Chairperson, Minister Tokyo Sexwale, Minister Ben Martins, Minister Paul Mashatile, Minister Lulu Xingwana, Deputy Minister Ntuli, Deputy Minister Thoko Xasa, MEC Clifford Motsepe, chairperson of the portfolio committee, hon Dambuza, hon Members of Parliament, guests, Director-General Thabane Zulu and his team, chairpersons and CEOs of our housing institutions, I greet you this afternoon. Also, allow me to greet the people of Dunoon who are linked to us through a screen: Halala, Dunoon, halala!
This Budget Vote is taking place at the time when we are marking the 20th year of the brutal death of the late Comrade Chris Hani - may his soul rest in peace. It is also taking place when we are celebrating the 30th year of the formation of the United Democratic Front.
Chairperson, allow me to pass my condolences to the family of Vuyo Mbuli. May his soul rest in peace. He has left flowers behind and he left them in bloom. On 19 June we will be marking the 100th year of the Native Land Act of 1913, whose legacy is still haunting us as we speak today.
Our role as the department is to provide houses to the poorest of the poor. Those who earn between R0,00 and R3 500 get a free housing subsidy from government. This is indeed a mammoth task as we try to reach out to as many beneficiaries as we can. The main challenge is the fact that housing is a moving target. The more we deliver on this mandate, many more expectations are created as eligible households want their houses now. But the funding and our capacity to deliver at economies of scale leave much to be desired.
Housing is a right enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic. Chapter 2, section 26 of the Bill of Rights says the following on housing:
1) Everyone has the right to have access to adequate housing. 2) The state must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of this right.
3) No one may be evicted from their home or have their home demolished, without an order of court made after considering all relevant circumstances. No legislation may permit arbitrary evictions.
The Freedom Charter adopted in Kliptown in 1955 puts the issue of housing as one of the rights that must be enjoyed by the people of this country. It says, and I quote: "There shall be houses, security and comfort."
The Department of Human Settlements has made great strides in the provision of housing to the needy people of our society.
Underpinning the new housing vision is the creation of sustainable human settlements with access to social and economic amenities. The delivery of sustainable human settlements requires a collaboration of all relevant departments and the private sector. We need a public-private partnership.
Apartheid spatial patterns continue to weigh down efforts towards creating sustainable settlements that facilitate access to opportunities and promote safety and security. This is exacerbated by, amongst others, the lack of well-located land, and capacity constraints in areas such as planning and implementation. In January this year at a workshop convened by the portfolio committee, we deliberated at length on these issues. The fact that we still have houses with no schools, clinics, social amenities and roads is a problem.
Last weekend I went to George and did door-to-door work. It was shocking to realise that George Municipality does not have a housing plan. This is a DA- controlled municipality. There is no adherence to norms and standards in the building of houses. There are houses built five years ago, but they have no walls - they are shells. The rooms are not separated and there are many cracks.
This is despite the fact that a comprehensive plan has been in place since 2004. In fact, there is a family that has 19 shacks and there is no sanitation provided. There is a blind person who lives in a house that was gutted by fire and has no water, electricity or ramp. In one section 60 families have been promised houses 14 years ago. Each time they enquire about the progress they are told to wait for a surprise. [Laughter.] This is unacceptable. This community has artisans, plumbers and bricklayers who are prepared to build each other's houses through the People's Housing Process, PHP, if they could be assisted. This area is also suitable for in- situ upgrading. One asks oneself why the rectification programme is not used to rectify these houses. People are living in squalid conditions in this area.
On Saturday I attended the funeral of a one-year-old, Bradley. May his soul rest in peace. This means that the infant mortality rate is high.
Listen very carefully. I promised the people of George I would return and engage the municipality on their housing plan. Also, we will rebuild the house of the blind person with the assistance of the Department of Correctional Services. [Applause.]
Integrated human settlements calls upon us to work, budget and plan together. It has no room for departments or spheres of governments to work in silos. It means that we must believe and understand the policies that we are mandated to implement at all levels. This dream is being realised in the Green Paper on Human Settlements that is being crafted. It speaks to the kind of human settlements we want. The Green Paper itself is the review of the existing policy which aims to deal with the gaps that have been identified. We hope to complete this process in this current year.
One of the areas that continue to confront us is the issue of fires and floods, particularly fires in the Western Cape. There were fires in Dunoon. Just last week a disabled child was burnt to death. May his soul rest in peace. This fire affected more than 300 shacks. There was a fire in Stellenbosch which affected 500 families. In Khayelitsha 779 families were affected and about 3 000 people were left destitute.
The Department of Social Development, through the SA Social Security Agency, Sassa, the Department of Home Affairs and the SA Police Service played a leading role in assisting these families to restore their lives. Eight families lost their lives. The Khayelitsha families were housed at O R Tambo Hall.
