Hon Emam, I have said, in this NA before, that clearly the spatial architecture of our country was so designed as to ensure that the poorest people in our country live as far away from the city, from the suburbs, from job opportunities, from cheaper transport nodes, from good schools and all that, as far as possible. And clearly this is the legacy of apartheid and may I say the more visible and ugly legacy of apartheid that poorer people have been relegated way to the back; and it was a deliberate action by the past misrulers of this country. Clearly what we have to do and which we are determined to do is to change the spatial architecture of our country and to change it by ensuring that we bring poorer people into areas where transport
nodes are much cheaper, where jobs are much more available.
This, when we had a conversation with one of the leading economists in the world who is based in Harvard University, Ricardo Hausmann, he said, many other countries bring in all the poorer people into the city, they live where jobs are easily available, where transport is cheaper, where they don't have to travel long distances, where they are near factories, where they are near economic activity facilities; so that they are able to find jobs, they are able to look for jobs easily and able to travel to work. And this is precisely what we want to do.
Densification of our cities and of our metros and of our urban areas is clearly the programme that we have embarked on.
The Deputy President has been leading a team that is looking at the release of land and recently they came with a proposal to release 14 000 pieces of land which the Minister Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation is
going to be working with, the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development is also going to be working on to ensure that we bring in more and more people; releasing the land, releasing title deeds and getting people to live in and around the cities of our country so that they are able to have easier access to jobs, to education, to transport, to healthcare facilities and a whole variety of other facilities. Because as it is now, poorer people are moving more and being moved more and more out of the city areas where there are no services and where there are no facilities.
So, we are determined to correct the apartheid spatial architecture and turn it into the architecture of a new democratic society.
I was in Bloemfontein recently with the Premier of the Free State and Minister Sisulu, the Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation and the deputy Minister, Mahlobo. And we were launching a housing project which is an integrated housing project near to factories, near to the city where our people are going to live and opening up housing projects which will
accommodate more than 6 000 people. And when I saw it I said this is the way we should be going.
All other areas in our country should densify, bring more and more people into city areas so that people can get jobs easily.
So, hon Emam, we are determined to do it, even here in Cape Town, we want to do it and we will do it without any fail. Thank you very much. [Applause.]
Question 8: