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

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

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

'Proud of ourselves' Lindiwe Sisulu on SONA 2014 speech

Solar power for new Cape Town housing

Cape Town - Load shedding will become a dim memory for some residents of Belhar when work is completed next year on Cape Town’s first low-cost housing project to have solar-powered lighting.

“Residents will not be left in the dark when load shedding occurs,” said mayor Patricia de Lille.

“Not only is this good for the environment, it will also reduce residents’ electricity costs.”

De Lille launched the R34 million Belhar-Pentech development on Thursday with a promise, a plea and a strong caution to protect the development against drug dealers and shebeens.

She promised the 340 beneficiaries of the new project that their houses would be ready within 12 months, as scheduled.

“In an effort to speed up delivery we have appointed a contractor who will be building the houses and installing the bulk infrastructure simultaneously.”

But she also warned residents about letting drug dealers and illegal shebeens move into the development.

“You will sign a clause that says if there is any selling of drugs or alcohol, we will evict you. We mustn’t let (these people) live among us.”

She also urged the community to let the contractors do their work.

“There are lots of projects that are standing still because of community dynamics. We have got a year to finish this.

“If there are things that make you unhappy; don’t let it stall the project,” she said.

The 340 beneficiaries are from Belhar, Bellville South, Ravensmead and Elsies River.

Clarina Adams, who lives in the area, said she had told her children to give thanks every day for the opportunity to live in their own house.

She has been on the city’s housing waiting list since 1994.

De Lille said the city had managed to bring down the housing backlog from 400,000 to 258,000.

“It’s still a lot and it’s going to go up again because of urbanisation.” But she said the municipality was trying to speed up housing delivery.

“We are also not going to keep building rubbish for our poor people.”

The city was having to repair 40 000 RDP houses built without ceilings and adequate waterproofing, she said. This kind of shoddy construction ended up costing the municipality twice as much in repair costs.

De Lille said the Belhar development’s houses were designed to enable beneficiaries to build on to their two-bedroomed homes.

Each house has been allocated 120m2 of land specifically for this purpose, and the building plans for extensions have been pre-approved.

The development was close to transport routes, schools and employment opportunities, said De Lille.

The city has also committed 10 percent in rand value of the project - R3.5 million - to creating 100 jobs for the community through its expanded public works programme.

Councillor Desmond Jaftha, chair of Subcouncil 6, said he had already submitted motions for similar projects in other areas.

De Lille said efforts had been made to promote local skills and R5.2m had been set aside for local contractors to apply for subcontracting tenders.

The PVC solar panels would also be locally produced.

anel.lewis@inl.co.za

- Cape Argus

6000 kids at Zuma Nkandla party

More than 6000 children and youth attended President Jacob Zuma's RDP education trust party in KwaNxamalala, Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal, the presidency said on Monday.

This was Zuma's 13th year hosting the annual Christmas party.

"Every year, we look forward to this day when we do something for the many orphans and children who come from the poorest of backgrounds yet have this thirst for knowledge and education," Zuma said in a statement.

Since its establishment the education trust had educated 24,000 students, Zuma said.

Those in attendance came from KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape.

The children received Christmas gifts, which included lunch packs, school bags, vanity bags, and an undertaking from the SA Social Security Agency to follow up and deliver books to needy and disadvantaged pupils, Zuma said.

What Zuma was doing through the trust was building on the work he had done for education since becoming president, said Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande.

- Sowetan

Wife to get RDP house in divorce: Sisulu

Parliament - A law amendment is in the pipeline to ensure that if a couple in a free government house get divorced the house goes to the wife, Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said on Tuesday.

“That is how our policy should read,” Sisulu told Parliament's portfolio committee on human settlements after a briefing on the first 100 days of her second stint in the portfolio.

“In 2006, we were involved in a women's build in Gauteng and after that we had an imbizo, and we came up with an idea that I had hoped in my second coming would have crystallised into policy, where we agreed that the house belongs to the man and the wife for as long they're married.

“When they get divorced the house belongs to the woman. That is our policy. So the man picks up his jacket and gets out,” she added.

The minister said her thinking was informed by the fact that mothers were the primary caregivers for their children.

“The wife stays because the wife is indeed responsible for the children.”

Sisulu suggested the policy had not yet found its way into law because the department had been “presided by men”.

She said if a wife died the house would go to the husband, on condition the children were also considered beneficiaries and that the house accrued to them if he remarried.

“If he finds somebody else, he gives the house to the children and goes to the other woman.”

Sisulu served as housing minister from 2004 to 2009. The portfolio was then given to Tokyo Sexwale before she returned to it earlier this year.

She told Sapa the provision on divorce would be enshrined in upcoming amendments to the Housing Act. She hoped in a year it would be on its way into law books.

In the meanwhile, her department would implement it as policy, she said.

- Sapa

Cape residents march over service delivery

Cape Town - Hundreds of frustrated Philippi residents marched to protest against poor service delivery on Thursday morning, while police monitored the situation.

