Last Cape Town xenophobia refugees move on

The last of the Cape Town safety sites established in the wake of the 2008 xenophobia attacks has been cleared of refugees, the city announced on Friday.

It said the remaining 64 foreigners left the Youngsfield Military Base this week "without incident".

Fifty-eight of them had accepted a cash payout of R1000 from the city to help them relocate, five accepted legal assistance, and one "refused all offers made".

In addition, food parcels were distributed to all those who left willingly.

"The South African National Defence Force reclaimed its military base at 16h00 yesterday, 29 April," the city said in a statement.

Last week, the city evicted other refugees from the Blue Waters campsite near Strandfontein.

It said on Friday it would have to repair damage estimated at over R8-million before re-opening Blue Waters as a holiday resort for residents.

It said caring for displaced foreigners and providing shelter and security had cost it nearly R200-million over the past two years, with only R17-million being refunded by national government.

- Sapa

Incidence and patterns of childhood burn injuries in the Western Cape, South Africa

Abstract

The current study describes the epidemiology and patterns of moderate to severe childhood burn injuries in the Western Cape province in South Africa. Burn injuries sustained by children aged 12 years and younger and registered over January 1999 to December 2000 at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in the Western Cape are analysed (n=1201). Differences in risk distribution between different segments of the population are measured and typical injury patterns are identified. The results show that burn injury incidence is particularly high for toddlers (15.8/10 000 child-years/c-y) and infants (14.6/10 000 c-y) for boys (7.0/10 000 c-y), and for African children (11.4/10 000 c-y). Burn injury incidence is highest in winter (1.7/10 000 c-y) but only significantly greater than the rate in summer (1.3/10 000 c-y). Further, four burn injury patterns are identified, and labeled ‘infant scalding’, ‘toddler scalding’, ‘injuries among older children with an over-representation of flame-related burns’ and ‘other causes of burns sustained to the head and neck region’. In sum, the risk of burn injury is higher in younger children. Differences between genders were more pronounced among younger and older age groups. Differences between population groups are more important in magnitude than in nature. The patterns identified can stimulate further research and development into the household product and environmental contributors to childhood burn injury.

- ScienceDirect

Fatal injuries among urban children in South Africa:

Table 1. Distribution of the population aged 0–14 years and of all fatal injuries in children across sociodemographic groups for six South African cities,^a 2001–2003 [html 3kb]

We first compared the leading causes of fatal injury in children for each city. We then calculated the age-adjusted rates and population attributable risks (PARs), by sex, population group and city, for each of the top five causes of fatal injury for all cities combined. The PAR was calculated by subtracting the incidence in the unexposed (I_u) from the incidence in the total population, exposed and unexposed (I_p), and dividing the result by the incidence in the total population:

PAR = (I_p − I _u)/I_pThis allowed us to assess the percentage reduction in fatal injuries that could be achieved among children aged 0–14 if all groups had the same exposure level as the group at lowest risk.¹³ In other words, they represent how many lives could be saved if approaches were found to reduce the safety divide.

The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Medical Research Council of South Africa.

Results

Approximately two-thirds of all children died from one of the top five causes of fatal injury (Fig. 1). Pedestrian injuries, drowning and burns ranked among the top three causes of death in all cities except Cape Town, where firearm-related deaths outnumbered those due to drowning. For Tshwane and Buffalo City, drowning deaths led, accounting for approximately one in four cases. For the other four cities, pedestrian deaths were most common. Firearm-related deaths were leading causes in Tshwane and Cape Town only, ranking fourth and third respectively. In the other cities, road traffic injuries with an unspecified road user (i.e. with no indication of whether the victim was a pedestrian, passenger or driver) contributed between 8.7% and 13.3% of fatally injured cases. In Buffalo City, sharp objects were among the top five leading causes of childhood fatal injuries (14.4% of cases)...

...

Conclusion

The five leading causes of fatal injury among children in urban South Africa include road traffic injuries, drowning, burns and, in some cities, firearm injuries. Among children, a high variability is observed between population groups and cities in the rates of fatal injury from the most common causes. There is a case for a safety agenda that combines safety-for-all counter-measures, aimed at lowering injury rates across the entire population, and targeted counter-measures that help reduce the burden for those at greatest risk. Tackling the five leading causes of fatal injury in childhood in urban South Africa could form part of the greater development agenda that the major cities have undertaken.

- WHO

Fatal injuries among urban children in South Africa: risk distribution and potential for reduction

Stephanie Burrows, Ashley van Niekerk & Lucie Laflamme

Volume 88, Number 4, April 2010, 267-272

Table 2. Number of events,^a age-adjusted death rates^b and population attributable risks^c for leading causes of fatal injury in children by sex, population group and city, South Africa, 2001–2003

	Pedestrian			Passenger			Drowning			Burn			Firearm
	No.	Rate		No.	Rate		No.	Rate		No.	Rate		No.	Rate
Sex
Female	300	6.1		86	1.7		108	2.1		153	3.0		63	1.3
Male	453	9.2		99	2.0		265	5.3		206	4.1		109	2.2
Population groupd
Indian/Asian	9	1.5		9	1.5		5	0.9		7	1.2		6	1.0
White	8	0.7		26	2.4		12	4.3		3	0.3		12	1.1
Coloured	138	7.9		38	2.1		35	2.0		47	2.7		34	1.9
African	600	9.4		111	1.7		281	4.3		305	4.5		121	1.9
City
Tshwane	37	2.5		12	0.8		43	2.9		27	1.8		14	1.0
Cape Town	204	8.8		42	1.8		52	2.2		85	3.6		55	2.4
Johannesburg	153	7.0		51	2.3		100	4.2		95	4.0		44	2.0
eThekwini	240	9.4		43	1.7		99	3.8		89	3.4		32	1.3
Nelson Mandela	78	10.0		26	3.1		29	3.7		36	4.6		12	1.5
Buffalo City	48	8.4		14	2.4		52	9.2		31	5.4		16	2.8
PAR
Sex	NA	20.5		NA	7.2		NA	42.2		NA	15.0		NA	26.9
Population group	NA	90.4		NA	16.9		NA	39.5		NA	47.5		NA	30.9
City	NA	67.0		NA	56.3		NA	40.6		NA	49.6		NA	45.1

NA, not applicable; PAR, population attributable risk.
^a Total numbers may vary across variables because of missing data for sex and population group.
^b Per 100 000.
^c PARs (shown as percentages) are calculated using the group with the lowest rate as the reference, i.e. females for all causes; Indian/Asian children for passenger, drowning and firearm-related deaths; white children for pedestrian and burn deaths; Tshwane for pedestrian, passenger, burn and firearm deaths; Cape Town for drowning deaths. The formula used to calculate PARs was (I_p − I _u)/I_p , where I_u is the incidence in the unexposed and I_p the incidence in the total population (exposed and unexposed).
^d Classification by population group as used by the South African government. Data source: National Injury Mortality Surveillance System, 2001–2003.

BASA refutes subprime loan claims

Says the R1bn guarantee is a positive move in addressing local housing problems.

The Banking Association South Africa has come out strongly against some local media claims that providing access to housing loans for the local ‘gap' market will mirror United States banks ‘sub prime' lending criteria.

On the contrary, the Association says the R1 billion Government Guarantee Housing Fund announced by Tokyo Sexwale, Minister of Human Settlement, is a positive move in addressing local housing problems in SA without compromising on lending selection criteria.

According to Pierre Venter, GM for Human Settlement at the Banking Association, both lenders and the Minister of Human Settlements stressed that the new fund will assist SA citizens earning R 3500 rand a month to R 9 000 rand a month economic bracket to have improved levels of access to housing for the first time.

