Address of KwaZulu-Natal Department of Human Settlement and Public Works MEC Maggie Govender to the Community of Kwajali in the Umuziwabantu Municipality

The Programme director,
District Deputy Mayor, Councillor Mqwebu
The Mayor of the Umuziwabantu Municipality, His Worship, Councillor Ngubo
Umuziwabantu Deputy Mayor, Councillor S Ncwane
Amakhosi apresent
Councillors present
Representatives of local and provincial government
Members of the community

Good day.

Our President, Jacob Zuma, in his State of the Nation Address said “while many South Africans celebrate the delivery of houses, electricity or water, there are yet many others who are still waiting. Today the waiting for some of the victims of the terrible storms that have affected KwaJali are over.
 
The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Human Settlements is committed to delivering quality human settlements. We want to make sure that we use public money in the best possible way to ensure that our people get the best service from government.

Our work as a department covers ensuring that we get rid of slums and provide our  people with houses of good quality that are built close to transport, schools, clinics and other social amenities like sports fields. To this end, our department has so far built over 500 000 houses in KwaZulu-Natal. There is even more to come. As I stand here talking to you, I can report that we have over 600 housing projects all over our province. These projects cover rental housing, rural housing projects, social housing, hostels and low-income housing.

Our aim as a department and as government, is to provide decent housing for our people and to do this while making sure that public money is well spent and that we get value for money. Unfortunately there are many projects where our people have received houses of poor quality – where the walls start cracking, where foundations are damp, where roofs start leaking, where bricks are held together with more sand than cement – yes, you know what I am talking about. This is not acceptable. We cannot allow our communities to be abused in this way where government is paying and paying well for something that is not value for money.
 
As the Department of Human Settlements we will make sure that companies and people who are guilty of this kind of abuse are made to pay. We will make those responsible for poor construction of houses rebuild the houses properly at their own cost or we will re-build the houses and claim the costs from the guilty party. Whatever the case, we are saying enough is enough.

As government, as communities we must speak out against those who seek to fleece government and thereby deprive poor people by taking public money, not doing things properly and not giving us value for the money that we are paying them.

The department also provides houses for vulnerable groups such as the aged, the disabled, orphans and child and women-headed households. At the Sunnydale project at EShowe, we have together with a group of youth volunteers built houses for the aged. I am sure some of you have seen these beautiful houses.

Let me now talk about our provincial Sukuma Sakhe programme. The Sukuma Sakhep programme was launched by our Premier, Dr Zweli Mkhize last year. This program has redefined the way government delivers services. The Sukuma Sakhe program brings together various provincial departments and the municipalities in our province to focus on delivering services to the most needy. This can only be achieved if we go out and walk and work in the very same communities that we are meant to provide services for.

In March this year together with MEC for Education, Mr Senzo Mchunu, I had the pleasure of visiting a few families in Mbongolwane where we handed over 11 homes. I am pleased to announce that Demazana Ngcobo-Mhlongo who is 81 years old also received her house. In some instances the beneficiaries were moved from their homes which were far on the hills and brought closer in order to access the roads to make their living conditions better. This is a government working at its best led by the African National Congress.

Last week, also as a result of the Sukuma Sakhe programme we handed over houses to 3 gogos in the Richmond Municipality. 71 year old, Ms Mandondo Mcunu, 76 year old, Ms Nomzumbe Hlangulela and Ms NA Mgcinwa were all living in dilapidated mud houses that were falling apart. Their homes were unsafe. My Departmen t then set about building new houses for them. An amount of R 327 000,00 was spent on the construction of the 3, houses in wards 4, 6 and 7. These are nice, large houses that are 48m². Each of these houses has a verandah. There is also a water tank to harvest rain water which can then be used for daily washing, cooking, cleaning etc.

Rural housing development is especially vital for us as a province. And focused attention has thus been paid over the past three years to promoting rural development. A total of 26 328 housing units have been completed, benefitting approximately 118 476 individuals accommodated by rural housing stock, and thereby affording housing to the destitute in rural areas. Our partnership with relevant stakeholders  including traditional councils  has helped because it has assisted us to get land identified for rural development rapidly released and we have thus been able to accelerate rural housing development.

In line with the national and provincial priority of rural development, the department will continue to accelerate housing delivery in rural areas throughout the province. Approximately 60 percent of the budget allocation has been allocated to rural development and this demonstrates the department’s commitment to more effective and sustainable rural development in line with national and provincial priorities.

I want to share with you what we are doing to try and improve the quality of people’s lives in rural areas. As we all know, in many areas in KwaZulu-Natal there is a shortage of water and people, mainly women and children have to wake up early and walk long distances to collect water.

We have decided that in order to help such people living in rural areas , we will make sure that houses built in a rural area will have water tanks installed as well This water harvesting program was launched in Umhlabuyalingana and will cost R150 million to fit 52 000 households with water tanks all over the province.

I am sure we all know what a difference this will make to our people’s lives. The Department of Human Settlements is committed to delivering  human settlements. We cannot have a situation where people have little or no access to water for daily needs of cooking, washing and cleaning.

Currently we have nine projects in the Umuziwabantu Municipality which are at various stages. These projects include the Izibonda-KwaMachi , Nhlangwini-KwaFodo, KwaJali, KwaMbotho, KwaDumisa, Bashaweni, Mazakhele Slum Clearance  Phase 3, Harding – Green Field and the KwaJali Disaster Ward 7 & 9 projects.

There will be close to a total of 7 500 houses that will be built through these projects. These projects have a combined value of more than R306 million. Another part of our work as the Department of Human Settlements is to assist those whose homes have been damaged or destroyed by storms, fires, floods and other disasters.

Right now even as we are here, there are a team of contractors who are hard at work in our province rebuilding and repairing homes that have been damaged or destroyed by disasters. As a department we are committed to making sure that we attend to the damage caused by storms quickly so that people can get on with their lives with shelter over their heads.

We have re-built close to 1 000 houses throughout the province as at the end of April. Last week on Saturday we were in Eshowe at KwaMpungose. There we had the pleasure of handing over houses to the Cele and Biyela families whose homes were destroyed by lightning earlier this year. These two families were doubly affected as they lost not only their homes but their loved ones as well.

Although nothing can replace those who had passed on so tragically, the KZN Department of Human Settlements was at least able to provide the bereaved families with safe, secure and decent shelter. In addition, the families were provided with the assurance that they were protected from the future threat of being struck by lightning because lightning conductors had been installed close to their homes.

As we all know the KwaJali area and specifically wards seven and nine were badly affected by storms. 31 one houses have had to be re-built. I am glad to report that the KZN Department of Human Settlements has been able to honour our commitment to move quickly when disasters happen so that our people do not have to wait and wait for their homes to be re-built. We want people to be able to get on with their lives as soon as possible.

 In the case of the disaster in KwaJali, we can proudly report that of the 31 houses affected, we have been able to complete 10 in record-quick time and the balance are well on the way to completion. We have allocated an amount of R1 922 million for these houses. Today I am happy to announce that for gogo Zozo Piri who is 85 years old, the waiting is over, she has received her house this morning. We also want to thank the contractors and the Municipality for assisting and for working fast.

Today is proof that programmes of government designed to benefit our communities work. All of this follows up on what our President, President Zuma, has told us we, as government must do. We must make sure that we deliver services to our people, people must have housing, schools and access to health and very importantly we must try to create jobs and work opportunities.

You will find, whenever there is a human settlement project, there will be work for people. Our president has said that we must create jobs and work opportunities for our people and that is what we will do.

In fact, as our President says, Working together we can do more.

Thank you.

Source: KwaZulu-Natal Human Settlement