Marikana and Rholihlahla informal settlement residents marched to the Fezeka municipal offices in Gugulethu to demand basic service delivery.

About 200 residents dressed in yellow ANC branded T-shirts with a picture of President Jacob Zuma, marched down Sheffield Road, voicing their frustration.

As they sang struggle songs, police in two vans kept an eye on the situation in an effort to prevent violence breaking out.

Residents claim they have had no access to water, sanitation and electricity since moving on to privately-owned land at Marikana and Rholihlahla in August.

A series of eviction attempts by police and other officials ended in violence and residents soon returned to the site.

Phillip Mvundlela, chairman of the Rholihlahla Street Committee, said residents had signed a petition which would be handed to the chairman of Subcouncil 13.

“The subcouncil chair must hand the petition to the mayor (Patricia de Lille) and she should see that we get these services,” he said.

Mvundlela said residents were not aware the land they had invaded was privately owned.

However, he said even if it was privately owned, the fact should not infringe on their human rights.

“Its been three months now. How do they expect us to wash?”

Another resident, Nosiphiwo Lali, said they were tired of not being heard.

“A month after settling here, we approached the ward councillor asking for basic services. He still hasn’t got back to us, so we are going to his superiors.”

But some residents did not participate in the protest.

They said there was a court case pending about the illegal invasion and marching was against court rules.

Gcinikhaya Ngqangqu said: “We are dealing with a court case against the owners of the land and the City of Cape Town is the second respondent in that court case.

“We were supposed to wait for the outcome before protesting.”

zodidi.dano@inl.co.za

- Cape Argus

Sisulu seeks ways to leverage funds

Lindiwe Sisulu, the Minister of Human Settlements, aims to leverage the financial reserves of the National Home Builders Registration Council and Estate Agency Affairs Board to increase the delivery of affordable housing.

Sisulu also wants to get the Public Investment Corporation, the manager of the Government Employees Pension Fund, to invest in the housing market segment.

She was speaking on the sidelines of the National Human Settlements Indaba, which aims to build partnerships for the accelerated delivery of human settlements through a social contract with partners.

Sisulu said the government had committed R1 billion towards the target of delivering 1.5 million housing opportunities by 2019, which would drive economic development.

“The 1.5 million houses we want to provide is government’s commitment. We can treble that with the support of society,” she said.

Sisulu said the emphasis in the next five years was on megaprojects, while also allowing for pockets of site-and-service and people’s housing projects. Megaprojects, which delivered at least 10 000 housing units, had the advantage of building on scale and generating jobs and subsidiary industries.

Sisulu said human settlements had potential as a great job creator and they intended to harness the energy of the unemployed youth.

“We would like to test the Cuban model of a youth brigade for every project, so that we can deal with unemployment while we skill the youth, she said.

“With all that we have been through as a country, where a house was used as part of a coercive system to subjugate the masses of our people, we can use that same instrument to provide settled communities, responsible to their obligations as citizens and give them a stake in the economy.

“Together we can improve the economy of the country, create more jobs and thrive.”

The indaba follows the social contract entered into in 2005 between what was then the Department of Housing and many civil society partners that resulted in the delivery of 1.2 million housing units in the following five years.

Various organisations made commitments and pledges yesterday towards the social contract. The finalisation and signing of the second social contract is scheduled to take place today.

Pierre Venter, the head of human settlements at the Banking Association of SA, said the banking sector was committed to the social contract if it included all stakeholders.

He said since signing the initial social contract in 2005, the commercial banks in South Africa had lent more than R101bn to more than 2.2 million families to enable them to improve their housing conditions.

He said a key concern of the sector when it signed the record of understanding in 2005 was that the affordable housing market was not a normalised market segment.

“This segment is today commercially viable and sustainable despite the economic recession… and it compares favourably with other segments.

“We now have commercial banks actively competing for market share in this segment because it’s deemed to be very good business and that’s our future middle class,” he said.

A Chambers of Mines representative said the chamber and its member companies were committed to working in partnerships with all stakeholders in areas that would improve the socioeconomic and living conditions of its people.

Asked by Sisulu if the chamber would double the R1bn commitment made by the government, the representative said the funding by its members individually through their social and labour plans collectively exceeded R2bn.

- Business Day

Lindiwe Sisulu says nothing about the N2 Gateway national flagship which was her brain child - which although had Bank buy in has empty units sitting bare for years...

Nkandla veggie packhouse not for Zuma family benefit

A vegetable packing warehouse built near President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla home was for the benefit of the community, the KwaZulu-Natal department of co-operative governance said on Sunday.

"There is no gold, no coal there. Agriculture is one of strongest drivers of economic development [in the province]," spokesman Lennox Mabaso said.

"It is not for the benefit of one family [the Zumas]."

The Sunday Times reported that the department had built a vegetable packhouse for a women's co-operative started by Zuma's wife, Sizakele MaKhumalo Zuma, in 2010.

Mabaso said MaKhumalo was involved in agricultural causes in the community, but denied that her political connection was the reason for the packhouse, one of many in the province, being built.

"There is a model we apply that we follow in all those projects."

The potential for job creation and economic opportunities through farming in KwaZulu-Natal made it a key sector for development.

Mabaso said it appeared that some media latched on to any development near Nkandla, as the recent controversy surrounding security upgrades to Zuma's house made this newsworthy.

"There is a fishing expedition to make everything that is happening in Nkandla about one family, even if it has no link... It is wrong, the people of Nkandla have become outcasts."

"We have many [vegetable packhouses] that we have opened, we invited the same newspapers to them and they never came. Just the fact that this one is at Nkandla, this [is an] attempt to continue with the narrative..."

Mabaso could not immediately give the cost of the packing warehouse, but said the department would issue a statement about it in the next week.

- Timeslive

‘Aerotropolis’ planned for invaded Philippi land

Cape Town - The land illegally invaded in Philippi last week is destined to become the site of a significant new job-creator and economic hub which is part of a huge industrial development proposal.

The owner of Erf 145 and other private landowners in Philippi have an interdict from the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court preventing any illegal occupation or trespassing on the land.

The same applied to erfs 145, 20858, 135, 416, 586, 4115, 532, 589 and 143, as well as Farm 597/1. These parcels of land are all between Sheffield, Stock and Lansdowne roads, and together make up about 40 hectares.

The collective development had been branded an “aerotropolis”, which built “economic benefits around major airports, cities and immediate environs”, said The Waterstreet Group’s spokesman, Oscar Saunderson. “The aerotropolis develops spines or nodes of commercial and residential development as a joint venture between the airport, harbour, airlines, the city, province and the airports company of a region.

“Airports are now driving economic location just as canals and railways did before.”

Saunderson quoted the chief executive of Manchester City, Sir Howard Bernstein, who forecast: “The top 600 cities in the world will change and 100 new ones will emerge.

IOL marikana  cape Mawethu Mfazwe done

Marikana informal settlement residents have no intention of moving from land they are squatting on. File picture: David Ritchie

CAPE ARGUS

“International collaboration and trade will become fundamental to city strategy, as will connectivity, and the aerotropolis covers both elements.”

The aerotropolis drove growth since airports became preferred hubs where a primary business community, in time, established itself.

“With things like data parks, diamond-cutting plants, cold storage, comes African head offices and growing demand for more air routes, and stopovers, and finally shopping, and spending in our town. This can create thousands of jobs, and thriving tourism businesses.

“Cape Town’s industrial and warehousing market is in demand, specifically around the airport. With all the import to and export from southern Africa, we believe that there is an increasing opportunity to establish a strong air freight hub in Cape Town.”

The developers and landowners include Power Developments Projects, H&T Prop CC, PJL Prop, Anika Delicio, Maria Salvatore Delicio and Annemarie Delicio.

Some of the proposed development will comprise “a mixed high-density area of industrial development, with housing complexes, wholesale and retail shopping centres” providing thousands of jobs.

“The industrial hive will include small business creation, various public facilities such as clinics, crèches, schools and recreational areas,” the collective development group said in its interdict application.

Saunderson said: “This envisaged business park is intended to be an industrial centre for the entire Philippi and surrounding area, an area to date characterised by its almost total lack of large-scale industrial, and accordingly job-creating, activity.”

The developers argued in their court application: “The business park has enormous benefits for the entire community and it will literally create thousands of jobs in an area where they are sorely lacking. Several thousand jobs will be created during the initial construction phase, which will continue for approximately two to three years. After this (we) understand approximately 65 000 jobs and career opportunities will be created…

“(We) do not believe it needs repetition that one of the most urgent needs in the Western Cape, and the country as a whole, is private job creation. (We) would submit that many of the social ills that currently afflict the region, including lack of access to housing, flow directly from lack of opportunities available to persons to generate income in order to properly provide for themselves and their families.”

The applicants are also members of the Philippi Economic Development Initiative, “an agglomeration of landowners, businessmen, residents, the City of Cape Town, and diverse other interested parties and community organisations, whose sole purpose is the economic upliftment of the entire Philippi area, an area historically marked by serious neglect and underdevelopment.”

‘The victims are invariably the poor’

In an affidavit before the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court one of the applicants, Gary Power, alleges: “I suppose that it is possible that all of a sudden several people spontaneously and simultaneously decided to occupy the property, but would submit that there are strong indicators that the real reason for the prospective land invasion is the insidious practice known as ‘plot farming’.

“What this entails is that a consortium of persons identifies an area of vacant land and then lets it be known, frequently using fake credentials, that they are entitled to allocate portions of that land to landless persons.

“The consortium then extracts payment from persons who believe they are buying a real right to land, usually R500,” the affidavit reads.

Alternatively, the people were told they would be allocated land if they paid a “membership fee”.

