L Sisulu: United Nations World Habitat Day

1 October 2007

Honourable Ms Ella Vogelaar, Minister for Housing, Communities and
Integration Mrs Anna Tibaijuka, under Secretary-General and Executive Director
of United Nations Habitat
Esteemed guests
Invited delegates
Ladies and gentlemen

To talk of development is to talk of the reason for the reproduction and
progression of our existence as human beings, to talk of housing is to speak of
the superiority of the human race above all other species. It is in the
fulfilment of this assertion that we find our reason for being. As the human
race is ever more drawn and preoccupied with producing the conditions for
wealth accumulation, a more powerful and enduring collective concern has
emerged that tempers this narrow drive for wealth that enquires for whom, how
and to what end.

As we accumulate wealth, do we do that in the interest of securing a safer
future for all of us, or do we do that in narrow self interests and thereby
inadvertently creating the conditions where our safety is invariably
undermined. It is in moments like this that we gather to ask the awkward
questions about our joint future: We have no doubt, by now that our future is
an urban future.

We know that for most of human kind it will be the only future. This
conference will confirm that. The conference will also confirm what we already
know about the conditions for the majority of people in this urban future. In
the compounding urban assault that is driven by the hopes for millions and the
confounding time frames of modernity these millions of people will find
themselves in an urban whirlpool that drains them of all meaning and uncaringly
castigates them to despair. For these it will essentially be life on the
margins. Of that, we are convinced, for we have seen and experienced it.

Fortuitously, we gather from time to time to talk about it. From a common
entry point, a lengthy and protracted process of gatherings of states over the
last 50 years culminating in my country, South Africa in 2002, a declaration
was produced which was to bind all of humanity to a sustainable and just
future. In reducing it to its barest essentials, 'The Declaration' at the
conclusion of the United Nations-World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD)
stated that the current trajectory of the modernisation project for humanity
was not sustainable. It set out the parameters for an alternative. It drew its
inspiration from the gathering of the world's leaders on the eve of the third
millennium that endorsed the Millennium Developmental Goal (MDGs). Both the
Johannesburg declaration and the MDGs were unambiguous on the task that lay
ahead.

Building on the work of Boutros Boutros Galli the first African to lead the
United Nations as Secretary General, Kofi Annan was the steward for this
gathering of Nations at the close of the 20th Century. Significantly it was in
Africa and we jointly agreed then that this was the beginnings of a Century of
Hope. He led the gathering into an agreement that the future was an urban one
that required a plan of action to address poverty and inequality and ensured
the designation of UN Habitat into a full programme of the United Nations under
the leadership of yet another African-Ms Anna Tibaijuka.

Our continent was honoured; we indeed had a great deal to be proud of. This
has thrust upon us, as Africans, the enormous responsibility not to fail, as we
are so inextricably bound with these processes. On my own behalf and on behalf
of housing ministers of my continent, I am greatly honoured to have been asked
to make this address. I want to express sincere gratitude to Madam Vogelaar for
the invitation. It provides us an opportunity to affirm our responsibility and
commitment that under our stewardship, the continent will resolve its housing
problems. This as you know is a region where 72% of our urban population lives
in slums the highest percentage in the world and if the MDGs are to have
effect, we have to be at the forefront of this change for we are committed
ourselves to give hope.

The world has come a long way since 2002 when we signed the Johannesburg
declaration. By the end of the year 2005, thanks to the energetic and strategic
intervention of the Executive Director, Ms Anna Tibaijuka, the World Summit of
Heads of State, we had moved beyond the initial bland statement and have now
firmly committed to achieving: "significant improvement in the lives of at
least 100 million slum-dwellers by 2020, recognising the urgent need for the
provision of increased resources for affordable housing and housing-related
infrastructure, prioritising slum prevention and slum upgrading."

It has been a consistent progression on our part and a precise articulation
of the needs of our period in sustainable urban development. We have increased
our knowledge about the deprivation and the utter poverty that results when
more than 200 million new slum dwellers are each year added to the world. We
are today confronted with the reality that even though the focus of our
attention has consistently been on ensuring improvements in the living
conditions of people around the world, our cities continue to present as
sources of instability.

It is clear that they are not able to cope with the process of urbanisation
that in its wake has created and exacerbated slum conditions particularly in
the developing countries and created pockets of unease and disquiet in the
developed world. The context that this conference gives to the issue is
particularly welcome, because it positions housing where it should be the
foundation of stability and security for our societies. A much needed emphasis
as we consider the new thrust of all our energies: the creation of sustainable
communities.

A few years ago, 13 to be exact, my country attained democracy. We emerged
from a situation that could not technically be termed a war, but whose impact
was as devastating as a war situation. Within a period of five years of
normality, the number of previously displaced people and previously deprived
people requiring housing in the urban areas was greater than that affected by
lack of shelter after WWII in Europe.

This period of transition and reconstruction is hailed as the miracle of
South Africa. We dealt with the pain and the truth of our past and elaborated
laws to deal with inherited social and political injustices. This was the
backbone of our reconstruction. In retrospect, had we understood then the
importance of housing as part of reconstruction, we would have needed to
prioritise it in the same way that Europe prioritised it after World War II. We
did not understand that our attempts at reconstruction and reconciliation would
in time count for nothing, unless we dealt with the most pressing need of
humanity–shelter. This is the problem that faces my country right now, the
realisation that shelter should have been dealt with as a critical part of the
foundation of our reconstruction.

For us at the time, shelter was only one of the baskets of social injustices
of the past. As a result, even though we have made incredible strides by
providing 10 million people with houses within this period of 13 years, we face
an unprecedented challenge for millions more; some of whom of late have tended
to vent their anger and frustration in public demonstrations. We failed to
understand many years ago, that in order to deal with the injustices of the
past, we had to urgently deal with the issue of the quality of life, and
nowhere is the quality of life more measurable than in ones own immediate
environment.

