SPEECH BY LN SISULU MINISTER OF HOUSING AT THE HOUSING CONFERENCE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN KWAZULU NATAL

 Durban

23 March 2005

________________________________________________________

Programme Director
MEC for Local Government, Housing and Traditional Affairs, Mike Mabuyakhulu
MEC for Local Government and Housing in Mpumalanga, Jabu Mahlangu,
Honourable MPLs who are present with us,
Honourable Mayor of Ethekwini Municipality,
Honourable Mayors,
Honourable Amakhosi who have taken time to be with us we, thank you,
Representatives from NGO’s and various sectors of our sectors, invited guests,
Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen,
My Acting Director General,
My DDG,
My officials from the Department
And members of the Housing Institutions. 

The Historical milestones of KwaZulu-Natal is evident everywhere you go.  The world heritage site of Maputoland, the battle fields of the Anglo-Boer war, the battle of Isandlwana, the King Shaka Memorial sites in KwaDukuza; all these are landmarks that continue to imbue KwaZulu-Natal with its majestic aura. 

Together within the diversity of its cultures; whites, blacks, coloureds and Indians provides an image of a cosmopolitan society.  The province, no doubt, above from other provinces commands itself to both the country and the world, as truly reflective, as the cradle of human kind.  

It is not surprising, therefore, to read that the Statistics South Africa analyses that between June and September last year, the tourist sites in KwaZulu-Natal earned the province R4 billion. For where else, indeed, in the world would you find such a rich culture and history in such perfect harmony with beauty and progress. A truly remarkable province this KwaZulu-Natal of ours!   

Standing, however, in such stark contrast to the image of a picturesque and historically romantic province that is filled with opulence, are mud houses and shanty towns lining the outskirts of the towns, including, unfortunately, Durban. These are landmarks of the poor, reflecting a backlog of some 325 616 houses at the last count in 2001. It is in the presence of these sites that we find the primary contradiction of our country. Except that in KZN these were the earliest manifestations of our historical development.  

John Langalibalele Dube commented on these contradictions when decrying, in 1914, the 1913 Land Act - a law that paved the way for forced mass removals of black people in particular – that:

‘It is only a man with a heart of stone who could hear and see what I hear and see and remain callous and unmoved. It would break your hearts to know, as I know, the cruel and undeserved afflictions wrought by the hateful enactment on numberless aged, poor and tender children of my race in this their native land. From the ashes of their burnt out kraals, kicked away like dogs by Christian people from their humble hearths, from the dear old scenes where their fathers were born and grew up in simple peace, bearing malice to none, and envying neither European nor Indian, the wealth and plenty they amass themselves from this their land, these unfortunate outcasts pass homeless, unwanted, silently suffering, along the highways and byways of the land, seeking in vain the most unprofitable waste whereon to build their hovel and rest and live, victims of an unknown civilization that has all too suddenly overwhelmed and overtaken them...’ 

Hosting this conference in the contest of seeking ways to break new grounds in the housing delivery, the province cannot but be concerned about the deep rooted history of dispossession in this country. It cannot but be concerned about the deep roots of the housing challenges that it faces.  It has to be concerned about the eradication of the basis of the contradictions that presently defines our country that presently manifests themselves in KwaZulu-Natal. In declaring itself against everything that the previous government stood for, the new government put in place policies eradicating impediments to access to houses.  

Building on these, in 2004 in the third term of our democratic government we now have the Comprehensive Plan on Human Settlement, that the MEC Mike Mabuyakhulu has talked about, with which we aim to break new ground in the housing delivery. To achieve this plan, we hope that we can have integrated communities to ensure that the poor do not, as Dr John Langalibalele Dube said: “…pass homeless, unwanted, silently suffering, along the highways and byways of the land”. It seeks to end the contradictions that prevail accepting that urbanization is rapidly changing the urban landscape thus presenting us both with opportunities and threats to development. But as I indicated earlier such an approach would need to be accompanied by a deeper understanding of the historical context within which all the housing development must take place. This would be to ensure that indeed it was mandated by the Freedom Charter as the MEC has indicated to us, the integration of communities which would bring forth the kind of society we have fought for, where they are decent Houses for all, Security and Comfort.  

Our plan conceptualizes  informal settlement upgrading and eradication that is designed to progressively upgrade the tenure rights for people living in informal settlements, walking from access to land and essential services to more comprehensive services, a variety of land tenure types and ultimate adequate housing and social amenities. We strongly believe that it is possible to go to scale with these kinds of programms.  

Our approach is to continue to effectively focus on directly addressing the needs of the hardcore poor and those who can relatively afford their housing needs. We want to strengthen the sectoral interventions to address the creation of a broader range of housing for people with higher incomes, who will also create the necessary market conditions for a healthy, wealthy residential sector. This will then give greater scope to the more active participation of private sector construction and finance organizations. We believe that the improved funding, the specifications for housing and settlements as well as the options of accessing better located state land and assembling of a wider set of financial instruments with the involvement of the private sector, will mean that it is possible to restructure our citizens’ towns. This will fundamentally enable us to have an impact on both the inequality and poverty thereby the integration of our communities. The additional powers that the cities powers will possess through the accreditation process will mean that spatial and economic development can more easily be directly controlled at local government.  

