L Sisulu : Launch by Radio 702 and FNB

Minister of Housing L N Sisulu at the Launch by Radio 702 and
FNB of houses at Cosmo City, Johannesburg

18 May 2006

Master of Ceremonies,
Members of my Panel of Advisers,
Habitat for Humanity,
Volunteers,
Invited guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Slowly but surely, the freedoms that we had fought for are realising results
that are busy changing the antagonistic and contradictory relations of the past
to establish new relations that are being based on mutual trust and
partnership. Towards the goal of bringing about a better life for all this
change in relations establishes and reinforces the fundamental fact of our
society that all of us are indispensably the sources of fundamental change.

With Radio 702 Talk Radio we started this relationship in 2004 when the
station built three houses in Ivory Park. In August 2005 it built five houses
in Protea South, Soweto where Habitat for Humanity, Holcim South Africa, Honey
Accessories, Standard Bank and Chas Everitt were also involved. Then, its
sister Radio, CapeTalk, launched in November of the same year a project in
Masiphumelele, in Cape Town, where it built five houses. It was during this
process that we received from Radio 702 a commitment and an offer to construct
702 houses. As a result of that commitment we are now here in Cosmo City. The
First National Bank joined in for with it too we have established a very good
relationship.

In this venture therefore, as the three partners, we are launching our a new
product as part of the 3000 credit linked housing structures at Cosmo City.
Seven hundred and two houses are to be made available to successful applicants
of the finance-linked houses. This is part of a joint effort between government
and the private sector including Banking Sector to make houses more affordable
especially to first-time homebuyers. On the basis of this new improved housing
initiative people earning between R3 501 and R7 000 per month will now be able
to afford a range of housing options through the newly built or the secondary
markets. The programme will be disbursed as a once-off subsidy to qualifying
beneficiaries who will not qualify again for another state assisted
subsidy.

I believe that here in Cosmo City we cement this relationship between
ourselves as the three partners. I believe that, yet again, we bear testimony
to what we always have contended that there is ample space to do things that
others have deemed impossible to undertake and accomplish. Importantly too, for
me, the initiative and the relationship is important to help drive the message
that as a society we are naturally averse to informal settlements and the sight
of people not having homes.

Informal housing and homelessness have no place in a free, democratic and
non-racial society. A belief in any form of informality distorts the values
that we as a society must uphold, the values that are enshrined in the
Constitution, the values of equality and dignity for all. And this is the
reason that we decided to embark on the road of eradicating informal
settlements by 2014.

That Radio 720 and the Banking Sector had bought into this idea and are now
partners actively working with government to make that objective possible is a
demonstration that the necessary foundation exists.

The relationship further enriches our experiences that we can share with the
world in respect of the Millennium Development Goals. For indeed, much of what
we practice today is built from the vision we collectively share of bettering
the lives of our people; the vision of giving life to the provisions of our
Constitution.

I am therefore uniquely proud of what we have been able to achieve in the
short period between 2004 and the present. I am proud of the promise that we
hold together for the future of our country. For basically what started off as
a natural interaction is now developing into a trend aimed at concretely
sustaining development in our communities.

Together, we have made housing a rallying point. And this to me is the
essence of what our relationship is about. For this, I am proud and grateful to
you. It is thus my undertaking to continually nurture this relationship. Our
towns and cities face a rapid rate of urbanization. And because of the
resilience of the apartheid spatial economy deep-rooted inequalities and
inefficiencies were bound to persist. Consequently, we now have areas where
there is a prevalence of informal settlements, where conflicts and disasters
are the order of the day. When juxtaposed against the formality of areas where
the order is decency and tranquillity, the urgency of creating sustainable
communities clearly dawns. If the situation is allowed to persist into the
future it is clear that for society as a whole which includes both government
and the private sector the future will be bleak. But now we know that this
situation has possibilities of arising as a result of the partnership we have
developed.

I trust that using the partnership we will consider expanding the initiative
to other provinces. Finally, let me once again thank both Radio 702 and the
First National Bank for this most important initiative. Our history is being
written anew. I am glad that they volunteered themselves to be active
participants in it.
I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Housing
18 May 2006

Source: Department of Housing (http://www.housing.gov.za)

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