Nyanga Housing Delays Anger Residents

Cape Town — "Every time we think we are getting somewhere, we just go right back to square one." These are the words of Thembisa Maso, a KTC resident and mother of three who has been waiting for her house to be completed.

Maso is one of 57 residents who is part of the Masizakhe People's Housing Process (PHP) project. The residents say their houses were left unfinished in 2001.**

"We want to know what is happening with the project. I live behind my unfinished house in a shack with two of my children. I had to send my other child to live with my sister because we suffer in this shack during winter when it rains," Maso said.

She said she was part of the project which was approved in 2001. Two hundred and fourteen houses were supposed to be built in total but more than 50 houses were left unfinished. Some residents finished the houses themselves with their own money.

The houses, situated in the Nyanga area, are hollow structures made with grey bricks, with frames for the doors and windows, and no roof.

"We have been back and forth to the Department of Human Settlements. We are either chased away or told the same thing, that the matter will be investigated. In 2008 someone came to check the houses and photographs were even taken of the structures, but nothing came of that. We are tired of this running around. We just want to know what is going on and when our houses will be finished," explained a visibly angry and frustrated Maso.

Agnes Fuma, 65, who is also one of the project's beneficiaries, said the only thing she was provided with from the project was sand and building bricks.

"I built the actual house myself. I got someone whom I paid to build my house for me, from the roof to the windows and doors. It was all me," said Fuma.

Bruce Oom, spokesperson for the Western Cape MEC for Human Settlements, Bonginkosi Madikizela, said the houses were left unfinished by the contractor responsible at the time.

"The intention of the original PHP projects was that the community would be empowered by taking a role in appointing and managing the contractors.

However, this led to some problems with service delivery. The Department now takes a more hands-on role in appointing and managing contractors," explained Oom.

Oom said subsidies for the project were paid out to the accounts administrator (which was the City of Cape Town), yet due to the contractor leaving the work unfinished, not all the money in the project was paid out by the City.

Oom continued, "The City has subsequently repaid the unspent funds to the Department. The Department is currently assessing the outstanding work needed on the site, and identifying the costs needed to complete the units, so that the people who most need houses can get them. Once the current assessment is completed, the Department will then be in a position to revise the subsidy and reissue it so that the units can be completed."

He said the assessment could likely take several months or longer because after it there would need to be a tender process to appoint a contractor.

- allafrica

W.Cape housing delays due to poor monitoring - MEC

Western Cape Human Settlements MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela has admitted his department’s poor monitoring of housing projects has contributed to more than 30 projects being stalled.

Madikizela said the affected projects form part of the People’s Housing Process initiative.

The projects that have been put on hold have been referred to the Special Investigating Unit to be probed.

The MEC said fraud, corruption and collusion contributed to poor workmanship and delays in the provision of decent houses.

He also admitted a dismal lack of proper monitoring by government on these projects.

Madikizela said they are putting together a plan on how to better deal with the problem.

- Eyewitness News

Nearly R1bn spent on fixing faulty houses: Sexwale

The government has so far spent R927-million on repairing or rebuilding sub-standard government houses in this financial year, says Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale.

The figure includes the cost of demolishing and rebuilding 1 144 houses in six provinces, half of them in Mpumalanga, Sexwale said in reply to a parliamentary question by the Democratic Alliance.

In the Eastern Cape, 220 units were bulldozed and rebuilt.

Sexwale said that province spent a total of R76.25-million fixing 1 463 faulty state houses out of a target of 2 192.

The Northern Cape spent R6.8-million on repairing 129 houses and R5.7-million on demolishing and rebuilding 69 houses.

The minister had set aside R1.3-million of human settlement's budget of roughly R16-billion for repairs to poor quality government housing.

His special adviser, Chris Vick, said this was in line with a commitment to ensure that government houses were "of an acceptable quality".

"We are optimistic that improvements to the procurement and quality control systems will reduce the need for rectification going forward," he said.

Vick added that the majority of houses being repaired were either built before the National Home Builders' Registration Council (NHBRC) was fully operational and therefore in a position to ensure proper quality control, or dated from a time when houses built under the People's Housing Process were not covered by the NHBRC's quality-control process.

- Timeslive

Ray of hope to end deadlock

ONE of the most militant unions in the public servants strike has raised hopes the impasse between workers and the government could be resolved after all.

The National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu), whose members were the first to reject the government's new wage offer on Wednesday, said yesterday its members might be reconsidering.

Spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said a change of heart might occur because of a new housing scheme for public servants that the government is busy working on. He said not all union members were yet informed of this new commitment by government, made this week in ongoing talks.

Public sector workers often complain they earn "too much" to qualify for RDP houses - but "too little" to get a decent bond from a bank.

"Government will recommend that the Government Employees Pension Fund, the Department of Human Settlements, and the Public Investment Corporation actually develop that idea (housing scheme). They will research it and put together a model before April 1 2011," Pamla told Sowetan.

He said many Nehawu members had not been informed about this when they rejected the offer.

"In terms of technical details, the plan is still vague but at least time frames have been set," he said.

