su-Zuma DIY because anybody can

Nkaandlaa Heh heh hey HAAAi

Cape Town Stadium: FIFA icon or albatross

Cape Town - An albatross around the necks of ratepayers, or a valuable and iconic asset? The Cape Town Stadium, running at an annual loss of about R40 million, was described as both during Tuesday’s full council meeting where it was agreed that the current management plan should be extended by a year to June 2016.

Councillors alluded to the recent Fifa corruption scandal during their debate on the stadium’s future, with Andre Fourie of the Freedom Front Plus saying that Fifa president Sepp Blatter took billions of rands out of the country, leaving Cape Town and other municipalities with massive bills for the stadiums that were built.

He said the consortium of Stade de France and the local SAIL Group pulled out if its management agreement with the city soon after the World Cup when it realised the stadium would never be filled to capacity.

Fourie said it was unlikely that the formation of a municipal entity to manage the stadium would be the panacea the city needed to make the facility financially viable.

“This albatross - despite the thousands that it cost the city to build - is costing ratepayers in unaffordable monthly operational and maintenance costs.”

Fourie said the only way the city could avoid any further financial loss was by selling the stadium to SA Rugby for R1.

“Acknowledge that the stadium was a mistake. Accept that you are not going to make it commercially viable without an anchor tenant. Cut your losses - and the albatross around the neck of Cape Town’s ratepayers - and offer the stadium to Newlands for R1.”

Demetrius Qually, of the DA, said that although the Fifa scandal had tarnished the World Cup legacy, the stadium remained a valuable and iconic asset.

There was also “justifiable” concern about the long-term viability of the stadium. However, the business plan being finalised, which included the lifting of restrictive environmental conditions, would make it sustainable.

“We are confident that the stadium and Green Point Urban Park can be both viable and financially sustainable,” said Qually.

Grant Haskin, of the African Christian Democratic Party, agreed that the management of the stadium had to continue without interruption while the business plan was being finalised.

But he said the city had been promising “stadium profitability” since 2009. “How then can one blame irate ratepayers for their calls to rather demolish the stadium instead of wasting their money? What was a proud moment in Cape Town’s history has become a furious embarrassment for the city and its people.”

Majidie Abrahams, of the ANC, argued that extension of the management arrangements without clarity on the business plan could put the city at risk of spending and losing money for another three years.

But mayor Patricia de Lille pointed out that the management plan had been extended to June 2016, and not 2018 as initially proposed, and included a condition that a progress report on the commercialisation of the precinct would be submitted to council in March next year.

Garreth Bloor, mayoral committee member for economic development, tourism and events, said the rezoning process was already under way. Demolition of the stadium was not an option, he said.

The city had been advised of 18 revenue streams that would generate a profit for the next 10 to 15 years.

This excluded any revenue that would come in from an anchor tenant.

He said the naming rights alone would secure between R5m and R10m in revenue for the city. The tabled revenue budget for the next financial year is R14m.

But Bloor allayed fears about the discrepancy between the stadium’s projected costs and income.

Although the tabled operating budget expenditure for 2015/2016 was R138m, limited commercial rights would bring this amount down to R34.2m. “The commercial rights process has already started. We will make it work and we will continue the (World Cup) legacy,” he said.

[like a mountain goat skipping through the diaspora with donations...]

anel.lewis@inl.co.za

- Cape Argus

Government is not concerned about it's citizens here is the proof.

“One should question a government’s willingness to deliver housing for the poor when it builds a white elephant for the rich,” says André du Plessis of Cape Town-based InternAfrica, which campaigns for sustainable housing.

- Financial Times London 08/07/2010

Naturally what followed was colluded stadia construction Cape Town cost R4,4 Billion and service delivery of toilets for 50,000 that remain locked up and maintained at R60 million cost per annum... and Blikkiesdorp

All I can say is #ITOLDYOUSO!

LONG AGO!

Nkaandlaa burns Cape Town - as always

Houses burn as the President laughs about his firepool

Cape Town - Violence flared again in Marikana informal settlement on Friday, after residents torched the home of Leticia Mali on Symphony Way.

The act prompted retaliation by residents of Lower Crossroads who, in turn, set ablaze a shack of the man they accused of being behind the attack on Mali’s house.

The conflict has raged throughout the week, starting as a protest prompted by the cutting of illegal electricity connections to the informal settlement.

Four municipal trucks and five other vehicles were set alight, and a 68-year-old man died after his Toyota Hilux was stoned on the N2 on Thursday. Police vehicles were also stoned.

Angry Marikana protesters torched Mali’s home in the early hours of yesterday morning.

The Lower Crossroads residents then retaliated, claiming they were being held to ransom by the informal settlement residents.

“We are angry because we don’t have services to give them, and we are not responsible for them.

“So we don’t understand why they are taking their anger out on us and our homes.

“They have started this fight and we will not succumb to their ludicrous behaviour. These are our homes and we have worked hard for them,” one angry Lower Crossroads resident said.

Mali’s home was petrol-bombed by angry Marikana residents who claimed it was unfair that they were stuck in shacks with no services, while their neighbours lived comfortably.

Mali said some illegal electricity connections had run to Marikana from her house, but that she had cut them off due to the blackouts.

“They got angry and they threw a petrol bomb through the roof of the bedroom.

“The fire spread fast because there was no ceiling in that room,” she said.

Marikana community leader Nocks Gijana countered that it was not residents of the informal settlement who set her house alight, although she acknowledged there was bad blood between the two neighbourhoods.

Police spokesman Captain Frederick van Wyk said late on Friday that the area remained tense, and police were monitoring the situation.

“This office can confirm that police action was taken during an ongoing protest in the Philippi East area.

