Hon Chairperson; now is the time to put back the human into Human Settlements. The conditions in which poor people live, is a truest measure of the health of any society. In order to accurately appraise these conditions, it is important to consider context and honestly acknowledge which is good, bad and ugly.
South Africa can be very proud of the number of fully subsidised homes built to accommodate poorer families over the past 25 years. I'm not sure if any other country on earth can boast having given away two-and-a-half million plumbed-and-piped brick-and-mortar homes in this period. Few can disagree that this is good service delivery. [Applause.]
The quality of the construction work has sometimes been poor; and the numbers indicate that delivery of new homes has slowed down over the past 10 years. It is clear delivery is not keeping pace with demand, so that's bad. That we have built all these homes without unstitching apartheid spatial planning, perpetuating the Group Areas Act model that reserved the best land for white people while consigning black people to the peripheries of our town and cities is shameful and ugly. [Applause.] Where people live matters!
Hon Chairperson, Minister Sisulu has set ambitious targets for the department, which include committing to end the indignity of the bucket toilet system within six months. GOOD will monitor these targets and hold the Minister to account. Hon Minister, South Africa wants to champion your vision as we keep our fingers on the pulse of good service delivery to ensure we fix South Africa. This is critical considering your department's budget should be well-used and not misused.
The Minister has returned to a department she knows intimately. She has another opportunity to begin to re-shape our towns and
cities, to continue providing families with comfort and security at home, and title deeds that can afford them access to economic security. With another opportunity to address the relationship between space and race, I am painfully reminded how our people were dumped between bridges and highways that today, it still separate us by race. We must build more quality homes, a lot faster. And we must address urban sprawl, spatial division and injustice by filling in the empty spaces and integrating our people.
There is only one way to fix South Africa, with a good starting point, use all public land for public good. Thank you. [Applause.]