These fraudulent property “sellers” usually marked out erfs with pegs and string or tape, adding apparent authenticity to the supposed sale.

After the buyers had been evicted they found the consortium had disbanded and disappeared.

The developers said these victims were “invariably the poorest of the poor who can ill afford spending any amount unnecessarily, are out of pocket and often without a home”.

The developers had seen first-hand how plots had been delineated on the sites of the illegal land invasions, leading them to believe that plot farming was behind recent land invasions.

On September 10 the court will rule on whether the interdict barring land invasions should be made permanent.

The court demands that the police, with the support of the metro police and other relevant enforcement agencies, must take action should the court interdict be broken.

But it was in terms of basic criminal law – which prohibits trespassing – that the police and metro police guarded the site on Friday as the shacks were dismantled and their materials removed from the site.

The City of Cape Town’s Richard Bosman said about 307 structures had been dismantled.

‘We won’t go’

Marikana informal settlement residents have no intention of moving from land they are squatting on.

The privately-owned land in Philippi was invaded about three weeks ago.

The squatters were removed after the developer got a court order but when the Cape Argus visited the informal settlement on Monday, the whole area had been re-occupied.

The residents refused to vacate the land, saying the developer would have to find another site for the mall.

Thando Matiwane, a resident, said: “I do not understand this mall thing. How do you evict people and pull down their homes just for the sake of building a mall? Who is going to buy from that mall?”

Matiwane moved from his backyard home in Lower Crossroads to Marikana two weeks ago.He said he could not afford the R400 rent.

Another resident, Lisa Qomoyi, a mother of two who runs a business selling chicken feet, said the developer should forget about the mall.

“We are not moving from here. So many malls have been built around this area yet none are functioning well. This area has grown to become my business; there is no way I am moving.”

Qomoyi lived in Nyanga before moving to Philippi. She said since coming to Cape Town from the Transkei in 1984, she had not been given a house nor secured a proper job.

“Parts of Gugulethu, KTC and Nyanga all started as informal settlements. Residents fought for their homes and look, now they are still there. Why can we not fight for our own homes?”

The residents said they did not care whether the mall would create employment for them.

Mawethu Mfazwe said: “So many malls have been built in this area. Look at Philippi Plaza or the Gugulethu Square, but none of the employees are from those areas. These companies bring workers of their own. This mall would be useless. How do we shop when we have no shelter?” – Additional reporting by Zodidi Dano

- Cape Argus

Sisulu looks to private sector on housing

Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu is hoping to convince the Treasury to agree to the introduction of incentives to encourage the private sector to get involved in the provision of social housing.

Sisulu also wants every private sector entity, as part of their social responsibility obligations, to put something into housing.

In an exclusive interview with Business Report yesterday, Sisulu said that the private sector had made it very clear there had to be something “in it for us” for them to come on board and recommit to another social compact on the provision of social housing.

“We have to make it attractive for them to come on board. I have an appointment to see the [finance] minister. Incentives exist in various other forms for the private sector for various reasons. I think this one is very necessary.

“The story of Marikana and the conditions there just doesn’t need to be repeated for anybody to see that we really need to do something about the conditions in which our people live,” she said.

“It degrades a person and does not give them the necessary dignity that any human being would require to behave in accordance with their responsibility.”

She said she would like to find a way of defining and quantifying the social responsibility of entities towards housing, noting that she was shocked to find a housing entity, the National Housing Finance Corporation, had allocated its social responsibility obligation towards saving the whales.

Sisulu has arranged another housing indaba, which will take place in Pretoria at the end of next month, where she hopes to get private sector entities to recommit to a housing social compact similar to what had occurred in 2004.

This, apart from commitments from other stakeholders, led to the major banks committing in terms of the financial services charter to provide R42 billion towards loans for social housing.

The minister added that the government would like the banks to concentrate now on the provision of mortgage finance for rental housing stock, which would also help to address affordability issues in the housing market.

She said her department would like to hear from people involved in social housing about their successes and challenges and how her department could assist them.

She confirmed there had been a 25 percent to 30 percent decline in the delivery of housing in the past five years but did not as yet know the reason for this reduction other than it was because of “problems in the pipeline”. The previous housing social compact had laid the foundation for faster housing delivery and 275 000 houses were delivered in the department’s 2007/08 financial year, she added.

Her belief then was that delivery could only improve from that level and with the experience gained and knowledge about blockages in the system, about 500 000 houses would now be delivered each year.

She is hopeful that the planned government employees housing scheme will be up and running soon, noting that an agreement had been signed by the various stakeholders, including the unions and bargaining council.

- BusinessReport

all of this has happened before 

ANC ‘hit squad’ out to get us - De Lille

Cape Town - The City of Cape Town is under attack from the ANC, in collusion with the SA Human Rights Commission, Ses’Khona People’s Rights Movement and the Lwandle ministerial inquiry, mayor Patricia de Lille has charged.

In the council on Wednesday, De Lille slammed these entities for being ANC proxies.

