Investigators find more cracks at builders' council

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) is investigating further cases of malpractice, irregularities, nepotism and corruption at the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC).

Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale said a "very scandalous and unacceptable thing" had also happened in one of the provinces, which had just started building houses "by themselves".

Sexwale declined to identify the province or provide further details at this stage concerning what had occurred, only saying "we are dealing [with] and focusing on this problem".

Speaking at a briefing on the new members of the NHBRC board, Sexwale said his department had demonstrated its seriousness in dealing with the problem through the gazetting of Proclamation 35 by President Jacob Zuma, which empowered the SIU to conduct its investigations.

"To date, more than 5,000 people have been arrested and charged, companies have been blacklisted, individuals have been publicly humiliated and monies have been recovered."

Sexwale said the human settlements minister had to take responsibility for irregularities conducted by the provinces but stressed money was spent by the provinces and it was only when an audit was done that it was discovered "wrong contracts have been given, wrong tenders issued, favouritism, nepotism and the tsotsiism of public funds" had taken place.

The situation was so bad that "the [chief executive] had to be shown the door", he said in a reference to the recent dismissal of former NHBRC chief executive Sipho Mashinini after he was found guilty by an internal disciplinary hearing on charges of financial misconduct and corruption.

Mashinini was chief executive when the NHBRC offered Vanessa Somiah, who was investigating the organisation for corruption, a job with an annual salary of more than R1 million. The salary was allegedly nearly double her pay as leader of the SIU tasked with probing allegations of corruption in public housing. Somiah was removed from her post in July last year.

Brenda Madumise, the newly appointed chairwoman of the NHBRC board, said the council was "going to be a different organisation" with the new members on its board.

"South Africa is going to get results from us, especially in the subsidy market. That is where there is a lot of outcry and concerns. If it means we lock up people in the provinces who don't enrol projects, we are going to do that.

"Watch this space because it's going to be a rough ride for our colleagues in government as we continue the work we do in the non-subsidy market and deliver on our mandate."

Sexwale referred to the "staggering" R50 billion rectification bill for shoddy workmanship on previously built Reconstruction and Development Programme houses.

Since the NHBRC's establishment it had registered projects, but insufficient work and attention was paid to its core responsibility of regulation to ensure quality workmanship.

Sexwale expressed confidence that the new board members had the necessary understanding and commitment to rectify the serious underperformance of the NHBRC.

Acting chief executive Jeffrey Mahachi said the NHBRC used outsourced inspectors and mobile technology for the non-subsidy sector and had one inspector for every 200 subsidy sector houses under construction.

However, Madumise said quality assurance was core to the NHBRC's business, "warm bodies" were needed to do this and the NHBRC's management had proposed putting a further 400 inspectors on the organisation's books to build capacity to fulfil its core mandate.

- Business Report

Service delivery task team progressing

CAPE TOWN - The City of Cape Town said on Tuesday a task team formed to look at the challenges facing shack-dwellers is making progress.

The team consists of council officials and members of various political parties.

In the past few months Cape Town has been a scene of violent protests. 

Residents from informal settlements all over the Western Cape have protested over the lack of service delivery.

In most of these cases protesters demanded houses, electricity and proper sanitation services.

Most informal settlements do not have working toilets and are forced to use the bucket system.

Demonstrators damaged property belonging to the City of Cape Town totalling millions of rands.

The city's Ernest Sonnerberg said, “We’re currently looking at land issues in terms of ownership and which parts of the land in informal settlements can be developed. We’re assessing the levels of services in informal settlements, where it’s lacking and how it can be improved.”

“The informal settlement task team was established before the service delivery protests started.”

- Eyewitness News

Scene of Struggle heroics renamed

Cape Town - This city road has carved out a place in Cape Town’s Struggle history, connecting one part of the sprawling Gugulethu township to the other.

Many Struggle scenes played themselves out along Gugulethu’s NY1. Residents remember marching in the street, squaring up against police and being sprayed with tear gas.

Others fondly recall how it also came to be known as “Ladies Street”, a road where women went dressed in their best clothing, knowing that everyone would see them as they walked along NY1.

On Monday, on Heritage Day, this road was renamed after one of the Struggle’s greatest icons, Steve Biko. During the apartheid era, Biko used this street as a meeting place.

City mayor Patricia de Lille and Western Cape Premier Helen Zille were joined by Biko’s family in Gugulethu for the official renaming on Tuesday. De Lille praised Biko, as one of the “great leaders” in the “revolution of the mind”.

“Like many great prophets telling great truths, Steve Biko was murdered for his ideas. He was murdered for the power of this revolution.” Zille labelled his death apartheid’s “worst crime” against a single person.

“Apartheid died, but Steve Biko has lived on. It’s so appropriate to name this road after a mind-liberating philosopher like Biko.”

And while Biko was remembered for his writing and his political beliefs around black consciousness, his sister Bandi had the crowd laughing as she remembered her older brother’s antics.

Biko and his siblings were raised just outside King William’s Town.

“He told me I was not my mother’s child, my mother was in an aeroplane. He said that when they received me, they had put a mattress outside to collect me. I remember every time an aeroplane flew past, I would say: “Mommy please don’t pick me up, I really love living with this family,” Biko laughed.

But the young Steve Biko was thoughtful and the two of them often visited the elders in the area.

Biko spoke on the history of Gugulethu and how her brother had been politically active there. She hoped the name change would be a reminder for young people.

Lungiswa James, the city’s mayoral committee member for health and a Gugulethu resident, credited Biko for being instrumental in involving the province in the Struggle, in making many young people aware of the injustices of apartheid.

The road certainly had historical significance, but James added it was also socially the place in which to be seen in Gugulethu.

- Cape Argus

More wild weather for Cape

Cape Town - Cape Town’s hopes that the sunshine was finally arriving were dashed by heavy rain which left more than 750 Cape Flats homes waterlogged on Friday, and the city’s Disaster Risk Management Centre on high alert for more heavy rain.

Nearly 1 600 people were affected by the widespread rain from Thursday night into yesterday, and last night weather forecaster Henning Grobler, from the SA Weather Service, warned that although there would be no more rain today, the weather would take a turn for the worse tomorrow.

The city said in a statement last night that yesterday’s rain saw 30 dwellings flooded and 120 people affected in Nyanga, and a further 40

dwellings flooded and 120 people affected in the Strand.

And in the Strand, 20 babies were also affected by flooding at New Village, and a further 36 babies at Solly’s Town.

In Philippi, illegally dumped rubble blocked stormwater pipes and drains in Section C of the Kosovo informal settlement, resulting in 19 dwellings being flooded, and 70 people forced from their homes.

