will have to come down because of poor workmanship

CAPE TOWN (Sapa) - Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale is working closely with Western Cape Premier Helen Zille to rectify mistakes made in the N2 Gateway Housing (N2GP) Project.

"Helen and I are working very close on this one," Sexwale told Parliament's portfolio committee on human settlements on Thursday.

"We said with the N2 let's bring everyone together. Let's check how the money is spent. Let's make sure no money is sent back.

Let's bring the city close to [the] project."

He and Zille, who he referred to as "my lady Zille" would work together to "sort out" any red-tape issues that arose.

"We believe in being inclusive," he said. "We don't play politics with the poor."

The aim of the N2GP was to provide housing adjacent to the N2 Highway, between Bhunga Avenue near Langa and Boys Town in Crossroads, but the project was plagued by irregularities and court challenges over evictions from the informal settlements it was supposed to replace.

Sexwale said the N2GP was a pilot programme and that he wanted to use the mistakes made in phase one as lessons for future housing projects.

"It is a pilot project. By definition every pilot project has mistakes.

"We are using the mistakes, shortcomings of what happened in phase one to improve other phases."

He said his predecessor in the department Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu was "brave" and should not be judged for the project's mistakes.

"It was a pilot project. Don't judge her on what happened. There were mistakes."

"You had to be a visionary to put that thing on the ground when there wasn't sufficient budget in the ministry."

Sexwale said the government had been taken to the cleaners by "fly-by-night" RDP housing contractors in housing projects around the country.

Sexwale said that around 40,000 RDP houses would have to come down because of poor workmanship, and that he would lose roughly ten percent of his budget to rebuilding the houses.

"Imagine what we could have done with it," he said.

"We don't have proper oversight. Contracts are just given. There are very good BEE companies, but there are few. The majority of these companies have taken this government and all of us here to the cleaners."

A pregnant woman was killed by one the poorly-built houses, he said

"She was caught while was having a moment of privacy in the toilet. She died with the baby.

"In KwaZulu-Natal, one boy died and two were seriously when a house collapsed on them."

Sexwale said he was working with Special Investigations Unit chief Willie Hofmeyr to bring corrupt housing officials "to book".

"We have already brought to book several thousands of people at national government level, where beneficiaries of government officials became fraudulent beneficiaries to houses," he said.

- PoliticsWeb

'No budget' for N2 project

The N2 Gateway housing project could take a heavy toll on city resources, since it has not been provided for in the budget, Cape Town mayor Dan Plato has warned.

Human settlements minister Tokyo Sexwale was to brief Parliament's portfolio committee on human settlements today on the way forward for the controversial housing project.

Sexwale was expected to announce decisions made regarding the handling of problems identified with the project, but Plato said yesterday the potential impact of the project on city resources was "wide and far-reaching".

If implemented, he warned, it would constrain projects to which the city had already committed itself for the next five years.

While all three spheres of government originally managed the project, the city was booted out when the DA took over the City of Cape Town from the ANC in March 2006, and subsequently voiced concern about the way it was being handled.

Currently, the national and provincial departments of housing manage the project jointly with the Housing Development Agency, and the city has observer status only on the project steering committee.

The city also chairs the allocations committee, which monitors adherence to the land-availability agreement regarding the allocation of dwellings, and is represented on the technical team dealing with operational matters.

The city is, however, not a signatory to the Phase 1 business plan, and Plato said a comprehensive report on the impact of the finalisation of Phase 1 on city resources was being prepared.

"Rather than a dramatic impact on the city's resources, the city believes the completion of Phase 1 should be financed from a dedicated and ring-fenced budget provided by provincial or national government, rather than depleting an already committed city budget," he said.

If this did not happen, "critical focus areas" of projects already approved - for human resources, capital and operational budgets, municipal infrastructure, grand funding allocation and housing subsidy allocations - would have to be reconsidered.

It would also require reprioritising other projects and giving preference to the N2 Gateway project.

Plato said he would meet Sexwale and provincial housing MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela to discuss the city's participation, roles and responsibilities in the next phase of the project.

"At this meeting I will seek to conclude issues around the finalisation of Phase 1. The city is, however, very cautious because the project is planned and is proceeding in parallel with its formal and legally required Integrated Development Plan and budgeting process."

- Cape Argus

Cape prepares for winter flooding

Cape Town mayor Dan Plato has lashed out at people who insist on living in flood-prone areas.

At the first council meeting of the year yesterday, Plato announced that the city would ensure that it was "prepared and ready" for the coming winter.