“Property was damaged, but an accurate account of damages cannot no be issued at this stage,” he said.

- Saturday Argus

South Africa's 'brazen cover-up' of Zuma's home upgrade

The offence itself was bad enough - an orgy of overspending by obsequious officials and conniving contractors who managed to spend 246m rand ($21.7m, £14.3m) of public money lavishly upgrading South African President Jacob's Zuma's private homestead, Nkandla.

That is nearly 10 times what taxpayers spent on Nelson Mandela's two homes, and 20 times what it cost to secure Thabo Mbeki's house.

As we now know, Mr Zuma's "essential security upgrades" included a swimming pool, an amphitheatre, a chicken run and a visitors' centre. A fairly humble collection of traditional buildings on a rural hillside has been transformed into something more like a luxury holiday resort.

But as is so often the case in politics, it is the cover up - long, venomous, hair-splitting and sanctimonious - that has been most revealing, and most depressing.

Some of Mr Zuma's closest advisers - those with an eye on image and votes, rather than on real or imaginary security concerns - were urging him from the very beginning to apologise for any errors and to volunteer immediately to pay for any unwarranted expenditure.

The scandal could have ended in a week, and the president could even have emerged with his status enhanced.

Instead Mr Zuma and his supporters have sought to undermine the credibility of South Africa's public protector - whose exhaustively forensic report recommended that he repay some of the money - and have ridiculed the opposition for seeking to turn Nkandla into a presidency-defining scandal about accountability and corruption.

Now the police minister - a man whose career is, of course, entirely dependent on Mr Zuma's goodwill - has produced his own report, which spells out, in inadvertently comic detail, how conveniently the mosaic-inlayed swimming pool can double as an essential source of water for fighting fires.

The minister's unsurprising conclusion - Mr Zuma should not pay back a penny.

Comic moment

President Zuma did not hide his sense of vindication.

In parliament this week he openly mocked the opposition's attempts to pronounce the word "Nkandla" in a not-so-subtle hint that it was white politicians who were driving the criticism.

It was a confident, boisterous, divisive, and - at least for his supporters - genuinely comic moment.

And there is no doubt that Mr Zuma's jibes will have gone down well with his base.

- BBC

Nkaaandlaa Giggler Strikes again - heh heh heh HAAAI !

Toilets for 50,000 - Money woes for Cape stadium

Cape Town - Cape Town Stadium continues to be a massive financial drain on the City of Cape Town, and it doesn’t appear things will get better any time soon.

The stadium’s operational budget for the 2015/2016 financial year is a staggering R13 758 7954, while expected revenue is a just a tenth of that – R14 843 871.

A substantial portion of the stadium’s operating budget expenditure for the 2015/2016 financial year – more than R20 million – has already been allocated to salary related costs.

The bill is already nearly R6m higher than the expected revenue which is brought in by the hire or rental of portions of the stadium.

Running at a loss of more than R40m a year, the city is considering various commercial models that would make it financially viable.

However, this plan has not been finalised, and the city can’t afford to let the current management arrangement lapse. The temporary management arrangement, which was extended from June 2014, expires at the end of June.

In the absence of a long-term business plan that deals with staffing issues and commercial rights, the City of Cape Town has no option but to extend its current contracts and management plan for another year.

“The retention of the status quo will reduce any down time through the recruitment of a new team, thus reducing operational, infrastructural, safety and reputational risks,” said Lesley de Reuck, of the city’s tourism, events, and economic development directorate. The current staff was familiar with the stadium and the park, as well as their processes and standards.

“Events already booked for the 2015/2016 financial year require contractual fulfilment. These represent potential repeat clients and are critical revenue generators that must be nurtured. The facility cannot cease to operate on June 30, 2015,” said De Reuck.

In a report considered by the mayoral committee last week, De Reuck said a substantial portion of the stadium’s operating budget expenditure for the 2015/2016 financial year – R20 127 130 – had already been allocated to salary-related costs.

“The retention of the status quo will reduce any down time through the recruitment of a new team, thus reducing operational, infrastructural, safety and reputational risks.”

The current staff were familiar with the stadium and the park, as well as their processes and standards.The stadium has also been booked for events in the next financial year. “Current contractual and partnership agreements with event organisers must be honoured. Failure to do so may result in breach of contract and goodwill,” said De Reuck.

The team of external consultants appointed in 2011 to do a business modelling exercise on the stadium recommended that the land use and environmental conditions for the use of the stadium and its precinct should be changed to allow for commercial activity.

These processes are already under way and De Reuck said the submission of the formal application for amended land use planning conditions was “imminent”. The proposed amendments to the current environmental conditions were released for public comment last month.

He said both processes would be concluded by December, if there were no appeals.

Once these provisions have been granted, steps will be taken to release the Granger Bay Boulevard site into the property development market, he added.

Although the report called for a three-year extension of the management plan, until June 2018, Mayor Patricia de Lille amended the time frame, during Friday’s mayoral committee meeting, by just one year, to next June.

She also called for a progress report on the business plan to be submitted to the council by next March.

Also on the operational budget is a depreciation cost of more than R58m and repairs and maintenance costs of more than R192m. The total operating budget is more than R137m, but the expected revenue for the stadium for the next financial year is more than R148m. Most of this comes from the hire or rental of portions of the stadium.

anel.lewis@inl.co.za

- Cape Argus

Dilemma of Cape’s homeless

Cape Town - When Nomanindia Mfeketo was Cape Town mayor she made a commitment that within a year there would be no more children sleeping on the city’s streets.

That was in 2004 and, as she later acknowledged, the problem was a lot more complex than she had originally realised.

There have been a number of efforts since then to reduce the number of homeless people on the streets.

