Deadlock as squatters refuse to move

Eight months after being evicted from the Castle Bowling Green clubhouse in Woodstock, a group of people living illegally on a sports field nearby are refusing to move.

Among them is Elaan Salie, who said five families were living in tents on the field.

“Nothing has happened. They want to send us to Happy Valley. There are no benefits for me there,” he said.

“I am a sick man, I have to go to Groote Schuur (Hospital) every day and it is close by.”

He was unable to work because of a recent hip replacement operation, Salie said.

“We stayed (in the clubhouse) for seven years without any trouble.”… Cape Times

Presidency mum on R90m wall furore

A security wall, believed to cost in excess of R90-million, is being built to secure the Bryntirion Estate, which includes President Mbeki’s city home.

The National Department of Public Works confirmed it was undertaking a comprehensive security upgrade project at the estate “as part of the routine security and maintenance plan of state assets”.

The Bryntirion area includes the homes of several top government figures.

But departmental spokesperson Thami Mchunu said: “For security reasons we are not allowed to divulge the exact cost of the wall.”

Sources known to the Pretoria News have, however, confirmed the building costs at R90-million and have said that should surveillance equipment be added to the bill, the total cost could be about R100-million.

The security upgrade comes shortly after President Thabo Mbeki questioned the prevailing concern over crime. Mbeki was quoted as saying that the crime situation was not “not out of control”.

When approached for comment, presidential spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga said: “There is no comment from the presidency. Go to Public Works.”

Mchunu said: “Only phase one is under way and comprises the construction of a perimeter boundary complete with security installations. This includes the replacement and extension of the current perimeter fence which has fallen into a state of disrepair.”

The project will be undertaken in phases and is expected to be completed in 2008/2009…Pretoria News

Housing backlog gets R32bn boost

The Department of Housing has been allocated R32-billion over the next three years in an attempt to reduce backlogs and fast-track housing delivery.

According to the 2007 estimates of national expenditure, tabled by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel in Parliament on Wednesday, the department will receive R8,8-billion in 2007/08, R10,5-billion in 2008/09 and 12,5-billion in 2009/10.

The 2007/08 allocation represents a R2,7-billion increase compared with the previous year, he said.

The department, which is currently struggling to cope with growing housing demand, has a significant backlog.

Despite the delivery of two million subsidised houses since the inception of the new housing programme in 1994, the housing backlog has continued to grow, and currently stands at 2,4-million units.

The Housing Development Finance Programme accounted for 96,8% of the department’s expenditure in 2006/07.

“The growth [in expenditure] is also driven by significant additional allocations, totalling R4-billion for informal settlement upgrading, and R1,2-billion for introducing credit-linked subsidies in the 2005 and 2006 budgets,” it says. — Sapa

Killer TB claims first Cape victim

The deadly drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis has claimed its first life in the Western Cape and five new sufferers have been diagnosed.

This brings to eight the number of people identified with “extremely drug-resistant” TB - XDR-TB - in the province so far.

Dr Keith Cloete, director of TB for the province, said a 23-year-old Cape Town woman had died in the Brooklyn Chest Hospital on February 5, but XDR-TB had only been diagnosed after death.

Last year this strain killed more than 50 people in KwaZulu-Natal and more than 300 cases have been confirmed countrywide.

Four of the five new local cases have been admitted to Brooklyn Chest Hospital, where they are being treated in isolation along with the first two cases, an 11-month-old baby from Khayelitsha and a 43-year-old woman from the Eastern Cape, who fell ill while visiting Cape Town over Christmas… Cape Argus

State of the province address - is far from the truth.

With a backlog of 400,000 for housing, Rasool said the province can meet the demand by 2014. He said, though, that government is prepared to handle this situation.

“Seventy-nine percent of those needing houses earn less that R1 500 per month. However, MEC for local government and housing, Richard Dyantyi is poised to receive an average of R1.2 billion from government a year”, said Rasool.

InternAfrica is firm in the understanding that the Western Cape Provincial government is incapable of addressing the housing / habitat crisis in the Western Cape.

New-new agency to fast-track housing delivery

The government’s looming deadline to eradicate all informal settlements by 2014 has seen it establish a new housing development agency to step up the delivery of houses.

At a media briefing on Thursday, Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu announced that the agency would manage and co-ordinate the development of housing across the country.

The agency would also help to identify and purchase land for housing development.

Sisulu said developers and the banking sector found it difficult to build low-income housing because of the slow pace of approval from local and provincial governments.

In some cases it took as much as three years to get the nod from the authorities to go ahead and begin building.

The housing minister admitted that some municipalities had been slow in delivering land-availability agreements to developers and that in most cases, municipalities did not have the capacity to facilitate housing delivery.

Sisulu said the N2 Gateway housing project in Cape Town proved that in order to ensure the fast-track delivery of housing, the responsibility for it would have to be located at provincial government level.

“We have found that over the past year we have not been able to proceed at the pace that we wanted to on the N2 because the city had not given the land-availability agreement on which we were dependent. That finally has been done a few days ago,” she said.

“If we can be held up as government, you can imagine what it is like for a private developer.”