The winter planning committee would begin its work on February 1 to ensure the city could assist people affected by flooding,

Thousands of people were displaced every year during the wet winter months, but he argued that 50 percent of the effect of flooding could be solved if people listened to the city's advice to not erect shacks in vleis and wetlands.

Plato said three parcels of land had been identified to which people could be relocated, and it was hoped that all legal processes to make the land available would be finalised by winter.

"But I need to add that people must understand the other side of the coin.

"I warned people five years ago to move their structures to dry land. They refused to listen, and they'd rather burn tyres."

He said he could not understand why people did not erect their structures on dry land, adding that during recent visits to the informal settlements of Malawi and Burundi he had observed structures "knee-deep" in water, when there was dry land "metres away".

"Mark my words. (Mayco member for housing Shehaam) Sims and I will this winter be called out again to same areas because people refuse to move," he said.

Plato said ward councillors should encourage and assist people to move and to not erect structures in flood-prone areas.

In a similar vein, deputy mayor and Mayco member for finance Ian Neilson pleaded for people to take responsibility for their physical environment, saying the city's budget would go "much further" in providing services if less was spent on repairing vandalised infrastructure.

"If we get greater co-operation from people assisting in creating space for services and ensuring (infrastructure) is not vandalised, we will be able to go much further," he said.

"It also means funds will become available, instead of going towards maintenance. Across the board a large amount of money is being spent," Neilson added.

Plato said people set up homes wherever they chose, but if you "touched" them, the "whole world" took issue.

"But in winter, when it floods, the city gets blamed."

He also lambasted community leaders who blocked the city from providing essential services while they "moaned" about inadequate delivery.

"Councillors do nothing. They love controversy, but the people suffer," he said.

Plato also railed against "urbanisation, the influx into the city", saying the budget could not take the additional strain being put on it.

"We don't have the budget to say, 'Come to Cape Town, Cape Town will immediately provide you with services'," he said.

He warned too against turning "each and every issue" into a political game of point-scoring ahead of next year's local government elections.

- Cape Argus

Hemp utilized as alternative construction material in UK

The UK’s Building Research Establishment Centre for Innovative Construction Materials at the University of Bath had just inaugurated a £740,000 venture, financed by construction businesses and the UK government, to develop and study the use of hemp as alternative building construction material. The new study was based from the findings of a French archaeologist who discovered a sixth-century-old stone bridge that had used hemp as mortar.

Cultivated for thousands of years, the durable fibre is mostly used to make ropes and textiles. Currently, hemp is processed for use in constructions.

Hemp is classified as the world’s second fastest growing agricultural produce after bamboo. Hemp requires no pesticide to grow and it matures in just four months. Farmers can then plant other crops on the remaining two-thirds of the year and can take advantage of the nutrients left behind in the soil earlier used for hemps. Mixed with a lime binder, industrial hemp can also be used to make house bricks.

It is believed that hemp can help with the carbon emission problems faced by countries today. Pete Walker, a hemp grower, estimates that a 300mm thick hemp wall stores about 33kgs of carbon dioxide, while in contrast, other manufacturing materials produce 100kgs of emissions.

Few decades ago, France started constructing houses by using hemp bricks. Meanwhile in the UK, several properties were being built using the fibre. Andnams brewery in Suffolk had constructed a 4,400sqm warehouse out of hemp. The brewery had used about 90,000 blocks during the construction, making it the biggest hemp structure in the world.

- Electric

Housing project hits dead end

Launched amid much fanfare in 2007, the housing project to build middle-income houses in Joe Slovo in Langa has failed to deliver.

Only 43 of the promised hundreds of houses have been completed, and even these stand empty months after their completion, with the criteria for acquiring a house having changed dramatically.

The project, called the Joe Slovo Vision Village, saw a partnership between the government and First National Bank to build hundreds of homes as part of the government's N2 Gateway housing project.

FNB invested more than R900-million in the N2 Gateway for the building of the bonded houses, some of which were to be built in Delft.

The Cape Argus has been unable to establish how much of the R900m has been spent as the national Department of Human Settlements has failed to respond to telephone calls and e-mailed questions.

Unveiling the project in June 2007, then Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said the project would build 3 000 bonded houses as part of phase two of the N2 Gateway project, to benefit households with a joint income of between R3 500 and R7 500.

Unit prices would range from R150 000 to R250 000.

FNB's Jan van der Walt explained that the bank had agreed in 2007 to develop and build approximately 550 housing units in the affordable range in support of the government's "Breaking New Ground" policy.

