Mhlalingaphambili namalungu eNdlu ahloniphekileyo ... [Chairperson and hon members of the House ...]
... I rise to take part in this very important debate in this august House and to kick-start this important discussion on the N2 Gateway project.
I would want, upfront, to set the scene, raise some contextual issues and table some important facts so that the matter is laid to rest once and for all. In creating that context, I think it is important to make the point that I also rise to stand here representing the provincial government of the Western Cape, led by the ANC - a party that has saved this country from the brink of collapse.
We have turned this economy around, an economy that was inward-looking and was never competitive. Not only did we do that in the economic sphere, we also did so in the case of many other things, including the issue under discussion today.
In terms of the Western Cape itself, this is a province where black people, and Africans in particular, were never allowed to settle or to work, let alone have homes. When we speak about this issue today we have to bring that historical perspective into this kind of discussion, because it is likely that some of those people who might raise problems here today have a certain nostalgia and want to take us back. Therefore I do want to make that point.
From 1994, during the past 12 years of our democracy, it was essential for us to turn things around and deliver in numbers. It was necessary to do so. We moved from quantitative access to what we now call qualitative access. We had to build more than 1,8 million houses because they were needed. We have learned key lessons out of that, in terms of how we need to improve on quality issues.
The Western Cape is a province that has many challenges. When going around this province daily, I meet people who share their own space with animals. In the city of Cape Town, if you go to Site C in Khayelitsha, people live with rats as big as cats. Nobody makes a noise about that because to some of us it is acceptable that we must live under inhuman conditions.
If you go around this province to Bonteheuwel and other districts, you will find that our communities spend time in pigsties. That is not the history I want to dwell on today, but it is important to create that context.
It is in that context that the champion of the poor, Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, who is not with us today and is also dealing with these matters abroad in Canada, introduced to us the policy Breaking New Ground. In terms of its objectives, it is aimed at assisting us progressively to eradicate informal settlements, facilitate inter- and intra-settlement integration; enable urban renewal and restructuring of urban renewal; improve settlement designs; implement mechanisms that will assist with eradication of poverty; facilitate greater responsiveness to livelihood strategies; and also ensure that the active participation of all three spheres of government does achieve a common goal.
In terms of that context, we have a policy and the N2 Gateway project is a national pilot project of that policy. It is aimed at fast-tracking housing delivery. "Pilot" itself means that we needed to do things in a fast- tracking way and without going through the normal routes of red tape and bureaucracy. It is possible therefore, in terms of this N2 Gateway pilot project and the speed at which we move and the way we do things as pioneers in this field, that we will learn the lessons I am going to speak about at the end of this discussion.
I think it is important for me to make the point that the N2 Gateway pilot project was designed as an exercise in co-operative governance and intergovernmental relations, and was guided by a memorandum of understanding signed by the Minister of Housing, the MEC for local government and the Mayor of Cape Town.
The project has also sought an urgent but sensitive response to Cape Town's housing needs that I have just outlined, particularly along the N2, between the airport and Langa. It is a pilot project of the Department of Housing's Breaking New Ground Policy. It incorporates rental ownership units to accommodate 22 000 households.
The first element comprises Joe Slovo Phase 1, which borders Langa and consists of 705 units that have been completed, in terms of two- to three- storey blocks ranging in size from 27m to 48m. This project's units, as I have just said, are complete and ready for occupation. As the MEC for local government in this province, I will make that announcement with no pressure from anybody. [Applause.]
We are already in the process, as I speak here today. Tomorrow I will be addressing the entire community of Langa. We are excited about this project and looking forward to the occupation of this first phase. We are talking here about 705 units and family members in their thousands, because each family unit is going to bring many family members who never had this opportunity before.
We have heard a noise from people complaining about this and that, but the people of Langa and the surrounding areas are excited and looking forward to this. We will engage them tomorrow in a meeting. There are some of us who are saying there is going to be war and chaos and I stand here to say there is going to be none of those things. We are going to deliver houses to our people.
It is also important for me to make the point that, contrary to what the public, the print and other media have been reporting, the N2 Gateway project is not the only project in this province and city of Cape Town. This is a pilot project and there are other housing opportunities that people are going to access.
In terms of the N2, beyond Phase 1 there are other phases such as Joe Slovo Phase 2, which will be a mixture of bonded housing and what we call "Breaking New Ground" houses, and will involve banks. We are going beyond what was created in this province such as the houses at Delft and the matchbox houses that were created by some of the people who will be making a noise here today. [Interjections.]
Along that strip, we aim to build 1 000 units in the combination of GAP housing units and BNG houses. Alongside Gugulethu, in the New Rest area, we are already involved in upgrading an in situ project which will comprise 1 200 households. Work has already started on that project. In terms of Phase 2, planning has been finalised regarding Boys Town in Crossroads and it will go further down along there.
