Sexwale wants 'a win-win situation'

Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale is confident a meeting on Friday with "his sister", DA leader Helen Zille, can resolve a dispute over large tracts of land the then ANC provincial government handed to the national Housing Development Agency the day before the April elections it looked set to lose.

"What we want is a win-win solution. At the end of the day this land belongs to the Republic of South Africa - not to Tokyo Sexwale or my sister Helen Zille or the MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela. It belongs to the country."

"From my side as the minister, I have the money and the dispute should be resolved so that the (homeless) people are not delayed, so that they don't suffer," he said on a visit to N2 Gateway housing projects on Thursday.

"We'll have open, frank and candid discussions (with) no baggage, all of us, so that at the end of the day the people must benefit. I think all of us want to solve the problem."

When the DA took control of the province from the ANC after winning the election outright, it uncovered the huge transfer.

Zille cried foul, saying it was an ANC conspiracy to prevent her party from delivering houses to the poor.

About 1 050 hectares, worth R500-million and enough for 100 000 houses, was transferred to the Housing Development Agency the day before the April 22 elections.

Another 350ha, large enough for 35 000 houses, was also transferred.

Zille's predecessor as premier, Lynne Brown, rejected the allegation and said the land transfers, initiated in 2008, were in terms of an agreement between the then-housing MEC Marius Fransman of the ANC and Sexwale's predecessor, Lindiwe Sisulu.

Sexwale said the dispute should be resolved speedily because the housing need was huge.

Madikizela agreed, saying the province was committed to working in unison with other spheres of government to ensure housing challenges were confronted.

Sexwale said his visit was to gather information about people's experiences of the N2 Gateway project.

He said there were about 2 000 informal settlements in the country and, while the government had delivered about 2,8 million houses in recent years, the national housing backlog was about 2,2 million.

About 10 million people did not have houses, he said.

Sexwale said that due to the global economic recession, he doubted the country would reach the goal of eradicating all informal settlements by 2014.

- Cape Times

Report slams running of N2 Gateway project

A damning audit report of the N2 Gateway housing project reveals costly and widespread deficiencies in the planning, accounting, design and execution of the government's flagship low-cost housing development.

The report, completed in June 2008 but tabled in parliament only last week, backs up complaints that have surrounded the project since its inception.

The national Department of Housing, which has responsibility for the project, commissioned the Auditor General's report, which confirmed the N2 Gateway Project had not been managed "economically, efficiently and effectively".

The Auditor General ordered corrective action, which will include training, as well as the recovery of possible fruitless and wasteful expenditure, and possible disciplinary action.

The N2 Gateway project was launched in the Western Cape in March 2005 as a pilot to test the government's new low-cost housing policy called Breaking New Ground.

The policy sought to roll out integrated human settlements, rather than build row upon row of RDP houses in new communities that had no infrastructure or recreational facilities.

N2 Gateway houses would be bigger than RDP houses, and would be available as fully subsidised free homes, affordably bonded units and rental houses.

But in the past years positive reports of home handovers have been overshadowed by the negative press the development has attracted.

The problems have included housing lists, land invasions, politicking, illegal occupations, evictions, skills shortages and allegations of tender irregularities and shoddy workmanship on half-completed homes.

In June 2006, the Cape Argus reported on the "costly bungling" revealed at a mayco meeting.

Although the scope of the Auditor General's report did not extend to all the issues highlighted, it identified 10 areas of concern.

These included the fact that the necessary legislation and policies were not in place when construction started, and the roles and functions allocated to the different spheres of government had not been adhered to. This had resulted in uncertainties over who should take responsibility for specific functions.

In addition, the Auditor General found that construction started before funding had been secured or the business plan finalised

Sufficient land had also not yet been identified and secured, geotechnical surveys which would have revealed the seriousness of the soil problems had not been done, and the selection of beneficiaries had not been finalised.

Qualifying criteria in respect of monthly household income had also not been consistent with policy, and had been inconsistently communicated to different communities.

Because of the consequences of time-frame and affordability miscalculations, legal claims for abortive work and standing time, totalling R43 million, were lodged against the City of Cape Town.

Further fruitless and wasteful expenditure of R20m was incurred due to design changes which resulted from the failure to exercise "reasonable care" during the planning phase.

And because of irregularities in the appointment of initial project manager Cyberia, which "lacked (the) sufficient in-house and specialist expertise" to perform the job it had tendered for, payments of R12m made to Cyberia were found to have been irregular.

Some R72m in irregular expenditure was also incurred as a result of tender processes not being followed in the appointment of implementing consortia.