But by today, only 30 prospective buyers have been approved by the bank. And the criteria that applicants have to meet to be considered as prospective buyers require a household income of no less than R6 500 (depending on the type of the unit), permanent employment, and an acceptable credit record.

The prices of the housing units have also gone up, starting at R' 000, increasing in value and size up to R594 000.

Van der Walt said the initiative was to be integrated into and form part of the larger development known as Joe Slovo, the latter being one of the land development areas comprising the N2 Gateway project.

But the community of Joe Slovo protested against the idea of such integration and staged mass action, which saw the vandalisation of construction and equipment in the first phase, at a cost of R2,2m.

This was followed by a high court action, in which Sisulu was granted an interdict restraining the community from further destruction, or interfering with the development.

Van der Walt said notwithstanding the court ruling, a decision was made to limit the development, and FNB would only proceed with the first phase, comprising 43 units.

"This necessitated a redesign of the development and, together with further delays that were experienced, led to a further indirect cost implication.

"In total, an amount of approximately R22m has been expended on this development to date.

"One of the reasons for continuing the downscaled project was to allow FNB the opportunity to recover at least some of its wasted costs and expenditure, by developing units at prices which were inevitably more than the original affordability levels," he said.

The 43 housing units had been completed with two types of tenure offered - sectional title and full ownership.

Van der Walt said prospective buyers had been identified and provisionally approved to purchase and take transfer of the units, but transfer could not take place at this stage.

This could happen only after all the relevant statutory approvals had been obtained.

The land on which the development was built was also still owned by the City of Cape Town, and needed to be transferred to FNB or to the bank's nominees.

This process was also under way. - Cape Argus

How to build a Cannabrick Home

Peacefully Demonstrated outside the Department of Housing May 7 2005

1. Plant a cannabis seed. Water and allow the plant to grow and produce seed. Plant and water these seeds. Your goal is to grow enough to build a house, you will need about 1 acre to build a 5 roomed home.
   
   Tyala imbewu ntsangu (ye-cannabis). Nkcenkceshela imbewu uze uyinike ithuba lokuba ikhule ide ikhuphe eyayo imbewu. Uyothi ke uyityale nalembewu uyinkcenkceshele njalo. Injongo yakho kukukhulisa izityalo ezothi zonele ekwakheni indlu, uyakudinga i-acre (malunga nentsimi) enye ukuze wakhe indlu enamagumbi amahlanu.
   
   Plant 'n hemp saad. Water en laat die plante om te groei en saad te produseer. Plant en water hierdie sade. Jou doel is om te groei genoeg is om 'n huis bou, jy sal ongeveer een aker benodig om' n 5-kamer huis te bou.
   
   
2. Consider the many relevant points presented in the guidelines of Build your house step-by-step.
   
   Qwalasela yonke imigaqo oyibekelweyo kwincwadana i-Build Your House Step By Step.
   
   Oorweeg die baie relevante punte in die riglyne van die bou van jou huis stap aangebied-vir-stap.
   
   
   
   
   


3. Start planning where your house will stand. Consider everything about the environment you’ll be building in, like winter and summer sunshine, wind and rain – you don’t want to build on a floodplain, or your house will wash away. Be sure to plan all your water and waste requirements.
   
   Ceba indawo ozokwakha kuyo indlu yakho. Qwalasela yonke into ngomhlaba lo uzokwakha kuwo indlu yakho, izinto ezinje ngemimoya, ilanga, neemvula zehlobo nobusika, akekho umntu ofuna ukwakha indlu yakhe emgxobhozweni okanye apho iyothi ibe lilifa lezikhukhula khona. Uqiniseke ukuba unamanzi akulungeleyo ukwenza oku.
   
   Begin met die beplanning, waar jou huis sal staan. Oorweeg dit alles oor die omgewing en jy sal gebou in, soos winter en somer son, wind en reën - jy nie wil bou op 'n vloedvlakte, of jou huis sal wegspoelen nie. Maak seker om te beplan al jou water en afval vereistes voldoen.
   
   
4. Cut the grown cannabis plants down and leave in the field to rhett for a week. The morning dew and natural rotting process will loosen the fibers from the plant.
   
   a. Process the plant matter by cutting leaves and branches off, then hit small bundles the length of the plant over and upturned rake.
   b. The long fiber parts that remain in your hand are good for weaving rugs and making various other items your skills can accomplish.
   c. The seed can be gathered for more housing.
   d. Gather the small woody bits (the hurd) that have fallen, this waste is what will be used in the construction material.
   
