L Sisulu: Women’s Build Initiative

14 August 2006

Master of Ceremonies
MEC for Housing in Gauteng, Nomvula Mokonyane
Your Worship, Executive Mayor Amos Masondo
Officials from both the province and the national department
Friends
Comrades
Ladies and gentlemen

Again this year, the focus on women has brought us here to highlight the
role that women can play in the rebuilding and the reconstruction of society.
As was established last year, it has brought us to one of the areas in need of
enhanced efforts aimed at poverty alleviation; only this year has to be
different because we celebrate the achievement of women of the age group we are
building for today.

We owe what we have today as women to the quiet courage and determination of
these women. Today we give back to these women 50 houses: a symbolic gesture of
the distance we have travelled in time, where ironically, we have stood still
in relation to the real tangible benefits for the quality of life of this age
group. I feel privileged that I have the opportunity plough back my
gratitude.

We should ensure that no woman reaches the age of 89 before she can own a
home. For a country like ours this should not ever happen. The success we
achieved in 2005 in partnership with Women for Housing when we built fifteen
houses in Protea South, demonstrated to us that up-scaling was possible and
achievable. Thus, for Orange Farm we will build 50 houses that are for the
benefit elderly women. As part of this event, 50 women from Women for Housing
will receive training to ensure skills development for women constructors.
Furthermore, we are here with additional partners in the form of Thubelisha and
the National Housing Builders Registration Council. The Gauteng Provincial
Department is joining us for yet another event.

It is good to be here at Orange Farm to start the second Women’s Build. You
all know that the people of Orange Farm are known to be very pro-active in
development. They work closely with the municipality to bring much of the
development that we see around this venue. Though it might not seem like much,
I think we need to acknowledge what the community here has been able to
achieve.

Statistics indicate that in 2002 this area had a population of 350 000, with
very little development. Shacks abound here largely due to an increase in the
number of farm workers who are taking up settlement here after they are laid
off. Thus, the settlement is the biggest and most populous in the country. In
addition, unlike others, the settlement also has the highest number of gravel
roads in the country. Consequently, crime levels in 2002 were high including
unemployment and poverty. The City of Johannesburg now estimates that crime
levels have dropped, in particular serious crime that affected women mostly
such as rape. Partly, this is due to the initiatives that had been taken by
community members.

I am told that the keen interest they have shown in their own development
has resulted in large amounts of development funding being channelled here.
Thus, there is an ongoing housing development programme taking place through
the Peoples Housing Process, where 250 housing units are being built in
Extension 1. I am told that a support centre is already up and running; that a
new sewerage system is being built; a multi-purpose centre that includes a
swimming pool is on the way including a library; and that a one-stop shop for
information on municipal services is also being built.

These are the kinds of activities wherein women participate that define our
age of hope. Women are key in influencing changes in society. They are key in
helping resolve the myriad of problems and challenges presently confronting us.
Aware of the impact they can make, they are therefore finding new forms of
organisation to highlight their role. Hence, formations such as Women for
Housing and the recently launched Progressive Women’s Movement in Bloemfontein.
All of this is in part attributable to the fact that despite achievements in
the last decades in understanding issues related to political economy, urban
planning and design – all of which have major contributions to concerns
relating to sustainable development – those that are key in shaping the form
that cities and towns take, remained largely ignored. Now women are
increasingly finding avenues to raise their voices and organise.

It is no wonder therefore that women consistently identify themselves with
the cause of the poorest of the poor. They can relate the poverty of others to
their own. They can identify with the powerlessness of others when they
themselves are in similar circumstances. And it is this compassion that enables
them to do work for others who are in a similar position.

It is thus through constant organisation and mobilisation that women play
the critical role of injecting greater sensitivity to urban planners and
designers, architects, geographers, economists and land surveyors political
decision-makers to issues affecting the poorest of the poor.