The construction industry, straining under the pressure of delivering the infrastructure required for the 2010 World Cup, threatened the delivery of housing even though it was a constitutional requirement, the minister added.

Her department was working with the 2010 organising committee, and also liaising with other governments with a view to the importing of materials needed to build houses. The Star

Home-grown building an instant success

SA is already exporting what could turn out to be the solution to the domestic housing crisis, writes Sipho Masondo

IT IS no secret that the South African government is struggling to provide houses for the masses. The housing department says there is a backlog of about 2,4-million houses, despite construction of almost the same number since 1994.

However, a home-grown “instant housing” technology is being used successfully in a number of countries, and questions have been raised because it is not being used in local mass construction projects.

Port Elizabeth entrepreneur Hennie Botes has been successfully exporting his “instant housing” technology for the past decade. His company, Moladi, markets his idea mainly to third world countries like Panama, Mexico, Angola, Botswana, Brazil and Kenya…

“It is simple to mould the planned house and cast it with brick or block material,” he says. “This eliminates the slow process of construction, although obviously the moulded shutter has to be strong enough to withstand the pressure of the mortar.”

The mortar dries within 24 hours and is then ready to receive the top structure, plumbing, conduit window and door frames.

The advantages of such houses, Botes says, is the speed and quality of construction. They do not require skilled labour. The houses are socially acceptable, in that they are solid rather than prefabricated, and banks have no problem granting bonds with the structure as collateral.

“It reduces time, waste and cost, and eliminates chasing for plumbing and electrical pipe work, plastering and beam filling. It’s a cost effective, holistic design-and-build technology that far outweighs poorly designed costly concrete-block and masonry structures,” he says… Business Day - News Worth Knowing

Squatters return to N7 bridge

N7 bridge squatters who were evicted from the damaged structure have moved back into their old homes and have vowed to resist being moved again.

But the City of Cape Town is about to obtain a court order preventing them from reoccupying the land.

The squatters, who were living under the bridge, were evicted last year after a shack fire broke out in October, killing two people and causing structural damage to the bridge.

‘The city officials can do all they want to us, but we won’t be moved’

Most of those evicted were temporarily accommodated in a community hall in Factreton, and the city has been trying to prevent them from returning to the bridge, giving them the option of moving to Happy Valley near Delft, or to Langa.

But the evicted have rejected this offer. They say these places are too far from where they work and from their children’s schools.

More than 50 of the squatters now live in makeshift structures next to the bridge, and the number is growing as more squatters from the community hall join their “family” near the bridge.

Mwabile Ndzaba has been living under the bridge for more than three years. He says he can’t relocate to other areas as he works nearby.

The squatters claim to have constant fights with Metro Police officers who, on several occasions, have dismantled their homes.

Ndzaba initially moved to the community hall after the fire.

He said he dismantled his home, made of blankets and cardboard, every time he went to work to save it from being destroyed by city authorities.

“We refuse to move to the other areas because they are so far away,” he said.

“We work here and our children go to school here. The city officials can do all they want to us, but we won’t be moved. We are not going anywhere.” Cape Argus

Eastern & Western Cape lag in using housing budget

Cape Town – The Eastern Cape has been projected to under-spend its housing and local government budget for the current financial year by some R251,7-million, according to figures presented by the national treasury to the National Council of Provinces‘ finance committee yesterday.

It is understood, however, that a special committee has been set up by the province to unlock the bottlenecks and ensure as much of the money as possible is spent before the end of the financial year.

The Eastern Cape housing and local government department has also invited established contractors to attend a briefing for the construction of houses and they will be required to “embrace emerging contractors along appropriate sub-contracting lines”.

An advertisement said the use of established contractors was “intended to ensure greater delivery at scale, as well as higher levels of quality assurance”. It also said projects had already been identified for established contractors using accelerated procurement processes.

The briefing will be held in Bhisho tomorrow.

The national treasury figures also reveal that the department spent 12,1 per cent less in 2006/07 that it did in the last financial year – R621,8-million as opposed to R707,7-million.

The Eastern Cape is the only province that is projected to overspend to that extent, with Mpumalanga, Free State and the Western Cape reporting that they expect to have small amounts of funds left.

With regard to health, the national treasury figures show that the Eastern Cape is projected to under-spend on personnel by R58,1-million and by R29,6-million on its capital budget.

The Western Cape is projected to under-spend by R123,5-million on personnel and by R22,1-million on its capital budget. The Herald

U-turn on sale of crown jewel

Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool has backtracked on the sale of one of Cape Town’s crown jewels, the Somerset Hospital site.

At a media conference recently, Rasool announced that the provincial Cabinet had decided after a two-and-half-hour special sitting to lease the land for 99 years.

Rasool has been under heavy pressure from the Western Cape legislature and opposition politicians over his personal involvement in discussions about the sale of the hospital site for an estimated R1,1-billion to a Dubai-based consortium — before any tender process was announced.

He is alleged to have discussed the sale with potential buyers during a visit to Dubai last November. Rasool is yet to reveal who paid for this trip, but has denied impropriety. He has also denied claims that he instructed senior housing officials to attend two meetings at which the sale was discussed as a done deal for the Arab buyers.

