Address by KwaZulu-Natal Human Settlements MEC Maggie Govender to the Kwamathukuza Community

The Programme Director
The Mayor of Newcastle, His Worship, Councillor Rehman
The Speaker of the Newcastle Municipality, Councillor Shunmugam
Representaives of local and provincial government
Members of the community

Our government led by President Jacob Zuma and the African National Congress (ANC) is committed to delivering quality human settlements. Recently our province was visited by National Minister of Human Settlements, Mr Tokyo Sexwale when we went to the community of Thembalihle in Ladysmith to see for ourselves the damage that the recent storms have caused. As a government we need to ensure that our people live in a house that is safe and that can withstand the tests of time.

Minister Sexwale announces three things, one that an amount of R106 million has been set aside to ensure that homes that were damaged by disasters are fixed, secondly he announced that an amount of R120 million has been allocated for the rectification of poorly constructed houses and lastly that there is a Presidential Committee set up, comprising of various departments to ensure that the delivery of houses are met as the responsibility for the establishment of human settlements does not rest with my department alone.

To make development a reality, the municipality needs to ensure that the bulk infrastructure is in place that is your water, sanitation and electricity. Further we need to ensure that land is available for the development to occur and lastly that the environmental impact assessments are done. These clear the way for development to take place. This all takes time.

Our work as a department covers ensuring that we get rid of slums and provide our people with houses of good quality that are built close to transport, schools, clinics and other social amenities like sports fields. To this end, our department for this financial year built over 16 000 houses in KwaZulu-Natal. There are even more to come. Our target is 25 002 houses. As I stand here talking to you, I can report that we have over 600 housing projects all over our province. These projects cover rental housing, rural housing projects, social housing, hostels and low income housing.

Our aim is to provide decent housing for our people and to do this while making sure that public money is well spent and that we get value for money. Unfortunately there are many projects where our people have received houses of poor quality – where the walls start cracking, where foundations are damp, where roofs start leaking, where bricks are held together with more sand than cement – yes, you know what I am talking about.

This is not acceptable. We cannot allow our communities to be abused in this way where government is paying and paying well for something that is not value for money. Last year in October, I was here to meet with you to talk about the repairs that would be done to your homes. I promised that I would come back and introduce the service provider who would do this work to you. This service provider is Motheo Construction and this company is registered with the National Home Builders’ Registration Council (NHBRC).

We are working very closely with the NHBRC to see to it that our people get houses that are properly built and are of good quality. Every company that does work for our department has to be registered with the NHBRC. Every new housing project will be enrolled with the NHBRC. The NHBRC will inspect and pass every house before it is handed over to the community.

In this way we will be able to make sure that the houses government build are of good quality. Therefore as this project gets underway, you will find officials from the NHBRC doing their inspections and they in turn will be providing regular reports to me. Once a house has been built or repaired it will be inspected to make sure that it complies with NHBRC standards. Only then will we handover a house.

This wait for you has been long. I fully understand that you are anxious. I am happy to announce that an amount of R75 million has been allocated to this project to repair or rebuild 1 385 homes. Work will be starting soon, in fact before the end of the month. We want to thank the community of KwaMathukuza for your patience and we want to assure you that from now on you will start seeing things happening quickly.

Before I end, I also want you to know what is happening in your district, what other projects that the Department of Human Settlements is busy with:

Other projects within Amajuba District

As you can see there will be a further 18 381 houses being built, working together we can do more. Thank you.

Source: KwaZulu-Natal Department of Human Settlements