The appointment of Thubelisha Homes as project manager in 2006, after the new multi-party coalition-led City of Cape Town administration was removed from the project, was also done without proper procurement processes being followed.

Since the completion of the Auditor General's report, the government's Housing Development Agency has taken over from Thubelisha, which has since reportedly become insolvent.

All Thubelisha employees have transferred to the new government agency.

In response to the report, the Department of Housing said it would ensure "all corrective and necessary control measures are put in place as a matter of urgency".

It added that the "lessons learnt from the successful implementation of the (project) would be shared with other state-funded projects nationally".

- Cape Argus

MDG Target11 - N2 Gateway failure

Introduction:
The purpose of this discussion document is to critically assess the progress in respect of the realisation of economic and social rights in the context of South Africa’s commitment to meeting the Millennium Development Goals...

The N2 Gateway Housing project has illustrated the great need for proper consultation and communication with communities. When a project of such a sensitive nature is initiated, communities need to be assured that they are not being marginalised like they were in the past. This assurance should preferably be made by the Department of Housing directly and not via a managing or development agent.

When deadlines pass and promises are not delivered on, communities need to be reassured that projects are still on track but just delayed due to certain reasons. Finally, communities need to know that they will eventually have proper shelter in which to live and bring up their families and it is the responsibility of the Department of Housing to consult with communities, work out options based on their income and needs. The Department should then provide surety to the communities that delivery promises will be met.

As explained by Advocate Geoff Budlender in Jordon “too many people in local, provincial and national government think that shacks are a problem and the solution is to demolish them, but one has to see shacks in a different light. They are a symptom of other problems – they are not themselves the problem.” And again, rapid service delivery should not take precedence over quality service delivery as it is evident that this creates additional problems and distrust between communities, government departments and service providers.

Working Paper: ESR Unit: Research, Documentation & Policy Analysis Programme (December, 2008)

Shack dwellers vow not to vote again

Traffic on Lansdowne Road in Site C, Khayelitsha was still restricted to one lane on Wednesday morning after chaos erupted at an informal settlement on Tuesday after city law enforcement officials tore down illegal cables connected to a legal electricity supply.

"We are waiting for them to put up their container or tent for registration and we are going to destroy them because we are not going to register and we are not interested in voting either," said Thozamile Boyi.

The angry residents of Island informal settlement blocked Lansdowne Road with stones and burning rubbish for about seven hours on Tuesday to protest against the removal.

They dispersed at 8pm, but on Wednesday morning another resident, Nothobekile Bhoki, said they would continue with their protest action on Wednesday.

It is the second time in the past two months that law enforcement officials have removed cables providing electricity to the impoverished community from a formal neighbouring community.

On Tuesday, irate residents threw stones on to the road, despite police officers trying to control the situation by firing rubber bullets into the crowd.

Three people were injured by rubber bullets. Nevertheless, residents said they would continue to express their anger until their electricity cables had been returned.

"We are not going to sleep tonight until they bring our cables back," said an angry resident, Nontsapho Nodede.

Residents said they were going to connect the electricity again because it was their only way of survival.

Nodede, who has been living in Island since 1996, said the residents were now tired of empty promises and vowed not to vote in next year's elections.

"They are going to come here now and start making even more empty promises, but we are going to ignore them because we are no longer interested in what they have to say."

Boyi added that they were not going to allow any voter registration to take place at the weekend.

He said that when they voted before, they had expected service delivery, including electricity.

"They want us to become criminals now because we use this electricity they keep stripping away to make a living.

The things we sell in our fridge are going to rot and now we are going to start robbing people."

Bonginkosi Madikizela, communications officer in the mayor's office, said: "We can't condone illegal electricity connections and law enforcement was asked by Phambili Nombane (a company responsible for electricity in Khayelitsha) to help disconnect the illegally wired electricity."

Madikizela said that it was not as easy "as ABC" to install electricity as there were procedures to be followed.

"We will start upgrading and installing substations. There will be two new substations in Khayelitsha," he said.

Ward Councillor Mpendulo Solizwe said he had been trying to get the municipality to install electricity in the area or to move the people, but all his efforts had been unsuccessful.

"About two months back, I managed to get the mayor to come and have a look in the area but it also didn't help," said Solizwe.

He said the residents were also complaining about the rubbish container, saying it brought rats to their homes.

"I have been telling them to come and remove the container and now people have used the rubbish to cause damage," he said, referring to the burning mess on Lansdowne Road.

- Cape Argus