Flooding in Khayelitsha affected

1 000 people, including 30 babies, who had set up home in 650 dwellings illegally erected in a wetland area.

Disaster Risk Management Centre spokesman Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said last night that their

response teams had assisted victims with hot meals, blankets and plastic sheeting.

He also warned that the SA Weather Service had issued an advisory for very rough seas, with waves of between 4-6m expected in Table Bay and at Cape Agulhas tomorrow.

Grobler confirmed that very strong winds were expected tomorrow, with temperatures of 17-19ºC.

- Weekend Argus

SA among four nations calling for climate commitments

Brazil, South Africa, India and China are urging developed countries to adopt more ambitious goals to reduce global warming.

The four countries form the bloc known as BASIC and representatives on Friday ended a two-day meeting to define a common position ahead of November's United Nations' climate change conference in Doha.

BASIC acts jointly in international climate change meetings.

They say developed nations must assume stronger emission reduction commitments under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol that is aimed at stemming pollution and global warming. It has been opposed by the United States.

Chinese climate negotiator Xie Zenhua told reporters that while "developing countries are committed to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by 70 percent, developed countries are committed to a 30 percent reduction." He says that's insufficient.

- Timeslive

Gugulethu to rename ‘Native Yard’ streets

Cape Town - The first of the offensive Native Yard street names, NY1, will be renamed Stephen Biko Drive on Monday to mark the launch of the “Name your Hood” campaign in Gugulethu.

Mayor Patricia de Lille and Premier Helen Zille will rename NY1 on Heritage Day as the public participation process to change 91 street names and eight “hoods” in Gugulethu is launched.

De Lille and Zille will celebrate with the Biko family at Gugulethu Square as the area sheds its first NY street name and honours the Struggle icon.

In a statement, De Lille said the city’s administration was “committed to redress and reconciliation and to honouring the heroes of our past and the sacrifices they made to realise a democratic South Africa”.

Monday marks the start of a process whereby Gugulethu residents will be invited to give their input into changing the derogatory names that have been given to 91 streets in their area.

Eight zones or “hoods” will also be renamed in Gugulethu.

A door-to-door campaign will take place after the launch and pamphlets will be handed out to residents, explaining how they can submit their street name proposals.

Residents will have the option to submit their proposals manually or via social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Naming committee chairman Brett Herron said previously that the “Name your Hood” campaign was aimed at engaging with the community in a “creative and innovative” way.

After the launch, the voting for name changes will be open for two weeks before the submissions are given to the naming committee to deliberate over.

Last week, members of the naming committee asked that Name Your Hood, who will be running the campaign in Gugulethu, ensure that the youth are educated on the history of the area.

Councillors also asked that community leaders and political activists from the area are consulted on the history of various streets that are up for renaming.

Name Your Hood founder Bruce Good assured the naming committee that they would continue to consult with the various stakeholders in the community about the area’s history and character.

The council is expected to vote on the name changes in Gugulethu in a year’s time.

Last month, the council approved several street name changes which included Coen Steytler Avenue becoming Walter Sisulu Avenue, Hendrik Verwoerd Drive changing to Uys Krige Drive and Modderdam Road being named after Robert Sobukwe.

The proposal to honour Struggle veteran Dullah Omar was scrapped last month when the Omar family did not support the proposal that Vanguard Drive or a portion of Jan Smuts Drive be named after Omar. De Lille said the city would look at another way of honouring Omar.

- Cape Times

Alberta leads the country in growing hemp

 A new and surprising crop is sprouting up around Alberta.

The province leads the country in the number of hectares of industrial hemp – and the numbers are growing. Last year, hemp farmers in the province planted a record 6,434 hectares of the plant, accounting for nearly 41 per cent of the country’s total. According to a CBC Calgary news report, the preliminary estimate for this year is 8,000 hectares in Alberta.

Because of its association with its botanical cousin, cannabis, many farmers eschewed planting hemp for years.

Sorry Troy Media:  Need to point out the botanical cousin to Cannabis is Hops. Hemp is Cannabis. There is no botanical genus hemp. Lets just stick to the truth.

But the times, they are a-changin’. Industrial hemp (which, in case you’re curious, has less than 10 parts per million of the psychoactive drug present in marijuana) is increasingly in demand. Hemp seed is used in food products such as oil and flour, and the hemp fibres make extremely durable cloth.

As well, research is being done in Alberta to use hemp fibre for construction materials. Students at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology are working on developing building panels made out of hemp for a Calgary-based company called Bio-Struct. “We can use it to create a very high-performance structure, which means a very energy-efficient structure as well as high performance in terms of how it deals with moisture and retains heat or cool in the summer,” Bio-Struct President Andrew Mackie told the CBC.

- Troy Media

Khayelitsha Residents March Over Allegations of Housing Corruption

Allegations of corruption in the Nuwe Begin housing project in Blue Downs need to be properly investigated said over 100 residents of nearby Nkqubela informal settlement in TR Section, Khayelitsha.

The Nkqubela residents marched to Blue Downs to protest against 36 of their number having been approved to receive houses at Nuwe Begin, only to find the houses they were allocated were already occupied.

The beneficiaries believe their houses were sold for R1 500 to foreigners and people from other communities.

Beneficiary Thandazile Mhleli, 35, said he was approved to receive a house in the Nuwe Begin housing project.

"For six years I had been living in TR section waiting for a house, but now that I was approved it was given to someone else. First we were told that people with disabilities and old age will be moved first, but there are young people owning houses here," said Mhleli.

Another beneficiary, Ntombokuqala Vazi, 56, said even though elderly and disabled people were supposed to be moved first, he still lived in a wetland.

"I'm disabled but I'm still living in TR, with my papers proving that I have a house here. We want the minister of human settlement to investigate this matter," he said.

Beneficiary Nosivuyise Mhletywa said her approved house has someone else living in it.

"I went to my house after I got a letter stating that I was approved, but I found someone else living there. That person has no proof that she owns my house. She told me that she was put in that house by Simon van Wyk," said Mhletywa.

But van Wyk, who is contracted by the provincial Department of Human Settlements and is in charge of relocating people to Nuwe Begin, said allegations of corruption were "a lie".

"The people I relocated were approved by leaders of the project, including ward councillors."

He said if there was any corruption, ward councillors were to be blamed.

Residents said their concern is that they will never receive their houses.

The residents who marched to Blue Downs handed a memorandum to Human Settlement Department spokesperson Zalisile Mbali, who promised to arrange a meeting with community leaders and Human Settlements MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela.