The government's latest wage offer of a 7,5percent increase and an R800 a month housing allowance had been leaked to the media and this had caused problems, he said.

"Some stewards never took time out to actually read through the whole document. Some of them didn't explain it to the members. They just heard about the R800 and 7,5percent in the media and decided to reject it.

But Sowetan has also been told that Nehawu is divided over the housing scheme proposal. A Nehawu leader who spoke on condition of anonymity said the union could not tell members to go back to work because "there is something in the air".

"We heard that Tokyo Sexwale (human settlements minister) will introduce a programme and that this will be disclosed to us by April next year. But there are no details and we aren't going to rush to tell our members there is something in the air.

Public Service and Administration Minister Richard Baloyi's spokesperson Lebogang Mafokosi said she could not provide any details of the new housing scheme. She previously told Sowetan the housing scheme still needed to be developed and that discussions with the unions were to have started in October.

Cosatu declined to comment on the developments, saying a statement would be issued today. Spokesperson Patrick Craven said he did not want to affect the talks.

- Sowetan

Radical plans to change the face of housing delivery

With a housing backlog of over two million and more than 12 million people in dire need of houses, government is embarking on radical changes that could turn the tide of housing delivery in the country, reports Chris Bathembu.

According to data from the Department of Human Settlements, some 2.7 million houses have been built in South Africa over the last 14 years. Officials acknowledge that the post 1994 South Africa marked the beginning of an unprecedented demand for houses as more people moved to urban areas in search of new economic opportunities that were being created by the new democratic order.

The demand became so high that the then Department of Housing was forced to look outside itself for solutions to meet its deadline for delivery when it announced the establishment of a Housing Development Agency last year.

Since its inception, the agency has facilitated the acquisition of land for housing developments across the country, allowing for more than 240 000 new houses to be handed over to new owners between 2008 and 2009. Spending on housing delivery had also increased from R4.8 billion in 2004/05 to R10.9 billion in the last financial year, increasing at an average rate of 23 percent. Authorities, however, admit that there have been challenges.

"It's a challenge and its going to take us time, but we will get there, it's going to take one step at a time," says Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale. He is adamant the new national housing policy could turn the tide in the delivery of houses, an issue that has become central to service delivery protests throughout the country.

One of the strategies listed in the policy, the People's Housing Process (PHP), will see the establishment of a new funding mechanism that will allow for more community-driven projects in the delivery of what is now being termed "human settlements". Government has also realised that the concept of just building houses without proper monitoring and maintenance has resulted in unscrupulous contractors costing the state more than R1 billion to rebuild badly constructed houses.

Sexwale says the growing demand for shelter and the mushrooming of informal settlements in most urban areas has necessitated a new approach to the housing challenge, one which will minimise corruption in the delivery of adequate houses.

"We don't just build houses anymore, that thing is not working, we are building human settlements...people must have clinics, police stations and the places where children can play and we are involving communities in that," he said during the launch of the first PHP-model housing development in Plettenberg Bay recently.

The model has also been introduced in Gauteng where 907 units were handed over to residents of DoornKop, Soweto two weeks ago. Once completed, it is expected to create more than 24,000 housing opportunities for people who qualify for subsidised housing and those who earn between R3500 and R7500 monthly. The development also forms part of the southern extension of the township.

The PHP policy further proposes an alignment of the existing housing delivery programmes but with a focus on partnerships amongst non-governmental organisations and community groupings. The process involves beneficiaries actively participating in decision making over the housing process and housing product.

"Beneficiaries are empowered individually and collectively so that the community ultimately takes control of the housing process themselves. This includes identifying the land, planning the settlement, getting approvals and resources to begin the development," says the policy. The basic entry requirement for the programme is that individuals need to be part of an already organised community group or must have indicated they want to participate in a community driven housing project.

Richard Dyantyi, special advisor to Sexwale, says plans are underway to introduce a voucher system from which organised communities would be given vouchers to access building material and short courses to enable them to start their own housing projects.

"These are the proposals that we need to debate and take to the people because a lot is involved with human settlement, you need parks, you need clinics....... so it's very important that we empower these communities so they can deliver human settlements that will be sustainable."

But the PHP has not been without challenges. One of the concerns raised during a conference to debate the policy had been the amount of time it takes for municipalities to release land for PHP projects, something believed to be causing delays for some community projects.

The PHP's policy framework and guidelines were at one stage also met with much resistance from some quarters as "they were too narrow in their focus" and apparently did not redefine the policy in a way that community-driven initiatives could be included. The department had, however since agreed to review the guidelines. Provinces are required to manage their demand databases "more effectively" to prevent confusion on waiting lists that has led to conflicts in many parts of the country.

"PHP encourages government supporting those communities who want to work with government to build human settlements in terms of a demand led approach ...this must be viewed and managed constructively so that is not seen as a means of queue jumping," reads the policy.

Dyantyi says if implemented correctly, the policy could benefit millions of people in need of houses and could be the answer to the country's housing delivery challenges. "What we are saying therefore, everyone needs to own this and it must be left squarely in the hands of government," he added.

- BuaNews

Progressive projects fail to get off the ground

Controversial government plans to build low-cost housing next to plush suburbs has not changed South Africa's housing landscape.