In Delft and Symphony the Greenfields project, which is aimed at accommodating 6 300 units, and will have 600 rental units, is already under way. There is another Greenfields project in Delft called Delft 729, in which about 4 500 housing units and 800 rental units are going to be built. That project as well as part of Phase 2 and other phases has already begun. We are already going beyond what you see with your naked eye. There is a lot of work being done.
It was also recently decided that Thubelisha Homes, as an agency of the Department of Housing, should be the developer of the N2 Gateway project and will be supported principally by the national and provincial governments. There has also been a commitment by the housing Minmec to contribute funds from all the provinces to help expedite the N2 Gateway project as a national pilot project.
I would also like to make the point that, as you are aware, the three spheres of government co-operated very well before the elections to take us to where we are. The process, with all of its challenges, ran smoothly.
It so happened that beyond the elections we had a problem in terms of how we address those intersphere relationships. The problem related to a new party that came and wanted to play petty politics, a party that does not care for the poor and leads a city that does not care.
As an MEC of local government, I am monitoring that situation and watching them quite carefully. All they have done so far has been to make noises about investigations; nothing else. Regarding all of the investigations they have talked about, we have had no results concerning all those kinds of issues. They have not put a brick in place or built a single house in about three or four months. [Interjections.]
Hon members, howling should not be disorderly. Let's allow the debate to continue. Continue, MEC.
Chairperson, perhaps, I can understand that kind of interjection because the truth sometimes bites. But I rise here to make these particular points. This is an ambitious project, which is a necessary intervention for us to make.
The Western Cape, as a province, salutes the national government. It salutes the national Minister for making this kind of intervention. Without this intervention, without this pilot project, the Western Cape remains a poorer province. We should all be grateful for the kind of intervention that the national government has made.
We have to face the challenges that we have, and these include the lessons that we learned in terms of the capacity of the city to do certain things, because this is a project that has to deliver 22 000 houses within a three- year period, and the city can only deliver less than 7 000 houses in that period. This will therefore help us to improve our capacity as a province and also as this city. As a government, there is a national programme that all of us have to follow.
It does not matter who runs the City of Cape Town, we are going to force them to do the kind of things that they are constitutionally obliged to do. They have to provide land and they have to ensure that services are put in place. I thank you, Chairperson.
Chairperson, hon MEC, officials from the department and comrades, let me take the opportunity to thank, of course, the presiding officers for allowing us an opportunity to engage in this all-important debate. This must be viewed, once more, as a process in which we as the NCOP reaffirm our position as a strategic House where issues at the provincial and local level of government can get national profiling and expression.
This must also be viewed as a unique opportunity for provinces to bring matters of strategic importance to the public domain so that we do not rely only on the media or papers, which not many South Africans have an opportunity to buy or read.
The subject matter before us today is long overdue. It has made media headlines for a long time and in the process a lot of misconceptions, misleading statements and assertions, leading to absolute confusion among the beneficiaries, have been made. For the record, let me state that, as the ANC, we reaffirm our commitment to the principle of creating a South Africa that is nonracial, nonsexist and democratic. At the heart of it is a country with a caring society.
Consistent with that principle we have said in our world-renowned document, the Freedom Charter, that, "There shall be housing, security and comfort." It was therefore no mistake that, having learnt from the challenges that presented themselves through the housing approach of our government since 1994, government, under the leadership of the ANC, developed a strategy to house our people much better and faster. We did this precisely because, as a caring organisation, we had to do away with apartheid planning and racial segregation.
It was therefore by no mistake that in 2004 the Cabinet then approved a comprehensive plan for the development of sustainable human settlement, commonly known as "Breaking New Ground". It is through this plan that this caring government seeks to arrest the mushrooming of informal settlements, and to upgrade some, where possible, in order to realise the sustainable settlement development.
By so doing, government will then be addressing a very important pillar of shelter needs, restoration of dignity of people, reducing the vulnerability and ameliorating poverty and enhancing safety and security for our people. It is with this understanding that government will be reversing the trend of apartheid spatial planning and further spatial marginalisation of the workers and the poor, and achieve new modes of intergovernmental co- operation.
For this reason, all provinces developed pilot projects from which the department would have learned some lessons on the new approach for housing our people. It must be noted therefore that with this being a new experience, the Minmec - which is a forum of all our MECs - then took a decision that because of the challenges that are facing the country, it would be better to "test-case" this strategy in one province as opposed to having many pilot projects in all nine provinces. And because of that and the unique position of the Western Cape, the Western Cape was then chosen as a test-case province.
