Speaker, the recent outcry over the development of a new town at Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal has generated the predictable political posturing and cheap political smears by critics and opposition parties. [Interjections.]
What is cheap about it?
The development of new cities and towns has always been a focus of ANC policy discussions and the establishment of the Department of Human Settlements is in recognition and acknowledgement of the fact that towns and cities are the pressure points for growth and development. [Interjections.] The response to the development of a new town in Nkandla is seen in narrow and political terms purely because of its proximity to the current President's homestead. [Interjections.] [Laughter.]
If interrogated in line with ANC and government policy and assessed in the context of the inherited legacy of spatial and resource inequality and underdevelopment, this development seeks to provide a better life for the community. [Interjections.] Rural development, in particular, remains a priority.
In a 2006 KwaZulu-Natal spatial development strategic report, Nkandla was noted as one of 50 of the most deprived regions in the province and was earmarked to become part of three priority corridors that would link the towns of Msunduzi, Nqutu, Vryheid, Eshowe and Ulundi. [Interjections.] How short-sighted it is to deny development in this area because its neighbour happens to be the President of the country. [Interjections.] [Applause.]