This bracket includes local teachers, police officers and nurses who up until now have not been eligible for the same housing subsidies extended to the poor or earning sufficiently high enough to be able to secure traditional housing loans and credit from banking institutions.

A sovereign guarantee fund will enable lenders to reduce the interest rate that they charge to such customers by about 0.5%, as it reduces the risk which lenders face in the event of default.

Moreover, both lenders and government alike acknowledge that over and above this, there is a need for collaborative work to be undertaken so as to reduce the overall cost of a housing unit if lenders are to make meaningful progress in deepening their market penetration within this gap market. It is envisaged that a joint technical task teams will engage over the next few months to explore cost reduction opportunities, says Venter.

"Lenders in SA have always lent prudently, hence we have never had a ‘sub-prime' market. Whilst consumers experienced severe financial hardship and are recovering from this economic devastation, there wasn't a bank crisis which required ‘bailouts' by government as was evidenced elsewhere in the world. Further, the introduction of the National Credit Act in 2007 prevents lenders from lending recklessly, therefore preventing irresponsible lending which we saw occur in the USA, this will definitely not be mirrored locally," says Venter.

The Banking Association also quoted from Minister Tokyo Sexwale's 2010 Parliamentary Budget speech to the National Assembly, "we emphasised to financial institutions that in putting the floor under their operations in this "gap market" to mitigate their risk, while also providing an opportunity to beneficiaries, financial prudency should remain paramount in accordance with regulatory requirements. In no way can there be recklessness in lending practices which may lead to flippant calls upon the Guarantee Fund."

A committee will also be set up with the banking sector and government and monitored by the Department of Human Settlement to ensure lending requirements are adhered to.

- Realestateweb

War on Want partners celebrate UnFreedom Day

27 April is Freedom Day in South Africa, commemorating the country's first non-racial elections in 1994, when South Africans came out in droves to exercise their constitutional right to vote for the first time. Yet, sixteen years on, what has changed?

For the majority – nothing. They are still poor, living in the same shacks. This is the view of War on Want's partners – Abahlali baseMjondolo KwaZulu-Natal, Abahlali baseMjondolo Western Cape and the Anti-Eviction Campaign. South Africans may have the freedom to vote, but their concerns are still not recognised or addressed. Given these issues our partners renamed 27 April UnFreedom Day.

Events in the past week support this renaming. Shacks are being demolished in Cape Town. Mobs of thugs branded the Red Ants have flattened hundreds of shacks in the Johannesburg region. In Kennedy Road, Durban, the intimidation following the brutal attacks of last September has continued, with shacks being damaged or demolished, whilst an unexplained fire on UnFreedom Day left 400 people homeless.

Our partners believe that the reason underlying this destruction is the World Cup, and a campaign to 'beautify' South Africa by clearing its informal shack settlements. Many believe that the freedom of organisation, association and expression are being quashed. The long term goal behind this is a destabilisation of opposition and these social movements like Abahlali baseMjondolo and the Anti-Eviction Campaign.

However, War on Want's partners refuse to be cowed. Despite the attacks on their Kennedy Road headquarters, Abahlali baseMjondolo continues to fight for the rights of the poor, a testimony of their determination and strength. War on Want stands in solidarity with them in their struggle for freedom.

- War on Want

Zuma begins hopeful plan for solar geysers

President Jacob Zuma today launches the government's roll-out of solar water heaters, a programme that industry insiders say is dogged by weak installation capacity and manufacturing problems, chiefly high raw material prices coupled with cheap imports.

The government is targeting the installation of 1 million new solar water heaters by 2014 in what has become a priority industrial sector for a country with dire energy shortages and chronic unemployment.

Zuma is due to launch the programme's first mass-based project, a 7 000-unit installation at Winterveldt in Tshwane, which forms part of the 200 000 solar water heaters that the Department of Energy says should be installed by the end of this fiscal year.

Terry Billson, the technical director of energy efficiency specialist Genergy, which installed 2 500 low-cost solar water heaters in Khuyasa, Cape Town, said 1 million units was an "ambitious" target and would involve a massive deployment.

"There are some challenges, and the biggest is installation capacity," Billson said, indicating that installing solar water heaters was more complicated than the connection of a conventional electric geyser.

"There is not sufficient capacity on the scale that the minister of (energy) is talking about. We need a major investment in training initiatives," Billson said. "It's a challenge, but it's also an opportunity to create employment."

Dylan Tudor-Jones, the owner of Solar Heat Exchangers and chairman of the solar heating division of the Sustainable Energy Society Southern Africa, said three service providers were currently involved in training. But courses for training plumbers were "very expensive to run" and would require subsidisation because of low returns.

Assuming one team was to finalise three installations a working day, it would take about 280 teams five years to reach the government's 1 million unit target.

Billson warned that raw material costs locally, particularly for stainless steel, would have implications for domestic production of solar water heaters, a key tenet of the government's industrial policy action plan. Meanwhile, China was exporting competitively priced, low-pressure systems that could be installed in South Africa for just under R4 000.

The government had indicated previously that it would rely on imports of solar water heaters this year but would shift buying as local manufacturing capacity kicked in.

Richard Worthington, the climate change programme manager at WWF South Africa, said the environmental group hoped local manufacturing would ramp up by next year "but at this stage, given the lack of clarity and implementation in general on solar water heaters, we'd emphasise the urgency of scaling up. If we continue with substantial imports into next year, it's probably justified because of lower electricity usage."

The installation of 1 million solar water heaters is expected to save approximately 650MW of electricity demand. The minimum potential South African market is estimated at 5 million households.

Asked whether 1 million solar water heaters was an ambitious target, Worthington said: "Given the lack of implementation to date, it becomes more ambitious by the month... 1 million (units) for 2014 isn't too bad, provided there's another 1 million in the following two years."

WWF is campaigning for the Kusile coal-fired power station to be put on hold, believing solar water heating should be rolled out on a scale to significantly lessen the need for the next large power station.

The focus of the government's solar water heating initiative up to now has been on Eskom's subsidies for solar water heaters pitched at upper-income households that can afford the capital cost of their solar geysers. The Eskom subsidies effectively doubled in January.

By the end of March, Eskom had received 4 206 reimbursement claims, a third of which were from Gauteng, spokesman Andrew Etzinger said.

- Business Report

DA councillor faces axe after fraud

A DA councillor in the City of Cape Town has been found guilty of attempting to defraud the council and faces dismissal.

Charlotte Tabisher, the councillor for ward 49 which includes sections of Athlone, Mowbray and Kewtown, was found guilty on several charges of irregularly collecting "top-up" payments relating to a housing project, and also of assisting a member of the public to formulate a fraudulent document.

Councillor Anthea Serritslev, chairwoman of the disciplinary committee and DA chief whip, said Tabisher had been involved in the collection of money without proper bookkeeping or other processes being in place.

Serritslev said Tabisher had been found guilty as she had no right or duty to collect money from residents.

"She used her position of trust as a ward councillor and exercised gross negligence in the administration of money," Serritslev said.

She said there was no evidence that Tabisher had paid money collected from the community into a trust account as claimed by her.

Tabisher was fined R10 000 for the collection of money from the community, and had paid most of it back, Serritslev said.

But the guilty finding on the charge of attempting to defraud the council by assisting a member of the public to draw up a fraudulent document is the one which could see her lose her position.

Serritslev said that if the council agreed with the findings of the committee and the recommendation that Tabisher be dismissed, the matter would go to local government MEC Anton Bredell for consideration and ratification.

