The title of Minister of Housing changed to Minister of Human Settlements and the present incumbent is Tokyo Sexwale.
Since the very first free elections, housing in South Africa has largely been beset by badly built or nonexistent Reconstruction and Development Programme houses, corrupt contracts or simple pipe dreams. Former Minster Lindile Sisulu promised in Cape Town to build 20 000 houses in three years . . . nope, it was 18 months. Nope, it was 12 months. Anyway, it did not happen – not even 2 000 houses and now she is Minister of Defence, where she can make much bigger promises.
The reason for the change of title to Minister of Human Settlements is, I think, that nobody could dignify the dwellings in which half the population lives as houses and it would probably be politically unwise to have a Ministry of Miserable Shacks and Mansions, as appropriate as this may be.
One has to admire Tokyo S. He is a very busy man. He was very much part of the recent African National Congress disciplinary hearing into the actions of Julius Malema, which function must have rated way above worrying about Human Settlements. He certainly was not present at that most important recent event (in our lives here at home) – the burning down of Morris’s shack.
Morris works for my practice and has four children. All were, fortunately, spared when the youngest child lit the ‘flame stove’ in Morris’s shack in the wrong way and the shack caught alight and burned down.
I did some investigation (after getting the Morris family back in business) and found out this: 95% of shack fires are caused by electrical faults or stoves or lamps. The electrical faults occur since illegal taps to power lines feed a whole series of extension cords strung together to bring power (at a fixed rate) to shack after shack. When the cords overload, they melt and stuff catches fire. In Cape Town, they are quite prepared to supply safe low-cost power connections (even to a shack) but they want the way clear so they can easily service these connections. This doesn’t happen, so it doesn’t happen.
Paraffin lamps get knocked over and . . . well . . . fire.
The simple way forward is this: ask consulting firms around the country to let contracts to build houses which have a low fire load (the self-build houses in Mossel Bay are an excellent example). Contract on open (really open, no rubbish) tender and build houses. Trust me, a trained matriculant could administer this.
As for lights, we have been testing some solar lights which consist of a panel with a battery, a solar panel and lamps. Some of them are good, some not so good. But the good ones we have tested are very good – durable, reliable and simple, and cost about R900 per set of two lamps.
Now, since the power for lighting in shacks is going to be stolen anyway, why do municipalities and Eskom not just buy a whole lot of these and free-issue them to those who need lights? I can let whoever wants see the results of our tests on various solar lights. If they supplied 100 000 solar lights, then, at a cost of R800 each, with each set replacing 120 W of incandescent light, for R80-million you would knock 120 MW off the power system.
Think about it – each of those ghastly wind turbines produces about 2 MW and costs R12-million; the solar lights are a significantly better idea. Will it happen? I am certain not. Our Minister is too busy giving evidence for comrades and being president of the South African-Japanese Business Forum, honorary consul general of Finland in South Africa, honorary colonel in the South African Air Force . . . and Morris, after all, is just a bricklayer. But now a bricklayer with solar lights.
- Engineering News
Since the very first free elections, housing in South Africa has largely been beset by badly built or nonexistent Reconstruction and Development Programme houses, corrupt contracts or simple pipe dreams. Former Minster Lindile Sisulu promised in Cape Town to build 20 000 houses in three years . . . nope, it was 18 months. Nope, it was 12 months. Anyway, it did not happen – not even 2 000 houses and now she is Minister of Defence, where she can make much bigger promises.
The reason for the change of title to Minister of Human Settlements is, I think, that nobody could dignify the dwellings in which half the population lives as houses and it would probably be politically unwise to have a Ministry of Miserable Shacks and Mansions, as appropriate as this may be.
One has to admire Tokyo S. He is a very busy man. He was very much part of the recent African National Congress disciplinary hearing into the actions of Julius Malema, which function must have rated way above worrying about Human Settlements. He certainly was not present at that most important recent event (in our lives here at home) – the burning down of Morris’s shack.
Morris works for my practice and has four children. All were, fortunately, spared when the youngest child lit the ‘flame stove’ in Morris’s shack in the wrong way and the shack caught alight and burned down.
I did some investigation (after getting the Morris family back in business) and found out this: 95% of shack fires are caused by electrical faults or stoves or lamps. The electrical faults occur since illegal taps to power lines feed a whole series of extension cords strung together to bring power (at a fixed rate) to shack after shack. When the cords overload, they melt and stuff catches fire. In Cape Town, they are quite prepared to supply safe low-cost power connections (even to a shack) but they want the way clear so they can easily service these connections. This doesn’t happen, so it doesn’t happen.
Paraffin lamps get knocked over and . . . well . . . fire.
The simple way forward is this: ask consulting firms around the country to let contracts to build houses which have a low fire load (the self-build houses in Mossel Bay are an excellent example). Contract on open (really open, no rubbish) tender and build houses. Trust me, a trained matriculant could administer this.
As for lights, we have been testing some solar lights which consist of a panel with a battery, a solar panel and lamps. Some of them are good, some not so good. But the good ones we have tested are very good – durable, reliable and simple, and cost about R900 per set of two lamps.
Now, since the power for lighting in shacks is going to be stolen anyway, why do municipalities and Eskom not just buy a whole lot of these and free-issue them to those who need lights? I can let whoever wants see the results of our tests on various solar lights. If they supplied 100 000 solar lights, then, at a cost of R800 each, with each set replacing 120 W of incandescent light, for R80-million you would knock 120 MW off the power system.
Think about it – each of those ghastly wind turbines produces about 2 MW and costs R12-million; the solar lights are a significantly better idea. Will it happen? I am certain not. Our Minister is too busy giving evidence for comrades and being president of the South African-Japanese Business Forum, honorary consul general of Finland in South Africa, honorary colonel in the South African Air Force . . . and Morris, after all, is just a bricklayer. But now a bricklayer with solar lights.
- Engineering News
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