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BREAKING NEW GROUND TO HOUSE ALL

During the election period one of the things that our people complained mostly about, apart from unemployment, was housing. They complained about inadequate housing, the quality and the standards of houses. We promised them that we would attend to the problem urgently. This was part of our societal contract: part of our commitment to ensure we could deliver a better life for all and push back the frontiers of obvious poverty and deprivation of some sectors of our people. Thus, when the President spoke on 21 May giving deadlines and injunctions on what should be done in pursuit of the eradication of poverty, we immediately were able to contextualise our own plans. In line with his command, priorities areas have already been spelt out. We are breaking new ground to house all.

The President has given us a deadline of three months to deliver to Cabinet a plan on human settlements. We will be able to deliver this in two months. This plan will deal with the rehabilitation of informal settlements and an enhanced approach on medium density housing. You will hear from the JCPS of the work we have done jointly to identify those informal settlements that are an unacceptably high security concern. We will work in collaboration with the Departments of Agriculture and Land Affairs, Provincial and Local Government, Water Affairs and Forestry as well as Public Works.

As indicated we will be ready in two months. Ours will be a bold plan because we have to be brave in tackling this problem. We have to speed up delivery because the rapid rate of urbanisation means that the housing delivery at a pace of about 190 000 a year is insufficient to respond to the demand of housing. Moreover, more recently low cost, formal housing delivery rates have slowed. This meant that the backlog for the next five years was unlikely to decrease if we did not improve on the speed and continue to mobilise considerable investments into housing.

As a proportion of stock; for example, backyard shacks constitute 4.8 percent of all dwellings and informal shacks are 16.4 percent of all dwellings. The housing backlog is currently estimated at 2 399 822 households. The bulk of the backlog is located at the lowest end of the income spectrum, constituting approximately 22,3 percent of all households. The backlog was calculated taking into account the number of households residing in houses, flats and rooms in backyards, informal dwellings and shacks in backyards, informal dwellings and shacks elsewhere, flats and rooms shared as well as caravans and tents.

According to the 2001 Census, the family size is 3,8 persons per household. If the number of households forming the backlog is multiplied by the average household size of 3,8 the backlog represents a total number of 9,1 million people. This is 20,3 percent of the total population which consists of 44 819 776 people. This means that instead of having 0.9 million new households to cater to, as we expected, we now have 2.1 million new households.

You will also note, in his speech the President, has been very concerned about the backlog that is accumulating in certain provinces. We have identified these provinces and the reasons for the backlog. We need to make sure that all our officials have capacity and necessary managerial skills to budget property and also spend the money. We have lack of capacity, this is one area we would be focusing on a great deal. We will also set up a Provincial Support Unit at National Department to assist provinces and other spheres of government in project management and financial skills.

At the recent Cabinet Lekgotla, we put forward some suggestions on how to break the back of this backlog. This has to do with creating fast-track mechanisms for land availability and dealing with the challenges of capacity at local government level, a matter that we are tackling jointly with the DPLG.

The accelerated programme of housing delivery will contribute to the national economy. One contribution of this relates to the direct spin-offs of the programme such as the number of jobs created. The other relates to the degree of skills transfer. This will also form part of the broader strategy of the Expanded Public Works. Another advantage relates to the lasting benefits left with the beneficiaries of the programme, such as substantive improvements in the quality of life. Therefore, the number of direct jobs created varies each year according to the level of subsidy expenditure. We anticipate that this would mean that with R24 billion of investment over 9 years, some 43 000 direct jobs and 40 000 indirect job opportunities can be created per annum.

Another important consideration we would need to deal with immediately is the quality of housing. I have commissioned research to look into how we could improve the houses we provide for our people. Inexperienced contractors have, among other factors, contributed to the building of extremely shoddy houses of unacceptable standards. Quality homes as opposed to JUST houses will be the main focus of the delivery imperative for the current term.

The President also commanded that this term has to break new ground in spatial settlement patterns of our settlements that perpetuate a particular order of segregation. A new approach would need to ensure that our spatial settlements reflect the kind of society we espouse to be - a non-racial society.

In our first meeting with the Members of Executive Committees (MECs) the upgrading of the informal settlements along the N2 was identified as a priority. At this point, it is important to point out that the social contract we want to work around in the delivery of housing is one where we call all sectors of society to help. Together we can achieve this goal of creating decent houses for millions of our deserving people. I will be, as a matter of urgency, meeting financial institutions to woe them to assist in delivering this vision.

Needless for me to say, these initiatives would have to be with the people, for the people, by the people, with each one contributing something to eradicate poverty and create a better world. In the final analysis, we would all be happy in the contribution we would be making in the development of the economy.

I am extremely excited about the possibility of rallying all of society into this energy and enthusiasm that come 2010 the face of South Africa will be very different.

We are at an advantage of having the past decade's experience from which to learn. We are also fortunate that we will be building on very firm policy ground laid by my predecessors. What will have to happen is the sharpening of the tools of delivery for the department to meet this overwhelming demand for a social basic need of our people, which is housing.

Issued by: Ministry of Housing
25 May 2004