The much-vaunted programme to end shack living, launched in 2004, was meant to integrate rich and poor communities to address a backlog of some 2.4 million homes.

Officially known as Breaking New Ground, the policy would result in apartments and multi-storey complexes built next to expensive suburbs and gated communities, with the not-so-well-heeled becoming neighbours of the wealthy.

But, six years later, some of the projects, meant to showcase the country's progressive policy of promoting racially integrated cities, have either been shelved or failed to materialise.

This could seriously hamper state plans to speed up housing delivery to the poor and have all South Africans accommodated in formally planned settlements by 2014.

In Cape Town, plans to build about 750 houses and triple-storey flats for low- and middle-income families in upmarket Constantia have been shelved because of a land claim dispute.

In Durban, inclusionary housing in Westville, Chatsworth, Phoenix, KwaMashu and Newlands East has failed to get off the ground two years after it was launched.

ANC councillor Nigel Gumede, who heads the city's housing committee, said no oversight role or monitoring system had been in place.

The N2 Gateway project next to the Joe Slovo shack settlement in Cape Town, intended to benefit 20000 shack dwellers, has also been beset with problems.

But Nathan Adriaanse, spokesman for the Western Cape Department of Human Settlements, said that despite this, 8186 families had been accommodated in new houses.

He said the greatest challenge over the past year had revolved around the closure of Thubelisha Homes, appointed to manage the project after the withdrawal of the City of Cape Town in 2006.

Professor Marie Huchzermeyer of Wits University said an inclusionary housing policy should never be viewed, implemented or assessed only on a project basis, as in South Africa.

"It's a policy that has to be entrenched through zoning and municipal revenue systems. Yes, we do need innovative projects, but these will never come off the ground as long as there are only a few 'inclusionary' zones and the rest of the city may remain segregated," she said.

Thabani Zulu, the director-general of the national Department of Human Settlements, said a major challenge was the lack of suitable and affordable land.

"Problems are being addressed and resolved. The not-in-my-backyard mentality of some middle- to high-income families has in many cases delayed and constrained the programme," he said.

He said the N2 Gateway was never intended as an integrated development but targeted at low-income families. He said that Cosmo City in Randburg, Bendor in Limpopo, Zanemvula in Port Elizabeth, and Olievenhoutbosch in Centurion had yielded positive results.

- Times Live

Department intends to skill unemployed through housing projects

The Western Cape Human Settlements Department said on Saturday it aims to skill unemployed Capetonians through local housing projects.

The government project, which focuses on helping people build their own houses, is one of tools officials will use.

New homes were handed over in KTC on Saturday.

The department’s Kelly Theunis said it is not all about bricks and cement.

“To build houses for themselves, whilst at the same time empowering them with the necessary training, will enable them not only to build the houses but to have something sustainable at the end of the day. They’ve got a skill that they acquired that they can apply somewhere else,” she said.

- Eyewitness News

KTC Township residents receive new homes

The Western Cape Human Settlements Department said on Saturday it wants to implement housing programs "for the people, run by the people".

This forms part of its attempts to fast-track housing delivery in the province. Several KTC residents received the keys to their new homes on Saturday.

New homeowners in KTC said they are grateful to have a roof over their heads that would not leak.

A ribbon cutting ceremony was held to symbolise the occasion.

Recipient Nothembile Vethani told Eyewitness News that she was over the moon.

“I’m very happy that I finally got my house. I’ve been waiting since 1986. At least I’ll be [protected] from the rain.

The Human Settlements’ Kelly Theunis said through their PHP programme they are focusing on access as well as sustainability.

The project is government’s way of assisting people who want to build their own homes.

Over 800 new houses are earmarked for areas like Gugulethu and Khayelitsha. To date, it delivered 70 new homes.

Early Christmas for Drakenstein residents

THE Drakenstein Municipality enlightened 20 families’ lifes with their own homes on Tuesday 15 December and 61 families by 18 December. Two disabled persons with special needs in Fairyland (Phase 4) were provided with facilities that will give them better access to and inside their houses.

As part of the housing ceremony on 15 December the Chief Executive Officer of Cape Town Routes Unlimited, Calvin Gilfellan, planted a tree as a symbol of life. Cape Town Routes Unlimited together with Drakenstein Development Trust donated 200 trees to Drakenstein. These trees will be planted with- in the next few months.

The Drakenstein Housing Department has planned in terms of the Service Delivery Budget Implementation Plan for the financial year 2009/2010 to provide 1300 housing opportunities to people in dire need of housing.

The Western Cape Minister of Housing, Bonginkosi Madikizela, visited the Drakenstein housing projects on 3 December and was very positive with the People’s Housing Process (PHP) concept for housing and with the quality of houses built in the Drakenstein area.

“There are still problems with the PHP concept, but I will send you suggestions and changes to improve it. I am very impressed with the final touches done on the houses.

“It is much better than what I saw in other parts of the Province. I will make R10 million available for next year for housing in Drakenstein,” Minister Madikizela said.

The Drakenstein Housing Department is confident that they will meet their target of providing 1300 houses by the end of June next year. - Paarl Post