Chairperson, allow me to thank all those from the communities who assisted those families, especially the priests and service providers. I was very happy when I visited the hall at the end of April to realise that not a single person was there. We will continue to monitor this situation until the 800 families are housed at Bosasa in October. This was a promise made by the three spheres of government to the President, Mr Jacob Zuma, when he visited the families after the state of the nation address in February 2013.
The Khayelitsha Development Forum and the Crisis Committee who assisted the fire victims requested the Department of Human Settlements to hold a summit. The summit was held on 21 March 2013, on Human Rights Day, and came up with a declaration that needs implementation.
As government we are committed to eradicating the bucket system as of yesterday. South Africa as a country has met the Millennium Development Goal, MDG, target of halving the sanitation backlog. The only dilemma is that despite this success, we are unable to provide universal access, hence there are still millions of people who are without access to decent sanitation, as in the case of Moqhaka and Makhaza. The leadership of Makhaza is here and I say greetings to you, comrades.
As the department we were invited to the public hearings of the Human Rights Commission to respond on progress relating to the Makhaza and Moqhaka toilet saga. We welcomed the opportunity of appearing before the Chapter 9 institution with both hands. We made the following input at the commission.
The national Department of Human Settlements is one of the key departments of state that contribute to the eradication of water and sanitation backlogs in our country. Since 1994 the department has, through its various programmes, provided 2,8 million households with water and sanitation. In this regard it is important to emphasise that provision has been made to household level. During this current political term we have, as the department, committed to provide 400 000 households with access to basic services as well as allocate land with security of tenure.
Our department is also, in collaboration with the Department of Co- operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs and The Presidency, taking steps to ensure that communities have 100% access to water and sanitation. As the department we are in constant contact with municipalities to ensure that basic services are being provided to our people.
It is also important to remember that, during the course of 2011, Minister Sexwale commissioned a team to look at the state of household access to sanitation. The report of the team has been translated into the Strategic Infrastructure Project 18, Sip18, focusing on the implementation of the sanitation and water master plan. The monitoring of this falls under the Presidential Infrastructure Co-ordinating Commission, PICC, which reports to President Zuma. We had a successful report back at Makhaza and it was well attended.
As the department we have taken the issue of job creation seriously. We believe that the building of houses must not only guarantee the security of tenure, but must also lead to the breaking of the poverty cycle, hence job creation becomes critical. In this regard we have collaborated with a number of departments in order to make this dream a reality.
We are partnering with the Department of Labour on job-creation initiatives and with the Department of Public Enterprises. They have both indicated interest to work with us on the issues of fires and floods, including career exposures. We will work with the Department of Trade and Industry on housing co-operatives. We intend to work closely with the Department of Correctional Services as part of offender rehabilitation by building houses for the destitute. We will work closely with the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities, as we always do, and with the Department of Arts and Culture. We work closely with the Department of Transport in developing the comprehensive plan on the urban integrated framework.
Our aim is to ensure that housing delivery is linked to jobcreation opportunities and career guidance. This is so because we believe that if young people have access to jobs, they will not queue for housing. They will buy and rent houses on their own. This is also about sustainable livelihood in which local economy is a critical ingredient of social cohesion. It is about the empowerment of communities.
On 8 June we will be handing over a house which was gutted by fire in Langa and repaired by the chief operating officer, COO, of Viridi Homes, Mr Manas Mabitsela. On the same day, we will also be having a career exposure event at Langa High School, targeting over 2 000 learners. We will also be cleaning the school as part of commemorating 16 June. We will be having Youth Build programmes across provinces.
We will continue to work with SA Women in Construction, Sawic, led by Mme Phakade; the Federation of the Urban Poor, Fedup; the National Homeless People's Federation; and all other community-based organisations, CBOs, in improving the plight of women. I still believe that houses built by women are of better quality. [Applause.]
We have noticed with concern that in this financial year there has been a decline in terms of the number of houses built by women-led contractors as well as houses built through PHP. This state of affairs is not acceptable. We have to pull up our socks and continue to give opportunities to these courageous women. If it is about capacity, let us join hands and capacitate them. Enhanced PHP is a government policy and has to be implemented. Houses built through PHP are bigger and more beautiful.
Regarding the issue of housing for military veterans, there has been progress. The Minister and MECs, Minmec, has approved the implementation plan. A memorandum of understanding has been signed by the Department of Human Settlements and the Department of Defence and Military Veterans. We have received a database from the Department of Defence and Military Veterans and it has been screened and sent to provinces. We will have the first military veterans' houses built this year in Queenstown.
We have attended the Sixth Session of the World Urban Forum held in Napoli, Italy. The theme of the conference was "The urban future". We also attended a conference in Morocco ... [Time expired.]