These kinds of processes than elevates the need of urban financing on a wider scale, which allows the interventions in geographical areas that, are larger than we have tended to work with in the past. Given the scope of work and the ambitions entailed in the plan, we have opted for increased inter-governmental co-operation requiring a unique commitment of three spheres of government to work in collaborative and co-operative manner to effect immediate, meaningful, sustainable improvements in the living conditions of our people.  

In addition, in March 2004, we learned through the labour force survey by Stats SA that unemployment in the province stands at 32, 3 percent. This indicates that despite the improvements we have made in the quality of the lives of people during the past ten years, more urgent and concerted efforts are needed in this province to curb unemployment. 

This is more so when you take into account that unemployment influences poverty levels.  As unemployment tends to be higher in poorer households, what makes matters worse in these households is that unlike in developed countries where a single household in constituted by either a married couple with or without children, the situation here in KwaZulu-Natal and the rest of the country tends to differ in that, on average poor households are constituted by double the number of children under the age of 16. Poor households accommodate 50 percent more pensioners. In addition, data indicates that in our main cities, only 26, 9% of residents have matric. These factors increase the dependency levels within households and become critical factors when we deal with housing because at the bottom of this we have to ensure that we can create employment. The key figure, therefore, in fighting poverty is creating employment and this is what goes directly to the heart of what we are trying to deliver in the New Housing Plan. The Comprehensive Plan has these objectives:

• It seeks to utilize the opportunities created in housing delivery such as the installation of the infrastructure, the actual construction of houses, the construction of social and economic infrastructure and the management and maintenance of housing stock to create jobs.

• It prescribes in this regard labour intensive construction methods in the building and development of human settlements including the facilitation of job creation through the establishment of on site material production activities.

• Since small micro and medium enterprises are recognized for their potential in job creation, the plan commits government the Department of Housing to enhance and develop the capacity of this sector.

• Local governments in this regard are allocated a specific responsibility to develop plans that will achieve these objectives.

•  One other objective of the plan is to create a plan and a conductive environment for the private sector and the construction industry in particular to maximize its capacity to employ and to invest.

We are in other words through the plan putting in place some measures that will boost the performance of housing stakeholders in general.

• To enable government to achieve the objectives of its programme in action, amongst other things, we are increasing funding in relation to subsidies which has now gone up to R31 900 per household. 

• We have broadened the band and reduce from 8 to five years the limitations regarding selling of state subsidised houses to create more demand in the housing market. For again we recognize that the demand for residential property boost the construction industry and thereby create more job opportunities for both semi-skilled and skilled people in our country. As government we, therefore, need to ensure a strengthened performance of this industry to ensure to creation of jobs.

• We want, however, to also encourage schooling and attainment of qualifications by our people in property development as well as in construction.  It is clear to me that unless the challenge of unemployment is confronted in this multi-faceted and integrated manner that include the participation of communities, our approaches will not be sustainable in the long term.

• Not only have we increase the subsidy, we have also ensured that land for low cost housing is now free. Land for low cost housing is now free.  You have also heard the MEC Mike Mabuyakhulu saying that we hope out of this conference we will have emerging a plan that will ensure that the Mayors can prioritise land for housing before they sell it away. It means that we are prioritizing prime land for low cost housing and it shall be free now in the 50^th year of the Freedom Charter.

• The necessary infrastructure we hope will be providing through the interventions that we are making at national to ensure that we can work smatter and closer together in an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) ensuring that the subsidy provides the top structure only. We are working towards ensuring that the R31 900 that we would be giving out per households will deal with the top structure only.

• We are hoping that we can put there the Municipal Infrastructural Grant (MIG) into ensuring that the necessary infrastructure is provided. It frees construction companies from digging the bulk of their money into the infrastructure. We want you to take the bulk of the money we give you into providing the top structure.

• We plan to increase the capacity of local government by ensuring that we can guarantee a three-tier intervention whenever it is necessary. This will mean that, among other things, the necessary permits can be obtained faster. It also means that the constructors will be paid on time because the bulk of our small constructors are going under because we do not pay them on time.

• Happily, the housing institutions have now adapted themselves to the plan and ensuring greater access to finance for the small building constructer.

• To ensure that the projects are viable and profitable, allocations through tenders will not any longer be anything less than 500 houses.

•  We have increased the quota given to women from ten percent to 30 percent to ensure that women have a fair bite at the cherry. 

It is now in your hands to turn this implementation dream into reality.  Finally, the implementation of the plan must be in accordance with the rural circumstances of the KwaZulu-Natal. This must create a beneficial relation between the urban and the rural of the province instead of maintaining a superficial and unsustainable dichotomy of the two.  I am convinced, only in these ways would the contradictions found in this province would be finally eradicated.  

A conference of this nature happening at this time is absolutely critical for us. First, we are able all of us to analyze and interpret the plan first hand in a common manner, internalise what it means to each sector we represent, bring to the fore all those impediments which in the past held us back so that we at the government end can resolve this. 

Finally it allows us to craft a common commitment to deliver to our people and relieve them from their misery, because together we can. But don’t ever forget, what ever sector you belong to we are your ministers. Our responsibility is to ensure that we give you all the support you need to ensure that this is a thriving country. We have the responsibility to make your life better because only then can we expect a partnership, a social contract that will change South Africa’s geographic, social and economic landscape for ever. KwaZulu-Natal is well placed to lead the way; it has the energy the determination as I can see from this hall today from this hall MEC it has the political will to do so. I look forward to this conference leading the way helping us to help our people out of their misery. I wish you well in your deliberations. 

I THANK YOU