- allAfrica

WC improves housing demand database

CAPE TOWN - Western Cape Human Settlements MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela on Monday said the provincial government has moved to improve the housing demand database.

The province has a backlog of about 500,000 units.

The Cape Peninsula has been rocked by a series of service delivery protests, some of which were sparked by housing-related complaints.

Limited resources and a growing backlog in the allocation of houses were some of the challenges faced by officials in the province.

But Madikizela told delegates that steps have been taken to improve the situation.

“We invested more than R6 million to ensure that the housing demand database in all the municipalities has integrity in terms of data.”

Western Cape Premier Helen Zille, who also attended the conference, said budgets have to be spent wisely to meet the needs of communities.

Last week, Human Settlement Minister Tokyo Sexwale released a human settlements report.  The document revealed that dozens of South African municipalities are failing in prove basic sanitation in poor areas.

The report was compiled by a ministerial task team set up in 2011. 

In seven Western Cape municipalities, about 100 residents have to share a single toilet.

- Eyewitness News

Alberta farmers cashing in on hemp farms

Many Alberta farmers have taken to hemp to round out their crops and some say they're making a tidy profit.

According to a recent study done by Alberta Agriculture, farmers in the province seeded the most hemp in all of Canada at 6,434 hectares last year.

The preliminary estimate for this year is 8,000 hectares.

"As long as we keep making money we'll keep growing it," says Will Van Rousell.

The Bow Island-area farmer is about to harvest hemp for the third straight year.

He's been contracted to grow the hemp for its seeds, which could be processed into a wide range of products including oil, flour, shampoo and wood sealant. Van Rousell says he's expecting to make three times the amount he would get for wheat.

As for the overwhelming smell from the acres and acres of hemp, Van Rousell says he doesn't mind.

"Well some people don't like it at all. I quite enjoy the smell, so it's fine with me," he said.

New market needed

The Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance says what's needed now is a market for the fibre or straw part of the plant.

"We really just need some industry to step up, and start to put some risk capital in to start to build that business," says Russ Crawford, the alliance's vice president.

Students at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in Calgary are one step ahead as the school is trying to develop building panels made out of hemp for Bio-Struct.

Andrew Mackie, the president of the Calgary-based company, says the panels are an all-natural option for fiberglass or foam insulation.

"We can use it to create a very high-performance structure, which means a very energy-efficient structure as well as high performance in terms of how it deals with moisture and retains heat or cool in the summer," Mackie said.

He also said he’s hoping to start construction on a demonstration hemp house within six months, which is good news for farmers like Van Rousell.

He says most of the plant's straw is waste so he either bails it or burns it. He says the Bio-Struct project is "encouraging."

- CBC

Stones fly as fire team battles blaze

Cape Town - Firefighters who rushed to a shack fire in Khayelitsha early on Sunday came under attack from residents. This was the latest in a string of attacks on rescue and law enforcement personnel in the city.

The firefighters were forced to retreat when residents in the Taiwan settlement hurled stones at them.

City of Cape Town Fire and Rescue Services spokesman, Theo Layne, said that earlier another team of firefighters had been returning from a call at a nearby railway station when they had noticed the smoke in Taiwan.

On arriving, they found the flames had been doused and radioed in the call to the control room.

Firefighters from the Lansdowne and Khayelitsha stations sent two fire engines, a water tanker, a rescue vehicle and 14 staff.

They reported that one shack was destroyed and a man had died, Layne said.

Then there was an updated report: “Members are being stoned, the area is not safe, require SAPS on scene.”

The rescuers retreated but returned shortly before 2am with police escorts to help retrieve the body.

Layne said damage to the fire vehicles was “minor” and none of the firefighters were injured, but the attacks were a big concern.

It was not clear why stones had been thrown he added.

He said that often in arson cases where people set the shacks alight or in service delivery protests, firefighters were not welcome.

“Sometimes it’s a case where the shacks were set alight and they don’t want us to put it out, or they say that we came too late - but when I follow up complaints about being late I usually find that people had dialled the wrong emergency numbers.”

Layne said stoning attacks did not happen that often.

The last attack occurred about three or four months ago in Bonteheuwel where firefighters were stoned during a service delivery protest.

However, he said, the attacks were having an affect on the morale of the firefighters.

“When things like this happen it puts you back a little - you tend to question why am I doing this? When I go out there to help the community and this is the thanks I’m getting?” Layne said.

He said that they held debriefing sessions for the officers who return from volatile situations and they would also refer the matter to the fire and life safety education team which did advocacy work in communities.

More recently, two metro police officers were reported to have been assaulted in Khayelitsha while rescuing two men from a vigilante attack.

The officers had reportedly arrived at BM Section to be met by a mob of about 150 residents - some with sticks and metal pipes.

They had been attacking a man the community had accused of house breaking. Police had reached one of the men when a man in the mob intervened and spurred everyone on. An officer attempted to disperse the crowd by firing a shot in the air.

The metro police officers were not injured during the incident.

Weekend Argus quoted metro police spokeswoman Yolanda Faro as saying communities were not turning against or targeting officers but they would “do anything to punish alleged criminals” - including attacking officers who attempt to defend them.

In May, the Cape Argus reported on paramedics being raped and robbed at gunpoint and lured into ambushes by hoax callers.

In March two paramedics were targeted while treating a drug-overdose patient in the back of an ambulance in Masiphumelele.

A group of men entered and pepper-sprayed the paramedics and robbed them. At the time, provincial ambulance chief Pumzile Papu said that there had already been three reported incidents this year.

- Cape Argus

City Says Majority of Its Budget Aimed At Helping the Poor

While the City of Cape Town announced that it was spending a huge chunk of its budget on improving lives of the poor, chemical toilets in many parts of Khayelitsha will remain for the foreseeable future.

On Thursday Mayor Patricia de Lille and her deputy Ian Neilson reiterated the city's commitment to delivering basic services to the poor, announcing that R10, 8 billion out of their budget of R18 billion focused on direct services spent on the poor.

But despite such efforts, when asked about the use of the bucket system in Khayelitsha's BM section, De Lille said the people there had refused other options saying they preferred the system.

She also said there was no space there to put proper toilets as the area was densely populated and part of the land did not belong to the city but to railfreight agency Transnet.

Neilson denied that it was a bucket system being used but "chemical toilets" which were "very expensive" to run as there were emptied regularly.

Pressed on whether he could install one at his house, he said the ideal situation would be to have flush toilets in every house.

On July 16 the SST community along with the Progressive Youth Movement in Khayelitsha protested against the bucket system saying they wanted "one toilet per household".