Tabisher could not be reached for comment on Monday.

- Cape Argus

Freedom Day: How Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton cheated when they could not "compete" in the "free market"

Quoting from the book “Choice Not Fate” by Pippa Green:

“Before he was even president, Nelson Mandela telephoned Bill Clinton, at the behest of the South African Textile and Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (SACTWU), an important election ally for the ANC in the Western Cape, to ask him to support a more gradual phasing down of the tariffs for clothing and textiles……which would have meant a more gradual reduction of protective tariffs……… Mandela asked Clinton to agree to extend the down phasing of tariffs to a 12-year, rather than a 5- year period.”
(Mandela also forced De Klerk to sell Sasol, to comply with IMF requirements for loans.)

Manuel does suggest niche markets, like I did on an After 8 debate at least 3 years ago, but his idea of getting there by “training and worker organisation and competitiveness rather than narrow subsidies” was doomed from the start as unaffordable, as any liquidator could have told him.

Then there is the normal moan about “sweatshops”, long hours, and low pay in China being unfair. It amazes me how Americans go around the world with their “dollar a day” formula (now a dollar and a half) as if a dollar in Timbuktu buys the same as a dollar in New York. Whether one can live on X amount of “dollars” depends on how much transport, education, food, health and housing is subsidised.

Then South Africa cheated further in 2006 by managing to legally limit Chinese clothing imports “against the strong wishes of the retailers”. Well the retailers were right, and Manuel and Mbeki and Mandela were wrong. It is more important to clothe our nearly 50 million people cheaply, than save less than 200,000 jobs at a cost which could, properly invested, create work for double the number or re-skill the existing workers. Even if the USA does subsidise the cotton, and China and India the manufacture – so what? We get cheap clothes.

In the USA Bill Clinton did some more cheating of his own. To quote from the letter of R Groves as published in The Cape Times October 20, 2008:

“Allister Sparks blamed free markets for the world’s financial crisis, which he compared with catastrophes like the fall of the Weimar republic, Hitler and the Holocaust (October 15).

Here is another catastrophe he should have mentioned: the present financial crisis began with the sub prime mortgage fiasco in the United States, which was initiated by former president Bill Clinton.

Don’t take my word for that: refer to the New York Times of September 30, 1999: “In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low- income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans….”

And it continues: “Fannie Mae, the nation’s biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate- income people, those borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough to qualify for conventional loans….”

I agree with R Groves. American labour could not compete with Asia AND live in the same style as their parents. The USA government was afraid to tell them so or they would lose votes, so they cheated, and provided houses to people whose wages were too low to be able to afford to repay them – and then sold these liabilities as assets all around the world. In Britain, and in the old Socialist White South Africa, this problem was solved by state housing at low rentals (which remained the asset of the state for at least 10 years, after which purchase or 99 year leases could be bought on mortgage in SA).

Why did Asia succeed and Africa fail? Asians have the advantage of not being black, and therefore not having racist black Americans or Jamaicans descend on them from the slave diaspora advising them how to be better capitalists than White Americans, and turning their laws into American laws, in order to score points against “whites”. Asia listened to the IMF and the World Bank, borrowed their money, but otherwise ignored them, and subsidised their workers and targeted certain markets.

If Africa is to compete it has to do the same, and it also has to learn birth control, before it has to become as drastic as China in control measures!

The most valuable thing Africa owns is land – what the world will always need is food. Much of Africa is dry, but Africa also has the best farmers for semi desert farming. If the Afrikaner can turn the Karroo into farmland, they can do it anywhere.

Competition in a global world will be between Nations, not within the individual Nation.

- News Times

Bitter grapes of municipal wrath

The Stellenbosch Municipality has again been plunged into turmoil, with two service delivery protests in three days and eight ANC councillors facing the chop for repeatedly failing to attend council meetings.

The latest incident saw hundreds of disgruntled residents of Mandela City in Klapmuts embarking on an illegal march, leaving a trail of rubbish in front of the municipal offices yesterday.

The group handed over a memorandum to Stellenbosch Executive Mayor Cyril Jooste.

The memorandum says the community has been without electricity for eight years.

On Saturday, Premier Helen Zille, in her capacity as DA leader, was also in Kayamandi township, where she addressed residents.

The municipality - which has had three mayors in as many years - is the third-largest municipality in the province. The municipality is also under investigation by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) for alleged fraud and corruption.

Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning MEC Anton Bredell was requested by the municipality to institute a forensic investigation into alleged fraud, corruption and maladministration uncovered by the council's audit committee.

Control of the municipality has fluctuated since the 2006 local government elections, due to the delicate balance of power in which the ANC has 17 of the 37 seats, while the DA and other smaller parties make up the rest.

Speaking from his office soon after the second protest, Jooste said the two service delivery protests were politically motivated. "We were actually warned about this illegal march. But ANC councillors are instigating this in their own areas.

"We also had some problems on Saturday when the premier was here at Kayamandi. At the moment, they are not able to take over the Stellenbosch Municipality, the ANC and its alliance partners," said Jooste.

He said another reason the ANC was trying to destabilise the municipality was that eight of its councillors were facing a disciplinary hearing for not attending council meetings.

The Code of Conduct for councillors states that a councillor absent from three or more consecutive meetings of a municipal council, or a committee, be removed from office. The councillors are to face the music on Thursday.

Former mayor Patrick Swartz said recent events showed that the municipality was in disarray. Swartz is a member of the Kayamandi Community Alliance, a small community-based, ANC-aligned political party.

"Things are not the way they should be. Things are not normal. There is quite a lot of dissatisfaction among the people, especially in the black community. It also has to do with that e-mail.

"There is some discrimination between whites and blacks in Stellenbosch, with people being referred to as 'k*****s' and 'h*****s'."

- Cape Times

'Protests not just about service delivery'

There were more protests around the country in the first three months of this year than in any equivalent period since 1994, a government deputy minister said.

Yunus Carrim, the deputy minister of co-operative governance and traditional affairs, said in the National Council of Provinces on Friday that the protests were also becoming more violent.

"Most of the protests are about service delivery issues, but they are not just about that.

"Many of the protests have been taking place in better-performing wards and municipalities where there has, in fact, been significant service delivery," he said.

Carrim said people often took to the streets to protest against their "relative deprivation" after seeing neighbours get the services - like houses, electricity or sanitation - that they were still waiting for.

"The protests are also about a range of other municipal issues, including maladministration, nepotism, fraud, corruption and the failure of councillors and administrators to listen," he said.

"But it is the rage of sections of the protesters and the extent of violence and destruction they wreak that is striking. It reflects a far more fundamental alienation of people from our democracy."

The scale and nature of the protests suggested people were coming to see themselves as "outsiders", while others were being taken into the system and given better circumstances.

He cautioned that some people had been excluded for so long - first under apartheid and now under democratic rule - that just giving them what they ask for might not be enough to make them good citizens.

"They are, I think, constantly going to pose a challenge to our democracy, and we will have to come to terms with this."

Carrim said the protests could also reflect "a culture of dependency on the state we have unwittingly created since 1994", with people expecting to get good things without having to work for them.

"There are also internal power struggles within the ANC-led alliance. This includes key activists positioning themselves to become councillors in 2011 by mobilising residents against the current councillors.

"Of course, their ability to do so is linked to the poor performance of many councillors. But the struggles are also about access to tenders and other opportunities for individual profiteering."

Carrim listed a series of actions the state could take to enhance its response to protests, but said the key would be to accelerate the review of the powers and functions of the national, provincial and local governments, and to ensure that they worked together more effectively.

