Sexwale slated over housing

TWO housing rights organisations have called on Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale to withdraw talk of a possible "cut-off date" for free housing.

The National Informal Settlements of South Africa (NISSA) organisation and Abahlali baseMjondolo (shack dwellers' movement) said Sexwale's statement, made last week, was a recipe for "uncontrolled protests".

Last week Sexwale told an international conference in Cape Town that the government was discussing an end to free housing.

"There has to be a cut-off date. We are discussing that. But you can't cut off the poor right now, particularly in the current national economic environment. We can't sustain what we are doing for a long time" he said.

NISSA president Phumelele Ntshiqela, who is also Congress of the People MP, said he had been flooded with complaints from his organisation's members since Sexwale made the statement.

"Sexwale must withdraw his statement. People are fuming over it," Ntshiqela said, "If the government cannot build houses or deliver services, what do we have a government for? Housing people is sustainable because it creates jobs and restores dignity. We will fight this decision and it is not going to happen."

Abahlali baseMjondolo Western Cape chairman Mzonke Poni, who yesterday completed a three-day fast in protest against the housing shortage, said the government should have held public hearings before discussing an end to free housing.

"If they open this for public comment the government will see it has no support at all," Poni said. "The state is already failing to build houses for the poor and now they want a cut-off date. Then, again, when people occupy unused pieces of land they unleash the police against us. We cannot accept an announcement that will see people move from bad to worse."

Rhodes University political science lecturer Richard Pithouse backed the organisations and said the government had to continue providing housing until everyone was housed.

"If Sexwale thinks providing housing is negotiable he is completely out of touch with the realities of South Africa," Pithouse said.

- Sowetan