   Sika / sarha izityalo uzibeke egadini ixesha elingangeveki ukuze zibole. Umbethe wasekuseni nezinye izinto zendalo ezibolisayo ziya kuyikhulula I-fibre ezityalweni.
   
   a. Yikhawulezise ngohlukanisa intonga zezityalo namagqabi, uhlale uyiharika rhoqo.
   b. Intonga ezi zinothi zincede kwezinye izinto ezifana nokwenza ingubo nezinye izinto onothi uzibonele zona ngokolwazi lwakho.
   c. Imbewu inokuqokelelwe ukwakha ezinye izindlu.
   d. Qokelela imithana ethe yaziwela njengokuba uzoyisebenzisa xa usakha indlu yakho.
   
   Sny die gegroei hemp/cannabis plante af en in die veld verlaat om rhett vir 'n week. Die oggend-dou en die natuurlike verrotting proses sal die vesel van die plant los te maak.
   
   a. Proses van die plantmateriaal deur te sny blare en takke af, dan is getref klein bundels die lengte van die plant oor en omgekeerde hark.
   b. Die lang vesel dele wat in jou hand bly is goed vir die matte weef en die maak van verskeie ander items jou vaardighede kan bereik.
   c. Die saad kan vir meer behuising ingesamel word.
   d. Versamel die klein houtagtige bits (die hurd) wat gedaal het, die afval is wat sal in die konstruksie materiaal gebruik kan word.
   
   


5. Wash the hurd, dry it, then wash it again. Be careful not to allow the matter to rot or decay during this process, by turning, airing and allowing the African sun to dry the hurd properly. Now combine in proportions 10:2:3:3 combine the cannabis/ntsangu/dagga Hurd(10), washed river sand 0.5mm(2), hydraulic lime(3) and water(3) to make the mulch (This process may need tweaking depending on your geographic location, humidity, rainfall etc)
   
   Hlamba ingqokelela yakho, uyomise, uphinde uyihlambe.Ulumkele ukuba lengqokelela ibole kwelithuba, yiguquguqule, uyivumele ibethwe ngumoya uvumele nelanga lase Afrika liyomise lengqokelela. Dibanisa ngokwalo mgaqo 10:2:3:3, dibanisa ke lemvuno yakho yomgquba wentsangu (10) kunye nesanti yasemlanjeni 0.5mm(2), ikalika (3) kunye namanzi (3) ukwenza udaka (Nale into ke iyokuthi ixhomekeke kwindawo leyo ukuyo nemvula zakhona njalo-njalo).
   
   Was die kudde, droog dit af, dan was dit weer. Wees versigtig om nie toe te laat die aangeleentheid te verrot of verval gedurende hierdie proses, deur die draai, voorlê en laat die Afrika-son om droog die kudde goed. Nou kombineer in verhoudings 10:2:3:3 kombineer die cannabis / ntsangu / dagga Hurd (10), gewaste riviersand 0.5 mm (2), hidrouliese kalk (3) en water (3) aan die deklaag te maak (Hierdie proses kan tweaking nodig, afhangende van jou geografiese ligging, humiditeit, reën, ens)
   
   
6. Now build your house! Ngoku ke yakha indlu yakho! Nou bou jou huis!
   
   
7. Teach others. Fundisa abanye. Onderrig ander.
   
   

You can use this “dagga-cement” for making bricks, shutter casting or the proven “pole-and-dagga” method. This last method allows for a sturdy, warm, fireproof and water proof home – built with pride and intuitive engineering, not a ‘uniform box’.

Be sure to consider all aspects of your house design and structural requirements. Although the cannabis-cement will become stronger than steel in time, it is not advised to build over 2 floors high without considering structural implications. With planning this cement can be used to build up to 4 floors high.

The cannabis-cement will dry over a period of a month (depending on the weather). At this point you will be able to add the roof. Seal your home’s walls with lime; lime external walls annually. Decorate your house with masonry to make it unique, and paint with coloured lime as per custom.

Always PLANT A TREE in a place that will provide shade, to commemorate this accomplishment.

Council will plant trees if citizens care for them. Call (021) 689-8938 http://www.trees.org.za/

Assist your family, friends or neighbors with your experience and expertise. Share information and technique; you can uplift yourself and your community.

Sexwale ‘booing’ tiff spirals

AFRICAN National Congress (ANC) secretary-general Gwede Mantashe yesterday slapped down Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale over a report criticising Mantashe and his counterpart in the South African Communist Party (SACP) for not doing enough to contain tension in the alliance.

