SPEECH BY LN SISULU MINISTER OF HOUSING AT THE OCCASION OF THE TABLING OF THE BUDGET VOTE FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING FOR THE 2005/06 FINANCIAL YEAR

Madam Deputy Speaker,
Honorable Members of Parliament,

I am greatly honored to advise you of the presence of Dr. Helena Dolny, in this house. As many of you know Dr. Dolny is the wife to the late Joe Slovo, who was the first Minister of Housing in a free and democratic South Africa. We have asked Dr. Dolny to grace us with her presence here today as we dedicate our budget vote as a tribute to the late comrade Joe Slovo. This is the man, an immigrant from Lithuania, who arrived on our shores carrying according to his daughter, Gillian Slovo, a ‘brown paper bag containing fruit so overripe that its pulp was seeping’. But this was too, a man who would devote his entire adult life to the course of the liberation of the majority of South Africans, a man who would craft and steer our initial attempts at righting the wrong of nearly 100 years, where every attempt was made to block the inclusion of black people into urban areas. He left us with a rich legacy of confronting the deep assumptions that underlie development and underdevelopment. As we enter our second decade of freedom we want to remember those that gave their entire lives to make it possible for us to be where we are. I, in particular, am able now to elaborate on our new Plan on Human Settlements because Joe Slovo put all the fundamentals in place making my work so much more possible.  

This is what we in the African National Congress would like to acknowledge, that whatever policies were put in place before each one of us took office, were those of the ANC. I would like to think, this will crystallize into a tradition and that I will in turn hand over this tradition to wherever might succeed me. This is premised on the hope that whoever comes after me will not be some egotist but will continue in the same tradition. This is the circle of our lives where each one of us is a part of a whole, greater by far than any sum of its parts.  

I am very grateful at having been surrounded by this rich tradition that treasurers each and every contribution we are making, this tradition of humility. These indeed are the qualities of our people, of Joe Slovo, of the people I have followed and hope that my successor will follow to show continuity. For governance is not about an individual, and ANC governance, in particular, is about all of us.  

The immense misery and suffering that apartheid caused us as a people dictates that the tradition be kept.

And just in case memory has faded about where we come from, time and again, its ugly humanitarian consequences come to haunt us in the most gruesome way. On the 29^th of April – just two days after we celebrated our 11^th anniversary – Danielskuil awoke to a most heinous crime. Danielskuil is a small town near Kimberly, a town that in different circumstances would be enjoying tranquility and basking in the returns of the tourist potential provided by the natural sinkhole known by the very politically incorrect name of Boesmansgat, a heinous crime was committed. A 102 year old woman had been attacked and raped in the sanctity of her house. The circumstances of how the poor in our country live are well known to all of us. In this particular case, it is alleged that the old woman was assaulted by a 42 year old man who had easy access to the tiny house that the old lady shared with another occupant.
 

That the crime could be committed in these circumstances – in the sanctity of a home - gives ample evidence of the persistence of the absence of security and comfort in our houses that 50 years ago the Congress of the People in Kliptown clamored for. Thus, social ills of the nature that took place in Danielskuil on the night of 29 April, are destined to dominate our lives, if the conditions that permit them are not removed immediately.

It places an enormous burden on us, Madam Deputy Speaker, to provide that which will help us lift our communities out of the barbarism that drives a man to assault a woman of such venerable age.

After fifty years, therefore, Madam Deputy Speaker, the clamor for houses, security and comfort continues to reverberate in our urban and rural landscapes. This is because housing is such a basic and a defining aspect of ourselves as human beings. In short, it is in relation to the provision of houses, security and comfort that our efforts as government to combat poverty will be measured. For indeed, Madam Deputy Speaker, it can never be possible for any society to satisfactorily combat its social ills when its members continue to live in conditions that permit the commission of the same ills. We cannot ever hope to create communities or even morality among some of our people until we have addressed the issue of houses. Housing is core to the realization and the protection of those liberties we fought for.

Since we unveiled the Comprehensive Plan on Sustainable Human Settlements in September, last year, we have sought to reconfirm our commitment to providing a life of dignity. This is the duty that any government would have towards its citizens. For how else do we remain accountable and answerable to those on whom we owe our legitimacy? This is what our people asked of us fifty years ago when they crafted the Freedom Charter, understanding that decent houses were a prerequisite for comfort and security. 

We announced, last year, our intention to eradicate informal settlements within a specified period. This, however, was met with a great deal of skepticism. I want to take some of time now to give you a picture of the situation we are in so that we can all understand the burden of the present.