Damage to city property – including burning tyres and violent demonstrations – were the “hallmarks of the modern ANC” in the province, and had already cost the city R20 million.

“Having realised they are not in a position to win fair and square at the ballot box, they have decided to try to win by hook or by crook with violence and disruption.”

It was unlikely that the ANC would take public responsibility for this damage by Ses’Khona and others “because it suits them to have a proxy” to do their work.

There was also a human cost to the ANC-motivated violence, since the R20m could have been used to build houses or provide services. “The ANC will do what it can to create havoc in our city and our province. Instead of allowing for democratic debate it would “lie, cheat, break things and shout to make its voice heard”.

De Lille said the Lwandle inquiry set up by Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu was a “farce”.

The “political hit squad” was made up of “spent forces of mostly former ANC MPs... to discredit the city”. They had already decided on the outcome.

As for the SA Human Rights Commission, it had been deployed “to weigh in on Cape Town and Cape Town alone”.

The commission recently accused the DA-led metro of racial discrimination for providing chemical toilets to four areas in Khayelitsha.

De Lille said the city respected Chapter 9 institutions, but it would not accept the findings of an institution being abused for political gains.

“Either the (commission) does not understand the realities of government in South Africa, or it chooses to ignore it to make political points.”

Despite poor sanitation delivery in other municipalities, the commission had accused only Cape Town of racism.

“We will... go to Johannesburg, Mandela Bay, Buffalo City and eThekwini to lay the same complaints with the (commission)... “

Cape Town had the country’s highest toilet provision target, and chemical toilets were a last resort. It was looking at sanitation solutions.

Taking a swipe at Ses’Khona, led by suspended ANC councillor Loyiso Nkohla, and the so-called poo protesters, De Lille said: “Their integrity is worth about as much as the poo they throw to make their point.”

Affidavits submitted by residents had shown Ses’Khona stood to make about R330 000 from selling plots on the Sanral-owned land in Lwandle.

The organisation had also taken responsibility for inciting violence in Kosovo and Philippi, leaving more than 5 000 households without power.

Nkohla was not given an opportunity to respond, but did question the mayor’s criticism of a “respected” institution such as the commission.

De Lille responded: “Anyone can say the city has violated the right to basic sanitation, but it must be backed up by fact. We would expect a Chapter 9 institution to be fair and equal to all.”

But the ANC’s metro leader Xolani Sotashe dismissed De Lille’s statement as “absolute rubbish”.

He told the Cape Argus after the meeting: “There is no organisation called the ANC Ses’khona. This is an old song of the mayor to cover up the city’s bias in terms of service delivery.”

He said the city wanted to blame service delivery protests on the ANC to taint the party’s image ahead of the 2010 local government election. “It is a defection strategy because the city is not servicing poor communities.”

Sotashe said De Lille’s criticism of the HRC was seen by the ANC as a sign of disrespect.

“If Chapter Nine institutions come out in favour of the DA, they are praised but now that the findings are against the DA, the SAHRC is attacked.”

Her allegations that the Lwandle Inquiry was nothing more than a political hit squad were also disrespectful.

Nkohla said later that Ses’Khona was blamed for everything that went wrong in the city. But he said the organisation was an independent NGO and not in alliance with the ANC or the DA.

He also challenged De Lille and Premier Helen Zille to provide proof that Ses’Khona benefited from the sale of land in Lwandle.

anel.lewis@inl.co.za

- Cape Argus

We are not short of ambition - Now offering 'Housing opportunities'

Lindiwe Sisulu says her department will provide 1.5 million housing opportunities over the next five years.

This past week, we led the international community in the celebration of the greatest struggle icon of our time, Nelson Mandela. Our government plans and the challenges it seeks to address, are linked with what Mandela stood for and fought against.

Addressing the court at the Rivonia Trial, Mandela said: “We fight against two features, which are the hallmarks of African life in South Africa: poverty and the lack of human dignity.”

If we are to be true in honouring his legacy, we should ask ourselves whether we are doing enough to emulate him in addressing those challenges.

Our people are the best judges. They have endorsed the work we have done in the past 20 years. They resoundingly proclaimed that under the ANC government, South Africa is better than it was 20 years ago. This has also been acknowledged by all the opposition parties.

But it should not blind us to the challenges ahead. As we try to address the seemingly intractable legacy of apartheid, we have had to contend with new challenges – arguably all linked to this ugly past.

We have brought back dignity to the more than 3 million households that have benefited from our pro-poor policies.

The mushrooming of squatter camps and informal settlements that blight our otherwise beautiful landscape are a consequence of land hunger – and economic dispossession spawned by apartheid.

We are not unmindful of the growing sense of desperation and impatience that has been expressed by our people.

Our analysis suggests South Africans are beginning to ask the difficult questions. One of which is, when will the backlog and waiting list of 1994 be eliminated?

Some housing experts are suggesting there must be a cut-off date for young people and we must focus on elders. They also suggest the government consider other forms of assistance to those younger than 60.