Before the World Cup in 2010, NGOs accused the city of rounding up street children and the homeless and dumping them at Blikkiesdorp near Delft. The city denies this, though, saying Blikkiesdorp was established as a Temporary Relocation Area in 2008 to house people who were evicted after invading N2 Gateway houses.

And last year there was a talk of the establishment of “community villages” outside the city centre where people could live and have access to skills training and drug rehabilitation programmes.

Greg Andrews, convener of the Street People’s Forum, said this proposal had since been canned.

The forum is a collective of several organisations working with street people in the city.

Andrews said the city’s “community village” idea was a perennial proposal that had surfaced in many guises over the last two decades.

“Even if such a community village were established, why would people want to go there? Would they be compelled against their will?

“On the other hand, perhaps it would be a really attractive proposition which someone on the streets would love to go to, in which case why would people leave once they have entered?”

Hassan Khan, chief executive of the Haven Night Shelter, believes the streets are no place for people to live.

“The streets should be a cold place, a place where you are hungry, so people come for help.”

But he says people are given permission to be there by politicians and some encouraged by NGOs who go out and give blankets and food to the poor.

“People are pre-programmed to help. They also pay someone just to be left alone.”

Not that he believes that poverty should be policed like the CCID with their private armies who force people to the edge of the CBD.

Khan said there were an increasing number of people coming to the streets, mainly adults.

“There are guys in their 50s from Welkom who have worked their whole lives in the Post Office and are virtually unemployable now.”

There is a large gay population, people who are not accepted by their families, and youngsters lured by the bright city lights.

“The important thing is how quickly a child on the street is identified and helped. The same with adults.”

Zara Nicholson, spokeswoman for mayor Patricia de Lille, said the City of Cape Town was the first city in the country to have adopted a policy for people living on the street.

“The city’s strategy is to reduce the number of people living on the street and to place them back with their families and communities of origin.”

Part of this reintegration effort included attempts to secure employment opportunities via the Expanded Public Works Programme.

Nicholson said that street people could not, however, be forced into accepting the city’s offers of assistance.

The City of Cape Town’s Reintegration Unit, launched in December, had successfully assisted 85 street people in its first three months of operation.

The city is also in the final phase of its Street People Survey which would include conducting a headcount of street people. The last comprehensive survey conducted by the city was in 2001 and there are estimates that there are around 7 000 transient people either living or begging on the street (across the whole city).

Councillor Suzette Little, the city’s mayoral committee member for social development and early childhood development announced recently that the city had nearly doubled its budget for its winter street people programme this year. The budget for the 2014 programme was R280 000, but this year R600 000 had been allocated.

Little said they also ran a number of programmes in communities most at risk to prevent more people migrating to the streets.

“These programmes are focused on issues in the home, truancy and substance abuse and to provide support to street people who are reintegrated into their communities to prevent a return to their former life.”

But Andrews doesn’t believe the city’s Street People Policy is actually effective.

“The central aim of its current policy boils down to the removal of people from the streets, though this is couched in gentle terms like ‘reintegration’ and ‘reunification’ so it’s quite palatable.”

But he explains that reunification or reintegration only worked if it was self-determined.

“Take for instance the typical example of someone who has come to the city centre desperate for work. Precious few opportunities exist and eventually he either is begging or parking cars, scrounging a pittance any way he can.

“Even if he never makes enough money to support his family, at least he feels he is not a burden to them – another mouth to feed, a body taking up precious space.

“But sometimes, he may be able to get a bag of groceries back home, maybe for someone’s birthday or for Christmas. Now the city’s Reintegration worker finally compels this man to go home.

“Imagine the shame of being escorted home by the larney from the welfare with nothing to support your family and them being told they must look after you. This is not sustainable.”

Andrews believes reintegration was only possible once the “40 percent unemployment and intractable brutal violence” that characterises daily life in the home communities that people on the streets run away from, are addressed.

“Furthermore, we need to address the bottleneck of over-full shelters, over-stretched services and inadequate social housing. Reintegration is meaningless when we have nothing to reintegrate a person into.”

Andrews says it would be refreshing if the city were to admit that people on the streets are not the problem and they’re not going away any time soon.

“The real problem is that 20 years into freedom, poverty is worse and it’s high time we stop trying to remove the poor from our well-to-do areas just because they make us feel uncomfortable or threaten our illusion of security.”

helen.bamford@inl.co.za

- Cape Argus

Decade anniversary - How to Build a cannabrick home

Peacefully Demonstrated outside the Department of Housing May 7 2005

1. Plant a cannabis seed. Water and allow the plant to grow and produce seed. Plant and water these seeds. Your goal is to grow enough to build a house, you will need about 1 acre to build a 5 roomed home.
   
   Tyala imbewu ntsangu (ye-cannabis). Nkcenkceshela imbewu uze uyinike ithuba lokuba ikhule ide ikhuphe eyayo imbewu. Uyothi ke uyityale nalembewu uyinkcenkceshele njalo. Injongo yakho kukukhulisa izityalo ezothi zonele ekwakheni indlu, uyakudinga i-acre (malunga nentsimi) enye ukuze wakhe indlu enamagumbi amahlanu.
   
   Plant 'n hemp saad. Water en laat die plante om te groei en saad te produseer. Plant en water hierdie sade. Jou doel is om  genoeg te groei om 'n huis bou, jy sal ongeveer een aker benodig om 'n 5-kamer huis te bou.
   
   Sokutshala imbewu insangu njalo. Amanzi nokuvumela isitshalo ukuze zikhule futhi ukhiqize imbewu. Plant namanzi lezi zinhlamvu. Umgomo wakho iwukuba akhule ngokwanele ukwakha indlu, uzodinga 1 Acre ukwakha 5 roomed ekhaya.
   