To read the full speech click here

- Sunday Times

Rates: a big rip-off?

The City of Cape Town stands to earn millions of rands in additional revenue from thousands of homeowners who face skyrocketing rates increases following property valuations that have seen some Cape Town homes increase in value by more than 100 percent.

Only 15 000 homeowners have lodged objections - and there's less than a week left to do so.

Rates will go up by about 8 percent on July 1 - but the effect on homeowners' pockets will be generally higher as payments will be based on the new, higher valuations. The exercise will increase by R320m the R4 billion a year the city already collects.

Evaluators and estate agents have been inundated with requests for help in the aftermath of the recent municipal assessments.

The city says valuations are market-related and influenced by improvements to property, land-status changes and valuations that were originally too low.

Gardens pensioner Amadeu Seca, who has lived in his home since 1969, said the city claimed his house had gone up in value by nearly R7m, a "preposterous" increase of 460 percent since the last valuation - from R1.88m to R8.7m.

He said the looming increase in rates would be "killing", considering that most services, including electricity, were becoming increasingly expensive.

The Breuer family in Oranjezicht, who have lived in their house for over 25 years, have seen their property valuation rocket by R5.4m since the last evaluation three years ago, when it was valued at R3.8m, a 136 percent increase.

Yet they had not improved their house, said Edeltraud Breuer. The house next door, which was bigger and had been modernised, was valued at R6m. "This is very frustrating. If our house was really worth R9.2m we would sell it tomorrow. This whole process is costing us more money. Valuators cost money. We can't pay these higher rates."

Tamboerskloof resident Koebi Ribeli described the process as "one big circus".

She wanted to know how the city's formula worked. She owns two identical properties in the same street in Tamboerskloof.

Three years ago they were both valued at R3.1m, but now the value of the first one had gone up to R3.5m while the second was valued at R4.44m.

The value of a neighbour's property had increased by 44 percent.

"It's an absolute disgrace. I hope enough people get together so we can instigate a class action against the city."

Ribeli said municipal officials could not argue that these were market-related prices in relation to 2007 values as the earlier valuation was conducted when the property market was booming, while prices had dropped markedly since then.

Ribeli said she had objected the last time but the process was too frustrating, and she had given-up.

Neighbours selling their homes had been forced to accept considerably less than their municipal valuations.

The city says only 15 000 objections have been lodged. "It shows that our systems have improved since the last general valuation," said Christopher Gavor, director of the city's valuations office.

Gavor said the city received over 40 000 objections after the previous general evaluation.

For more information on the city's valuation process and the objection process, see www.capetown.gov.za/propertyvaluations

- Cape Argus

Handover ceremony sours

A handover ceremony to show off the provincial department of human settlements' new methods of building low-cost homes was marred when a would-be homeowner was turned away from a house she thought was hers.

Nonkululeko Magula, 36, thought she would be moving into her new home in Delft after being "chosen" by provincial housing officials as one of two beneficiaries. Instead, when it came to handing over the houses, the only person smiling was 85-year-old Velamva Ncanda, a former labourer who became a homeowner for the first time.

The two semi-detached houses, each 40m2, had taken just over 10 days to build, as opposed to the three weeks through conventional methods.

As Ncanda was taken through his new home by Human Settlements MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela, Magula stood in the doorway, hoping to get the keys to her new home.

When one of Madikizela's officials told her she was not one of the intended recipients, she cried inconsolably as her two young children and shocked neighbours looked on.

Madikizela's spokesperson Zalisile Mbali took her to one side, telling her that she must have known all along that she had not been chosen as one of the beneficiaries. But she stood her ground and Mbali handed his business card to her, inviting her to call him.

Asked about the incident, Madikizela said he had been under the impression that the houses would be handed over to an 85-year-old and a disabled person.

Earlier, ANC ward councillor Phumelele Mgadeli, in a speech at the handover, accused the provincial government of not having done much to alleviate the problems experienced by some beneficiaries of the N2 Gateway project in Delft after it took over the project from the Housing Development Agency.

"The biggest issue here is the delay in installing electricity to some areas of the N2 Gateway, and the stalling of housing projects for backyarders," said Mgadeli.

During Madikizela's speech, agitated community members demanded he address their concerns, as highlighted by Mgadeli. Madikizela said he was aware of the issues at the N2 Gateway but would not discuss these with Mgadeli at the handover function.

The new houses are 20 percent cheaper to build. Using dense Styrofoam injected with concrete and reinforced with a steel mesh, they can be built up to 10 storeys.

Representatives of the construction firm said the materials were more energy efficient.

- Cape Times

SA has R500 billion service delivery backlog – minister

Backlogs in delivery of basic services amount to half a trillion rand – far outstripping his R42 billion budget, Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs minister Sicelo Shiceka has said.

Briefing journalists ahead of tabling his budget in parliament on Thursday Shiceka said discussions were underway about establishing a special purpose vehicle to manage municipal infrastructure grant spending on roads, water, electricity distribution, sanitation and other areas.

While details had yet to be finalised, this would ensure that even the poorest municipalities were able to provide quality services. It would also allow for savings through economies of scale, curb corruption bedevilling the procurement of goods and services at local level and make sure the grant funding was spent on what it was intended for.

Currently, the national government has little control over how municipalities spend municipal infrastructure grants once they have been disbursed by National Treasury. Service delivery protests that have flared across the country are in part a response by frustrated communities to the failure of local councils to spend resources properly.

In contrast to bigger, better developed municipalities, those that are weaker and smaller lag ever further behind as funds are either not spent, or used for inflated salaries for officials, or even a new car for the mayor, instead of repairing roads or laying water and sanitation pipelines that communities need. Millions in unspent funds get returned to central government and backlogs grow.

Shiceka said the R495 million figure for backlogs had been arrived at “scientifically” after a study conducted by his department. A detailed breakdown would be released within a few weeks.

Shiceka said the Special Purpose Vehicle was aimed at ensuring “standardisation in the way things are done, not only in terms of cost but also in terms of quality” across all municipalities.

It would work in partnerships both for delivery “as well as financing”. He stressed the motive was financial and not an intention to take powers away from municipalities.

“We don’t have the money to deliver these services at the required scale,” he said. It would allow for resources to be drawn from other departments, such as Water Affairs and Energy, and for them to be used in a much more co-ordinated way.

“Some resources are there, but the way they have been utilised has been within a silo mentality,” he said. This meant they did not achieve the maximum impact.

“It doesn’t mean that if a municipality wants to buy tea it will have to approach central government,” he said. “We are not talking about what municipalities do on a day to day basis.”

He expected discussions to be concluded before the end of the year and if all went well, he hoped the special purpose vehicle would be up and running by April 1 next year.

Municipalities depend on grants for up to 40 percent of their spending, while the bulk of their revenue comes from surcharges on electricity sales. Shiceka is engaged in talks with energy minister Dipuo Peters and National Treasury over shifting municipalities’ dependence on electricity sales to fund their budgets.

Peters has complained that municipalities will not push for energy savings while they depend so heavily on electricity usage for revenue. Shiceka on Thursday said the state of electricity distribution in the country was “a disaster”.

The government decided back in 2007 to set up regional electricity distribution networks, but this stalled in the face of municipal opposition. Shiceka said most of the money generated by electricity distribution was not ploughed back into maintaining and refurbishing the infrastructure used to deliver it.

On troubled relations between municipal employers and labour, Shiceka said a series of engagements with the SA Local Government Association (Salga) would start on Friday. Part of the problem was that many municipalities did not have proper labour forums.