We know now, not too late I hope, for our own situation, but certainly we
can give advice to the international community that will from time to time be
dealing with post-conflict situations: prioritise housing, whatever else is
done, prioritise housing, for in the end that is a crucial part of the
foundation for any post conflict development. Ultimately peace is not only the
absence of war, but the possibility of a better life. And a commitment from the
citizenry that they will defend the peace is vital.

That commitment is dependent on the extent of their feeling of having a
stake in stability. There could be no greater buy-in from the citizens than the
protection of one's feeling of ownership of their own space that provides
security. In a broader context, relative to countries outside of a conflict
situation, studies around the world have shown the critical link between
housing and security. What both the developed and developing countries are
contending with, as a consequence of urbanisation is raising inequality and
marginalisation. In the cities of developing countries, this visibly manifests
itself in the form of a rise in slum developments, and in the developed
countries, manifests itself predominantly in pockets of exclusion and an
affordability challenge.

The history of housing in developed countries is replete with housing
projects that became monumental disasters. Renowned architect and urban
designer Oscar Newman (1996) witnessed the demolition of Pruitt-Igoe and later
indicated that this experience was instrumental in provoking his thinking on
how to create environments which worked for poor people. And it was Newman who
coined the term "defensible space" and who developed a set of design principles
which are widely used by urban designers today in order to create such
defensible space. Central to the concept of defensible space is the notion of
territoriality and claim to territory. He articulated his thoughts very
simply:

"A family's claim to a territory diminishes proportionally as the number of
families who share that claim increases. The larger the number of people who
share a territory, the less each individual feels rights to it. The larger the
number of people who share a communal space, the more difficult it is for
people to identify it as theirs or to feel they have a right to control or
determine the activity taking place within it."

However my primary purpose here today is not to ponder on or to espouse the
theories of Oscar Newman, but to emphasise the relationship between the way in
which we shape and manage our housing environments and the extent to which
those environments contribute to safer cities. Moreover it is important to
recognise that in initiatives to make cities safer in many parts of the world
it is becoming increasingly commonplace for such initiatives to have an
"environmental component" in which the principles of defensible space are very
important.

This is what we too in the developing world have come to accept. Let me
again turn to the experience in South Africa where dealing with high levels of
criminality and creating safer environments is indeed a priority. South Africa
has had a National Crime Prevention Strategy (NCPS) for a number of years now.
A key feature of the NCPS has been its focus on preventive as opposed to
reactive measures. Our strategy hinges on housing as a major component,
accompanied by focus on the "environment" (e.g. street lighting programmes,
community policing, defensible space initiatives. local economic development
etc).

Pivotally our crime prevention strategy is based on the assumption that with
decent houses, people have a greater responsibility toward defence of their
space, have greater participation in protecting this space. The inclusion of
the "environment" focus is a clear acknowledgement by government that making
our cities safer is not just about policing. Moreover there is a strong
recognition in the NCPS that the police cannot succeed in creating safer cities
on their own.

The bulk of low income housing delivery in South Africa has taken the form
of a "give away" incremental house. The house, whilst humble, is a good start.
What is important from a pro-poor perspective is that the house takes the form
of an asset which is owned by the beneficiary. Contemporary theory on poverty
alleviation stresses the importance of assets in reducing the vulnerability of
the poor (particularly to systemic shocks).

The housing asset provided can also be used to generate income. South Africa
has had substantial success in delivering "give away" houses at scale and is
behind only China and India when it comes to delivery rates (more than 2,4
million units have been produced since 1994 serving an estimated 10 million
people or one fifth of the total population). Whilst the relationship between
housing and creating safer cities has been pursued in a largely indirect way
via the delivery of housing at scale, the Safer Cities strategies of a number
of cities do target certain "trouble-spots/unsafe areas" and single them out
for focused attention.

While we accept that the vast majority of those living in informal areas are
good citizens intent on getting a foothold into urban life, criminal elements
also find the lack of formal governance and control in informal settlements
very useful. A number of such settlements have in fact become no-go areas, not
just for the police, but for all forms of governance. Thus it is not surprising
that the upgrading and formalisation of informal settlements is a high priority
in South Africa and in other parts of the world.

I must come back to the present. This, I am sure is not where we imagined
ourselves we would be when we started. The world we envisioned was where
cities, given their present importance, in the context of globalisation as
centres of economic development, would realise the dreams of everyone. We have
woken up to the fact that economic development does not lead to social
development that in fact, inequality and poverty are on the increase.

There can be no, we have had to confess, justification for capital
accumulation and exploitation of natural resources unless it contributes to
building better lives for mankind. We have to change the development trajectory
if we hope to create just and safe cities. We have done this at our own peril.
We have to change this and this as the most urgent challenge facing the global
community in its implementation of that which we have committed ourselves
to.

We could begin by restructuring our cities to enable more integration to
take place. We have to focus on creating both sustainable human settlements and
sustainable cities and for this we are going to have to look at a much more
varied urban morphology. It goes without saying such environments will need to
take account of the principles of defensible space in a much more conscious way
than has been the case to date.

We need to pay more attention to ensuring that our cities are a reflection
of the world we yearn for, where poverty and marginalisation are urgently
addressed. Their consequences affect all who share that space. Through many
forums such as these, we need to collectively commit ourselves to creating
community and social cohesion. For finally we each occupy the same geographic
space and security can only be achieved through a common purpose. History has
taught us that building walls against, what we consider an unpleasant other,
does not work, has not worked. Modernity has inexorably drawn us into closer
communion and our living spaces have to reflect what we have become.

I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Housing
1 October 2007