   
   
2. Consider the many relevant points presented in the guidelines of Build a house with hemp / Building with hemp.
   
   Qwalasela yonke imigaqo oyibekelweyo kwincwadana i-Build a house with hemp / Building with hemp.
   
   Oorweeg die baie relevante punte in die riglyne van die Build a house with hemp / Building with hemp.
   
   Cabangela amaphuzu amaningi efanele evezwa neziqondiso of Yakha indlu nge insangu / Building nge insangu.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Start planning where your house will stand. Consider everything about the environment you’ll be building in, like winter and summer sunshine, wind and rain – you don’t want to build on a floodplain, or your house will wash away. Be sure to plan all your water and waste requirements.
   
   Ceba indawo ozokwakha kuyo indlu yakho. Qwalasela yonke into ngomhlaba lo uzokwakha kuwo indlu yakho, izinto ezinje ngemimoya, ilanga, neemvula zehlobo nobusika, akekho umntu ofuna ukwakha indlu yakhe emgxobhozweni okanye apho iyothi ibe lilifa lezikhukhula khona. Uqiniseke ukuba unamanzi akulungeleyo ukwenza oku.
   
   Begin met die beplanning, waar jou huis sal staan. Oorweeg dit alles oor die omgewing en jy sal gebou in, soos winter en somer son, wind en reën - jy wil nie op 'n vloedvlakte bou nie, of jou huis sal wegspoel. Maak seker om te beplan al jou water en afval vereistes voldoen.
   
   Qala uhlela kuphi indlu yakho eyokuma. Cabanga konke mayelana imvelo uyobe ngokwakha ku, efana ebusika kanye kwelanga ehlobo, umoya nemvula-ungafuni ukwakha ethile kwemfunda, noma indlu yakho iyoba basuse. Qiniseka ukuhlela konke amanzi kanye imfucuza izidingo zakho.
   
   
4. Cut the grown cannabis plants down and leave in the field to rett for a week. The morning dew and natural rotting process will loosen the fibers from the plant.
   
   a. Process the plant matter by cutting leaves and branches off, then hit small bundles the length of the plant over and upturned rake.
   b. The long fiber parts that remain in your hand are good for weaving rugs and making various other items your skills can accomplish.
   c. The seed can be gathered for more housing.
   d. Gather the small woody bits (the hurd) that have fallen, this waste is what will be used in the construction material.
   
   Sika / sarha izityalo uzibeke egadini ixesha elingangeveki ukuze zibole. Umbethe wasekuseni nezinye izinto zendalo ezibolisayo ziya kuyikhulula I-fibre ezityalweni.
   
   a. Yikhawulezise ngohlukanisa intonga zezityalo namagqabi, uhlale uyiharika rhoqo.
   b. Intonga ezi zinothi zincede kwezinye izinto ezifana nokwenza ingubo nezinye izinto onothi uzibonele zona ngokolwazi lwakho.
   c. Imbewu inokuqokelelwe ukwakha ezinye izindlu.
   d. Qokelela imithana ethe yaziwela njengokuba uzoyisebenzisa xa usakha indlu yakho.
   
   Sny die gegroei hemp/cannabis plante af en in die veld verlaat om rhett vir 'n week. Die oggend-dou en die natuurlike verrotting proses sal die vesel van die plant los te maak.
   
   a. Proses van die plantmateriaal deur te sny blare en takke af, dan is getref klein bundels die lengte van die plant oor en omgekeerde hark.
   b. Die lang vesel dele wat in jou hand bly is goed vir die matte weef en die maak van verskeie ander items jou vaardighede kan bereik.
   c. Die saad kan vir meer behuising ingesamel word.
   d. Versamel die klein houtagtige bits (die hurd) wat gedaal het, die afval is wat sal in die konstruksie materiaal gebruik kan word.
   
   Sika izitshalo insangu njalo. isikhule phansi endle ukuze rhett isonto lonke. Amazolo ekuseni inqubo lwemvelo ukubola kuzokwenza athambise imicu kulesi simila.
   
   a. Ukucubungula udaba plant ukusika amaqabunga namagatsha ahambe ke hit izinyanda amancane ubude sitshalo phezu ne hala sokutakula.
   b. I-long fibre izingxenye ezisele esandleni sakho kukhona okuhle ngokuba ihlanganisa omata kanye nokwenza ezinye izinto ezahlukahlukene amakhono akho kungaba afeze.
   c. Imbewu kungenziwa babuthana izindlu xaxa.
   d. Ubuthe izingcezu bok encane (i-hurd) ukuthi uwe, lokhu imfucuza okuzokusiza lisetshenziswe ukwaziswa yezokwakha
   
   
5. Wash the hurd, dry it, then wash it again. Be careful not to allow the matter to rot or decay during this process, by turning, airing and allowing the African sun to dry the hurd properly. Now combine in proportions 10:2:3:3 combine the cannabis/ntsangu/dagga Hurd(10), washed river sand 0.5mm(2), hydraulic lime(3) and water(3) to make the mulch (This process may need tweaking depending on your geographic location, humidity, rainfall etc)
   
   Hlamba ingqokelela yakho, uyomise, uphinde uyihlambe.Ulumkele ukuba lengqokelela ibole kwelithuba, yiguquguqule, uyivumele ibethwe ngumoya uvumele nelanga lase Afrika liyomise lengqokelela. Dibanisa ngokwalo mgaqo 10:2:3:3, dibanisa ke lemvuno yakho yomgquba wentsangu (10) kunye nesanti yasemlanjeni 0.5mm(2), ikalika (3) kunye namanzi (3) ukwenza udaka (Nale into ke iyokuthi ixhomekeke kwindawo leyo ukuyo nemvula zakhona njalo-njalo).
   