Yesterday Mantashe issued a statement, the second since the weekend, insisting that a report on the booing last month of Julius Malema at the SACP special conference “had no status”.

He said Sexwale was “grandstanding” when he contradicted the official line from the ANC’s weekend lekgotla and had picked a fight on a “non-issue”.

“It is very regrettable that some faceless people leaked this unprocessed document to the media for purposes and intentions only known to them,” Mantashe said of the report.

Sexwale hit back last night, saying that Mantashe, “who is at the centre of this controversy, chooses to trivialise” the matter. “I can only appeal to him, under the circumstances, to try to maintain his dignity as secretary-general of our organisation,” he said.

The conflict between senior ANC leaders over the status of the report points to deep divisions in the ruling party, in part linked to the presidential succession race which culminates at the ANC’s 2012 elective conference.

On Monday Justice Minister Jeff Radebe , the ANC’s policy head, said Sexwale’s report was “not an ANC report but a report of one member ”.

He and Mantashe said Sexwale’s report had not been discussed at the lekgotla. It had been distributed but was later retrieved.

Yesterday Sexwale was quoted in The Times contradicting Radebe, saying any suggestion his report had no status was “false and dubious ”.

Mantashe repeated yesterday that a “composite” document based on input from all ANC members who attended the SACP gathering would be compiled and discussed at the ANC’s national working committee. It would also be discussed at a bilateral meeting between the ANC and the SACP.

Political analyst at the Centre for Policy Studies Aubrey Matshiqi said the latest spat could be interpreted as Sexwale wanting to impose his findings on the ANC. “If it is a dispute over content, it could well be an attempt by Sexwale to impose his conclusion and findings on the ANC. The question is, to what end?”

Matshiqi said it was possible Sexwale wanted to “bolster the political fortunes” of a particular faction in the ANC ahead of the elective conference.

“(The) 2012 (conference) looms large and there are forces that seek to dislodge Mantashe. They know that they cannot go for Zuma so the next best thing is to take out Mantashe as a way to dislodge the ANC’s top six.”

The ANC Youth League, which has accused Mantashe of being “conflicted” given that he is also the SACP national chairman, has denied reports that it is leading an anti-Mantashe campaign.

- BusinessDay - News Worth Knowing

Sexwale butting heads over booing report

African National Congress (ANC) heavyweights Tokyo Sexwale and Gwede Mantashe were openly at odds on Wednesday over Sexwale's report on the booing of ANC members at a South African Communist Party (SACP) conference last year.

Mantashe, the ANC's secretary general, said in a statement it was "unfortunate" that Sexwale -- a national executive committee (NEC) member of the party -- had opted to "take on a fight on a non-issue".

This was after Sexwale denied that his report on the booing incident held "no status" with the party.

Meanwhile, Sexwale said that Mantashe was "trivialis[ing] an "important" matter by criticising him.

The spat over the status of the report began after a media briefing was held on Monday to report back on a weekend ANC NEC lekgotla (meeting).

On the weekend, the Sunday Independent reported that at the lekgotla, Sexwale had blamed Mantashe and SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande for failing to contain the tensions in the alliance.

The newspaper reported that Sexwale called on President Jacob Zuma to unite the alliance before the ANC imploded.

However, at Monday's briefing, Mantashe and ANC policy chief Jeff Radebe said that the report compiled by Sexwale into the booing of ANC Youth League president Julius Malema and NEC member Billy Masetlha at the SACP's special conference in Polokwane last month was not discussed at the lekgotla.

On Tuesday, the party issued a statement saying that the report was not discussed at the weekend lekgotla but that it was "retrieved" and "referred for processing" by the party's national working committee. Input by other delegates present at the SACP conference would also be obtained, it said in a statement. A "composite report" of all delegates at the conference would then be presented to the NEC ahead of bilateral talks with the SACP.

On Wednesday, the Times then quoted Sexwale as saying the report did hold weight in the party. "Any suggestion that the report has no status in the ANC is false and dubious," the newspaper reported Sexwale as saying.

"In fact, it is mischievous to attempt to disown this report," Sexwale's office said in a statement to the paper.

"Its drafting [the report] was approved on the clear understanding that it would be circulated to members of the ANC NEC, by the secretary general, for discussion. This was confirmed in a discussion between Sexwale and Mantashe this morning."