The residents, who spilled faeces on Lansdowne Road and barricaded it with burning tyres, also claimed that some residents were falling sick due fumes coming from the chemicals used in the toilets.

They claimed that "hundreds" of toddlers, children and the elderly were being infected with TB and diarrhea due to using the system.

Residents of France informal settlement in Site B were also up in arms in July against the bucket system.

During her address, De Lille said about 1,9 million Capetonians every month benefited from the city's "basket of free basic services" which included free water, electricity, sanitation and refusal removal.

On health Neilson said the city provided free basic health care to "all residents" and of the total health spend of R798 million, R681 was targeted for the poor.

On housing, he said the city had allocated almost its entire budget (99,1%) on pro-poor housing programmes (It allocated R1,449 billion out of its budget of R1,461 billion).

De Lille said she was prepared to meet and discuss service delivery issues with the ANC but not with the ruling party's youth league which has recently organized two protests on service delivery and marched on Premier Helen Zille's office threatening to make the city ungovernable.

She said she was also encouraging ANC councillors in the city to ask critical questions on service delivery.

De Lille conceded that some of the people who were protesting in the townships had genuine concerns and the city was prepared to improve their lot.

- allAfrica

Sexwale's State of the Nation

Count me as a mischievous journo, possibly with too much time on his hands, prone to staring at my navel and fishing for issues, but Tokyo Sexwale's recent briefing to the Human Settlements Parliamentary Portfolio Committee smacked of a mini-State of the Nation address (SONA) or, at the very least, a dry run of sorts. He held a boardroom in the palm of his hands as he gave his synopsis of the country.

Cynically his words became quote-a-minute, replete with drama, dressed up in his characteristic baritone voice, delivering scenes of future-case scenarios dripping in dystopianism, which, some would argue (most of them from within the belly of that beast the ANC) amount to nothing more than surreptitious campaigning. But cynicism (mine included) aside, his reflections on how dysfunctional government has become was refreshing.

"Something is simmering that we must be able to take action to address, so that we don't have other Marikanas," warned Sexwale, a remark almost certain to be included in quotes of the week.

Soon his 'home truths' as he put it, started looking like a State of the Nation in reverse. I say this because when presidents usually deliver their (executive) summaries of the state of a country expect flowery quotes, saccharine obsequiousness, mangled rationality and mind numbing rhetoric.

Want to hear some more of Sexwale's topsy-turvy SONA? He had loads more to say. "The Marikanas will keep on repeating themselves over and over until we crumble," the wannabe Commander-in Chief lamented. I scanned the boardroom for signs of life in MPs as Sexwale spilled over with uncomfortable honesty. A stifled cringe appeared on the face of one member (was it the tuna croissant which wasn’t sitting well?). Reporters smiled, excited by the quality of the quotes which could jostle and compete for paper space.

Most listened in genuine rapt attention. Sexwale had them. His 'home truths' seemed more like a backdrop to a president-in-waiting, a leader (of sorts) flexing his muscles in the run-up to (can you guess?) Mangaung.

From Marikana to the arms deal, Sexwale deftly drew parallels between how wrong the state can get it and how it needs to find direction. Was he the captain who was going to steer the ship back onto course?  "It has come back to haunt us (the arms deal). It has caused such a lot of disquiet," he fretted. He added, "If you think it is disassociated from the problem (of sanitation provision problems) you'd be wrong."

He went on to virtually wail, if only a quarter of the money spent on the abortion of an arms deal was spent on things like housing for the poor we wouldn't have the problems we see today. Half an hour passed and Sexwale was still not done, sketching a country in distress. His intention was by that stage very clear - he was coming to save South Africa. "To Blame Apartheid is no longer wisdom," he said, "it's gone. The task now rests with us."

Virtually everything he said could be applied to some aspect of the country's woes. From housing and sanitation, to service protests and strikes, Sexwale was laying it out - an uncomfortable scenario of government failures, set against the shading of a presidential campaign race.

His campaign for the heart, soul and small intestine of the ANC of course didn't start in that committee room in parliament last Friday. Sexwale has been eyeing the leadership of the ruling party and by proxy the country for years. I recall in the run up to the ANC's Polokwane conference, Sexwale addressed students in Johannesburg, where he let rip with the usual politicking, complete with promises of delivery, assurances of not rocking the boat with radical policy changes and views on how things would be awesome and amazing if only he was the boss. We know how that turned out for him and now he's having another bite. Was it Sexwale’s Mangaung Campaign Version 2.0 we witnessed in parliament last Friday? Methinks, absolutely!

As he hammered on 'home truths' as a backdrop to the release of the findings of a sanitation audit carried out by a ministerial task team, a more apt setting one would struggle to find! Like the provision of basic sanitation needs for the poor, which was itself in the poo (forgive me this crude pun for I can't resist) too many other aspects of government delivery was going down the toilet (probably of the 'open air' persuasion as seen in Makhaza). But whether Sexwale is truly, genuinely willing to get his hands dirty in fixing the problems, remains to be seen?

- Eyewitness News

Sexwale to probe into 'stink' report

Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale says he will request the Special Investigating Unit to probe the “stink” of corruption and financial irregularities found by the special ministerial sanitation task team.

He was in Parliament to present the task team report, which has been embargoed until it is tabled at next week’s cabinet meeting, after many delays and the failure of its chairwoman, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, to present the report.

Madikizela-Mandela was again absent from yesterday’s meeting.

Sexwale said the report had revealed “sloppy work by people who should have known better”.

“It is clear there have been some people who have taken advantage of this government, some people who thought we were an ATM just to corrupt,” he said. “They are stealing from the poor.”

Speaking to journalists later, Sexwale said the department had consistently taken action against its own officials, including sacking the head of the unit responsible for distributing houses last year.

He said a presidential proclamation first gazetted in 2005 empowered the SIU to investigate and recommend prosecutions relating to housing, resulting in widespread interference by provincial and municipal employees who had rigged processes relating to the allocation of RDP houses.

This proclamation was expanded in 2009 to also include investigations into contractors for the department, as well as units which fell under its jurisdiction such as the National Homebuilders Regulatory Council.

Complicating monitoring and evaluation of the roll-out of housing and sanitation is the disbursement of funds to provinces and municipalities, and the co-ordination of these efforts with the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs.

Responsibility for the roll-out of sanitation was also moved from the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs to Human Settlements in 2009, and further infrastructure development takes place through the presidential infrastructure co-ordinating commission, headed by Minister of Economic Development Ebrahim Patel.

