ceremony of houses at Delft, Cape Town
7 June 2007
MEC Richard Dyantyi
Councillor Mjobo Mgodoli
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
I am glad that we finally have reached this point in our development of the
N2, where the first beneficiaries of the N2 can be presented with the first
Breaking New Ground (BNG) house. It is significant that the first recipient is
a woman who has lived through it all � the hardships of discrimination, the
triumph of democracy, the long wait in anticipation and finally the benefits of
a much better product. I hope that you will find that this was worth all the
wait. This is an asset of a great deal of value, whose quality is in line with
our new specifications of 40 metre-square and covered by a five year warranty
against any defects. This is the extent to which as government we have gone:
expending to the maximum the resources we have and with more efficiency so that
the ideal of a better life for all indeed becomes a reality.
As we indicated on previous occasions, the N2 is our testing ground for this
resolve whilst providing us at the same time with the opportunity to address a
whole range of injustices of apartheid starting with the disinherited
communities of District Six, to the dislocated backyarders who have waited for
years for an opportunity to own a house, to residents of informal settlements,
to the community of Netreg that fought for the right to decent housing, right
through to New Rest, Boys Town and Delft itself. This moment therefore to which
we are all witness is one that gives the clearest indicators there could ever
be that the test of our resolve is beginning to bear the expected results.
Delft, as you would know, is a recently developed residential area of about
12 500 households. It was developed in 1990 and represents an overlap between
an area formerly classified as 'coloured' and the township of Khayelitsha that
under apartheid was designated for black people. It is therefore an entirely
new type of suburb in Cape Town but one where irrespective of changes in the
cultural and ethnic identities of residents is nonetheless characterised by a
persisting legacy of residential segregation. The N2 project will change all of
this and enhance the mix of cultures already prevalent. It will give all people
the identity that they are all South Africans, they all belong to a single
country.
I am told that Delft's ubiquitous Reconstruction and Development Programme
'RDP' houses were built though the Integrated Service Land Project which began
under the apartheid government in 1990 but was taken over as a Presidential
Lead Project after 1994. This was a classic developer-driven approach to mass
housing delivery based on the concept of a project-linked subsidy which limited
not only community participation but also the housing choices people had
including location. With the N2 project that too is being changed. Hence, the
conviction we have that the testing is producing some good results that are
indicative of the way forward.
You would have heard that the N2 is a flagship project that will see a total
investment of R3 billion into Cape Town from national government. On completion
it will have 26 000 housing units which will have replaced all informal
settlements in the areas I have mentioned. Banks, such as the First National
Bank and ABSA have come through to offer a hand. The projects that they will be
implementing are already at advanced stages. We chose and prioritised the
settlements I have talked about targeted by because they suffer acute shelter
and income poverty. Income levels are depressed, education levels extremely
low, unemployment is three times higher than in the rest of the Western Cape
and access to water, sanitation and energy is poor. The selection was further
guided by the following criteria of high density settlements located centrally
within the metropolitan area; settlements that are well located relative to
regional movement systems and economic opportunities; and settlements with low
levels of settlement security and high levels of physical and socio economic
vulnerability.
The project seeks to secure an appropriate balance between three competing
objectives. These are, first, to have sufficient scope to allow the
concentrated focus of resources which are necessary to move rapidly into
implementation; second, to allow scope to develop innovative solutions to
complex and fluid settlement dynamics and third, to catalyse the urban-shelter
developmental outcomes detailed in the Breaking New Ground strategy. It is the
quest to achieve these objectives that bring us to this handover of 96 houses
in Delft. It is the quest to achieve a better life for all. In total we should
have here 2 764 units are presently being constructed which will be completed
by September 2007. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me as I officially hand
over this third phase development of the N2 Gateway project.
I thank you
Issued by: Department of Housing
7 June 2007
Source: Department of Housing (http://www.housing.co.za)