Migration into the urban areas, throughout the developing world is unfolding at such a phenomenal rate that unless we tackle this as a priority, we are dealing with a social time bomb. Estimates indicate that in the next 30 years Africa’s population will double from 888 million this current year, to 1.77 billion. In this same period the urban population will increase from 353 million, which is 39.7 percent, to 748 million inhabitants at the rate of 4 to 5 percent per annum. Roughly, therefore, what this means in relation to our urban space is that by 2035, and additional 400 million people will be added on to our urban population.    

In the absence of supportive infrastructure and a working economy to absorb rapid population growth rates the most urgent development challenge that these projections give us is prominently reflected in figures indicating the phenomenal growth of slums. Thus, 72 percent of our African urban population presently lives in slums. This is the stark reality, Madam Deputy Speaker, that we as African Ministers meeting in Durban in February, were confronted with and had to understand that if we were to ignore it that would be at our own peril.  

When, therefore, you consider in our case that the abominable conditions that our people still live in consider that on an annual basis 4 to 5 percent still stream into the urban areas in search of a better life, and the fact that we have not even begun to deal with the second generation of urbanised black (the phenomenon epitomised by people born in Cape Town calling themselves Cape borners) then you begin to glimpse the enormity of our task. Slums have become a very good index of the governments’ ability to deal with housing needs. At this point it is also important to emphasize that a great deal of the accommodation provided by the apartheid government can clearly be identified as slum areas as we speak.   

World leaders have committed themselves to improving the lives of a minimum of 100 million slum dwellers by 2020, we as African Ministers are keen to see the world committing itself to a higher number because we are convinced that if we are serious about poverty we have to find where it resides and breeds, in our slums, and surrounding areas and there make a difference.     

We are committed to accelerating the delivery of houses to ensure the privacy, dignity and the sanctity of the individual within a space he or she identifies as secure enough to raise a family, where women of the age of 102 are not rendered vulnerable because they are forced to share their space, where young children are safe from people who prey on the vulnerable. 

For those of us who have committed to the eradication of poverty  . . .  we are convinced we are on the right path and the Plan we have worked out for ourselves will stand the test of history. 

Madam Deputy Speaker, we look back at the past nine months since the adoption of the Comprehensive Plan on Sustainable Human Settlements with a great deal of satisfaction. We have used the time ensuring that all our systems are aligned to the Plan. To begin with, we have graduated ourselves out of being Minister of low-cost housing to taking on the responsibility of the entire residential property. We have had to ensure that our administration can deal with added responsibilities. We have had to revisit our laws and regulations. In this respect we have amendments to two pieces of legislations that we hope will be passed by this Parliament this year. We are overhauling our National Housing Code to ensure that we respond to our new reality.   

We have had to revisit our earlier requirements in a bid to speed up delivery. Firstly, recognising the difficulties experienced by lower income earners to meet the requirement to pay in the 10 percent deposit of R2 479 we have decided that those families earning less than R1 500 a month will be exempt from the 2 479 rule. However, we still insist that those earning above should still be required to pay the deposit. It is important that the principle behind this is understood and kept for this is the right thing to do. For our part, we will work on ways in which this can be paid in manageable chunks.    

Secondly, recently we took a decision to consolidate the national waiting list. In this regard, we decided on an audit process to create confidence, protect the integrity of the list, and streamlining the system. We did this because we wanted to allow society to be able to now and again to check on their names. We now have concluded the tender for this process and I can announce that Price Waterhouse Coopers and Nkonki Consortium have been charged to provide a credible and a comprehensive national housing waiting list.  

Thirdly, we revived the Financial Services Charter by signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the Banks. There is always a joke about women and they had to be dumb and blonde in relation to banks. The joke says that a young woman goes to teller in a bank and says that she wants to open a joint account with someone with lots of money. I have done just that. I have opened a joint account with people with lots of money. The banks have pledged R42 billion to be released into the affordable housing market by 2008.        

           In addition, as part of our agreement with the Banking Association, ABSA, FNB, Standard Bank and NEDCOR, we are negotiating a National Home Loan Code of Practice with appropriate sanction mechanisms. We expect this to be finalised by the end of August, this year. 

We are confident, Madam Speaker, that the Memorandum of Understanding, will benefit those who receive little or no government subsidy including nurses, teachers and the police. The direct result of the agreement, in other words, will be increased access to housing loans and home ownership, subsequently to those segments that were previously excluded. 