He had also held talks with ratepayers’ associations whose (mostly middle class) members have been withholding rates and paying them into trust funds used to pay for service delivery – chlorine for water treatment works, or repairing potholes – themselves.

“People say this black government in municipalities is not doing well, so we are not participating. We are saying they must come to the party,”Shiceka said.

He said the government was “getting on top of” the service delivery protests.

“We have developed a plan and a strategy on these."

He said that by 2014, there would be no more violent protests. People would still have a right to protest, but he hoped that relations between communities and government would have improved so that they would be peaceful. An overhaul of the ward committee system, currently seen as an enclave of the ANC, would be part of this. Participation would be significantly broadened, he said.

- Business Report

Unions see Sexwale's R1bn fund as a sop

Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale is providing a new boost to flagging bank profits by promising a R1 billion fund to guarantee against defaults by low-wage earners. This is the view of growing numbers of trade unionists following the announcement of this latest flagship scheme by the government.

Sexwale, a billionaire businessman with a wine farm in Franschhoek, a private jet and a mansion in Johannesburg - reportedly bought for R56 million, said the government fund would guarantee against home loan defaults by borrowers in the R3 500 to R9 000 a month income bracket.

These are the working people whose income is above the "ceiling" imposed for the government's reconstruction and development housing subsidy and below the "floor" established by the banks for those requiring home loan finance. But the unions point out that the banks have established a "floor", because the National Credit Act forbids them to extend credit to those unable to service loans.

By guaranteeing against default, the government is seen not only to be encouraging more reckless lending but, primarily, to be bolstering the profits of banks rather than benefiting poor homeseekers.

Workers in the targeted wage bracket would, in any event, probably not want one of the concrete block boxes that pose as houses in the townships.

Many unionists, supporting the contention that government policies are "pro-business" rather than "pro-poor", are quick to point out that Sexwale only resigned from the board of Absa when he resumed in earnest his political career in 2008. As such, the portrayal of the loan guarantee scheme as an aid to the poorly housed and homeless tends to be seen as a sop to dampen rising anger about recent price rises. These threaten the living standards of the employed and seem certain to drive into greater destitution the already marginalised.

There seems to be growing consensus in the local labour movement that the government plans to push through these cost of living increases behind a smokescreen of World Cup hype.

"It would appear that these huge price hikes are being implemented in 2010 with the hope that workers will not strike against them because of the World Cup," said Cosatu Western Cape regional secretary Tony Ehrenreich.

He was repeating a comment made last week, in which he added: "We will strike to stop these huge, uncoordinated price hikes, even during the World Cup, because we have no alternative as the burdens on communities are just way too high."

Although he was referring specifically to the DA-governed Western Cape, the price rises affect every corner of the country. The increase in the liquid fuel tax, the estimated 30 percent rise in transport costs, and the near 25 percent increase in electricity charges, will all have knock-on effects across the board.

In Cape Town there is also a 27 percent increase in household rates that will cost more for home owners and push up rents.

Given that average wage earners, often carrying large debt burdens, provide an unofficial social security net, each supporting an estimated eight to 10 dependents, this throws into sharper relief the double-digit wage demands being made by workers in many sectors. Rank and file resentment also accounts for the chilly reception for the loan guarantee scheme and the tougher stance adopted by union leaders.

Confederation of South African Workers Unions general secretary Khulile Nkushubana says: "Many politicians have links to the banks. And government housing policy as it exists, is ad-hoc, with policies that benefit banks and those who win the tenders to build houses."

Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven and Federation of Unions of SA general secretary Dennis George are more diplomatic, but agree that government policies in vital areas, such as housing and unemployment, have been piecemeal, often illconsidered and ad hoc. "There has also been accompanying looting," says Craven.

In another reflection of rising general resentment, National Council of Trade Unions general secretary Manene Samela maintains that the problem lies "with people who still think in a capitalist way".

Housing and youth unemployment policies fit this bill. "In both cases, they benefit business," said Samela. He noted that all four labour federations had condemned the proposal to provide wage subsidies to employers for giving jobs to young workers.

"It's another example of good intentions with negative consequences," says George. According to Cosatu, any subsidy scheme would introduce a third tier of "super-super exploited workers" in what is already a two-tier labour market, where constant pressure exists to drive down wages and conditions. Wage subsidies are seen as handouts to business that contribute toward a "race to the bottom".

A number of unions have complained, for example, that the current learnership scheme of subsidised employment training is being used to create a "rotating door" of cheap, casual labour. According to unions, what is needed is a coherent and comprehensive set of policies that will provide more jobs, alleviate poverty and help towards building an integrated society.

Samela said: "On the housing front, what we need is a massive programme of state-house construction."

George agrees and proposes that the National Economic Development and Labour Council, the tripartite negotiating forum, discuss a policy of providing state-rental housing, "where rents would not exceed 30 percent of a worker's wage".

Ironically, in 1993, a "decent housing" proposal, supported by the National Union of Metalworkers, was shot down by then Cosatu general secretary Jay Naidoo. It was suggested the unions use their pension and provident funds to buy up blocks of flats for sale and rental, at preferential rates, to union members. "Too capitalistic," said Naidoo - today a leading capitalist.

Unionists are now looking to this example and to other international lessons as they prepare to fight for a change of economic policy direction that will benefit the community as a whole. Bread for all beyond the lauded circus of the World Cup seems a reasonable demand.

- Business Report

Water for Golf

Lack of water is again threatening the proposed R1-billion Roodefontein golf estate in Plettenberg Bay

BITOU'S executive mayoral committee has given developers, the aptly named Plettenberg Bay Golf Estate, until the end of this month to come up with an alternative plan on where the water is going to come from for the project, which has been mired in controversy since it was first mooted almost a decade ago.

Mayoral committee approval of a rezoning application is all that is still required before work can start on the golf estate, following final environmental approval granted by the W-Cape government in April last year.

The 400-hectare estate will include a Jack Nicklaus signature golf course, 440 housing units, an equestrian centre, a health centre consisting of hydro spa and gymnasium, a 10-bedroom lodge and a private nature reserve.

When they pitched the project to the municipality earlier this year, the developers said they had paid R11-million for shares in two companies with rights to abstract 700-000m³ of water a year from the Keurbooms River.

The full amount would be ceded to the municipality in exchange for 180 000m³ of potable water for the housing development and 380-000m³ of treated effluent for irrigating the golf course.

Mayor Lulama Mvimbi however says that due to the drought, the water the developers intend drawing from the Keurbooms "no longer exists".

Mvimbi told the last mayoral committee meeting at the end of March that the developers had one month to come up with an alternative water plan for the golf estate, failing which the development could be shelved - to the detriment on hundreds of new jobs and millions of rands in potential tourism income for the Plettenberg Bay region.

Other benefits for the region include a R6.8-million pledge by the developers towards the construction of 80 low-cost houses in Kranshoek, Kwanokuthula and possibly New Horizons as part of the social responsibility aspect of the deal.

Former land owner Count Riccardo Agusta was the first to submit an application to create a luxury golf estate at Roodefontein, but the project came to a halt in a blizzard of controversy in 2003 when he admitted before the Cape High Court that he had bribed Western Cape politicians with R400-000 to approve the development - despite a shortage of water.

Then provincial premier Peter Marais was eventually acquitted of corruption charges, but his former environmental MEC, David Malatsi, was found guilty and sentenced to five years' imprisonment. Malatsi's appeal is still pending.

The trial of the two politicians heard that Agusta's acquaintance, alleged mafia kingpin Vito Palazzolo, sold the land to Agusta and played a key role in driving the planned development forward.