The squabbling over the report, the newspaper reported, was the latest sign of struggle between the ANC's leftist and nationalist factions.

On Wednesday, Mantashe issued a statement reiterating that the report was "referred for processing" by the party's national working committee and would be submitted as a "composite report" presented to the NEC ahead of bilateral talks with the SACP.

"Any statements and comments that deviate from the factual account as put above should be construed as nothing else either than grandstanding," said Mantashe.

"It is unfortunate that Comrade Tokyo Sexwale chose to take on a fight on a non-issue," he added.

Meanwhile, Sexwale said Mantashe's comments were "unfortunate" in themselves.

"It is unfortunate that Comrade Gwede Mantashe, who is at the centre of this controversy, chooses to trivialise a matter as important as the discussion which is coming before the national working committee and eventually the national executive committee.

"I can only appeal to him, under the circumstances, to try to maintain his dignity as secretary general of our organisation," said Sexwale in a statement. -- Sapa

Calm returns after service delivery protest

Calm has returned to the Malawi informal settlement near Bishop Lavis after service delivery protests rocked the community on Wednesday morning.

Nearly 200 residents threw stones at passing vehicles, demonstrating against a lack of electricity and housing.

The road leading to the informal settlement was still barricaded with tyres and rubbish bins.

The residents were slowly returning to the settlement and only a few remained singing along the Stellenbosch Arterial road.

They claim Cape Town Mayor Dan Plato failed to deliver on the promises he made to them last year.

A few police officials kept a watchful eye on protestors. - Eyewitness News

Housing Finance Systems in South Africa

Housing Finance Systems in South Africa

State approves funding of rental properties

National government has approved funding worth billions to refurbish rental properties belonging to the State in Cape Town.

The project will be done in phases, starting with upgrades of rental units in Kewtown near Athlone. Mayor Dan Plato says they will also provide fencing, plant trees and build more parking areas in the city. His spokesperson, Rulleska Singh, says the project will begin next month. Singh says the first phase of the project is set to incorporate over 7 500 rental stock units in 11 areas in Cape Town.

Singh says the project is to upgrade the current rental units of the council, to move the people who are in the rental stocks into temporary housing while the refurbishment is being done and then to move them back block by block. - SABC

Model Communities and Respectable Residents? Home and Housing in a Low-income Residential Estate in the Western Cape, South Africa - Journal of Southern African Studies

Recent work on the post-apartheid city has paid little attention to how people grapple with new opportunities for urban living. This article explores the ways in which housing provision precipitated complex moral reasoning and social reorganisation among impoverished residents of a Cape Town shantytown as they attempted to actualise their ideals of respectability.

These ideals overlapped with those of the state and planners associated with the housing project, but also differed in significant respects. For residents, ordentlikheid (decency, respectability) is concerned with appearances and with cementing reciprocal relationships, while for bureaucrats, respectability is an individual characteristic, fostered and manifested via education, responsibility and appearances.

Tracing out the relationship between material conditions and ideational constructs, this article argues that, at certain moments, ongoing processes crystallise discursive forms and material practices in ways that draw attention to the grounds of their making and simultaneously make clear their unfinished nature.

- download the full paper from informaworld - JSAS

Police swoop on what could be 144 built homes raw material

Police late this afternoon swooped on a dagga plantation barely outside of the western outskirts of Pretoria. The land apparently belongs to the provincial government and the dagga will be destroyed as soon as possible. No arrests were made.

The plantation, barely 50m from a major road connecting Pretoria to the North West Province, had plants some reaching more than 2m high and is growing undisturbed on about 12 square kilometres. Police started gathering intelligence on the site late last year.

The police’s Tummi Golding says they are worried about the land itself because they want to investigate further who the land belongs to. Golding says if the land does not belong to anybody it will go back to government. The area is informally used to grow vegetables and maize, but the land, usually bustling with people working in their crops, grew eerily deserted as police arrived.

A police helicopter was also used to do an aerial survey of the dagga field. The police investigation will continue but the dagga will be destroyed as soon as possible. Captain Meshack Mthembi of the police’s Forensic Science Laboratory’s Drug Section says they will use a special kind of weed killer which will slowly kill off the plant material. Samples of the dagga plants were also collected to be tested.

- SABC

14 shacks gutted ... because of hubby's rage?

A Masiphumelele resident is expected to appear in court today on suspicion of having murdered his wife and then set alight their shack, which was gutted along with 14 others.

The couple's three children, aged six, 10 and 13, were in the shack when their father allegedly started beating their mother, but they escaped.

