MEC Helen Sauls-August: Eastern Cape Human Settlements Prov Budget Speech 2015/16

Eastern Cape 2015/16 Policy and Budget Speech, delivered by MEC for Human Settlements Ms Helen Sauls-August at the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature

Honourable Speaker and Deputy Speaker;
Honourable Premier, Mr Phumulo Masualle;
My colleagues in the Executive Council;
Honourable Members of the Provincial Legislature;
Honourable Executive Mayors and Mayors;
ANC leadership and Alliance Partners;
Esteemed Traditional Leaders;
Our social partners;
Senior officials in government and the private sector;
Distinguished guests;
Comrades and friends;
Ladies and gentlemen.

Honourable Speaker, I rise to table the departmental Policy and Budget Vote for 2015/2016 during a year that marks 21 years of Freedom and Democracy. This year also exactly marks 60 years since the adoption of the Freedom Charter, a key founding document of South Africa’s democratic Constitution.

Its housing clause states without any equivocation: “There shall be houses, security and comfort for all… All people shall have the right to live where they choose, to be decently housed, and to bring up their families in comfort and security. Slums shall be demolished and new suburbs built where all shall have transport, roads, lighting, playing fields, crèches and social centres.”

Our Constitution (s26 a) resonates with the Charter on the question of housing and human settlements: “Everyone has the right to have access to adequate housing, and the state must take reasonable legislative and other measurers, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realization of this right.”

Read the full speech

Province

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