A South African consortium bought the land from Agusta in 2004 and instituted a fresh application.

Richard Saner, a spokesman for the new developers, earlier said 800 to 1000 workers would be employed on site for a period of five years from the time construction started.

Saner failed to respond to a CXPRESS request to comment on the mayoral committee's demand for a back-up water plan.

- CXpress

Housing MEC backs plan to go after dodgy developers

Western Cape Human Settlements MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela says he will back any efforts by government in recouping money lost to unscrupulous housing developers.

Housing Minister Tokyo Sexwale recently stated that his department intended taking legal action against contractors responsible for building substandard homes.

A national audit carried out last year revealed that over 40 000 such houses have been destroyed and rebuilt, at a significant cost to the state.

Madikizela says his department is investigating the conduct of various contractors. But he admits holding some of them responsible is not easy.

“With some of these contractors it’s very difficult to trace them. Therefore we find ourselves in a situation where we have to deal with cleaning up the mess that they have left.”

- Eyewitness News

Sexwale: 1570 arrested for housing subsidy corruption

THE investigation into abuse of the low- income housing subsidy scheme has so far resulted in more than 1570 arrests and 1189 convictions, Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale said yesterday . — Sapa

Still nothing though on the corrupt and wasteful flagship N2 Gateway - no one to blame here - move along.... The WAR on WASTE and CORRUPTION is not fighting on this battlefield - the Commander has left for the army... and bigger budgets

What Sexwale is doing about SA's housing crisis: Moving the goal posts

Address by the Minister of Human Settlements, Tokyo Sexwale MP, on the occasion of the Human Settlements Budget Vote, National Assembly, Cape Town

21 April 2010

Honourable Members
Invited guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Comrades and friends

This year - June 26th -- marks the 55th anniversary of the adoption of the Freedom Charter, a key founding document of South Africa's democratic Constitution.

We approach this historic occasion understanding that the Charter remains relevant to the vision of a new South Africa.

Its housing clause states without any equivocation: There shall be houses, security and comfort for all... All people shall have the right to live where they choose, to be decently housed, and to bring up their families in comfort and security. Slums shall be demolished and new suburbs built where all shall have transport, roads, lighting, playing fields, crèches and social centres.

Therein lies the founding philosophy, strategy, vision and practicality of Human Settlements.

Our country's Constitution resonates with the Charter on the question of housing and human settlements: "Everyone has the right to have access to adequate housing, and the state must take reasonable legislative and other measurers, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realization of this right."

The first Minister of Housing, Comrade Joe Slovo, rallied large and small contractors, labour unions, community organizations and financial institutions in 1994, resulting in the landmark Botshabelo Accord, which stated:

"Government strives for the establishment of viable, socially and economically integrated communities which are situated in areas allowing convenient access to economic opportunities, health, educational and social amenities and within which South Africa's people will have access on a progressive basis to:

* A permanent residential structure with secure tenure, ensuring privacy and providing adequate protection against the elements; and
* Potable water, adequate sanitary facilities, including waste disposal and domestic electricity supply."

President Zuma gave further meaning to this in his State of the Nation address last year. He stated: "As part of social infrastructure development we will provide suitably located and affordable housing and decent human settlements. We will proceed from the understanding that human settlement is not just about building houses. It is about transforming our cities and towns and building cohesive, sustainable and caring communities with closer access to work and social amenities, including sports and recreation facilities."

Against this backdrop, our Human Settlement mission - on behalf of Government -- remains clear: to ensure decent shelter, the most basic need, as a critical part of a better life for all.

It is important to highlight our three areas of delivery and intervention, which touch every South African:

Firstly, at the uppermost end of the housing market, our responsibility is to ensure an enabling environment through policies and legislation which protect consumers who are building or buying homes at that level. This is primarily achieved through the Home Loans and Mortgage Disclosure Act, to which we will return later.

Secondly, at the bottom-most end of the market, we provide housing subsidies to the poorest of the poor. This is a critical area, as the bulk of the housing backlog exists there. Again, we will return to this later.

In between these two is "the gap market" people, who don't qualify for either bank credit or a government subsidy. Their cries have been heard by the President and by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, resulting in the creation of a Guarantee Fund of R1-billion for a start.

These endeavours, beyond providing shelter, contribute to economic growth and job creation -- whilst at the same time restoring human dignity.

Our holistic approach to human settlements development recognizes that the economic fortunes of South Africans are never static. Someone who lives in a shack in Gugulethu today may occupy an RDP house in Delft tomorrow - or, later, reside in Rondebosch.

Current outcomes-based approach

As the Ministry, working within the Cabinet collective, we participated in developing a new outcomes-based approach to defining our targets and to measuring progress.

The January 2010 Extended Cabinet Lekgotla tasked us with implementing what is known as Outcome 8, whose objective is: Sustainable Human Settlements and Improved Quality of Household Life.

To meet that objective, we have prioritized four areas of work between now and 2014.

These are:

* Accelerated delivery of housing opportunities;
* Access to basic services;
* More efficient land utilization; and
* An improved property market.

In the field of housing opportunities, the target is 220 000 units per year between now and 2014.

Additionally, we are acquiring 6 250 hectares of well-located state land for human settlements development and an enabling environment is being created for the provision of 600 000 new loans in the affordable housing sector.

In addition, 500 000 informal settlement dwellings are being upgraded. We must emphasize that such upgrading does not detract from Government's long-term objective of eradicating slums.

The combined effect is that by 2014 we will have made significant inroads in our mission of ensuring sustainable human settlements and an improved quality of household life.

Irrespective of what skeptics may say, the record of this government on housing delivery speaks for itself. Since 1994, more than 2.3 million housing units have been made available for nearly 11-million people.

The scale of government housing delivery is second only to China and, as the Banking Association of South Africa pointed out when we met this week: "Government's most dramatic intervention in the welfare housing sector has been its national housing subsidy programme. The success of South Africa's housing programme is unparalleled, and we can be proud of our achievements."

This work continues unabated and as things stand today we have more than 8 000 human settlements projects underway across the country, with preliminary figures translating this into the construction of 219 000 housing units in the past financial year.

At the same, there is a need for realism as we go forward. We must be candid inside this House, and with the nation at large.

Despite all these commendable efforts, the housing backlog has grown in leaps and bounds from 1.5-million in 1994 and now stands at approximately 2.1-million. That means approximately 12-million South Africans are still in need of better shelter. We have, therefore, hardly moved in just breaking the backlog, never mind the numbers associated with population growth.

As a reflection of the increased demand, the number of informal settlements has ballooned to more than 2 700 -- 70 of which are slums occupied solely by white people. As we found when accompanying the President to one of these settlements in Hermanstad outside Pretoria, poverty cuts across the colour line.

This partly explains the phenomenon of service delivery protests. Such protests in themselves fall within a democratic culture. But let's make this clear: we join Minister Shiceka in condemning violent behaviour in some of these protests - as well as the destruction of property -- whilst we are all working hard to find sustainable solutions.

Our reality is that we are currently only able to clear the housing backlog at a rate of ten percent per annum. With the current pace of delivery and the resources at our disposal, and mindful of continued economic and population growth and the rapid pace of urbanization, it could take us decades to break the backlog.

In real terms, as a country, we have hardly moved. Re fatela morao jwale ka khoho. 现在与中国比较那

Nevertheless, we can never turn our backs on the poor. It is not their fault nor should poverty be used as a political football.

The scale of the problem, from a Human Settlements point of view, has already been brought to the attention of Government colleagues in a presentation to the extended Cabinet, which includes provincial and local government.

