M Nkoana-Mashabane: Laying of foundation for Housing Project

11 September 2007

Programme Director
Mayor of Musina Municipality
The Speaker of the Musina Municipality
The Chief whip and councillors
Officials from our government
Friends from the media
Representative from Vharanani
Comrades and friends
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

It is indeed a great pleasure to welcome you all, to this memorable event.
Those of you, like me who came by road, would have noticed the spectacular
rolling landscapes and breathtaking sceneries which make this part of our
province a true tropical paradise of South Africa. I am sure that you will
agree with me that Limpopo is like no other province in South Africa, both in
terms of its uniqueness, habitat and natural beauty.

The thematic description of the month of September is popularly known as
heritage month. It is a well known fact that provision of housing to our people
remains a central task of our departmental mandate and equally is a heritage
for our people. The policy imperatives of our government is to place women,
rural women in particular, at the centre stage of development and emancipation
given the fact that it is only women who bear the brunt of poverty,
unemployment and illiteracy. It is for this reason that a major stake in skills
development and employment are designed to benefit these women.

Programme Director, our country is categorised as an upper-middle-income
country. However despite this relatively wealthy status, the majority of South
African households experience abject poverty and high vulnerability of
unemployment. Many households still have unsatisfactory access to education,
health care, energy, clean water and decent housing. Past policies of
segregation and discrimination have left a legacy of inequality and poverty and
in more recent decades, low economic growth.

The apartheid system was heavily biased towards providing health, education
and housing services to the white minority, to the detriment of the black
population who were denied the opportunity to accumulate human and physical
capital. Since the dawn of the new democratic dispensation in 1994 the
government of South Africa in its development policy initiatives has attached
high priority to the issues of poverty alleviation and a more equitable
distribution of income and wealth. In particular the government is committed to
a programme of empowerment of the previously disadvantaged groups and regions.
Limpopo province features quite the most on this issue.

Programme Director, poverty is multi-faceted. It can be linked with lack of
access to clean water, sanitation, health-care or schools. It can be about
hunger, unemployment, exploitation, and vulnerability to crisis and
homelessness. The lack of employment opportunities, low wages and lack of job
security is a major contributing factor to poverty. Households where children
are hungry or malnourished are seen as living in poverty. The poor are
perceived to live in overcrowded conditions and in homes that are in desperate
need of maintenance. Poverty is also perceived as lacking safe and efficient
sources of energy.

In rural communities, the poor, particularly women walk long distances to
gather firewood for the purpose of cooking and keeping the family warm, during
those cold winter nights. Last but definitely very crucial, it is a fact that
many poor households are characterised by absent fathers resulting in single
mothers taking care of the whole family. It is therefore indeed true that
poverty has adopted a feminine face.

While clearly many of these issues are related to not having enough money,
it is simplistic to ignore the non-material aspects of the experience of
poverty. The poor are not concerned exclusively with adequate incomes and
consumption. Achieving other goals such as security, independence and
self-respect may be just as important as having the means to buy basic goods
and services. "Nevertheless, money-metric measures of welfare probably provide
the best objective proxy for poverty status."

Programme Director, the African National Congress (ANC) declared this year
as "the year to intensify the struggle against poverty" and our task as a
democratic government is to eradicate poverty in pursuit to emancipate women
from the bondage of patriarchy, disease and underdevelopment. As part of our
duty to society, we aim to create a non-sexist, non-racial and developed
country for our future generations. The Progressive Women's Movement has begun
a process to uplift the plight of women especially rural poor in realisation of
gender equality, work and decent housing. This process is irreversible, we must
guard it jealously so as opportunistic and reactionary patriarchy does not take
our hard fought freedom and rights.

Programme Director, it is my wish and hope that we move forward and fight
against poverty; the way our forebears fought for freedom in 1956. Empowerment
of women must find expression in programme implementation across the three
tiers of government departments as enshrined in both the ANC and the government
policy documents.

We at the Department of Local Government and Housing have embarked on a
programme of transformation to empower women and eradicate poverty.
Transformation of the society as it relates to women is the manner in which we
break from the past and create the egalitarian society which is based on the
vision of the Freedom Charter and the Constitution. We model ourselves under
the principles of Batho Pele – Putting People First. "This initiative aims to
enhance the quality and accessibility of Government services by improving
efficiency and accountability to the recipients of public goods and
services."

Programme Director, calling upon the women of our province, we urge you to
participate in the building process of a progressive nation and the economic
growth of Limpopo and the country at large.

In taking this step forward we are reversing the trends of apartheid,
poverty and oppression. This concrete step marks the continuous development of
our province and its people. We are here today to lay the foundation that
symbolises the launch of 1839 housing units to the people of Musina Local
Municipality realising that Musina is the doorstep in and out of South Africa,
adjacent to Zimbabwe and a major route to the rest of Africa.

As part of this programme to eradicate poverty, 192 local will be created,
employing skilled and unskilled labourers: 60 women, 60 men and 72 youth; will
be trained and appointed to construct these houses. A budget of approximately
R71 million, allocated from Budget Year 2007/08, has been put into this project
to cover the costs of construction and service installation.

As part of our normalisation process that was stated during our budget
speech pronouncement to the Legislature, we have since begun the process, to
normalise the housing projects that were illegally occupied. We have since
agreed that occupation of houses illegally, is prohibited and is punishable by
law. This is to say that people who illegally transgressed the law and
manipulated the system will be dealt with the full might of the law. Residents
who are renting out our low cost housing are not immune from this malady.

Lawful occupants are obliged not to sell low cost houses to any body. In
case that there is a pressing need to sell this houses government must receive
the first option to buy. This thus means that they can only sell back these
houses back to the state first.

We have observed that there is emerging trend by loan sharks to mortgage low
cost housing as a security for non payment of the loans with a view to finally
take over the houses. This is illegal and must stop forthwith.

We vow to provide decent, secure and comfortable housing for the indigents
of this part of our province as we promised in our ANC ready to govern document
of 1992. We urge you all especially women, to stand up and fight against women
abuse, child abuse and underdevelopment in Limpopo province.

I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Local Government and Housing, Limpopo Provincial
Government
11 September 2007