At Wednesday’s media conference, he described the new plan as “revolutionary. Given the highly competitive and contested environment that has developed over the last two months, we decided that this matter should be discussed at [provincial executive] level, rather than at a departmental level,” he said.

“We decided, given that this is a prized possession of the public, to put the site out for lease and not for sale. This will ensure the site is not lost to the public sector.”

Asked about the allegations made against him, he said: “Let’s leave the negative [issues]. Everything that happened is overshadowed by this announcement. Forget about those things — those issues are 2006 issues. This is now 2007.”

InternAfrica points out:

2006 housing issues include: 3,753 shacks destroyed by fire in the Western Cape; displacing 14,052 citizens. 31 Deaths, 16 burn victims.

2007 housing issues include: 680 shacks destroyed by fire in the Western Cape; displacing 2,533 citizens. 6 Deaths, 2 burn victims.

Rasool said the site would include a 260-bed state hospital and “gap-housing” for lower- and middle-income families earning between R3 000 and R7 000 a month, as well as provide for “the participation of broad-based black economic empowerment groups” through a large commercial area and luxury hotel.

Cosatu’s provincial secretary, Tony Ehrenreich, called Rasool’s lease announcement “a con”. Said Ehrenreich: “It’s a move in the right direction and a victory for communities who objected to government selling off land to their friends, their political connections and BEE groups. But they took a good move and turned it into smoke and mirrors with a 99-year lease.” The lease effectively removed control over how the property would be used.

Robin Carlisle, a Democratic Alliance provincial legislature member who questioned Rasool on his personal involvement in the sale talks, also said that there was little difference between a 99-year lease and a sale.

“The cash flows will, in the end, be the same, and neither process offers greater or lesser leverage. It’s a typical Rasool attempt to make the ugly questions go away. It is time for him to come absolutely clean,” Carlisle said.

He added that if there was a continued lack of transparency, it was “only a matter of time before Scopa [the standing committee on public accounts], the DA and his own ANC provincial executive crack this case … with consequences that will almost certainly include the premier’s exit from public life.

“In the meantime, the shenanigans of Rasool and his Cabinet have significantly prejudiced the orderly, proper and public disposal of the Somerset site.” M&G

‘Eastern Cape underspending, failing its people’ - Migration placing habitat pressure on the Western Cape

The Eastern Cape is underspending on its allocated provincial budget and therefore failing its people, the Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) said. Adrienne Carlisle, the PSAM spokesperson, said the province’s budget had been underspent in the 2006/2007 financial year…

Some of the departments that underspent on their budget allocation include the department of housing, local government and traditional affairs which spent R621.8 million of its R1.2 billion budget and the provincial treasury which spent only 49% of its budget…

Housing department on hot seat for underspending
Carlise warned the departments that their spending should be in line with their strategic and performance plans service delivery targets for the 2006/07 financial year.

Carlisle said the province had not spent its conditional grants properly, referring to the department of housing, local government and traditional affairs.

The department had only spent R291 million out of its R762 million budget, she said.

“We call on Sam Kwelita, the local government MEC, to explain why spending on conditional grants, meant to provide housing to the poor, has been so slow,” said Carlisle.

Kwelita could not be reached for comment. - Sapa

Fire razes 30 shacks, 200 homeless

About 200 people have been left homeless after a fire gutted about 30 shacks at an informal settlement at Lwandle near the Strand, SABC news reported on Monday.

The Cape Town fire department said at least one person was taken to hospital with burn wounds.

The cause of the fire had not been established. - Sapa

UN: World’s poor to be hardest hit by global warming

The world’s poor, who are the least responsible for global warming, will suffer the most from climate change, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told environment ministers from around the world on Monday.

“The degradation of the global environment continues unabated … and the effects of climate change are being felt across the globe,” Ban said in a statement after last week’s toughest warning yet that mankind is to blame for global warming.

In comments read on his behalf at the start of a major week-long gathering in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, Ban said all countries would feel the adverse impact of climate change.

“But it is the poor, in Africa and developing small island states and elsewhere, who will suffer the most, even though they are the least responsible for global warming.”

Experts say Africa is the lowest emitter of the greenhouse gases blamed for rising temperatures, but due to its poverty, under-development and geography, has the most to lose under dire predictions of wrenching change in weather patterns… Reuters

An Open Letter to Those Living On the Ocean Floor

DEAR coastal dwellers, We at the ecological affairs and sightseeing department have recently read international reports stating that US researchers, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at the National Centre for Atmospheric Research, have found evidence that the Artic Ice Melt will be complete by 2040.

We read the story in our local papers too but didn’t believe it because the media has a strong agenda against all government departments and we thought they were just stirring their usual nonsense. However, it now appears to be true and has been confirmed on three occasions by our esteemed deputy minister, who read the report in Australia, New York and Moscow during her round the world trip last week.

Our first bit of advice to you coastal dwellers is not to panic. As soon as we have sorted out where to put the Green Point Stadium, we will turn our attention to a master plan to move our citizens at least a week before New Year’s Eve 2039…

Business Day - News worth knowing