Human Settlements Minister Sexwale: 'housing for poor is not sustainable'

Minister says the private sector must contribute to the provision of housing for the poor, and that is why he will launch the "each one, settle one" campaign at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Thursday...

HUMAN Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale says the government must have a cut-off date on which it will stop building free houses for the poor.

"We can't sustain what we are doing. There has to be a cut-off date. We are discussing that. But you can't cut off the poor right now, particularly not in the current national economic environment," Sexwale told the 12th international housing and home warranty conference at Cape Town's International Convention Centre yesterday.

He said the private sector would have to contribute to the provision of housing for the poor, and that was why he would launch the "each one, settle one" campaign at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Thursday.

The campaign would ask "captains of industry" to "empty their pockets" to build houses, Sexwale said.

He also called on conference delegates to come up with innovative ways to build houses for the poor.

"Talking about good quality products means you don't take the poor for granted. Quite often people build houses, but if it is for the poor the quality tends to be lower."

Sexwale also called for an end to racialised human settlements.

"The task, if we have to be a common people bound by our humanity, is to create a situation in which people can live together."

He also warned that climate change could destroy the work of housing ministers.

Calling for a minute of silence for Kenyan environmental activist and Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai, who died on Sunday morning, Sexwale said "cities are threatened".

"If we continue to emit negative gases into the air ... at this rate ... whatever we plan climate change might negate," he said.

- Sowetan