Sexwale emphasised yesterday that Patel and Rural and Land Affairs Minister Gugile Nkwinti were committed to sanitation and housing backlogs, saying a rural infrastructure “masterplan” was set to be unveiled in November.

The sanitation task team report sets out once again the country’s enormous sanitation backlogs, including a ratio of one toilet for every 10 households in Gauteng and how the Popo Molefe settlement in the North West has 1000 residents sharing only six mobile toilets, cleaned only twice a week.

In the Western Cape, there is only one toilet for every 100 households, the report says.

MPs endorsed the decision to bring in the SIU, unanimously enjoining the minister to act decisively.

The task team report has, however, been criticised as being scant on details on how the department intends acting on backlogs, with DA spokesman on human settlements Stevens Mokgalapa saying yesterday it was “quite sad” that the much-delayed report had not even been seen by MPs yet.

He said the information on the backlogs was not new, and so committee members wanted to see “what the department is going to do and when”.

The task team was established in September last year after the sagas around open toilets in the Western Cape, Free State and Mpumalanga. - Saturday Star

Govt aims to end 2.5 million toilet shortage

Sanitation will take centre stage in government's infrastructure build programme, Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale told Parliament on Friday.

Tabling a summary of the long-awaited report of the Ministerial Sanitation Task Team (MSST) to the portfolio committee on human settlements, Sexwale said the document revealed the neglect government had subjected its people to since 1994.

According to the report, the sanitation backlog in the country currently stood at 2,5 million toilets.

The task team, set up by Sexwale last year following reports of toilet woes in Western Cape, the Free State and Mpumalanga, said the backlog had been halved from five million in 1994.

"It's a critical basic need, the first line of dignity of any human being that we take for granted as we open taps in our houses and as you flush toilets.

"We do this so easily, without realising other people have to hide behind a tree or stand out in the open," Sexwale said.

Provincial visits by members of the MSST showed the ratio of households to toilets in municipalities in all nine provinces.

There was one toilet for every 100 households in the Western Cape following a visit to seven municipalities in the province, the biggest being the City of Cape Town.

In Gauteng, it was established that on average one toilet was shared by 10 households, after visits to three metros, two district municipalities and seven local councils.

The MSST proposed various actions required to solve the toilet problem.

These included the need for better co-ordination and a national plan to tackle the problem.

Sexwale told MPs that a "Water and Sanitation Master Plan" was being developed by the Presidential Infrastructure Co-ordinating Commission.

"The first thing for common people, the first infrastructure before a road and airport and all these things, even before a house, is a toilet."

The minister re-iterated that Cabinet had bought into a paradigm shift, by including sanitation in the major infrasture projects to be rolled out over the next few years.

"It (sanitation ) is Strategic Infrastructure Project (SIP) number 18. It's going to require more money than most other projects. The billions that are required for this are staggering."

Sexwale later questioned government's budget priorities since 1994, including the money spent on the arms deal.

He said social unrest would continue if money was spent unwisely and basic services were not provided.

"These are the symptoms of what insurrections are made of."

He said the bucket system, which was still very evident in South Africa, needed to be addressed immediately, or this could spill over into unrest.

"The Marikanas will repeat itself over and over in this country, until we crumble, if you don't address that first line... sanitation with clean running water... now that's dignity."

The full sanitation report would be made public after being tabled to Cabinet next week.

Sexwale dedicated the report to the young people of Makaza in Khayelitsha and the women of Moqhaka in the Free State, who had to make use of un-enclosed toilets. The "toilet-saga", as it became known, made national headlines after communities protested the indignity they suffered by having not being afforded privacy while using toilets.

- Sowetan

The shape of our cities to come

Some of the world's most innovative and respected thinkers on urbanism and architecture are in Cape Town for the Architecture ZA 2012 Biennial to share their views on the need for, as the conference has put it, "rescripting architecture".

These are challenging times with economies, resources and even governments under threat. Global connectivity and rapid human migration to cities in developing countries is a key factor. An estimated three-quarters of the world's population will be urbanised by 2050; they will require natural resources, education, healthcare, water, electricity, food and other products.

What will these cities of 2050 look like? Will they be slums with pockets of defended enclaves for the wealthy?

Cities are the most fertile fields of economic, social and cultural exchange, and creativity. They are highly efficient and effective environments for the conversion of resources into opportunity and ­productivity and thus are powerful contributors to achieving human potential. Cities spark innovation and innovation fuels economic growth.

By this definition, South African cities are not real cities. For all these elements to come together, at least four attributes are required: density, diversity, connectivity and public space. They make the provision of infrastructural services, education, healthcare, social amenity and accessible economic opportunity viable and self-sustainable.

Pre-colonial ancestors

On these four conditions, our cities rank dismally low. We do not have a heritage of cities. Our pre-colonial ancestors were mainly nomadic and there was a direct relationship between resource supply and consumption.

European settlers did make dense, diverse, connected and vibrant cities, but apartheid's divide-and-rule blocked these defining attributes and their benefits. Cities were systematically dismembered, with blacks forced out and whites enticed to live in low-density areas far from economic cores. Sprawl grew, functions were zoned separately, movement routes co-opted for control and public space effectively outlawed. This is the geography of apartheid.

Since 1994, property investment and development have entrenched this trend. Greenfield or agricultural land is released for low-density single use – isolated residential, commercial and retail pockets. One result is massive expenditure on otherwise unnecessary transport infrastructure. Today, the average South African spends up to 30% of his or her income on simply moving about, driving up production costs and reducing international competitiveness. Working families rise hours before dawn to travel to work or school.

But the scale of this dysfunction is also the scale of the opportunity.  This is the attitude and focus of the biennial.

As a developing country, South Africa still has a population that is mostly rural, although this is rapidly changing. If the pressure of urban influx is managed properly, we can ramp up economic, social and cultural productivity. We can deliver a "better life for all" because government policy and programmes and the private sector response will be in an enabling context.

City cores will increase in value and become more mixed in use, meaning people can get rapidly from one activity to the next, consuming less energy. With greater density, public transport becomes viable because the people who use it also pay for it directly. On a macro-scale, the result would be huge increases in productivity, social health and cohesion. At the grassroots level, there would be a better quality of life for those who would have shorter distances to travel between home, school, clinic, shop and work.

We would not be the first to do this. Brazil and Mexico orchestrated this sort of strategic urban planning, delivering cities that are much more vital, efficient and effective than ours. They created urban spaces where people of all backgrounds intermingle and connect. They elevated diverse cultures, the arts and even foods into symbols of national unity.

unAfrican

Some in South Africa believe we are different, that cities are "­unAfrican" and we are "people of the land". But we do not have to choose between the two. We can make ­cities specifically for "people of the land". Many people are facing a crisis of survival and, given the ­massive inefficiency of ongoing sprawl, we have to make proper cities.