As our urban areas continue to be recipients of ever larger volumes of
migration, it will be women who will sensitise policies to issues of secure
land tenure, gendered land-use planning and administration including forms of
integration with the rest of society. This imperative is not only the result of
the recognition that women are the most who are migrating from rural areas in
comparison to men. Nor should it be seen as simply as the realisation that
female-headed households are on the increase. For purposes of policy-making and
understanding it is a posture that posits that woman’s access to and control
over land, housing and property is a determining factor in the nature of their
living conditions. For economic security and survival, women rely deeply on
land, housing and property.

In confronting this challenge, we are faced of course by the reality that a
significant portion of those resources we need are in the hands of the private
sector. Hence, our continued efforts aimed at seeking collaboration with the
private sector through, in particular, the public-private partnerships. These
initiatives however also present their own challenges to women since, unlike
the public sector, our private sector remains largely indifferent to gender
issues. Their participation in events, particularly those that are nationally
organised is of course not a problem. It is in the actual demonstration of
commitment to gender specific issues such as integration that you would find
commitment by the private sector lacking. The state therefore always leads,
albeit with insufficient resources and capacity.

Our initiative at forming a land-acquisition vehicle must be seen in this
context. Through it, we will enable the state to amass appropriately located
land that would serve both the social and economic needs of the poor. I am
hoping that by the time we repeat the Women’s Build initiative in 2007, land
that would have been identified and allocated by the land vehicle, would be
used. This is land, I believe, that would lead not only to increased access to
housing but would also enable the integration of women into the rest of
society.

Against this background, I would like to thank everyone who saw it necessary
to come out and support this initiative. This is a critical initiative that
serves two purposes of giving houses to those that do not have them and
highlighting our role as women. Hence, our simultaneous launch of the
Guidelines on Mainstreaming Gender in Housing and Human Settlement.

With our mid-term review we have had to gauge how far we have come in our
efforts to empower the poor. In housing we are proposing a new approach to how
we empower the poor. We all recognise that women are at the bottom of the pile.
It goes without saying therefore that if we aim at alleviating the poverty of
the poorest of the poor, we are essentially talking about women. Our poverty
alleviation strategies should therefore be aimed at women. This, being such a
significant milestone in what women can do for themselves, there could not be a
better time to start so that we can make a difference in the lives of the women
who made all of this possible.

We will be commissioning research with a view to making changes to our laws
to ensure that the main beneficiaries of the state’s efforts to house our
people are actually women, some affirmative action for women. Furthermore, the
research will investigate the possibility that where a couple are the
beneficiaries of our efforts, upon dissolution (divorce) of that marriage, the
house automatically reverts to the woman.

We are in the process of auditing and compiling our waiting list. We would
want to make sure that as we do that we ensure that we prioritise the needs of
women with particular emphasis on the elderly, the sick and also that most
vulnerable group, namely, child-headed households. In this case we already have
been in discussions with ABSA Bank to see how we can ensure that our laws allow
children in child-headed households to legally own their homes.

In reiterating what I have already spoken about, the Guidelines seek to
raise the level of participation by women in housing delivery. They seek to
infuse housing with the critical understanding of the specific housing needs of
women and to accord women greater access to resources. They will assist the
department and the role players in Housing and Human Settlements in
mainstreaming gender in their day to day activities. They will ensure that the
programmes and projects planned and implemented at national, provincial and
local level take into considerations the different housing needs of women and
men.

In being here you have showed that you understand the need for the creation
of these linkages that are entailed in the Guidelines. I thank you for that and
for your support. I also would like to thank Thubelisha and the National
Homebuilders Registration Council for their tremendous support, including Women
for Housing. Our partnership is strengthening setting new trends and benchmarks
as we proceed. I am thankful that you agreed to form part of that process. To
my staff from the department: this is our time for delivery. I am glad that you
have come to realise that, and resolved to show that commitment through the
arrangement of this event. To Gauteng, thank you for being with us all the
time.

I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Housing
14 August 2006
Source: Department of Housing (http://www.housing.gov.za/)