   Was die kudde, droog dit af, dan was dit weer. Wees versigtig om nie toe te laat die aangeleentheid te verrot of verval gedurende hierdie proses, deur die draai, voorlê en laat die Afrika-son om droog die kudde goed. Nou kombineer in verhoudings 10:2:3:3 kombineer die cannabis / ntsangu / dagga Hurd (10), gewaste riviersand 0.5 mm (2), hidrouliese kalk (3) en water (3) aan die deklaag te maak (Hierdie proses kan tweaking nodig, afhangende van jou geografiese ligging, humiditeit, reën, ens)
   
   Geza izinti, zome it ke geza futhi. Qaphela ukuba singavumeli udaba ukubola noma ukubola kulo msebenzi , ngokubhekisa , angabiki futhi sivumele ilanga Afrika ukuze ome le hurd kahle . Sebesebenzisa ngezabelo 10:2:3:3 hlanganisa insangu njalo. / ntsangu / insangu Hurd (10) , umfula wageza isihlabathi 0.5mm (2) , wokubacindezela umcako (3) kanye namanzi (3) ukwenza semboza ngabo izithombo zezihlahla (Le nqubo may badinga tweaking kuye ngokuthi indawo yokuhlala yakho, umswakama, imvula, njll)
   
   
6. Now build your house! Ngoku ke yakha indlu yakho! Nou bou jou huis! Manje ukwakha indlu yakho!
   
   
7. Teach others. Fundisa abanye. Onderrig ander.
   
   

You can use this “dagga-cement” for making bricks, shutter casting or the proven “pole-and-dagga” method. This last method allows for a sturdy, warm, fireproof and water proof home – built with pride and intuitive engineering, not a ‘uniform box’.

Be sure to consider all aspects of your house design and structural requirements. Although the cannabis-cement will become stronger than steel in time, it is not advised to build over 2 floors high without considering structural implications. With planning this cement can be used to build up to 4 floors high.

The cannabis-cement will dry over a period of a month (depending on the weather). At this point you will be able to add the roof. Seal your home’s walls with lime; lime external walls annually. Decorate your house with masonry to make it unique, and paint with coloured lime as per custom.

Always PLANT A TREE in a place that will provide shade, to commemorate this accomplishment.

Council will plant trees if citizens care for them. Call (021) 689-8938 http://www.trees.org.za/

Assist your family, friends or neighbors with your experience and expertise. Share information and technique; you can uplift yourself and your community.

Hostels must fall, says housing minister

Lindiwe Sisulu wants to tear down South Africa’s notorious hostels – the scene of much of the xenophobic rioting in Joburg last month.

Indunas, the hostel leaders, have warned though that they won’t be part of anything that does not guarantee them proper houses – and they refuse to go into temporary shelters while the government breaks down existing hostels and builds new ones.

On Thursday, at a pre-budget vote, the human settlements minister said told MPs during her budget vote that hostels had to go because they had no place in a reconfigured state.

“Most of them (hostel residents) have spent a great deal of their time in cities. That they may have a holiday home in Mqanduli (in the Eastern Cape) doesn’t make them different from someone with a holiday home in Camps Bay who works in Brakpan,” she said.

Hostel residents would qualify either for a state-subsidised house, or community residential unit. It was time for South Africa to shed lingering legacy of apartheid and deal with the often atrocious living conditions in hostels: “They (hostels) are a very painful relic of our past... They (hostel residents) should live as part of society,” said Sisulu.

But in Alexandra’s Madala hostel, induna Bafowethu Sokhela said on Thursday ight: “What she’s saying has been said for years by many other politicians. Right now, they’re supposed to be developing the hostel as they said they would – but they’re doing nothing.”

He has lived in the hostel since the 1980s.

“The hostel has many people living in it. I don’t think they’ll have enough space to house us all. We won’t allow them to put us in temporary homes. We want houses just like other people in the country.”

Sokhela said the government must house every Madala hostel resident before it shut the place.

“They need to come in and get everyone’s information and move us into houses block by block if they have to. But they can’t close it till we have houses.”

The decision comes on the back of the refusal by residents of some Gauteng hostels to move into upgraded buildings, renovated from the apartheid-era single male accommodation into family units since 2009.

Following the upgrade, residents had to pay R750 a month.

Hostel residents complained they hadn’t been properly consulted and couldn’t afford the monthly rental.

Diepkloof, Soweto, hostel residents took to the streets to protest over housing on Monday.

This was the second protest by the hostel dwellers in Diepkloof following a protest in the area in June last year over lack of housing.

In Parliament, Sisulu said the government would like to “gradually abolish hostels in our towns, and hostel dwellers who have lived in our towns for a number of years would qualify for a Breaking New Ground house, or the CRU (community residential units) subsidy, depending on their specific circumstances”.

She said they had agreed with the mayors that upgraded hostels would be taken over by the Social Housing Regulatory Authority.

“This we will do in every town where we have upgraded hostels and hostel dwellers have not taken up residency.”

She said the government would accommodate hostel dwellers in temporary shelters while it put up permanent houses for them.

These social housing units would be given to young people under the age of 40 and who cannot afford to buy a house.

Sisulu said the recent raids on hostels in Jeppe and Alexandra in Joburg during xenophobic violence were not because they were targeting hostel dwellers.

The army and police raids at the hostels were a result of the violence emanating from those areas.

“We don’t associate them with evil,” she said.

The minister said there was no fixed date for the plan to complete the abolishment of hostels.

Surveys would be done on all the hostels throughout the country.

Subsequently, Gauteng Human Settlements MEC Jacob Mamabolo told The Star the survey had already been undertaken and would finalised by next Friday.