What is the African city? This is one of the things to be discussed at the biennial. Perhaps it means a city in which residents continue to produce their own food, in which we produce and sell traditional medicines in street markets and public space is designed for and dignifies traditional practices. Residential buildings could be designed to accommodate extended families.

The component parts, like the electronics in an i-Pod, must be defined and arranged relative to each other for maximum efficiency and maximum opportunity – in other words, a system.  

Conferences such as the biennale are critical for this, as are the government and the private sector. Thus, more than any other office-bearer, Minister of Human Settlements Tokyo Sexwale is in the position of deciding whether we are to have healthy cities that promote quality of life and economic growth, or ones that continue with the current failing machine.

Sexwale's portfolio could move us towards "the systemic city", one of critical mass density, easy and affordable accessibility to all amenities, vibrant and super-productive micro-scale connectivity and a kind of public space in which we meet and get to know each other. Rescript our settlement pattern and we will rescript our future.

Andrew Makin is a ­founding partner of the Durban-based designworkshop:sa, which is ­associated with buildings such as the Constitutional Court in ­Braamfontein, Johannesburg

- M&G

‘Innovative, sexy’ way of renaming streets

Cape Town - Road renaming will be done a bit differently in Gugulethu, using an “innovative, sexy way” to rid Cape Town of the Native Yard street names.

The “Name Your Hood” campaign kicks off at Gugulethu Square on Heritage Day. Residents will be able to have their say in renaming 91 streets and eight “hoods”.

The Name Your Hood concept proved popular when it was launched to name pockets of the city’s CBD.

Now it makes its way to Gugulethu. This project will be managed by the city’s public participation unit, with Name Your Hood acting as the service provider. Schools, churches, businesses and residents will be roped in to give their input.

Speaking at the naming committee meeting on Wednesday, Ruché Daniels, acting manager of the city’s public participation, said the campaign ushered in a new way for renaming city streets.

“This will become the city’s process afterwards, we will use this in future renaming projects because it does add value to public participation,” said Daniels.

Committee chairman Brett Herron said it was a new way of engaging with the community”.

“It’s an innovative, young and sexy campaign… it’s an exciting way of approaching people,” said Herron.

Bruce Good, founder of Name Your Hood, explained the process to the committee on Wednesday.

Following the Heritage Day launch, there will be door-to-door visits.

Pamphlets will be distributed and votes can be submitted manually. Residents can also log their input online.

There will be a two-week voting period. All responses will be brought back to the naming committee.

- Cape Argus

26 arrested after Touws River protest

Cape Town - Twenty-six people were arrested during a service delivery protest at a Touws River informal settlement, Western Cape police said on Tuesday.

Lieutenant-Colonel Andrè Traut said the group would appear in court once charged.

“The situation is under control with no further acts of violence this morning (Tuesday). However the area is being monitored,” he said.

Hundreds of Zion Park residents gathered near the N1 highway from 5am on Monday, burning tyres and throwing rocks.

The Cape Times reported that a portion of the highway remained closed until 2pm on Monday as rocks had to be cleared from the road.

Community leader Michael Visagie told the newspaper residents were promised housing and other services at a community meeting last week.

“We are prepared to die. We will not stop protesting until our demands are met. We were promised formal houses, flush toilets, tarred roads, electricity and running water and we want these promises fulfilled.”

Breede River Valley municipality manager, Gerrit Matthyse, said the protest was largely due to residents' frustration at being on a housing waiting list for 20 years. About 25 000 people were on the list. - Sapa

Cops, protesters in N1 pitched battle

Cape Town - Tear gas, rubber bullets and a water cannon were used to quell a service delivery protest in Touws River on Monday when hundreds of residents forced the closure of the N1, which stayed closed for most of the day and was reopened early on Monday night.

N1 protest turns violent - PICS       

The Zion Park community was protesting about a lack of services on a piece of municipal land they had invaded a year ago. They have threatened to continue protesting until their demands are met.

Five people were arrested and many were hit by rubber bullets. The police also used “blanks” to fire at people.

By late morning, police reinforcements arrived with a water cannon, which was used to blast the protesters with blue-coloured water.

The protest was prompted following a fire which killed a family of three last week.

Community leader Michael Visagie said residents’ simmering anger erupted because they felt their voices were not being heard.

Municipal manager Gerrit Matthyse, however, said the municipality was in constant negotiations with Zion Park residents and that the protest had taken it by surprise.

On Monday, burning tyres and large stones littered the N1 as residents clashed with police. By Monday afternoon more than 1,000 people had joined the protest.

The N1 was closed early on Monday morning on both sides of the road. Vehicles were backed up for 10 to 15 kilometres, awaiting the re-opening of the roads – primarily heavy trucks, for which the N1 is the country’s main haulage artery.

Provincial traffic chief Kenny Africa said the road had been reopened at 2pm, but an hour later police were forced to close it again.

“There is no alternative route so people are stranded, traffic is backed up by 10 to 15 kilometres on both sides,” he said.

There have been scores of service delivery protests across the province this year, many of them violent and destructive.

On Monday, President Jacob Zuma said at the SA Local Government Association (Salga) national conference in Midrand that SA had achieved far more in 18 years in service delivery than any other country.

He said government successes in service delivery were lost in the hurly-burly of competitive politics and non-delivery of services often had to do with problems inherited from apartheid.

The Institute for Security Studies warned that if violent protests were allowed to continue over a prolonged period, they had the potential to spread and develop into a fully-fledged revolt.

Johan Burger, of the ISS, said that according to SAPS there were 8,004 “crowd management” incidents in 2004/5, of which 622 were “unrest” incidents requiring direct intervention – arrests and the use of force.

In 2011/12 the number of crowd management incidents escalated by almost 38 percent to 11 033 incidents, while the number of “unrest” related incidents rose by more than 75 percent to 1 091 cases.

“There are indications that these so-called unrest incidents are not only on the rise, but that they are becoming increasingly violent,” Burger said.

The ward councillor for the area, Patrick Smith, said they had been chased away two weeks ago when he, Matthyse and a contractor arrived at the settlement to install 14 chemical toilets and 14 taps.

“They are wrong. This is the first community saying no to chemical toilets,” he said.

Smith said installing water toilets would be fruitless and wasteful expenditure as a housing plan needed to be finalised.

A year ago, 80 families moved on to the vacant municipal land and built shacks next to a refuse station.

