Deputy Speaker, in a statement by an ANC member on Tuesday, this House was wrongly led to believe that the Minister of Housing single-handedly built six houses in Delft last week. The hon Minister in her response tried to correct the member by giving acknowledgement to a group of ANC members from the portfolio committee, who accompanied her to the building site last Thursday.
What the Minister failed to do, however, was to acknowledge that the project was initiated and driven by Cape Talk Radio and that the Minister and her entourage abused this initiative for their own political purposes. What she also failed to say was that other members of the committee were only informed of this impromptu visit to the site on Wednesday afternoon, knowing very well that political parties have caucus meetings on a Thursday morning. What the Minister further failed to say was that some of the ANC members who did visit the site last Thursday returned to attend the afternoon session of Parliament. Therefore, if the Minister and a handful of members did indeed complete six houses in barely two days, I respectfully suggest that the Minister be relieved of her Ministerial duties and that she be permanently deployed to construct all future RDP houses.
Ironically, to date the Minister has chosen not to acknowledge the fact that the Gauteng MPs and MPLs, together with DA councillors from the Johannesburg Metro, financed and built a house through Habitat for Humanity last year. Instead, the Minister plays politics and challenges the hon Tony Leon to go out and build houses. Could this possibly be an unconscious acknowledgement by the Minister that she and her department have failed to carry out their mandate to house the people? [Applause.]