DA MP Makashule Gana said houses built for hostel dwellers in Diepkloof and Mzimhlophe in Soweto were still empty after more than 10 years.

The national Department of Human Settlements is shifting its focus to mega-projects in order to tackle the country’s 1.5 million-unit housing backlog.

About 150 project applications have been received from the public and private sectors.

These would be processed to get under way over the next four years.

Sisulu said 60 percent of work would be done by youth brigades, funded by a ringfenced R159m, in an effort to transfer skills and create employment opportunities for young people.

However, the Human Settlements Department is also undertaking a review of its tender processes, described as its “biggest headache”, to prevent corruption and fraud.

A new procurement system should prevent abuse.

- Political Bureau and The Star

BlikkiesDorp - The Zille legacy

Cape Town Stadium may cost another R60 million

Ratepayers are not done paying for the Cape Town Stadium just yet, because a draft environmental assessment report released for public comment reveals it could cost as much as R60 million to refurbish parts of the stadium to make it suitable for commercial activities.

The consultants working on the assessment, the Environmental Partnership, said this was an "approximate" cost that would depend on the stadium's full commercial potential being realised. With more limited specifications, the amount could be drastically reduced.

But the use of the stadium for office and retail space could bring in an annual revenue of R31m.

It has cost the City of Cape Town R4.4 billion to build the stadium for the 2010 World Cup, and the facility has been running at an annual loss of R39m since then.

Luke Stevens, spokesman for the Camps Bay Residents' and Ratepayers' Association (CBRRA), said: "Our greatest fear as ratepayers is that the city will throw significant amounts of good money - such as R60m - in speculative redevelopment to discover that even after the removal of the constraints to business activity, the stadium remains technically unprofitable."

Stevens said the association did not object to the commercialisation of the stadium precinct, but had "very little faith" in the business plan upon which the projected revenue streams were based.

The city had yet to adopt a business model for the stadium, and work on this was being done as a separate exercise, said the Environmental Partnership.

Stevens said this process "remains opaque and we continue to suspect, given the competencies of the International Risk Mitigation Consultants who compiled the business plan, that the hidden emphasis in the business plan's terms of reference was to find a way to dislodge Western Province Rugby from Newlands rather than to find real alternatives for Cape Town Stadium".

An estimated 20 000m2 of potential lettable space for offices, restaurants or retail outlets was available within the stadium structure. The proposed commercialisation of the precinct was limited to the stadium and would not infringe on the Urban Park.

The Environmental Partnership said the remainder of the shortfall would be made up from various revenue streams, such as the development of suites, commercial parking, advertising and the development of the Granger Bay Precinct.

The development of this precinct could bring in between R27m and R98m, depending on which proposal was accepted.

There was a separate environmental impact assessment under way for the Granger Bay area but the legislation was changed last December, and the proposed redevelopment was no longer a listed activity and therefore did not require an environmental authorisation. However, the development would still need land use and heritage approvals.

Given the ongoing operational and maintenance budget shortfalls for the stadium, the city needed to find a sustainable business model that would make the precinct commercially viable.

This could only be done if the existing environmental authorisation that restricted these activities was amended.

"It is anticipated that the income generated from commercial activities will assist in reducing the annual deficit of R39m incurred by the municipality and subsequently the ratepayers. From an economic point of view, the stadium's viability needs to be improved and municipal spending on this existing facility reduced," said the report.

The draft environmental report forms part of this process.

After feedback from the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, it was recommended that two rezoning proposals should be considered - general business and a split zoning, which would allow the South Forecourt to be used for general business subzone 1, while the remainder would be for subzone 7.

While both zones would allow for commercial activity that include retail, business or office space, places of worship, a multiple parking garage, a service station, places of entertainment or hotels, the South Forecourt would have a height restriction and floor space restrictions.

Additional use rights include an adult shop subject to certain provisions.

The split-zoning was the preferred alternative, as it would be more likely to protect the integrity of the South Forecourt while allowing this portion of the precinct to become more functional.

Some of the major impacts identified in the report include the additional lighting at the stadium, potential traffic impact on event days, and future development risks associated with the South Forecourt.

The report also recommended conditions of approval, such as the use of signals on the Green Point traffic circle to cope with the increased traffic and a heritage assessment of any development on the South Forecourt.

This area of the stadium must be used as a functional open space, said the Environmental Partnership. This condition was welcomed by CBRRA. "We stress that open space is vital to the promotion of a healthy and productive society. These spaces are not fallow, wasted areas," said Stevens.

The findings of the draft environmental impact report will be available at an open meeting at the stadium on April 21, from 4pm until 8pm, with a presentation starting at 6pm.

- IOLProperty

‘Gangsters were hired’

Manenberg, which fuelled gang warfare in the already volatile area.

If the allegations that a city-contracted construction company or companies paid gangsters for security are found to be true, the city, on a mayoral committee member’s admission, could be implicated in contravening the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.

Weekend Argus is in possession of leaked copies of e-mails and minutes of a meeting that show that, despite knowing about the matter in December, the city is still, months later, deciding how to address it.

This week police said they had received complaints from Manenberg residents about the matter, but that no formal statements had been made.

In a leaked e-mail from safety and security mayoral committee member JP Smith to other city officials, dated December 12, Smith said: “The city needs to hand over all the information they have to SAPS around the paying of gangsters by city-contracted housing contractors working on the CRU (Community Residential Units). This is a criminal offence in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act and other legislation, and needs to be criminally prosecuted.

“The city is implicated in this, and we need to make a formal submission to SAPS with all the information we have.”

Smith, in the e-mail, said he had suggested the human settlements department ask the contractors to put in writing what they knew.

He also asked the Metro Police to take the submissions to the police, “so the city has fully disclosed what we know”.