Last week a pregnant woman, her four-year-old son and her husband died in a fire when their shack caught alight. By the time a fire engine came from Worcester, it was too late to save them.

ANC PR councillor Joseph Januarie said certain areas, such as Zion Park, were being neglected.

“People have a right to protest and to be listened to. There is no basic services and the DA-led municipality must give answers,” Januarie said.

Matthyse said there were people who had been waiting for between 15 and 20 years for houses.

Zion Park, he said, was a newly established informal settlement, but 10 hectares of land had been identified for housing.

“There has been constant communication between the municipality and the community. They refused temporary toilets and the stand pipes and wanted a flush toilet for every family,” Matthyse said.

Visagie said about 1,000 people were living in Zion Park.

“There used to be another informal settlement on this piece of land and it had flushing toilets. Why can’t we also have water toilets? That was the agreement with the municipality,” he said.

Zion Park residents used the bush to relieve themselves and there were four taps, Visagie said.

- Cape Argus

Huge housing development for Cape

Cape Town - The largest integrated housing development scheme ever in the Western Cape will be officially unveiled next month, a construction company said on Monday.

“A show village is already under construction. The public will be invited to a launch scheduled for Saturday, October 13 when they’ll be able to inspect show houses,” Power Construction spokesman Dennis Cruywagen said.

A total of 3,200 housing units would be built in the Zeekoeivlei, Grassy Park, and Strandfontein area in Cape Town over the next five years.

The new development would be split into three units, On The Vlei, New Horizons, and Pelican Park, and would be spread over 80 hectares.

Councillor Ernest Sonnenberg, mayoralcommittee member for human settlements, said: “We’re proud to launch this project as one of the City of Cape Town's first integrated developments that crosses different ranges of affordability. We’re glad to be part of this historic project.”

Chairman and founder of the Power Group, Graham Power, said getting involved in the project was a chance to give something back to Capetonians.

“Building affordable housing is not very profitable, but this is not about money. This is about giving back.

“Nothing beats seeing the excitement on the face of someone who has never owned a house when they receive a key which says you now have your own roof over your head.” - Sapa

Zuma attributes service delivery protests to lack of communication

The economic viability of municipalities has come under the spotlight at a special congress of the South African Local Government Association in Midrand. An Auditor-General report into the state of local government has revealed that more than half of municipalities are in financial trouble.

Failure to deliver has led to a wave of service delivery protests. President Jacob Zuma has attributed the protests to lack of proper communication.

“Where government had said a particular service would be provided, leaders or officials need to return to the people to explain that there would be delays in case of any, and how long the delays would take.   It is important to keep communities informed of the developments so that they are not kept guessing and they are not influenced by wrong people because they have no information,” says Zuma.

Zuma has instructed municipalities to adhere to basic human rights principles by providing social amenities that do not demean the dignity of people.

He was reacting to the outcry against the construction of open toilets. Zuma urged all spheres of government to set minimum standards of decency in the provision of services.

“It is unacceptable to provide services to our people that are demeaning to them.  Open toilets, bucket toilets and building houses which have toilets outside only, have no place in a caring democracy which is premised on the promotion of human rights.”

Dlodlo has declared September Public Service Month

Government says it's to intensify its monitoring of the functioning of local administration. Public Service and Administration's Ayanda Dlodlo has declared September Public Service Month as part of government's efforts to improve the delivery of basic services.

During the month, the late minister of the department Roy Padayachie will be honoured for his efforts to encourage professionalism among public servants. As service delivery protests escalate, Dlodlo says citizens need more platforms on which to express their concerns.

- SABC

Riots close N1

The Cape’s most important freeway – the N1 – was closed before dawn today when protesters in De Doorns staged protests, apparently around service delivery.

From around 5am, the road at the foot of the Hex River Pass was littered with rocks and burning tyres.

The N1 was shut and traffic was diverted to alternative routes via Robertson and the R62 in the Klein Karoo.

Around 200 to 250 people gathered at the BP petrol station near De Doorns.

On both sides of the road vehicles queued for kilometres, awaiting the reopening of the highway.

The vehicles were primarily heavy trucks, for which the N1 is the country’s main haulage artery.

At least 50 trucks were queueing in both directions. The protests prompted a strong police response, but by mid-morning there appeared to be a stalemate – with the protesters showing no signs of moving from their position on the N1 and the police making no attempt to remove them with conventional crowd-control equipment such as water cannons.

The crowd of protesters appeared to be growing slowly, although there were no signs of negotiation between police and the protesters.

Some of the protesters said they were upset at the poor standard of housing in the area, as well as the lack of job opportunities for locals, as they claimed there was a preference for Worcester residents.

There also seemed to be dissatisfaction with the DA councillor in the area, with calls being made for the official to be removed.

- Cape Argus

Madonsela meets opposition parties over RDP tenders

Corruption in the awarding of tenders for RDP houses topped the agenda as Public Protector Thuli Madonsela held a meeting with leaders of opposition parties.

Madonsela's office said in a statement that she had a meeting with the leaders on Friday where she gave feedback on the issues raised by people during her stakeholder dialogues and public hearings across the country.

The dialogues sought public inputs on a systemic investigation into Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) housing and alleged regulatory failures regarding the illegal conversion of panel vans into taxis, Madonsela's office said on Saturday.

Members of the public were also asked to make representations on other service delivery matters that affected them.

On the RDP housing, Madonsela identified major complaints as planning, procurement, allocation and poor infrastructure plans before construction.

She said many settlements were built without basic facilities such as water, sanitation, electricity and roads.

"In one province we found settlements without water, sanitation and electricity for up to eight years. Not very far away, there was a settlement with only toilets that had running water but no houses or occupants," she told opposition leaders.

"A lot of procurement complaints point to endemic irregular and even corrupt procurement practices and fraud, including false billing in relation to quality assurance and invoicing."

Other complaints about RDP houses included allocation to older persons, child-headed homes and back-room dwellers.

Communities also complained about RDP houses not being user-friendly to people with disabilities.

Madonsela received complaints about the illegal conversion of panel vans which seemed to point fingers at government, car dealers and banks.

She announced that she was planning to meet Santaco (SA National Taxi Council) on this and other taxi industry concerns.

Other issues brought to her attention were bad conduct of police, health workers and traditional leaders.

She said her office was already investigating some of the allegations brought forward.

The opposition parties applauded the Madonsela for the proactive promotion of good governance, particularly the act of giving organs of state an opportunity to remedy problems without an investigation.

The parties committed themselves to joining hands with her to end maladministration.

A voices and views report would be released which would present what people said.

