S Moloto: National Youth in Housing Indaba

17 May 2007

Executive Mayor of Waterberg District
MECs for Housing from various provinces
Director-General of the Department of Housing
Chairperson of the National Youth Commission and provincial commissioners
Housing heads of departments (HoDs) from various provinces
Practitioners in the housing industry
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

Theme: "Creating an enabling environment through policy strategy development
for the effective participation of youth to accelerate housing delivery"

It is a long stated ideal of the Freedom Charter that our people shall be
provided with houses, security and comfort. The Freedom Charter further goes on
to say that, "All people shall have the right to live where they choose, be
decently housed and to bring up their families in comfort and security, slums
shall be demolished and new suburbs will be built where all have transport,
roads, lighting, playing fields, crèches and social centres, fenced locations
and ghettoes shall be abolished and laws which break up families shall be
repealed."

Since 1994 our government has made significant strides in the delivery of
houses to the vulnerable and marginalised population of our country. To date we
have built over 2,3 million housing opportunities for middle income and the low
income beneficiaries which have provided accommodation to 8,7 million people.
But our achievements get obscured immediately when account is taken of the huge
and increasing demand we still face. For example, government still has to
address the backlog of approximately 2,4 million households which are presently
located in informal settlements. This will obviously require that we involve
every sector of our population in the extension of housing delivery to our
people.

However, we are pleased that our government has since developed a housing
vision called Breaking New Ground which addresses a number of wide ranging
measures to achieve some of the objectives and challenges we have referred to
and particularly the demands enshrined in the Freedom Charter. The plan
includes amongst others the building of integrated non-racial settlements,
revision of subsidies, the extension of rental housing, deepening partnerships
between government and the private sector and the eradication of informal
settlements. The plan presents a reaffirmation of government's commitment to
delivering opportunities for the poor, women, youth and other vulnerable groups
in our society.

Of importance is that the new human settlements plan reinforces the vision
of our government in so far as it relates to the promotion of a non-racial and
integrated society, through the development of sustainable human settlements
and quality housing. Within this broader vision government is committed to
meeting the following specific objectives:
a) accelerating the delivery of housing as a key strategy for poverty
alleviation
b) utilising provision of housing as a major job creation strategy
c) ensuring that property is accessed by all as an asset for wealth creation
and empowerment
d) leveraging growth in the economy
e) combating crime, promoting social cohesion and improving quality of life for
the poor
f) supporting the functioning of the entire single residential property market
to reduce duality within the sector by breaking the barriers between the first
economy residential property boom and the second economy slump
g) utilising housing as an instrument for the development of sustainable human
settlements, in support of spatial restructuring.

Programme Director, we have always recognised as government that the youth
are a dynamic, energetic, vibrant sector of our society that can play a
meaningful role in addressing the challenges facing the delivery of housing in
our country. It is not by coincidence nor by chance that we are now involving
the youth in the programmes of housing development. This is a sector that is
very rapidly on the move, migrating from one part of the country to another in
ever greater numbers in search of economic opportunities and livelihood. But
because of problems related to skills and education they incessantly find
themselves in some tough and uncompromising environments where they must live.
Despite their being the most dynamic, energetic, vibrant and talented of the
sectors of our society they continually find themselves vulnerable, excluded
and marginalised. Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) finds that as many as
25,7% of our young people are in households where parents are absent. In
addition, six in every 10 that is 60,3% of the youth live in informal
structures. This state of affair obviously places some significant
responsibilities on our youth who are mostly vulnerable, marginalised and
unemployed. This is the reason why we have prioritised their participation and
involvement in the housing delivery of our country as a mechanism by which they
can directly attack two critical challenges of lack of housing and
unemployment.

We are aware that government has already put in place a number of programmes
to benefit the youth such as the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP),
internships and learnership programmes, urban renewal projects, housing
bursaries and scholarships, Emerging Contractor Programme (ECP) to name but a
few.

However, we believe that a coherent and integrated approach is required to
address challenges around housing and human settlements with full participation
of youth.

High on our agenda for youth development is correctly the questions of
skills development, job creation and poverty alleviation. The national
programme of the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa
(AsgiSA) and our own Provincial and Growth Development Strategy (PGDS) have in
particular, singled out the area of skills development as one that needs urgent
attention in order to address unemployment and to grow the economy. It has been
stated many a time that the skills of most young South Africans are generally
inadequate to meet the demands of a commodity based, globalising economy which
is mainly service and knowledge driven. The reality of the matter is that
without these skills unfortunately many young people would not be able to fill
up vacancies that require specialised knowledge and expertise.

As government, we have already realised that our country cannot be able to
cope with the demands of skills required by the huge infrastructural
developments that are currently unfolding in our country. This is not only just
about the construction of stadia for 2010 FIFA World Cup games but also about
meeting the AsgiSA aims related to infrastructure development in the areas of
urban renewal, information and Communication Technology (ICT), water delivery,
roads networks, energy and telecommunications.

One of the challenges facing government as highlighted earlier is the need
for high level scarce and priority skills required for effective housing
delivery and the socio-economic development of the country. As already
highlighted by Joint Initiative Priority Skills Acquisition (Jipsa), the
critical scarce skills required within the housing sector include project
management, artisan, engineering (industrial and civil), monitoring and
evaluation, town and regional planning, housing as well as economics. The need
to engage youth interest in housing programmes is thus critical in addressing
this challenge.

Overall the programme will ensure that the youth gain as both participants
and beneficiaries of the housing programme whilst transforming their own
communities through service. This process entails the participation of youth in
building houses and refurbishing old dilapidated buildings into residential
housing units for low and middle-income residents. This programme would ensure
that the youth are skilled through theoretical and technical construction
training which is also accredited. Further, at the exit stage, a career pathway
for the youth is already in place and youth are linked with various
opportunities to further their personal transformation process. In addition,
further interaction with the youth would be maintained through the alumni
programme to ensure sustainability.

This is not the only programme where the youth can be involved in as
community volunteers. Various departments have other countless initiatives
which require their services and volunteering spirit. There are opportunities
for youth to help other departments like education and public works in the
renovation of schools and community centres. Opportunities are there to help
the Department of Transport in putting up fences alongside busy public roads to
prevent stray animals from getting into the roads, the youth could also become
police reservists or act as anti-crime ambassadors for 2010 FIFA World Cup,
they could also act as adult basic education and teaching (Abet) facilitators
to reduce the rate of illiteracy in our society or participate in home based
care and counsel those with HIV and AIDS in our society.

Apart from acquiring much needed skills and experience in the field of
housing, the youth also stand to benefit from learning progressive sets of
values such as:
* national pride and patriotism
* a culture of service and civic duty
* a sense of work ethic and discipline.

We have got no doubt to believe that this intervention is necessary and
important for keeping the youth away from the streets which are a source of
drugs, prostitution, crime and loitering. We believe that there is truth in the
old saying that "an idle mind is a devil's workshop".

Programme Director, the lessons we have learned from all our national pilot
projects should serve as a guide of what must be avoided and improved in the
future if the youth in housing programme is to make an impact in the delivery
of social housing in our communities. Mediocrity is not an option and we expect
nothing less from those who shall be taking part in this programme. They must
be motivated by nothing else other than the pride to serve their people and
their communities.

We wish this conference every success in its deliberations!

I thank you!

Issued by: Office of the Premier, Limpopo Provincial Government
17 May 2007