We think that this is a necessary foundation to deal with the huge task we have. I am very grateful to the Chief Executive Officers of the banks for the manner in which we conducted the negotiations. I found in them an understanding of our collective responsibilities. I am also greatly encouraged by their commitment and support for government to meet the challenge of providing houses to all.  

Fourthly, , we have had to ensure that housing institutions can also align themselves to new Plan. Here I will mention a few of these institutions and what reconstruction we would want to see in them.  

The National Housing Finance Corporation has had to examine whether in its present form we are achieving our goals. We believe that the National Housing Finance Corporation can play a greater role, very directly to ensure access to funding for the poor. In this respect, we have asked the National Housing Finance Corporation to look at how other institutions of similar origins in countries such as Malaysia and others have provided greater direct support to the poor. The institution will investigate the possibility of gearing itself towards being a fully fledged bank that will be concerned with the provision of housing loans to increase access to housing.  

In respect of the National Urban Reconstruction Agency, recently, we reached an agreement with the Open Society Foundation, with which we are in partnership, to enable the Agency to be at the cutting edge of the delivery of loans to emerging contractors. We expect that if all goes according to plan, the Agency will play a greater role in ensuring success to funding for construction. 

The National Homebuilders Registration Council has been charged with the responsibility to develop new housing designs that will provide a wider choice of quality, aesthetically pleasing and affordable homes. In partnership with ABSA it has set up a Housing Innovation Project. Advertisements will appear in the national papers over the weekend, providing important details about the project and calling on young and enterprising constructors to actively participate in this exciting venture.   

In respect of Servcon, an institution which we owe a great deal of gratitude to Joe Slovo who in 1994 foresight and the vision, to assist those who in the circumstances of the time were not able to meet the commitments they had with our banks, we have reached the point where we now can finalize its business. The institution has done a great deal of work in helping to stabilize what was once a hugely volatile market. It laid a very good and a necessary foundation for our relationship with the banks and I am glad that now we are back on track.  

Subsequently, Thubelisha will be required to serve a different purpose, bringing its expertise into the Department to create capacity at the Municipal level.  

Fifthly, since our last budget, we have embarked on the arduous task of ensuring that all our institutions are aligned to the Plan. Accordingly, we have established a monitoring capacity of the implementation of our policies. We have put in place mechanisms to give capacity to Municipalities. At a recent meeting with the South African Local Government Association, we were horrified to discover that in some Municipalities there is not a single official dealing with housing. Yet, this is our implementation frontier that is expected to fast-track the hugely ambitious Plan we have. In this respect, I am happy to announce that Treasury has given us R50 million to create this necessary capacity within Municipalities.

Sixthly, as part of efforts to creating greater delivery and efficiency and eliminating fraud we have resolved to align our data bases with that of the Departments of Social Development and Home Affairs.  

Seventhly, in the past year, we have been instructed by the President to fast-track the delivery of houses and to reverse the trend in some provinces where there had been a slow down in terms of delivery. We now can announce that production has picked up incredibly.  

Now, for the final test whether our aspirations are a mere pipe dream we had a number of projects established. I had the honor, last week, of doing an in loco inspection of Gauteng project known as Cosmo City. Poverty, slums and shacks, were known to be the key characteristics of the site and the community where the project is situated. Last week, however, the site became a living reality of most of the aspects we espouse in the Comprehensive Plan on Sustainable Human Settlements. It now consists of a mixed income settlement, with various facilities. Ultimately, it is expected to house 70 000 people. It has easy access to transport, economic facilities and social infrastructure. In a nutshell, this is the way in which we hope all low-cost housing will be integrated into the society.  

So, Madam Deputy Speaker, we can attest to the fact that human settlements can be done, and we are doing it! 

In due course our achievements in Gauteng will be replicated on the N2 Gateway Pilot Project, right here on our doorstep. I am very glad, therefore, that the Executive Mayor of the City of Cape Town, Ms. Nomaindia Mfeketho and the MEC of Housing in the Western Cape Marius Fransman– the main driving forces behind the success of the project are here. Part of our targets was to fast-track delivery in record time. I think in the process we discovered that you can fast-track plans. However, you cannot fast-track the human mind. As a result, a great deal of time was spent on trying to fast-track the mind. Despite that, I am happy that nine months later the walls of the houses on the project grow everyday including the confidence of the beneficiaries.  

The most important lesson to come out of this is how the three spheres of government can work together. And for this the project has been a major success for us.  