Madonsela would also meet banks and cell phone companies to conduct outstanding inspections.

- Timeslive

Joe Slovo residents protest this morning, furious at HDA corruption

Joe Slovo residents will be protesting in Langa outside the newly built N2 Gateway houses this morning from 8am onwards. Media and other supporters are requested to attend.

Abahlali kwaLanga Temporary Relocation Area (TRA) have been fighting their own battles against corruption by committee members and the Housing Development Agency (HDA) with regard to the allocation of TRAs and RDP houses for residents. Now, it seems that Joe Slovo residents in Langa are also furious at their own community leadership and the HDA.

Yesterday we found out that they accuse HDA of selling the new houses built for Joe Slovo residents to outsiders who are not from the community. They also accuse their own leadership of making sure that they are the first ones to received housing in this phase of the N2 Gateway housing project - before anyone else from the community receives their long promised houses.

If residents' accusations are true, it would mean that the entire N2 Gateway project is once again hopelessly corrupt. (Remember the previous attempted forced removal of Joe Slovo residents to Delft and the corruption in housing allocation in Delft communities such as Tsunami?)

Representatives from Abahlali baseMjondolo KwaLanga TRA will be joining Joe Slovo residents this morning in solidarity and to find out what exactly their grievances are. We will see if we can make common cause with our brothers and sisters in Joe Slovo.

For more information, contact:

Tumi @ 0835363604

MPs hear of 'expensive' pit toilets

The public services select committee has heard building pit toilets in rural areas is an expensive and problem-plagued business.

Building pit toilets in rural areas is an expensive and problem-plagued business, MPs heard on Tuesday.

According to figures tabled before Parliament's public services select committee, it has cost on average about R7,500 to build each of more than 35,000 so-called ventilated pit latrines (VIPs) in rural municipalities the past two financial years.

The total spent directly on building these VIPs during 2010/11 and 2011/12 was R267-million.

Briefing members, human settlements chief sanitation director Phillip Chauke said the countrywide sanitation backlog, in April last year, was just over 2.4-million households.

Noting that the backlog in 1994 had been more than five million households, he told members: "We have had remarkable progress."

According to a document tabled at the briefing – essentially a progress report on the provision of sanitation in terms of government's four-year, R1.2-billion Rural Household Infrastructure Programme (RHIP) – a total of 11,652 VIPs were installed in 2010/11.

A further 24,089 were installed last year (2011/12). The total RHIP budget allocated over this two-year period was R331.5-million, of which – according to Chauke – a total of about R267-million was spent "directly" on VIPs.

Up to 53 rural municipalities in seven provinces (not included in the programme are Gauteng and Western Cape municipalities) had benefited from the programme in the past financial year (2011/12).

Human settlements sanitation director Cyprian Mazubana told the committee that the department had selected municipalities deemed the "most needy" to be included in the programme.

The RHIP budget for the current (2012/13) financial year is R479.5 million. Chauke said the target number of rural VIP latrines to be built this year was 53,266, a figure one-and-a-half times more than the programme has achieved in total over the past two years.

The difference between a VIP and an ordinary pit latrine is the former includes a mesh-capped ventilation pipe to reduce odour and kill flies. Chauke said that among problems facing the programme was that the two "implementing agents" appointed to build the VIPs could neither cope with the scale of the programme, nor achieve the targets set.

The two agencies are the Independent Development Trust and the Mvula Trust. Chauke said that after negotiations with them the programme was now being opened up to other contractors.

According to the briefing document: "[The department] is currently in the process of allocating approximately 40% [of the] balance of the 2012/13 budget to tender for additional implementing agents to be added to the programme."

This amounts to about R200-million of the R479.5-million budget allocated for the year. Chauke said another problems was the inability of many of the municipalities involved to remove sludge and maintain the VIPs, which have an average five-to-eight year life span before they are full and unusable.

This was adding to the sanitation backlog problem. Further problems besetting the programme included difficulties in procuring building material, difficult ground conditions, and "excessive rainfall" in some areas, he said.

According to the national department – which assumed responsibility for sanitation from water affairs in November 2009 – there are 12.25-million "households" in South Africa spread across 68,000 "settlements". The bulk (87%) of these settlements are in rural areas, home to about 40% of the country's 50.6-million people. 

– Sapa

Beneficiary denied access to his house

Returning from the Eastern Cape after spending about a year recuperating from an illness, a Khayelitsha resident found he was barred from moving into an RDP house to which he is the legal beneficiary.

Phikolomzi Tyose, 37, said his house, a unit in the Mzimhlophe Housing project, was completed in May this year while he was still recuperating in the Eastern Cape and he asked a friend of his, Bongani Magatyana, to get his keys and look after the house following its completion.

However, while he was still in the Eastern Cape in July, he received a call from Magatyana telling him that people claiming to be from Sanco, had forced him out of the house and taken the keys.

“While I was in Eastern Cape I got a call from Bongani … saying community members, including leaders, are demanding the keys of my house because I did not follow their procedure.

“When I got here they (community leaders) refused to give me my keys. I have to ask friends for a place to stay even though I have a house,” said Tyose.

Magatyana said a group “of about 100 people” came to the house while he was busy painting it and demanded the keys.

He said the group accused Tyose of not following residents’ procedure.

“They said he (Tyose) was supposed to tell them if I was going to move into the house. But what I did not understand is that Tyose informed some of the people about me. He told them that I was going to keep his house while he was away.”

A resident who did not want to give her name said the Sanco task team was “terrorising the area”.

Some of us are still waiting for our houses to be built because they stopped the project. This house belongs to Tyose but I don’t know why they kept his keys.”

Sanco branch chairperson Monde Macheliso denied Sanco had anything to do with the matter.

“What these people are doing has nothing to do with Sanco, but we will fight this corruption,” said Macheliso.

The task team committee member, Ncediswa Krwece, who is accused of holding Tyose’s keys said she had nothing to do with the keys, which were held by “community members”.

“Community members took the keys not me. I was not even there when the keys were taken. Tyose must stop disrespecting me or I will beat him, I’m tired of being accused by him. For the last time I know nothing about the keys,” said Krwece.

Sanco Peninsula Regional Deputy Secretary Bongikhaya Qhama said people were using Sanco’s name “to do their dirty things”.

“We cannot allow that,” he said.

Qhama said there was prove that the house belongs to Tyose and he suspected that the people who confiscated his keys were planning to sell the house.

Human Settlement MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela’s spokesperson, Bruce Oom, said there were allegations of fraud where people were selling houses that did not belong to them, but proof was needed.

Oom said the matter will be investigated.

- Westcape News