Developers, bankers and construction companies expect the minister to intervene to unblock red tape in municipalities.

Taxpayers expect the minister to ensure the houses built with their money are of quality and given to the right owners.

NGOs, in particular those operating in informal settlements, find the government unreasonable and uncaring about the plight of people living in informal settlements.

Low-income earners (R3 500 to R10 000) are struggling to find houses they can purchase within the price range of between R150 000 to R300 000. They cannot find affordable serviced stands to purchase where they can build their own houses. They expect the government to intervene and assist.

Many young people in urban areas who earn less than R5 000 a month are willing to build houses for themselves, but there is a lack of allocated land for them to buy and on which to build.

Town planners and developers believe it is possible for the process of township establishment, re-zoning, environmental impact assessments and approval of building plans to be fast-tracked.

They have specific proposals on how this can be done.

We are not short of ambition. And where ambition is combined with commitment, the sky is the limit.

Our bold measures are aimed at addressing the spatial planning and reversing the geopolitical imagination of apartheid in the next five years.

We must continue to ensure that all South Africans live in decent conditions in suitable settlements that provide inclusive amenities and public transport.

We will provide 1.5 million housing opportunities for qualifying households in urban and rural settlements over the next five years.

These will include fully subsidised houses, affordable low-income houses, social housing units and community residential units.

We will also accelerate the provision of basic services and infrastructure in all existing informal settlements.

Greater co-ordination among key role-players remains a key ingredient for success in this drive to improve living conditions of the 750 000 households found in informal settlements.

We will increase the supply of affordable housing for teachers, nurses, police officers, office workers and many others in the gap market.

Work is at an advanced stage with the Ministry of Public Service and Administration to introduce a programme to help meet the housing needs of public servants.

We will work with financial institutions, private sector organisations, co-operatives and social partners to increase the provision of capital for housing and overcome barriers to affordable housing finance.

Our considered view is that housing development will not be a drag to the economy, but will be a skills generator and a catalyst to many economic opportunities. As the government, we have made a commitment.

As I have indicated above, we can’t do this alone. This is a call for partnership for all society to place all hands on deck.

* Lindiwe Sisulu is the Minister of Human Settlements.

** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Newspapers.

- The Star

Sisulu promises 1.5-million houses in five years

THE Department of Human Settlements plans to facilitate the construction of 1.5-million homes and informal housing upgrades over the next five years, Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said on Tuesday.

But to achieve this, more financial resources would be required, the minister said at a media briefing ahead of her budget vote speech during an extended committee of the National Assembly.

A delivery budget of R29bn was allocated to the department this year, and it will rise to R32bn and R34bn over the next two years. In addition, the government will be trying to encourage greater private sector financing in housing projects. This will be necessary to address the backlog of about 2.3-million housing units and the 2,200 informal settlements mushrooming around the country.

Ms Sisulu said a decision had been taken to only construct "mega" projects involving a minimum of 10,000 units, both to achieve economies of scale and to fast-track delivery. Fifty national priority mega projects would be identified throughout the country for integrated and sustainable developments which would include economic and social amenities.

In terms of the department’s master plan, 30% of these houses would be houses for the indigent, 20% gap houses for those earning between R1,500 to R10,000 a month, 20% for rental accommodation, 10% would be social housing and 20% would be serviced sites in informal settlements.

"We believe the building of houses must be a catalyst for skills development and job creation. South Africa is about to become the biggest construction site in Africa and most probably in the developing world. We will build close to 270,000 houses annually as a sector.

"After reviewing housing delivery from 2005 to 2009 and 2009 to 2014 we have come to the conclusion that we need to change our approach. We need to move from small projects of 200 houses to mega projects of integrated housing mix to cater for different incomes and needs."

In her speech, the minister stressed the need for comprehensive, accurate housing lists, noting with concern the number of people who sold the houses they received and then put their names again on the lists. Also of concern were the number of 18 year olds who expected the state to provide them with a house.

A national database will be developed to ensure proper record keeping and to clear out fraud.

Between August and December this year 1,956 houses would be built in each province by women for women to celebrate Women’s Month in August.

Another objective for the next 100 days will be for the Estate Agency Affairs Board to prioritise the issue of title deeds for pre- and post-1994 housing stock. A dedicated unit will be established to fast-track this process so owners can realise their "dead assets".

The N2 Gateway Project in Cape Town will be taken over as a national project owned by all provinces — with the agreement of the Western Cape government — in order to overcome bottlenecks and to expedite delivery.

Ms Sisulu said this was a pilot project which would provide insights into how these projects should be undertaken. The Western Cape government will be responsible for allocating houses.

Another priority for the next five years will be to revitalise mining towns.

Ms Sisulu said the banking sector had been reluctant to enter this market for fear of these towns becoming ghost towns after the closure of the mines. The towns would have to be made economically viable.