Asked to comment, Smith con-firmed to Weekend Argus he had sent the e-mails, adding that he was trying to alert his colleagues to a housing issue.

This week, various sources told Weekend Argus recent flare-ups in gang violence in Manenberg were rooted in the employment of rival gang members for security by construction companies which were upgrading council flats.

Late last year, this had fuelled fighting between gangs, unhappy with their rivals taking over construction sites, and last week the already tense situation was exacerbated when a hit was put out on an Americans gangster, and his allies then retaliated.

Residents reported that machine guns were used in the fighting.

In a terse response to a list of questions from Weekend Argus about the contractors paying gangsters, the city’s mayoral committee member for human settlements, Benedicta van Minnen, said only: “The city can confirm that an investigation is under way, and the necessary actions will be taken once the outcome of the investigation has been confirmed.”

But details of what has been happening are contained in the leaked e-mails.

In an earlier e-mail from Smith, dated December 2, he said a meeting needed to be set up with the head of one of the construction companies “and the contractors working for human settlements in Manenberg about the protection money being demanded by the Hard Livings, and being paid by one of the contractors”.

Minutes from a meeting between city officials dealing with the Community Residential Units upgrades, held on February 6, were also leaked to Weekend Argus.

The minutes show that a senior safety and security official had attended.

It mentions a “dossier of alleged contraventions” involving Manenberg, and says a Metro Police head advised that a charge should not be lodged at the Manenberg police station, but that a complaint should instead be made to a senior police officer.

But the senior official advised the issue be placed instead on the agenda for when mayor Patricia de Lille had her next monthly meeting with provincial police commissioner Arno Lamoer.

De Lille was then meant to hand over the dossier for Lamoer to investigate at a provincial level.

This week, Lamoer said he did not know about the dossier, and provincial police spokesman Colonel Tembinkosi Kinana said they had not received any such dossier.

De Lille’s spokeswoman Zara Nicholson said the matter was being dealt with “by the relevant authorities”.

On Saturday, police General Jeremy Vearey, who heads up Operation Combat, the provincial police’s operation targeting gangsterism, said some Manenberg residents had complained about construction companies paying gangsters.

“But none of these reports have resulted in statements,” he said.

Vearey said if the allegations and suggestions were found to be true, it could result in charges of racketeering and corruption being investigated.

This week, Raziek Rajah of Good Hope Construction, a company working in Manenberg and which was named in one of Smith’s e-mails, told Weekend Argus that late last year its security providers were checked by police.

Rajah said his company hired employees from a City of Cape Town database that did not specify who was or was not a criminal.

- Weekend Argus

Interim order against land invaders

Cape Town - The Western Cape High Court on Friday granted Denel an interim order evicting land invaders who this week occupied land in Khayelistha that belongs to the state-owned arms manufacturer.

Judge Monde Samela explained to the land invaders, who appeared in court without legal representation, that it allowed them until the return date of April 21 to find lawyers to argue their case.

“I explained to them that effectively I am sitting on the fence (in granting an interim order),” he said after allowing the respondents, some of who wore shirts bearing the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) logo, to ask him questions to clarify their legal position.

“In isiXhosa, one who sits on the fence is a monkey. So he told me I am a monkey and I said he must be careful now,” Samela chuckled as he translated the exchange to Denel’s lawyers.

On Monday, some 250 people seized land near Nolungile train station in Khayelitsha and began building shacks. The EFF said they were facilitating the process.

Police intervened and Denel, in a first urgent court application, obtained an interdict preventing the erection of further structures on the contested land.

Denel’s legal team on Friday told the court they were seeking the second order to maintain the status quo at the site, which most of the invaders left after their structures were removed, and to gain added protection should there be a fresh attempt to invade the land.

They said they would bring more substantiating documentation on April 1.

Regional EFF official Tlhabanelo Diholo said the party would try to assist the squatters with finding lawyers but did not have money for the legal fees in the party coffers.

“We are not steering this process, we have just tried to assist the community wherever we can,” he said.

After the order was granted some 30 Khayelitsha residents sang protest songs outside the court building.

Student Vugile Thando held a poster proclaiming: “People of Azania take back your land, the rest will follow.”

He said he was not a member of the EFF but was among the roughly 250 people who had invaded the land at the beginning of the week and began building shacks.

“I’m from Khayelitsha site C. I took all my materials and my sleeping bag and they broke it all down and now I’m homeless again.”

- ANA

Land invaders in face-off with cops

Cape Town - The loud bangs of stun grenades filled the air signalling the start of evictions outside the Nolungile train station in Khayelitsha on Wednesday morning.

While squatters threatened to stand their ground, waving tools they had used to erect 20 structures on the private property on Monday, they were quickly dispersed by a large police contingent.

Led by members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), squatters said they had taken over the land because of overcrowding in the township’s Site C.

Major Mali, who built a shack on Monday, said the land had been vacant since 1985.

Police arrived on Wednesday morning brandishing what appeared to be an eviction notice. There was resistance from the protesters, many waving crowbars, spades, sticks and pangas as they shouted for the police to leave.

While some of the shacks had been completed, many were nothing but skeletal wooden frames jutting from the pockmarked earth in between tufts of yellow grass.

A group of protesters and land invaders holding crowbars, sticks and pangas gather in Khayelitsha on Wednesday morning. Picture: Cindy WaxaCAPE ARGUS

When police moved to dismantle the structures they acted swiftly, firing rubber bullets at a group of people camped in the bushes with rocks in their hands.

Protesters at first stood their ground, but the first of two stun grenades sent them screaming towards the property’s boundary line with the township.

Within 20 minutes the shacks had been brought down, demolition crews pulling them apart and hammering at the tinder buried in the ground.

