The fight is on
MINISTER of Human Settlements Lindiwe Sisulu has laid down the gauntlet – officials and contractors have to step up and build more houses for South Africans. She is preparing for war – to fight poverty and inequality by giving people a tangible assets, a house to call their own.
Minister Sisulu laid down the law at the Govan Mbeki awards on August 13, at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. The awards honour municipalities and provinces for delivering housing to communities.
In a no-nonsense message she made it clear – that the time for radical delivery has arrived.
She warned officials, and those involved in building houses, if they don’t have a burning passion to help poor people out of poverty, if they don’t have a love for their job, then they are in the wrong job.“Because nothing less than passion works in this environment,” Minister Sisulu said.
Providing houses is not just about providing shelter and sanitation, owning a house is also a way out of poverty.
Officials and contractors have to change their attitudes she said and everyone has to triple their efforts and produce more houses than promised and take millions of South Africans out of poverty.
To make sure this happens she has set up a war room to track delivery, and if metros and provinces are not meeting their goals, their budgets will be redirected to metros and provinces who are delivering. She said budget rollovers will not be allowed.
Minister Sisulu has also appointed a National Rapid Response Task Team to interact with communities and lessen any tensions that may arise when a human settlement project is underway.
There will be a Youth Brigade working on every major project.“We will start with the training of 200 youths in the Western Cape to work on the N2 Gateway Project and in the Eastern Cape as part of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro’s housing projects,” Minister Sisulu said.
Contractors will be expected to good quality houses and on time. They will be penalised for missing deadlines.
Developers will discuss the challenges they experience when dealing with the administration, at a Developers Conference in September.
At the end of September Minister Sisulu will also announce the details of 77 catalytic human settlement projects.
In her impassioned speech she said providing housing was a key way of helping people out of poverty.
“The asset value of a house can take the poorest of us out of destitution. This country boasts a residential property value of R3 trillion. We are ranked number one in the world and our people, for whom we fought, our people who had for years been driven of their land, the victims of forced removals, evictions and influx control, own a dismally low share of this huge economy.”
Delivery statistics paints a sobering picture. Over the past six years delivery has declined, but delivery will be ramped over over the next year.
“I have done some soul searching and though I cannot find an answer, I have taken some deliberate steps to rectify the situation. Everyone in my institutions will sign a pledge to recommit themselves to work harder. A war room has been established, and one its roles is to track all human settlement projects in the country.
“The Heads of Department will be accountable, not only to their respective MECs, but also to all MECs as a collective. The MECs. Deputy Minister and myself will work as a collective, because it is only when we work as a collective that we will achieve our goals,” Minister Sisulu said.
One of the immediate projects is to complete 5 000 houses for military veterans who are on the database. The national Ministerial Programme will be coordinated by the Deputy Minister of Human Settlements Zou KotaFredericks, working closely with the Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Kebby Maphatsoe.
Minister Sisulu apologised to the military veterans for the delays in providing houses to them.
“Their plight is a sad one that does need to be repeated here. In view of the extreme insensitivity that is very easily attached to the delays that have been experienced by our military veterans, I would like to indicate, on behalf of government, that we care very deeply concerned about their plight. The delay has not been deliberate, but I have now taken a decision that we will prove our worth to them,” she said.
The Minister has met with groupings of military veterans in the Eastern Cape, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
“I have taken the decision that we will complete the more than 5 000 houses for military veterans who are on our database in the current financial year.
“Resources for the project will be ringfenced and the military veterans themselves will appoint a national task team, through the Deputy Minister of Military Veterans and who will work closely with the Deputy Minister of Human Settlements. It is my intention that by March 2016 there should be no military veteran on our database who is not housed through our intervention,” Minister Sisulu said.
Minister Sisulu pointed out that all was not doom and gloom and the reason for the awards was to highlight those who had delivered, with hard work and their commitment to and the passion for the rights of the poor,
“And to these we want to dedicate the night, to honour them and thank them for being the light, even in our darkest days,” she said.
Epainette Mbeki, Ivy Gcina and Ruth Mompati were honoured with Life time Awards.
“They have inspired us over the years, they continue to inspire us and they will be our conscience every day. On their behalf, we recommit ourselves today to be worthy of their sacrifices. We are going to recommit ourselves tonight that we are going to work harder. We are going to be worthy of their sacrifices and we will earn the trust that people put in us to deliver to the them, their dignity,” Minister Sisulu said.
In congratulating the winners, Minister Sisulu said they gave inspiration to work hard to meet the housing challenges.
“Our nation is endowed with great human beings who, if they can pull harder together, will out-do our detractors. So, in a practical sense we need a change of mind and a change of heart to rise to the higher levels of human success,” Minister Sisulu said.
A war room has been established, and one its roles is to track all human settlement projects in the country.