I Kotsoane: KwaZulu-Natal Housing Summit

11 September 2006

Programme Director,
Honourable MEC for Housing in KZN, Mr Mike Mabuyakhulu,
Other MECs and Members of Legislature,
Esteemed Amakhosi,
Executive Mayor of Ethekwini Municipality, Councillor Obed Mlaba,
Mayors and Executive Mayors,
Councillors,
Esteemed leaders of business establishments in the housing sector,
Colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,
Good evening

I am deeply honoured and humbled to be afforded this rare opportunity to
offer remarks on this perennially emotive and invigorating subject that caused
us all to leave everything else and gather here today and tomorrow. The subject
of our preoccupation in this summit is perhaps one of the most universally
relatable aspect of our lives and livelihoods, we can all identify with ikhaya,
indlu, umuzi, a home, tuiste, lehae, motse, ntlo, a house!

Let me remind you of the obvious: each one of us gathered here tonight has a
space on this planet that we call “home”. Regardless of its value, size,
design, location, and colour, it is nevertheless your home. In this space you
are able to live, raise a family, build a routine of some sort and feel at
liberty to rest. It is in these spaces that the basic unit of society, a family
can be harnessed and finds expression!

Unfortunately, our painful history of racially based dispossession and
disenfranchisement has meant that the very fundamental unit of society, the
household, was cruelly disrupted when the majority of people were robbed of the
unfettered access to the defining space called a home. Hence we must now
reflect upon the grand vision of the People’s Congress gathered at Kliptown. In
this vision for a non-racial South Africa encapsulated in the Freedom Charter,
the people declared that: “There shall be houses, security and comfort.”

Now all our collective efforts, brought under sharp focus through this
Housing Summit, must necessarily deliver on this expectation by the people of
this country. The delivery systems, collaboration and resource, both within and
outside of government, must of necessity bring about the realisation of houses,
security and comfort for all of the South African society.

In building upon the foundation of the Botshabelo Accord, the Housing White
Paper and the housing delivery experiences in the decade following 1994, we now
have the Comprehensive Plan for the Creation of Sustainable Human Settlements.
Needless to say, this Comprehensive Plan responds in a systematic manner to the
challenges and weaknesses that were noted in housing delivery prior to 2004.
Most of the gaps and weaknesses are well documented and well researched and
need not be repeated here except to point out: the limitation of transforming
the Apartheids spatial architecture through housing development. This led to
the perpetuation of those undesirable spatial patterns where the poor continue
to be located on the outskirts of cities and far removed from economic and
employment opportunities

The misconstrued notion that ONLY the government must respond to the housing
needs of the poor, and thus our inability to collectively harness our energies
and resources towards meeting the housing needs of our country’s challenges in
ensuring accountability to delivering products of acceptable quality this meant
that houses affected by poor quality undermined the safety and comfort of
beneficiaries involved. Failing to delivery houses of acceptable quality is in
fact it is not only unprofessional but it is in the main disrespectful to
households who are to occupy such houses!

As we move forward in implementing the Comprehensive plan we need to be
mindful that we all need to embrace a new and different set of attitudes that
are consistent with the spirit of the Comprehensive Plan. We also need to
sharpen our delivery systems and communication with each other. In this regard
we also need to uphold the significant shift away from merely building houses
towards building homes, building communities and developing sustainable Human
Settlements.

It will be important to define what Sustainable Human Settlements mean in
the KwaZulu-Natal province, bearing in mind the unique peculiarities that
prevail here. In essence what this demands is for the housing sector to
mobilise other sectors towards delivering sustainable human settlements.

In addressing the limitations of accessing and releasing suitably located
land for human settlements, a special purpose vehicle for the acquisition and
disposal of land is currently being established. This will serve to supplement
and support, in highly focused and specialised manner, the efforts of
government at all levels and non-governmental organisation (NGOs) as well as
Private Sector entities.

I was born in and grew up in now I live in and my family is in. I share this
to demonstrate in a small manner, the complexities of urbanisation and
migration that continue to pose multiple challenges to human settlements
development. As people migrate into urban centres, growing pressure is exerted
on services and infrastructure in cities. In this context, informal settlements
proliferate and demand for housing in cities is forever growing. It is in this
context that greater efforts and resources need to be directed to address the
unique challenges presented by migration into urban areas.

Our shared and common responsibility toward meeting the growing housing
needs means that in exercising our differentiated roles and responsibilities we
need to be mindful that cooperation between all role players and the matching
of different resources and capacities will yield more results. In this regard
we need to embrace inclusionary housing delivering processes across all
segments of the housing delivery value chain:
* we must continue to appreciate the efforts of financial institutions
* embrace policies geared towards this goal and this includes shaping
priorities at the level of Municipal Integrated Development Plans
* socially conscious and responsive development initiatives

In conclusion,
Just as much as we are all determined to attack this imposing challenge of
building sustainable human settlements, let us be equally enthusiastic in
ensuring correct and apt planning to secure optimised and efficient delivery.
Let us avoid bursting forth into action and only to be hamstrung by failures
caused by our poor planning. Someone once said: “If I had four hours to chop
down a tree I would spend the first three sharpening my axe.”

So I urge you, take time to sharpen your axes, the task at hand requires
sharp instruments.

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