Meeting of the Organisation for Civic Rights
25 August 2007
Read by Special Advisor Saths Moodley
Invited guests,
Ladies and gentlemen
Time and circumstances have not allowed us to meet, until exactly today. For
me this is deplorable. Your organisation has, as I read, been involved with
matters on housing since the time of apartheid. Even in the new democracy you
have been keeping busy conducting two important surveys that I will later refer
to in this speech. But I would not like you to believe that we do not value
civic organisations as the reason for us not having met quite earlier. Our
excellent working relationship with the Federation of the Urban (and Rural)
Poor (FEDUP) attest to the fact that we do indeed believe that civil society
has in our unfolding democracy an even greater role to play than during
apartheid. What would account therefore for the failure to have met you sooner
is perhaps the fact, and I would like to admit this shortcoming, we have not
developed a broader view of the kind of relationship we would like to have with
civil society. Thus, for example, whilst the emphasis by FEDUP on community
savings has facilitated our relationship with that organisation we have ignored
those organisations dealing with the 'rights' aspect on housing.
But the occasion has now come. And as I have been made to understand, you
would like me to talk on the theme of partnerships for better and just living
conditions. This is a theme that has been dominant in the thinking of civil
society since the days of the liberation struggle. It was even more dominant
within the liberation movement, hence the resonance to this day of the slogan
'A Better Life for All.'
Both these two forms of organisations, namely, civil society and the
liberation movement, highlighted the fact that racial oppression in the form of
apartheid simply masked a more fundamental problem of the structuring of
society in ways that would enable the economy to benefit others whilst the rest
were left mired in underdevelopment. It was this exposition of the ideology of
apartheid that ensured that we married our real life experiences with theory.
This is how, collectively, we came to understand that the destruction of
apartheid was itself not sufficient to enable a better life for all. The
economy needed to be transformed so that access to opportunities could be
opened to all. In this regard in the adoption of the Constitution in 1996 was
included the objective to 'Improve the quality of life of all citizens and free
the potential of each person.' Thus, rights to land and housing were conferred
to all, particularly those who previously did not have these.
It is true, Chairperson, that we cannot hope to achieve better and just
living conditions for our people without realising the rights to socio-economic
development that they have been accorded by the Constitution. Our particular
circumstance which has been bequeathed to us by apartheid dictates that we must
not treat the process casually as if it is from the ordinary. A better life for
all will not be achieved through economic processes playing out some assumed
natural stages. Only a concerted and combined effort by those with a
perspective of the origins of the rights we have in our Constitution will
enable us to achieve a fundamental difference in the lives of people utilising
in this regard the rights they have been conferred. Because of their awareness
that both injustice and underdevelopment are the direct historical products of
past and continuing economic relations they confront the task with a determined
purpose. They confront the issues that need dealing with as allies, and not
merely as partners.
The privilege we have is that you are an organisation that was not only born
but developed its strength in the fight against apartheid. Thus the two
critical surveys you have conducted, namely, the 1997 Durban Community Survey
and the 2002 Four Townships Survey, confirm not only that you are aligned to
the homeless but also that you want to carve a role too for yourselves in our
developing democracy. That you have involved yourselves in their education and
the study of their health problems makes you a dependable in our stage of
democracy.
I would like to depend on an ally such as yourselves in highlighting the
role that the scarcity of land plays in achieving a better and a just life for
all. Not least because land apart from finance land is the predominant resource
upon which all our strategies will fail or succeed. Limitations regarding the
acquisition of land have thus, notwithstanding the achievements we have made in
the thirteen years of our democracy in delivering 2,3 million low-cost houses
made us fall severely short on achieving an integrated society. Consequently,
the spatial distortions of apartheid against which you yourselves fought are
still a clearly visible sight on our landscape. If you take into account that
our urban growth had been by 2,1 percent per year between 1996 and 2001, as a
result of the process of rapid urbanisation, you would realise that land
availability is indeed the greatest threat we face in our delivery. You would
realise that whatever strategy we have in place it will only be good if there
is adequate land available to build human settlements, land that will enable
integration.
Because access to land to build human settlements is a right that our people
enjoy we are therefore enjoined to ensure that apart from providing land to
satisfy the current demand for housing we are also able to set aside land that
anticipates the growth of society. However, we can do none of this critical
delivery and planning if we do not have land. It is on economic grounds, on
issues related to security of tenure that your 1997 Durban Community Survey
indicates 37 percent of the homeless around Durban find themselves living in
the periphery in informal settlements. Marginalised, they therefore become
susceptible to diseases that in an apparent contradiction to better life cut
their lives short at often times.
Out of this arises the need to conduct assessments that would indicate the
availability of land and help guide the development of integrated human
settlements. Previously, as you would know, we had asked Municipalities to
place a moratorium on land sales so that land is prioritised for housing. But
this was state land. So the focus of the new effort should be on all other land
that is not state owned. Through the research capability you have developed
stakeholders such as yourselves could play a critical role in the process,
particularly in provinces such as KwaZulu-Natal that are most affected by
urbanisation.
You could too, by participating in processes related to the drafting of
Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) consistently raise the challenge we face
regarding the acquisition of well-located land. For our assessment indeed is
that the developments that are currently taking place within the inner cities
will not address this urgency unless a co-ordinated intervention that is
supported by organisations such as yourselves is put in place.
Given that KwaZulu-Natal receives the greatest number of in-migrants after
Gauteng and the Western Cape, Ethekwini had a population increase of 27 277 in
2006. Here where a quarter of the country's informal settlements are present
greater numbers of people share rooms. The urban population is three times that
that of rural areas. No wonder then that over 1 million people of the province
live below the minimum living level. No wonder that an organisation such as
yourselves would have seen their circumstance and resolved to want to be
involved in alleviating their plight, despite the evidence that the historical
backlog of housing is shrinking as a result of the state's efforts in realising
their rights. Finally, let me thank you for indicating the confidence you have
in us and in therefore wanting to partner with us to confront the challenges I
have spoken about. We do believe in you as you believe in us.
A radical turnaround in the socioeconomic conditions of our people needs to
be the defining character of the present state of our democracy. And for this
to be achieved there has to be a determined effort from not government but the
rest of society focused on those that are poor.
I thank you for having invited me and I thank you for all your efforts
focused on the homeless.
I thank you
Issued by: Department of Housing
25 August 2007
