Hon members, we as legislators sit in this house entrusted with the last remaining rubble of our nation's hope, and we are charged with seeking out honest, evidence-based solutions that will finally turn the tides on the poverty of our people.
The DA will not stand by in silence and watch our great nation reduced to a begging bowl of informality. And as a result of the need for change it is the DA that has worked most studiously to develop an innovative housing policy.
The DA recognises that after years of corruption the state resources to give every family a house does not exist. The Department needs to move away from building free standing structures and instead build compact, environmentally friendly developments, close to economic opportunities, using the latest building methodologies the open market can offer.
Under a DA housing policy, National Treasury would implement tighter regulations on the expenditure of the Urban Settlements Development Grant to ensure that this money is used to alleviate the housing backlog.
A DA housing policy would provide vouchers to qualifying beneficiaries, allowing them to build their own homes on government-provided service sites and, social housing units in mixed income developments would be made available by leveraging bulk rights to ensure developers add at least 25% additional low-cost units on all new developments.
Chair, what is clear is that the DA has already developed solutions to address the housing crisis. If the ANC could only look past their cheap political expediency and invoke their imaginations to envisage a different way doing things, they we may begin to see the incredible power that good policy can wield in the lives of desperate South Africans. In finding these solutions we must remember that the decisions we take today, will shape tomorrow's future.
I urge the leaders in this house to urgently seek innovative ways of bringing about change, instead of seeking innovative ways to pocket it.
The clock is ticking and it's five minutes to midnight. I thank you.