It must be further noted that because of the caring nature of our government and the unselfish nature of the ANC MECs, they even went as far as compromising their own provincial housing budgets in order to subsidise the project in the Western Cape.
It is for this reason that some, if not all of us, including the rest of Africa and the world, were quite shocked by the Mayor of Cape Town, Helen Zille, when she said that the N2 Gateway project was an election tool of the ANC. It is for this reason that, as the ANC, we supported the decision of the Minmec of 12 June 2006 to remove the City of Cape Town from the project's responsibilities with immediate effect. [Applause.]
We did so because we found it very irresponsible for the leader of the city and the DA, as a party that purports to be acting in the best interests of our people, to go out in public and politicise the project along political lines instead of appreciating what is being done for the poor. [Interjections.] The ANC government has stood firm in reconstructing the lives of our people through its social transformation programme and, in this instance, housing.
While the ANC is working hard to build our society by developing nonracial policies, programmes and projects, Helen Zille, instead, appeared on the recent Special Assignment TV programme to propagate racial divides by saying that this project is for the people of Joe Slovo. She therefore meant that this project is for blacks, as opposed to other racial groups. [Interjections.]
It is for this reason one can once more conclude that, as we said previously, the DA has no interest in the reconstruction and development of our country. They have no interest in rebuilding our society. They have no intention of taking our people out of the squalid conditions under which they live. They have no intention of fighting poverty and underdevelopment. Lastly, they have no intention of building an integrated society.
Through her remarks on the programme, it is very clear that Helen Zille is very comfortable with being a movie star with a leading role as a stirrer. Perhaps being a movie star is not enough. She may as well apply to be registered as a freelance journalist. I say this because the Mayor of Cape Town enjoys being on television, giving media briefings and writing articles to the media about nothing other than the N2 Gateway. Perhaps the name of that movie should be "N2 Gate-Zille". [Applause.]
It is important for the nation to know that when she had the opportunity to raise the issues, as the MEC explained, at a forum established by the Minister, she did not do so. She preferred to write to the press about things that were discussed where she was absent. She prefers to instil fear, uncertainty and racial hatred amongst our people.
Before I say the DA, and in particular Helen Zille, are lying to our people, I would like to pose a few questions; and society, of course, will decide as to whether they are lying or not regarding what she consistently does in her movie. [Interjections.] The questions are: Why, when Breaking New Ground was agreed to by Cabinet in 2004, when the N2 Gateway started in May 2005 and the elections were held in March 2006, does she say that the project was used as an election tool? Is it not true that because of the challenges that the Minister picked up, she went as far as informing Parliament that she had requested the Auditor-General to do an audit of the project? If the Auditor-General has started this work, what forensic audit is it that makes Helen Zille make such a lot of noise about investigations? Is it not true that the N2 Gateway will go a long way in deracialising our settlement patterns in this country?
Once more, is it not true that the nine waiting lists inherited from the City of Cape Town, previously governed by the DA, have been consolidated into one nonracial list by PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Nkonki, following a request by the ANC Minister? Is it not true that PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Nkonki have validated these lists, through a public participation process, where our people played a central role? Is it not also true that in Boys Town 500 transitional housing areas have been completed and 500 families have been housed?
Why is Helen Zille therefore lying to our people and misleading our people? [Interjections.] Only the DA can give an answer to all the questions that I am putting, an answer that says: No. More importantly, it is important to note that our people in the Western Cape, our people in Langa and all other areas where they have been misled, will definitely stand up unashamedly ...
On a point of order, Chairperson: Is it parliamentary for a member of this House to call an hon mayor, elected by the people, a liar?
No. I have listened very carefully. He did not say that she was a liar. He did not say that. He said that she was telling lies. [Interjections.] If you insist, we will check the Hansard and we will rule on that. Continue, hon member.
Kan ek net weer s dat as die ANC gaan ons voort; ons gaan lewer aan ons mense en ons gaan seker maak dat hulle nie luister na mense wat loop en lieg nie. Ons gaan seker maak dat ons mense waardeer wat ons regering vir hulle doen. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[Mr R J TAU: Can I just reiterate that as the ANC we will continue to deliver to our people; and we will make sure that they do not listen to people who walk around spreading lies. We shall see to it that our people appreciate what this government is doing for them.]
It is in that context that we will continue to close the gap between the first and second economies, through the programmes with which we will continue. We will continue with our programme of social transformation and the DA must stop misleading our people with lousy media statements through which they seek cheap media publicity. We also call on the media houses to verify some of these "facts" before they print unsubstantiated allegations. That also calls into question their unbiased and investigative journalism. [Time expired.][Applause.]
Hon Chairperson, hon Ministers, and hon members ... uHelen Zille akaxoki, nam andixoki. [... Helen Zille is not lying and neither am