The Housing Development Agency will become a fully fledged property development agency mandated to acquire and prepare land, and act as project managers for municipalities.

- BDLive

Sisulu arrives bearing gifts in Lwandle

Cape Town - A mom and her newborn son were the first people to move back to the SA National Roads Ltd land from which she and 200 families were violently evicted six weeks ago.

On Monday, Lulama Ndevu, 33, and 1-week-old Nkosana Ndevu received a special visit from Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu.

Sisulu brought gifts for the family including a gas stove, a gas heater, beds, a kettle and baby clothing.

Ndevu, her partner Soyiso Jekam, 39, and their two other children, Inako, 3, and 18-month-old Anda, were the first of at least 200 families to move in.

About 200 units measuring 8m by 3m have gone up on the site. Outside toilets had to be shared by different families.

After Sisulu inspected the units she said: “It is unfortunate that it has taken a long time till completion, especially seeing that this eviction happened in the worst time of the year. I’m happy with the size and express my gratitude to the Housing Development Agency that has taken responsibility for the buildings, and the City of Cape Town for being responsible for sanitation.”

Sisulu said that although she gave the Ndevu family beds, Lwandle residents should not expect the same. “This is a special case. This is a baby we are talking about, (he) cannot sleep on the floor.”

Ndevu gave birth to her son last Monday at Hottentots Holland Hospital in Somerset West. Although she and Jekam were delighted with their son, life with a newborn at the Nomzamo Community Hall, where more than 800 Lwandle evictees have been staying, was not ideal.

She said: “It was difficult living at the hall with a newborn. I struggled because the hall was very cold for a baby. There were lots of people all cooped up in one area, and bathing my son was hard to do.”

Ndevu was overjoyed when the minister handed her a bag of nappies. “We feel so free and at home. It’s like I am dreaming.”

Jekam said it was about time they were moved back in. “I am happy because the way we were living there at the hall was not good, most specially for my son. I would like to thank the minister for all she has done.”

Residents said they were pleased that things were starting to move.

Sbongiseni Jonisile said: “I’m very happy that the first family is in, that gives us hope that we too will be moving into our new homes. We were hurt by the way we were living at the hall, but we have hope.”

zodidi.dano@inl.co.za

- Cape Argus

Government allocates R4.3m for evicted families

Cape Town - The national Human Settlements Department has allocated R4.3 million for the families evicted from Sanral land near the N2, and minister Lindiwe Sisulu will sign letters to the employers of all the workers among the evicted to make sure they don’t lose their jobs as well as their homes and possessions.

“They are worried that not having turned up at work it may jeopardise their work,” Sisulu said on Thursday.

The letters would be handed to the councillor to pass on to the workers for their employers.

A ministerial inquiry is under way into the evictions carried out by the South African National Roads Agency Ltd (Sanral) during a wet and cold week. An estimated R4.3m in emergency funding has been allocated - though not finalised - to go towards emergency housing kits, and to provide ablution facilities and basic electricity supplies on a site to which the families will move.

On Thursday night, the 849 families - roughly 7 000 people - had to decide whether to move to other Sanral land, identified by the national government roads agency on Thursday following the ministerial intervention, or return to Nomzamo informal settlement for six months.

However, Sisulu said this did not mean people had carte blanche for illegal land occupation.

“We don’t want to encourage this kind of situation. Illegal occupation is wrong and evicting people illegally is also wrong… South Africans must understand they can’t do wrong, whatever the level of provocation.”

Sisulu said money would be recouped from whoever was responsible for having allowed this “blatant carelessness”, which had compromised systems put in place to govern such situations and the constitutional rights of those evicted.

The ministerial inquiry will have until August 5 to discover the “real reasons” for the illegal land occupation, the process of obtaining and executing the eviction order and the role of law enforcement agencies in this process.

The inquiry’s terms of reference say: “The competition for access to urban space as a result of rapid urbanisation must engender a lawful approach by all the parties.”

Central are concerns that inter-governmental relations have foundered. Sisulu said Sanral and the City of Cape Town should have elevated the dispute for resolution up the intergovernmental co-operation ladder. This would have meant involving the transport and housing departments at provincial and, ultimately national level, to ensure people’s constitutional rights to shelter were not threatened.

On Thursday, civil society organisations - the Social Justice Coalition, Equal Education and Ndifuna Ukwazi - said no final eviction order had been granted. The high court order granted in January, on which Sanral relied, was an interim order against those intending to occupy, not those already on the land, and granted without an actual hearing.

The NGOs said Sanral’s court application was not accompanied by any plans to develop the N2 in the Lwandle area, despite longstanding proposals to do so, but it did include a letter from the City of Cape Town’s anti-land invasion unit warning the agency of new shacks being erected, and letters of concern from residents.

Citing a 2011 legal precedent in the Constitutional Court relating to Joburg council evictions, the NGOs said: “Evictions are sometimes necessary for legitimate development purposes. When this is the case there is still a need to provide temporary shelter... This same moral and constitutional duty therefore now falls on the City of Cape Town - it has largely failed to fulfil it.”

