Key Note address by
The Director-General: National Department of Housing,
Mr IW Kotsoane,
At the Gala Dinner of the KZN Housing Summit – 11 September 2006

Programme Director,
Honorable MEC for Housing in KZN, Mr Mike Mabuyakhulu,
Other MECs and Members of Legislature
Esteemed Amakhosi,
Executive Mayor of EThekwini Municipality, Councillor Obed Mlaba
Mayors and Executive Mayors,
Councillors
Esteemed leaders of Business Establishments in the Housing Sector
Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen, 

Good evening, 

I am deeply honoured and humbled to be afforded this rare opportunity to offer remarks on this perennially emotive and invigorating subject that caused us all to leave everything else and gather here today and tomorrow.  

The subject of our preoccupation in this summit is perhaps one of the most universally relatable aspect of our lives and livelihoods – we can all identify with 

ikhaya, indlu, umuzi, a home, tuis, lehae, motse, ntlo

…… a house! 

Let me remind you of the obvious: each one of us gathered here tonight has a space on this planet that we call “home”. Regardless of its value, size, design, location, and color – it is nevertheless your home. In this space you are able to live, raise a family, build a routine of some sort and feel at liberty to rest. It is in these spaces that the basic unit of society – a family - can be harnessed and finds expression! 

Unfortunately, our painfull history of racially based dispossession and disenfranchisement has meant that the very fundamental unit of society, the household, was cruelly disrupted when the majority of people were robbed of the  unfettered access to the defining space called a home. Hence we must now reflect upon the grand vision of the People’s Congress gathered at Kliptown. In this vision for a non racial South Africa encapsulated in the Freedom Charter, the people declared that: 

THERE SHALL BE HOUSES, SECURITY AND COMFORT.   

Now all our collective efforts, brought under sharp focus through this Housing Summit, must necessarily deliver on this expectation by the people of this country. The delivery systems, collaboration and resource, both within and outside of government, must of necessity bring about the realization of houses, security and comfort for all of the South African society. 

In building upon the foundation of the Botshabelo Accord, the Housing White Paper and the housing delivery experiences in the decade following 1994 we now have the Comprehensive Plan for the Creation of Sustainable Human Settlements. Needless to say, this Comprehensive Plan responds in a systematic manner to the challenges and weaknesses that were noted in housing delivery prior to 2004. Most of the gaps and weaknesses are well documented and well researched and need not be repeated here except to point out: 

·        the limitation of transforming the Apartheids Spatial architecture through housing development. This led to the perpetuation of those undesirable spatial patterns where the poor continue to be located on the outskirts of cities and far removed from economic and employment opportunities

·        the misconstrued notion that ONLY the Government must respond to the housing needs of the poor, and thus our inability to collectively harness our energies and resources towards meeting the housing needs of our country

·        Challenges in ensuring accountability to delivering products of acceptable quality. This meant that houses affected by poor quality undermined the safety and comfort of beneficiaries involved. Failing to delivery houses of acceptable quality is in fact it is not only unprofessional but it is in the main disrespectful to households who are to occupy such houses! 

As we move forward in implementing The Comprehensive plan we need to be mindful that we all need to embrace a new and different set of attitudes that are consistent with the spirit of the Comprehensive Plan. We also need to sharpen our delivery systems and communication with each other. In this regard we also need to uphold the significant shift away from merely building houses towards building homes, building communities and developing sustainable Human Settlements.

It will be important to define what Sustainable Human Settlements mean in the KwaZulu Natal province bearing in mind the unique peculiarities that prevail here. In essence what this demands is for the Housing sector to mobilize other sectors towards delivering sustainable Human Settlements. 

·        In addressing the limitations of accessing and releasing suitably located land for human settlements, a Special Purpose Vehicle for the acquisition and disposal of land is currently being established. This will serve to supplement and support, in highly focused and specialized manner, the efforts of Government at all levels and NGOs as well as Private Sector entities. 

·        I was born in…… and grew up in…… now I live in …… and my family is in ……. I share this to demonstrate in a small manner, the complexities of urbanization and migration that continue to pose multiple challenges to human settlements development. As people migrate into urban centres, growing pressure is exerted on services and infrastructure in cities. In this context, informal settlements proliferate and demand for housing in cities is for ever growing. It is in this context that we greater efforts and resources need to be directed to address the unique challenges presented by migration into urban areas.  

·        Our shared and common responsibility toward meeting the growing housing needs means that in exercising our differentiated roles and responsibilities we need to be mindful that cooperation between all role players and the matching of different resources and capacities will yield more results. In this regard we need to embrace inclusionary housing delivering processes across all segments of the housing delivery value chain:  

o       We must continue to appreciate the efforts of Financial Instititions

o       Embrace policies geared towards this goal and this includes shaping priorities at the level of Municipal Integrated Development Plans

o       Socially conscious and responsive development initiatives 

In conclusion,  

Just as much as we are all determined to attack this imposing challenge of building sustainable human settlements, let us be eqully enthusiastic in ensuring correct and apt planning to secure optimized and efficient delivery. Let us avoiding bursting forth into action and only to be hamstrung by failures caused by our poor planning.  Someone once said:  

“If I had four hours to chop down a tree I would spend the first three sharpening my axe”.  

So I urge you, take time to sharpen your axes – the task at hand requires sharp instruments.