On Tuesday, they were receiving trauma counselling. They were placed in the care of relatives.

Their 49-year-old father is expected to appear in the Simon's Town Magistrate's Court on Wednesday, facing charges of murder and arson.

Police would not divulge his wife's name, as police were still tracking down some family members to inform them of the death.

Ocean View police station spokesperson Nkosikho Mzuku said the incident happened in the informal settlement early on Tuesday. "The parents were inside the shack with the children.

"An argument broke out between the husband and (his 38-year-old) wife and he apparently started hitting her. That's when the children ran out to neighbours," he said.

Mzuku said it was not yet clear what the couple had been arguing about. He said the husband was suspected of beating, strangling and choking his wife, who died inside their shack.

Neighbours heard shouting and screaming, but before they had managed to intervene, the man had allegedly set the shack alight with his wife's body still inside.

Mzuku said the blaze spread rapidly and 14 other shacks were also gutted.

Although scores of residents were left homeless, no one was injured.

Mzuku said the man was arrested near his shack. - Cape Times

Sexwale P.I. [Party Investigator] - Booooo

Party veteran and Minister of Human Settlements Tokyo Sexwale has been charged with investigating the events that led to Malema being booed by SACP delegates. - Sowetan

At Friday's meeting, the minister of human settlements, Tokyo Sexwale, presented an official report of what transpired at the SACP conference.

The report focused on the booing of Malema and other ANC leaders, such as Tony Yengeni and Billy Masetlha, and blamed the SACP leadership for failing to condemn the behaviour of its members.

According to NEC members, the report appeared to criticise both Mantashe and Nzimande, whose intervention was said to be more advisory than condemnatory.

The booing occurred when SACP national treasurer Phumulo Masualle was introducing ANC guests. As a result, Malema and Yengeni stormed out of the conference.

On Friday, Sexwale distributed copies of his report.

NEC members said Sexwale stated in the report that he had volunteered to write the report following a meeting with Motlanthe. The office of the secretary-general was also informed, he told the NEC.

NEC members who attended the SACP congress were also informed, although they did not contribute to the drafting of the report.

Sexwale attended the conference as a cabinet minister at the invitation of the SACP.

An NEC member said the report explained that the booing of ANC leaders was a sign of accumulated and unresolved tensions within the alliance.

It also stated that the singing was mild, but when Malema and Masetlha appeared, delegates sang loudly, an indication of anger against them.

Sexwale is said to have reported that Malema had whispered to those who were near him at the time that they would be booed. But Sexwale added that he did not know how Malema knew the incident would occur. - Timeslive

200 homes razed in fire

At least 200 homes in Khayelitsha's Site C were reduced to ashes early Thursday morning when a blaze ripped through the area.

Details of any injuries and the origins of the fire were not immediately available.

Firefighters were still working to bring the blaze under control hours later. - Cape Argus

60 families destitute after fire

Cape Town - Sixty households were left destitute after veld fires ravaged through Kwanokuthula township near Plettenberg Bay, the Bitou municipality said on Thursday.

"The fires started on Tuesday, but it was not threatening then," said municipality administration director, Thomas Nqolo.

"The fire became threatening when a strong breeze blew it to Kwanokuthula and the neighbouring Ladywood area."

Thirty-five houses and backyard shacks were destroyed.

Firefighters from the district municipality and neighbouring municipalities as well as a helicopter were called in to assist in dousing the flames.

"The helicopter arrived at about 14:00 yesterday [Wednesday] and it helped put out the fire quickly."

Sixty families affected by the fires were being accommodated in community halls. They were given food parcels, mattresses and blankets.

Although the cause of the fire was not yet known, Nqolo said the area was prone to fires during this time of the season due to drought in the area.

"We can say the fire is now extinguished, there are flare-ups here and there, but it's being monitored," he said.

- SAPA

State casts shadow over Sea Kay

Late payments by government clients are a threat to low-cost housing specialist Sea Kay's continued existence as a going concern.

The auditors of the firm have warned serious cash flow problems are causing "considerable doubt" about the company's ability to continue operating as a viable business.

Executive director Pieter van der Schyf said these problems can be attributed directly to late payments by government clients, but feels that Sea Kay should be over its troubles before the end of February.

The auditors' statement comes after repeated requests by Sea Kay directors for government to speed up its payments, and despite an undertaking by President Jacob Zuma that companies doing business with the state will be paid within 30 days.