- Cape Argus

De Lille calls for impartial Lwandle probe

Cape Town - An inquiry into the evictions at Lwandle must be impartial, Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille said on Thursday.

“The inquiry itself, in order to have legitimacy and credibility, needs to be impartial and objective,” she said in a statement.

It was concerning that two people appointed to the inquiry, its chairman Denzil Potgieter and Annelize van Wyk, had “extremely close links to the ANC”.

De Lille said she therefore appealed to Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu to appoint people who could “bring a more independent and objective perspective”.

Sisulu's spokesman Ndivhuwo Mabaya suggested direct communication between De Lille and Sisulu.

“The minister is the boss of Patricia de Lille, so Patricia must write to her.”

On Monday and Tuesday, 846 families living on SA National Roads Agency Limited-owned land next to the N2 highway were evicted under an interim court order.

Their shacks were demolished and set alight. Many people lost most or all of their possessions.

On Thursday, Sisulu announced the inquiry into the removals.

The other members are Nomhle Beauty Dambuza, Mampe Ramotsamai, Butch Steyn, and Barnabas Xulu, who would provide legal advice.

- Sapa

Sanral offers land for evictees

Cape Town - Sanral has offered other land it owns as a more permanent home for the people it evicted from Lwandle in Cape Town, Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said on Thursday.

“Sanral (the SA National Roads Agency Limited) has given us pieces of land which they have and we agreed we would dispatch a team to investigate the land,” she told media in Parliament.

She said the team comprised community leaders and officials of Sanral and the Housing Development Agency.

On this new piece of land, yet to be chosen, residents would be provided with building kits, basic electricity, water and basic ablution facilities, “all of those things that will make it possible for them to regain their dignity and to lead lives we would like to live”.

On Monday and Tuesday, about 846 families living on Sanral land next to the N2 highway were evicted under an interim court order.

Their shacks were demolished and set alight. Many lost their personal possessions and were left with nothing but the clothes they were wearing.

They were being accommodated at the Nomzamo community hall in Strand and wre receiving hot meals, blankets and mattresses from the city.

Transport Minister Dipuo Peters visited the community soon after. She said the evictions should be put on hold and the people returned to the land as an interim solution.

Sisulu visited the land on Wednesday and said she addressed residents at the hall the same evening.

“I made a suggestion to them that perhaps it might be better to find a place of longer permanence than the six months that had been given by the minister of transport. Six months down the line we will be with the same problem.”

She said residents seemed very happy with the offer of alternative land.

“We are going there tonight to finalise arrangements together with the director-general and we will be back hopefully on Sunday, having removed them to a new place where we might settle them for a bit longer.”

Sisulu said the eviction did create a catch-22 situation for her department, in the light of numerous people who needed assistance with land and housing.

“That is why I have been very agitated and angry about this because we do not want to encourage this type of situation.”

Sisulu had declared the matter a special project of the department because there was a loss of property and violations of constitutional rights.

In terms of the law, she had the final responsibility in ensuring people in dire housing predicaments were assisted.

“We must start by putting it on record that we do not tolerate, condone nor encourage any illegal occupation of land in our country... evicting people illegally is also wrong and South Africans have to get to understand you can't get away with doing wrong.”

Sisulu said a blame-game had played out the last few days between Sanral and the city of Cape Town.

She said neither the province nor the city wanted to take responsibility.

“They did not think it was a disaster and washed their hands of it.”

- Sapa

Zille wasn’t here stirring a pot: Sisulu

Cape Town - Western Cape premier Helen Zille's absence at a hall for evicted Cape Town shack dwellers was surprising, Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said on Thursday.

“When I went to the community yesterday (Wednesday), I somehow half-expected to see the premier cooking for the community,” she told media in Parliament.

“You know, she has become a super chef. I thought I'd find her stirring a big pot for the community there.”

Sisulu was referring to a recent photo posted on Twitter, which showed a smiling Zille in her Democratic Alliance colours and domestic clothing, stirring a big pot of pap with a stick.

“When I didn't find her there, then I knew she was serious so maybe it should have happened before elections.”

Asked about Sisulu's remarks, Zille described them as “just an attempt to deflect Sanral and the national department from responsibility”.

“I'm not going to stoop to this kind of level,” she said.

Sisulu visited the Nomzamo community hall in Strand on Wednesday evening, where illegal shack dwellers were being provided with hot meals, blankets and mattresses by the city.

Around 846 families living on SA National Road Agency Limited (Sanral) land next to the N2 highway were evicted on the basis of an interim court order, on Monday and Tuesday.

Their shacks were demolished and set alight. Many lost their personal possessions and were left with nothing but the clothes they were wearing.

Sisulu said a blame-game had played out the last few days between Sanral and the city of Cape Town.

She said neither the province nor the city wanted to take responsibility.

“They did not think it was a disaster and washed their hands of it.”

- Sapa