Of significance are Human Settlements presentations made during the Presidential Coordinating Council last month, where ministries, as well as Premiers and members of SALGA, were led in discussion by the President in serious debates and focused discussions around service delivery.

In respect of Human Settlements, it was recognized that the current fiscal allocations are inadequate - with the potential unintended consequence that budget allocations do not match our expanded mandate.

Also captured in discussion was the fact that, although budgets are important, our work also requires thorough coordination with government stakeholders in all three spheres, as well as with the private sector and civil society.

Consequently, we hereby announce to members of the House and the public at large that the President - who has taken a keen interest in poverty alleviation and service delivery - has instructed that a special PCC be held on the 18th of May to focus all the efforts of government and other stakeholders, including experts, with only one topic on the agenda: human settlements.

The Presidency and the Ministry have already held a planning meeting so that we go into this PCC adequately prepared.

Towards Human Settlements 2030

Questions are being asked about what will continue to propel the South African economy beyond the current infrastructural developments which are also associated with the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Undoubtedly, the World Cup will be a resounding success. South Africa has constructed massive highways, iconic stadiums, world-class airports and state of the art technology platforms.

The target for Human Settlements ought to be nothing less than an enhanced vision, driven by a similar energy and passion to World Cup 2010 - this time round, Human Settlements 2030.


It is important that we think creatively about large-scale human settlements as the "stadia", "airports" and "highways" of our people.

To that end, we as South Africans must explore the possibility of marshalling resources in a similar fashion to the way we impressed the world - correctly so -- with preparations for the World Cup. Many South Africans, who live in depressed conditions, should also be impressed.

The current large-scale mobilization of human, capital, financial, logistical, construction, project management and other resources should not dissipate after the final World Cup whistle. The potential exists for the whole country to be turned into one large construction site as we build sustainable human settlements in various localities.

In this regard, the role of the National Planning Commission - whose responsibility is to develop an overarching national strategic development plan - becomes crucial because our planning tasks as Human Settlements can only succeed within such a framework. To an extent, the same applies to the participation of other departments associated with macro-economic development issues.

In crafting our vision, we are mindful that a child born today will be 20 years old by 2030, and will need somewhere to live. We should be planning for the needs of that future adult.

To succeed, Human Settlements 2030 must be for and by the youth - it is about their own future homes, apartments, bachelor flats and so on; it is future rural settlements and urban centres, towns and cities. This also contributes to economic growth and job creation. This should be their campaign.

Housing construction and manufacturing are some of the key drivers of the economy. They stimulate every sector -- mining, agriculture, manufacturing, construction, wholesale, retail and finance. There is no successful industrialized nation which has human settlements at the backburner, or merely for social welfare purposes.

In this context, the Department is forging stronger relationships with the financial sector which plays a central role in providing credit and housing finance, and in driving the economy.

During recent engagements with the country's major banks, we came away satisfied at the positive outcomes, and we can confirm to the House that we agreed to form a joint working team to look into various aspects of housing finance --- including how to generate innovative ideas around the R1-bn Government Guarantee Fund referred to earlier.

Those who stand to benefit from such a financial platform include inter alia nurses, teachers, police, prison warders, government officials, certain categories of management, and blue collar factory and office workers.

We emphasized to the institutions that in putting the floor under their operations in this "gap market" to mitigate risk, while also providing an opportunity to beneficiaries, financial prudency should remain paramount in accordance with regulatory requirements. In no way can there be recklessness in lending practices which may lead to flippant calls upon the Guarantee Fund.

Similarly, beneficiaries are well-advised to exercise responsibility by adhering to the terms and conditions under which credit is availed.

Furthermore, in our discussions with financial institutions, we raised concerns around their compliance regarding HLAMDA, under whose prescript institutions are required to provide the Minister of Human Settlements with information in their annual financial statements on lending patterns.

Such information has to be accurate, timeous and comprehensive to allow for its consolidation and analysis by the Department. This enables us to assess the performance of these institutions in providing credit to all South Africans who qualify beyond the "gap market".

The Ministry will play an activist role in monitoring the banks' performance, in the interests of regulating the homeowners' property market, whilst being alive to the complexity and sensitivity of the operations of financial institutions.

We also assured financial institutions of our commitment to strengthening our own disclosure office and - to the extent where Human Settlements is concerned -- to examine and, where possible, to ease any onerous reporting procedures without diminishing their compliance in respect of the Act.

The current budget

Let's now turn to the Budget allocated to Human Settlements for the provision of housing subsidies to the bottom-most end of the market - the poorest of the poor, largely those who earn between R0 and R3 500 a month.

This total budget is R16.2 billion for the 2010/11 financial year. Over the 2010 MTEF period the conditional grant to provinces grows from R15 billion in 2010/11 to R17.9 billion in 2012/13.

A large percentage of this is allocated to provinces in the form of Housing Development grants.

In addition, starting from this financial year, we have an allocation of R1.2-billion for the sanitation programme to contribute to rural infrastructure backlogs for the MTEF period.

A total of R377.2 million has been allocated to human settlements institutions. An amount of R151.8 million is allocated to the new Social Housing Regulatory Authority, R49.5 million to the Rural Housing Loan Fund, and R69.3 million to the Housing Development Agency.

In the 2009/10 financial year, R12.4 billion was transferred to provinces, which had spent R12.2 billion, or 98.4%, by 21 April.

As we plan and implement our expenditure, it is appropriate that we emphasise several positive developments taking place within Human Settlements which are already contributing towards us achieving the targets set in Outcome 8, and towards our vision of Human Settlements 2030.

These include the following:

Firstly, the increased rollout of sanitation infrastructure programmes in rural areas. The second week of May has been declared Sanitation and Hygiene Week. We must emphasise that sanitation is not only about health and hygiene -- it is also about human dignity. People should be able to conduct their sanitary functions in private - as opposed to reports of the recent scandalous toilets in the veld.

Secondly, significant progress has been made in building the capacity of municipalities through our municipal accreditation process. To date all 6 metros and 4 local municipalities have been assessed to determine their readiness for accreditation. Further assessments will be undertaken to bring the total of prioritized municipalities to 27.

Thirdly, significant gains have been made in strengthening partnerships with the homeless and civil society, including SANCO, building on the success of our Social Contract Plenary in Boksburg last November. This is participatory democracy.

Fourthly, new channels of communication have been opened with the public. Numerous communities were visited to hear first-hand about their conditions. This journey will continue, given our focus on "follow the money" to know where our expenditure goes.

Similar to the President, we launched our own hotline. A recent report from the Presidency indicates that Human Settlements is a leader when it comes to dealing with referrals - an impressive 86%.

Fifthly, regarding Parliamentary questions from colleagues, our records indicate that over 100 questions were responded to during the current session. This oversight is welcomed.

However, we note that questions tend to focus more on subsidies than on broader issues of human settlements. There is room for improvement.

Sixthly, regarding our legislative programme, the overarching legislation upon which the development of human settlements is founded -- the Housing Act -- will be subject to review.

The Sectional Titles Schemes Management Bill and the Community Schemes Ombuds Service Bill will be introduced to Parliament this year.

Also on the horizon is an indaba on alternative technologies, to ensure access to the myriad of new ideas and products which have been developed by the private sector.

Regarding innovation in the Department, concept document has been developed for a Human Settlements Index to enable us to categorise living conditions in every city, town and village, and allow us to track progress in providing basic needs.