Residents watched from the train station. But as the last structure fell, their interest waned and the enthusiastic crowd began to thin.

However, some minutes later a band of protesters set tyres, rubbish and debris alight on a road nearby.

The City of Cape Town has outlined plans to clamp down on any land invaders attempting to occupy the vacant field in Khayelitsha.

Mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith vowed to take action against illegal occupants who erected shacks on privately owned land in the TR section on Tuesday morning.

“We will be laying charges against anyone who can be identified putting up shacks on the privately owned land. They have been warned about this on Monday,” said Smith.

He added that the land invasions weredrawing much-needed police resources away from gang flashpoints. “We had two very violent gang flare-ups in Manenberg and Ottery. There was machine gun fire. This land grab pulled resources away from that.”

Pockets of land across the city have been under threat from members of the EFF and Ses’khona People’s Rights Movement over the past two days. EFF Western Cape leader Nazir Paulsen said they supported residents’ invasion of the land.

“The EFF supports the residents as they deserve this land to build bigger housing. There is nothing wrong with what we are doing. The city can contact my lawyers if they have a problem,” said Paulsen

The DA condemned criminal acts of land invasion by the EFF and welcomed any charges against Paulsen. “As the ringleader of the EFF action and member of the Western Cape Parliament, Nazir Paulsen has encouraged and facilitated criminal conduct.

“The DA welcomes the City of Cape Town laying criminal charges against Nazir Paulsen, and urges the SAPS to investigate…”

- Cape Argus

RDP housing breeds poverty, says Makhura

Over 2 million state-subsidised houses, popularly known as "RDPs", built since 1994 "are nothing but incubators of poverty".

That is the view of Gauteng Premier David Makhura, who was speaking at the launch of a giant provincial housing project in Illovo, northern Johannesburg, yesterday.

Makhura blamed the collapse of planning at all levels of the government for the state's haphazard approach to housing in the past 20 years.

"We've had a virtual collapse of planning. Municipalities say they are planning with [environmental impact assessments] but they are just wasting time," said Makhura.

"Serious planning will stop private-sector, municipal and provincial projects that are not desirable. We are breaking away from the old mode of development of small projects and [will]develop large-scale projects of no less than 15000 units."

Makhura said his administration would deliver 700000 houses in four years, relying on funding of R11.2-billion annually - R6-billion from the Gauteng department of human settlements, R5-billion from the Urban Settlement Development Grant to Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni, and a R200-million grant from the government.

Gauteng, he said, would research the possibility of providing serviced stands to individuals, allowing them to build their own houses.

"We are doing away with poverty-stricken human settlements in which the day [after taking possession of a house] people have nowhere to go. What's called 'RDP houses' is a bad dream. There are no trees, no proper infrastructure and no integration," he said.

Makhura said old-style development was concerned with increasing the number of houses built, with little regard to efficient use of land and sustainable economic activity.

He said that one of the problems with the old approach was that the government built houses without knowing exactly for whom they were intended.

"We have been building houses without properly knowing whom we were building for. We want to make sure that when we build these houses the ownership is beyond dispute."

In place of the "poverty-stricken human settlements" "mega housing projects" will establish residential areas of from 15000 to 60000 units, complete with amenities such as schools, parks, health facilities, infrastructure and "light industry".

Although private developers are being encouraged to take part - 43 companies pledged their support for the projects yesterday - approval of their plans will depend on whether they cater for low-cost housing.

Makhura promised the private sector that all environmental impact assessments would be approved in three months.

- TimesLive

Sod turned for new Cape housing project

Cape Town - The City of Cape Town on Tuesday marked the start of a new building project near Delft that would see the eventual construction of 2 407 subsidised homes.

“I cannot be happier that we are embarking on the construction phases of this massive development. It is a true testament of our commitment to improving the living conditions of our more vulnerable residents and of empowering them to access and to own an asset,” said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlements, Councillor Benedicta van Minnen.

The Rosendaal project, located near Roosendal High School, kicked off the first phase of the Delft integrated housing project. The first phase would see the construction of 288 subsidised homes – in accordance with National Government’s subsidy criteria – and would lead to “the eventual construction of 2 407 subsidised housing units in total”.

“The first 288 beneficiaries have been approved and are about to be contacted so that we can start with their title deed applications,” said Van Minnen.

The first phase would see construction of two-bedroom, freestanding, and semi-detached single and double-storey units.

The Delft integrated housing project was split into four phases:

– Roosendaal

– The Hague (Phase 1)

– Eindhoven

– The Hague (Phase 2)

Construction of the last phase was expected to commence in the 2017 / 2018 financial year.

- African News Agency

City Housing chaos erupts as protesters loot stalls

A mob of protesters who charged through Cape Town city centre yesterday mugged a bystander, looted vendors' stalls and vandalised property.

Hundreds of members of Ses'Khona, known as the "poo protesters", marched to the Western Cape legislature to demand that grievances about a lack of housing delivery be heard.

Ses'Khona leader Andile Lili urged the crowd to mobilise in townships and return to the city centre with 300000 people.

In St George's Mall, a man who had bought coffee was caught up in the melee and assaulted by a man believed to be a protester.

The attack was seen by The Times photographer Esa Alexander. "When the protesters came, the man with the coffee tried to run away. They got hold of him and pulled at his bag," he said.

"The man fought back and when one of the attackers pulled his bag out of his hand the victim fell to the ground. The thief ran into the crowd before the guy could get back up. It was chaos."

The protesters looted informal traders and took iron rods from stalls. They attacked bystanders, but dispersed when they were chased by police.

Police Captain FC van Wyk said one man had been arrested for possession of stolen goods from a vendor.

"We urge people to come forward with information," he said.

- Timelive