I thank the Executive Mayor for the great work that has been done. She falls outside my line of responsibility and her cooperation has been a guiding light in our work. 

As you drive through to the airport therefore, Madam Deputy Speaker, look to your left and you will see a glimmer of hope – the hope that our people always had that one day Joe Slovo will take them out of poverty into the decent homes he envisaged as he took part in the drafting of the Freedom Charter, in 1955. Ten years after his death, we know that he looks down on us very favorably. The one thing we will always wonder about, is he sitting next to the Pope now? 

        The unveiling, Madam Deputy Speaker, of the Comprehensive Plan on Sustainable Human Settlements has indeed ushered in a new period in the development of our urban and rural environments. The Plan is our blueprint for all housing developments; it is our response to the demands of the Freedom Charter. To ensure housing, security and comfort, the Plan has called for the development of new strategies dealing with informal settlements, urban renewal and rural housing development. Thus, in line with our commitment to achieving the Millennium Development Goals we join the rest of the developing world and reiterate our commitment to progressively eradicate slums in the ten year period ending in 2014. An additional funding amounting of R500 million in 2006/07 and R1, 5 billion in 2007/08 has thus been allocated to step up the housing programme so that all informal settlements can be upgraded by the period. 

To support all these priorities various pieces of legislations will be introduced this year. Key among these will be the Housing Development Bill which will put in place a broad framework for residential development; facilitate spatial restructuring and the setting aside of a certain proportion of all housing developments for affordable housing.  

A Consumer Education Programme, developed last year is presently being piloted in Gauteng, Eastern Cape, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.  

In cooperation with ABSA Bank, we are currently finalizing a series of radio and television programmes which will focus on access to information on housing, the responsibilities of owning a home, rental housing, rights and responsibilities of home owners and issues of land ownership. The radio programmes will be broadcast from the end of May onwards on a regular basis. 

The Plan requires immense capacity to be built at all levels of government. To build the necessary capacity needed for the implementation of the Plan training courses are currently being conducted in all the provinces. This is being done with the assistance of academic institutions and service providers. 

As all that is contained in these priorities and actions cannot be delivered by government acting alone, it has been necessary to develop with various players, a social contract to assist in the implementation of the Plan. Such is the nature of our relationship with the private sector that we are finalizing an implementation plan to ensure that henceforth all housing developments which are not entitled to government subsidies will allocate this respect, we have already made announcements relating to the fact that contractors have agreed to henceforth allocate 20 percent of all developments to affordable housing. This plan is being finalized with the participation of key players in the construction industry. A further outcome of the social contract concern steps that as government we will be undertaking to ensure that regulations are streamlined and made flexible in respect of the rezoning of land for affordable housing.  

As a result of all these commitments and others, we do expect that our total expenditure would increase rapidly between this current financial year and 2007/08, at an annual average increase of 15,1 per cent. Since additional allocations were made of R50 million for 2005/06, R600 million for 2006/07 and R1, 6 billion for 2007/08, most of the funds will go towards implementing the Comprehensive Plan for the development of Sustainable Human Settlements.  

        We have used this period to sell the idea of the Plan, consulting with various stakeholders to ensure that we can create a social contract where each can do their bit to ensure the success of the Plan. We are hopeful that by September this year we will be able to publish a comprehensive social contract. We have had very fruitful discussions with the various sectors of the industry. We have been very keen to explain to the industry that where residential property is concerned we would like them to constantly remember that we are their Ministers and that we would like to create an environment where they can thrive. Their success is our success. We ask of them to come on board and help us provide housing to the poor.

        We have also had discussions with the mining sectors to ensure that we can co-ordinate our efforts at ensuring that their social responsibility towards their workers is kept. We hope to have discussions with the building material supplies to negotiate a stable climate in this turbulent region.  

        We are hoping that we can - not later than June – meet with Non-governmental Organisations to seek their co-operation. I am hoping that we can also attract the retail sector into our fold. If we can convince employers we stand at an advantageous position in our fight against poverty. The President has a more poetic description of this positive outcome when he says: “We are not being arrogant or complacent when we assert that our country, as a united nation, has never in its entire history enjoyed such a confluence of encouraging possibilities.”  

        Together then let us take the tide at its height. We have the wind behind us and the gods are willing us. The prospects have never been better. 

        Africa wishes us success, from which we it draws inspiration. Even the Democratic Alliance understands we are headed for success and that the noise they make is simply to ensure that they do not too quickly sink into oblivion. Our success means a better life for the vast majority of our people. History is on our side!  

        I thank you.