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20 November 2008

It is difficult to overstate the immensity of the achievement we celebrate today, the handover of a second batch of 1 000 homes in less than three months, in a province characterised as among South Africa's poorest, with a reputation for under spending in general and under delivery in housing, in particular.

The Eastern Cape's challenges are well documented. According to National Treasury's medium term budget framework presented a year ago, provinces were around eight percent behind on budgeted expenditure for the first and second quarter of that financial year. The Eastern Cape was 12% behind.

The Eastern Cape was also the lowest spender of its housing budget. A year ago it was projected that the Housing Department would be unable to spend a billion rands of its allocated budget, and for this reason R500 million was taken away to fund projects in other provinces.

In a context of grinding poverty, budgetary rollovers had resulted in an accumulated cash balance of R5 billion in the Eastern Cape a year ago. Government leaders have historically blamed their spending inabilities on a shortage of skills and capacity at municipal and project management levels. In the housing domain, that which has been delivered has often been of a poor standard, with shoddy workmanship and contractors not fulfilling their contractual obligations providing regular challenges.

Over the past couple of years the Zanemvula Human Settlement Project has symbolised many of the challenges of housing delivery in the Eastern Cape – from capacity constraints to glitches in contractor and developer contracts and payments. Now, however, we can say without fear of contradiction that Zanemvula has become a symbol of hope.

Zanemvula was initiated as a national project to showcase and test the principles of the new national housing policy to create integrated human settlements, known as Breaking New Ground. Zanemvula would deliver a total of 15 000 homes accessible to schools and clinics and work opportunities. At an estimated cost of R1 billion it is the largest housing project in the Eastern Cape and one of the biggest in the country.

The need for large scale housing development was triggered by the plight of shack dwellers at Soweto on sea, alongside Veeplaas and the Chatty River, where people moved to from rural areas in search of jobs and opportunities in the city.

There was no control over shacks erected below the flood lines of the Chatty River, where municipal bylaws ban the provision of even the most rudimentary access to water, sewerage and other services. This lack of sanitation has meant pollution and littering of the Chatty River, itself yet another health hazard for thousands of people in the informal settlements.

After a challenging start, the project partners Nelson Mandela Bay Metro, Eastern Cape government and National Department of Housing, agreed last year to appoint Thubelisha Homes and the National Homebuilders Registration Council (NHBRC) as project managers. In addition, we deployed officials from the National Department to strengthen and support implementation of the municipality's human settlement strategy. Few who witness the thousands of new homes before us today can argue that our interventions have not had the desired effect.

Yes, challenges remain. These include contractor and developers' contract management, the timeous payment of invoices and the slow pace of rectifying storm-damaged and/or badly built houses of an earlier phase.

But we are learning, in the Eastern Cape, that challenges are there to be overcome. And, together, we shall continue to overcome them. We will not stand back and rest on the laurels of the thousands of homes already delivered. We are moving on, and a contractor has been appointed to provide civil services for the next phase of Zanemvula, which will provide another 4 301 serviced erven. The relocation of shack dwellers to make way for housing development has been successful. Large areas, where the shack of some of the housing beneficiaries stood, are now sports fields and playgrounds for the community's use.

In just over three months two thousand homes will have been officially handed over. These homes comply with Breaking New Ground (BNG) norms, at least 40 square metres large, with two bedrooms, a kitchen, lounge and bathroom. Each family has space for a garden, which could be used to grow vegetables.

This is what we can build in the Eastern Cape, much more than houses. We can build communities.

Enquiries:
Marianne Merten
Cell: 078 801 9069

Issued by: Department of Housing
20 November 2008