In addition, an ICT-based Monitoring Portal has been developed by the Department to enable easy online access, in real-time, to data on Human Settlements projects anywhere in the country, with the use of satellite maps and input data collected by provinces.

Phase 1 of the Housing Demand Database has been completed, resulting in an integrated national database.

Examples of these technologies are on display outside this chamber today.

Areas of concern

It would be remiss of us not to highlight some fundamental challenges to the delivery of sustainable human settlements.

The first relates to what we characterize as "the legalization of illegality". This refers to the negative impact of unintended consequences emanating from certain landmark judicial rulings on the human settlements mandate. In some cases, the rulings have forced the amendment of human settlements policy, with severe and unplanned budgetary consequences.

The most recent far-reaching ruling is the one against the Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality where the city has been ordered to pay rent to a private property owner on behalf of illegal occupiers until alternative accommodation has been found.

While being dutifully circumspect about the constitutional independence of the Judiciary, the Ministry of Human Settlements is concerned about rulings that could virtually collapse government budgets and plans where unlawful behaviour - in this case illegal land and buildings' occupation -- is legitimised by a series of court rulings. Hence the reference to the legalisation of illegality.

My colleague, Justice Minister Jeff Radebe, has been mandated by Cabinet to take the lead towards resolution of this matter, in consultation with Human Settlements.

This House will need to itemize this discussion.

Of equal concern are bureaucratic blockages which affect every step of the human settlements delivery chain.

As part of its outcomes-based approach, Government has resolved that we must make our work simpler, reduce compliance work that adds no value, and focus our energies on a few deliverables and do them well.

The Human Settlements Ministry could not agree more.

War on waste and corruption

We would like to focus on two very positive areas of work: our war on waste, and our war on corruption.

Cabinet collectively decided that departments should control and cut costs without compromising on service delivery.

Preliminary expenditure reports for the 2009/2010 financial year indicate that we have saved R53.2 million in operational expenditure. This includes a saving of R20.6-million in cuts to travel and subsistence, R24.4 million in cuts to our advertising budget, and R3.3 million in cuts to administrative fees.

An additional R31 million was saved from personnel expenditure and R34 million from transfers to our institutions.

Never mind the Hotels...

Finally, as the House is aware, there is an ongoing battle against corruption.

I appointed a National Audit Task Team last November, headed by the Special Investigations Unit, working in partnership with the Auditor-General's office, our national department and provincial government representatives.

The task team is hard at work tracking down those responsible for corruption, abuse and malpractices.

Working under the sterling leadership of the head of the SIU, Willie Hofmeyr, the Team has made tremendous progress since its appointment and has almost completed its investigation into abuse of the Low Income Housing Subsidy scheme. 1 570 officials have been arrested to date, of whom 1 189 have been convicted, and R38-million has been recovered. This process has also seen five lawyers struck off the roll - and more is to follow.

Corruption has become endemic in our society, and needs to be rooted out. This much must be clear: we are undeterred in our resolve to eradicate this plague, which is so debilitating to society at large.

In this regard, it is noteworthy that Cabinet has created an inter-Ministerial task team to address the scourge of corruption - as the President indicated, no matter who may be involved, and no matter how high.

Conclusion

In conclusion: we remain seized with our fundamental mission of rolling out sustainable human settlements. We do not underestimate the enormity of the task involved.

We appreciate and welcome the constructive criticism that has always come from the House, particularly from the Portfolio Committee.

We are equally encouraged by the commitment and sense of common purpose shown by our human settlements MECs.

We are enthused by the fact that our institutions are ready to be in the forefront of the drive to create sustainable human settlements.

We remain sincere in our dialogue with the poorest of the poor.

We remain convinced that the unfolding strategy around Human Settlements 2030 is the right one, and builds upon the other achievements in this area over the past 16 years.

This Ministry carries a responsibility to all South Africans who have the right not just to a home, but also to privacy, security and comfort in their homes within the human settlements in which they live.

I thank you.

- Politicsweb

The trouble with Cape Town

South Africa's changing cities give us clues about what groups need (and what they don't) to have a happy existence.

Counter Currents: Experiments in Sustainability in the Cape Town Region

The opening line of Counter Currents would not be out of place in a dystopian sci-fi book. "Cape Town is heading for disaster," writes editor Edgar Pieterse. The essays in the book bear this out to varying degrees, although in many cases leavened by a modicum of hope.

It's doing the nuanced contributions to this book a necessary disservice, but to summarise crudely: the majority of Cape Town's residents are extremely poor, its infrastructure is falling apart, our politicians are useless and our government departments are, at worse, populated by a bunch of self-serving individuals seeking only personal or party-political gain or, at best, by people of good will hamstrung by their urge to achieve consensus decisions instead of having the balls to make the hard choices.

Yes, this is a gross over-simplification. But, on the other hand, when you read Lucien le Grange and Nisa Mammom's essay on the problems of repatriating District Six, perhaps it's not gross enough. Since 1994, only 24 claimant families have been resettled in District Six. A vast swathe of land in Cape Town lies unused, a cultural and economic vacuum that should be a constant reminder for all of us of the ineptitude that bedevils the city.

What exactly is the master plan here? Wait until everyone dies and then turn the place into a golf course? I mean, how hard can it be? Well, very hard, according to the essay. But still, at this rate, we might as well sell the District Six Theme Park concession to Disney and employ dispossessed peoples as Jolly Dancing Natives. At least then the lonely 24 huddling in their windswept houses will have something to do besides counting vagrants trudging disconsolately past their doors.

The essayists propose several solutions to the problem, but the difficulties seem insurmountable. For example, claimants get a R55 706 subsidy per household to build a new house, a number apparently calculated by taking the average amount a City Bowl Capetonian spends on cappuccinos a month and then dividing that by the cost of parking at the Waterfront.

There are many obstacles to progress in building a sustainable Cape Town, but the overriding one appears to be people. For every reasonable suggestion, there's someone who, through incompetence or venality, stymies the effort. In that sense, Counter Currents is its own best analogy. The book appears to have been copy-edited by a gerbil with ADD and an eyepatch. I assume this is either because some poor copy editor was paid a pittance or because deadlines started squeezing. Or perhaps it's a question of a skills shortage.

It's damnably irritating having a glaring error every few pages, but we shouldn't let this stop us reading this book. There are several worthy highlights. David Schmidt's The Dynamic of Leadership in Cape Town is fascinating, providing precious insight into the fraught process of establishing a nonracial system of local government after 1994. Schmidt's insider tales of the shenanigans of the buffoon Peter Marais, and of the devolution of Nomaindia Mfeketo from sturdy politician to ineffectual mayor, are required reading for any Capetonian struggling to understand "a political practice as poisonous and untrusting as that of Cape Town in recent years".

Ashraf Jamal's essay on artist Jane Alexander is slightly out of place, but beautifully written. It's included in the book because, we are told, "her art is neither a reflection nor obvious representation of the strengths and ills of urban living, but seems lodged indigestibly in the very gut of our unconscious realms where, thrusting forth its horned and gnawing probes, it can -- potentially -- assist us in understanding the strangeness of what we deem the real".

Initially, I guffawed at the awkward juxtaposition of this precise intellectualism with, for example, an essay such as Crane et al's Towards Urban Infrastructure Sustainability. Then I read Mark Swilling's excellent chapter, Dealing with Sustainability, populated by ogres and monsters. He asks the trenchant question: "What changes the city?" The short answer is -- and I'm paraphrasing heavily here -- evil, scum-sucking real estate developers, bankers and lickspittle architects. It's a compelling story, one of many that make Counter Currents a salutary read for South Africans interested in where our cities are headed.

- M&G