"We do not want to quarrel in the media with the government, which is our biggest client, but we are bound by the JSE's rules. Shareholders are entitled to know what's going on," Van der Schyf said.

He said the company has requested speedier payment up to cabinet level. In September, when it announced its annual results, Sea Kay said its debtor payment period had already gone down from 238 days to 161 days.

According to Van der Schyf, negotiations with authorities in the Western Cape on finalisation of the N2 Gateway project are at an advanced stage.

Biggest client, poorest payment record

Sake24 reported earlier that Sea Kay had sued the government for R144m in outstanding debt in connection with this project.

Van der Schyf hopes the problem will be resolved through independent arbitration by the end of January. If that happens, Sea Kay's cash flow will be sound again, he said.

In addition, the group will be able to go ahead with building a further 3 000 houses to the value of R400m in Delft, which forms part of the N2 Gateway.

Sea Kay has won R600m of new work for other clients in the Western Cape, and it can go ahead full steam with this if its cash flow improves, Van der Schyf said.

"Sea Kay is a fantastic business except that government, its biggest client, doesn't pay on time."

A further R100m owed by the Gauteng department of housing is still outstanding, Van der Schyf said.

Sea Kay at first considered taking the matter to court, but Van der Schyf said there have been strong indications from national and provincial government that the money will be paid in January or February.

- Sake24

2 humans die in settlement shack fire

Two men burnt to death in their shack in Capricorn over the weekend and Western Cape police believe the blaze was intentional.

Muizenburg police spokesperson Captain Stephan Knapp said on Monday that in the early hours of Saturday police were notified that shacks were burning in Doring Street, Capricorn.

"Upon arrival at the scene and after the blaze had been extinguished, police discovered the bodies of two badly charred males.

"It is believed that the blaze had been intentionally started after an altercation earlier in the evening with another resident of Capricorn." The deceased, who were both Malawian citizens, were estimated to be between 26- and 28-years-old. A case of murder and arson has been registered.

Anyone with information can contact Detective Constable Patrick Mdokwana on 079-894-1300. - Sapa

Overberg fires kills human, razes settlement shacks

In one of the latest fires to hit the Overberg, a man was killed when a blaze broke out in an informal settlement in Gansbaai.

Police said Rabukana Mothano, 31, was killed and about 10 shacks burnt down when the settlement caught alight. An inquest docket had been opened, said police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk.

Overberg District Municipality disaster and fire chief Reinard Geldenhuys said he was relieved that the fire in the Agulhas Plain had been extinguished. They were now focusing on the Botriver blaze.

- Cape Argus

8 homeless after blaze

It has been a miserable start to the New Year for dozens of informal settlers in Strand, outside Cape Town, following a shack fire.

City of Cape Town emergency officials say the blaze is believed to have started early on Friday morning. However, they say the exact cause of the fire, which destroyed about 10 shacks, is still being investigated. No injuries have been reported.

“Nine structures were destroyed and eight people have been displaced. We put out the fire and our vehicles are back at home,” said Emergency Services’ Paul Joseph. - Eyewitness News

2009

InternAfrica served information on the Western Cape Human Settlement and related South African Human Settlement crisis; reaching many more African countries this year, with a working solution.

This Information was accessed by:

102 Universities
35 Technicons

13 media houses including CNN, BBC & Al Jazeera.

In 2009
Fire displaced 6,129 humans, killing 20, maiming another 6 and destroyed 1,483 shacks. Floods displaced 36,399 humans from their settlements.

InternAfrica has not included Xenophobic displacements in this years tally.
(click here for 10 Year spreadsheet)

2000 - 2009 Affected by Fire & Flood

Number of Shacks: 52,875
Human Settlement Deaths: 281
Humans Displaced from Settlements: 220,302
Burn Victims: 88

2009 saw 3 international companies start their businesses building with cannabricks, including the 1st international conference; the year closed with the printing of an extraordinary gazette 6679 - where the city of Cape Town received R2,5 Million to research sustainable low-cost housing...

Measurable outputs: The research would result in:
(Please note this is as printed in the gazette)

• New businesses that could emerge from the project
• Ecological sound and energy efficient initiatives generated in the surrounding area;
• Reduced levels of local drug use and violence
• Percentage of food grown locally and energy produced locally;
• Amount of local currency in circulation as a percentage of total money in circulation;
• Quantity of renewable building materials produced locally
• Levels of pride and "ownership" displayed through maintenance of the settlement; and
• Contributions to the Cape town City targets (10% of houses in City with solar water heaters by 2010 and 10% renewable energy by 2020)