Housing in Southern Africa September 2015

sisulu cracks the whip A year later, the Minister’s spirit is heavy, she admits that al- though there has been a down- At the Govan Mbeki Awards last year, Minister of Human Settlements, Lindiwe Sisulu was enthusiastic and exuberant about the housing sector’s prospects. The future was full of promise and the sector was willing to workwith the Minister to achieve the Human Settlements target of 1,5 million housing opportunities .

ward spiral in housing delivery, she had not anticipated that despite all the goodwill and effort – statistics remained dismally low. The Minister is a workaholic and expects that same level of drive, com- mitment andpassion fromher human settlement departments, develop- ment finance institutions, regulatory bodies and key sector stakeholders. Sisulu had reasoned that when all the delivery building blocks had firmly been put in place that she couldmatch the housing delivery that she rolled out during her last stint as Minister of Housing. Sadly, this did not happen. Although, the annual Govan Mbeki Awards acknowledge excellence at local, provincial and national government levels and the Minister congratulated the win- ners, she lashed out at those who had failed to work harder in order to improve housing delivery. “It is shocking and unbelievable that over the past six years, one of those years during my term, we have delivered almost half the number of houses compared to at the height of our delivery.” There has been some soul searching, she says, “And we have taken some steps to rectify the

situation. All government depart- ments and institutions will be asked to recommit themselves to work harder in order to roll out housing delivery. We want to send a strong message, especially to our officials and contractors, that there needs to be a change of attitude in order to fast track housing delivery.” Government’s aim to provide fully

a country that boasts a residential property market worth R3 trillion. We are ranked number one in the world, our people were the victims of forced removals, evictions and influx control.” “We achieved so much in the past and we should not be in this position now. We have taken steps to get to grips with the core challenges so that we can resolve it. But as long as we continue to work at this pace, it will lie heavily on our conscience that the radical economic transformation for the indigent will not be realised, be- cause of our lack of commitment. We have made promises and the least we can do is to live up to those promises!” Sisulu continues, “If there is anyone who does not love their job, then they are in thewrong one. Despite our lacklustre delivery over the past few years, there are some who have distinguished them- selves by their hard work, commit- ment and passion for the rights of the poor. We want to honour and

‘We want to send a strong message, especially to our officials and contractors, that there needs to be a change of attitude in order to fast track housing delivery.’

subsidised housing for the poor cre- ates opportunities for beneficiaries to gain a foothold in the economy and acquire an asset that can be retained or upgraded. Owning property can change the lives of the poor from dependency on the state to self- sustainability and home ownership. “The asset value of a house can take the poorest out of destitution in

September 2015