Statement issued by the Department of Housing on 10 March 2008.
JUDGE PRESIDENT HLOPHE ORDERS JOE
SLOVO PEOPLE TO RELOCATE
(See
Joe Slovo Judgement document here)
Cape Judge President John Hlophe today ordered the remaining residents of Joe Slovo informal settlement to relocate to temporary houses in Delft, where they will stay until permanent homes are ready for occupation in Delft and Joe Slovo.
Judge Hlophe said more than adequate temporary accommodation was being provided at the State’s expense.
“Transport, safety, educational, health and even pension needs have been catered for at the State’s expense in order to help in alleviating difficulties that are inevitable in the circumstances of the Respondents,” the judge said.
“The occupants of Joe Slovo informal settlement have an opportunity to live in better accommodation than they reside in presently. This accommodation is merely temporary, until such time as the restructuring, soil treatment, and building of permanent housing in Phase 2 and Phase 3 of Joe Slovo have been completed in terms of ethe government’s housing policy, the N2 Gateway Housing Project and in line with the State’s obligation to provide housing within its available resources.”
Judge Hlophe found that the State’s housing policy was “in no way attempting to re-enact the apartheid ghost of forced removals”.
“This is not a mass eviction, but a strategic relocation,” he said. The relocation would work in phases according to the availability of temporary accommodation, with the first group of residents ordered to vacate their shacks by 17 March 2008.
Director-General of Housing Mr Itumeleng Kotsoane said many residents of Joe Slovo informal settlement would return to free houses in an integrated human settlement – where they would live alongside people of different means and backgrounds.
Today’s judgement was important, not only to the people of Joe Slovo and Cape Town, but to the nation.
“We have national and international imperatives to deal with informal settlements and contribute to the integration of our people. It is critical for us to firmly establish the principle that we cannot allow the relatively narrow interests of some individuals to block greater societal progress,” said Kotsoane.
“A thorough consultative process took place in Joe Slovo and half the community relocated voluntarily to Delft. Now, notwithstanding prior commitments to the contrary, the other half wants to stipulate what kind of houses they should be given and where they should be located. This is not sustainable. If we allow one community to dictate terms we must allow all communities the privilege. And attitudes of this kind will radically decelerate and render unaffordable efforts to deal with slums.”
The sooner residents of Joe Slovo relocated to Delft the sooner they would benefit from permanent new homes, he said. Some would return to Joe Slovo and others’ would be offered accommodation on other N2 Gateway building sites.
More than 2000 Breaking New Ground (BNG) homes are on the agenda for the third phase of the N2 Gateway Pilot Project development at Joe Slovo. These are 40 square metre homes, with two bedrooms, a bathroom and an open plan living area, that are given away free to South Africans qualifying for the full housing subsidy.
The N2 Gateway is a pioneering national initiative located in Cape Town to learn the practical steps, standards and measures required to translate the country’s new housing policy into bricks and mortar on the ground.
BNG homes replace the old RDP standard. The first BNG home in the country was handed over to a Mrs Katie Hoffman in Delft Symphony in June 2007.
At Joe Slovo, BNG homes will be erected adjacent to the 705 rental apartments (already occupied) and a show village of 35 affordable bonded units being developed in partnership with First National Bank.
BNG homes are given completely free to families with an income of less than R1500 a month, provided they have not previously received a Government housing subsidy. Families with incomes of between R1500 and R3500 must “buy” their homes for a once-off fee of approximately R2500. Families with a monthly income of up to R5000 may rent an apartment for between R500 and R1050. Families earning up to R7500 qualify for affordable bonded homes, available at prices of between R180 000 and R450 000.
Residents of Joe Slovo informal settlement were today ordered by Judge President Hlophe to move to accommodation in a Temporary Relocation Area (TRA) in Delft, where they will stay until permanent homes are ready for occupation. The relocation was ordered to take place in stages, approximately 100 families a week until the job is done.
To mitigate the inconvenience of relocating temporarily, TRA residents are provided with transport to schools and work in the vicinity of Joe Slovo. And arrangements are put in place for the transferral of medical and pension records from Joe Slovo to Delft.
Prince Xhanti Sigcawu, general manager of the N2 Gateway development company, Thubelisha Homes, said homes in Delft Symphony were presently being allocated as they became available. These are the homes that were invaded in December and extensively damaged. Prince Sigcawu said they would be allocated at a rate of more than 100 per week until all the 1600 homes that were invaded were legally occupied.
As in Delft Symphony, Joe Slovo homes would be allocated on the basis of the 70:30 formula agreed by the three spheres of government and community stakeholders. This agreement requires that 70% of new homes be allocated to residents of informal settlements, and 30% to residents of backyard dwellings in the vicinity of the development.
Qualifying N2 Gateway beneficiaries are identified by an allocations committee headed by the City of Cape Town.
Prince Sigcawu said it was unrealistic for a number of reasons to cater for all Joe Slovo informal settlement residents in the redeveloped Joe Slovo, including:
§ Informal settlements have a higher build density than formal developments;
§ 30% of homes in Joe Slovo are offered to backyarders from Langa and Bokmakierie, over the highway; and
§ Joe Slovo is an integrated development. The days of building rows and rows of identical houses without access to amenities, of creating poor-only communities, have past.
Joe Slovo has a history of devastating fires. Fires have cost more than 60 lives in Cape Town informal settlements over the past year.
Since 2004, the South African government has built and given to poor people 2.4 million houses. This is more houses than any other government has given free to the people in this period.