Thank you. Hon Minister, in many municipalities across the country the legacy of apartheid spatial planning still exists. Let me name one municipality, eThekwini. In this municipality many residents of Mariannridge despite having purchased their previous council own homes some five to 10 years ago have still not received their title deeds. This is because during the apartheid era human settlements were built on land not properly zoned or proclaimed. Now, some 25 years later there still has not been progress for those waiting their title deeds. What intergovernmental relation progress has been made to clear this zoning impediment, and can the Minister confirm or deny that the backlog that was sitting at some 600 000 a few years ago has now climbed back up to one million? Thank you.
The MINISTER OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS, WATER AND SANITATION: Thank
you, hon member. Yes, I will agree with you that the apartheid spatial planning is still with us for a very long time and we are trying very hard in our new approach to make sure that we can reverse this way in which we have been living and make sure that we are integrated. When we took on the title of human settlements it was precisely to ensure that there is a difference between housing and human settlements and that human settlement are, indeed, integrated in relation to race, colour and whatever classification there was before. I am not sure that the figure that you have of one million is correct. I would want to find out where you get that statistic from because my statistics I get from Statistics South Africa and they don't get up to a million.
We are having a problem in processing title deeds as I have indicated here, and I have indicated also what it is that we are doing to fast-track this. As I indicated at the beginning of my answer, the responsibility of giving title deeds rest with both the municipality and the province. However, we have come in through the intergovernmental arrangement to ensure that we are able to assist. However, I would like to find out where you get your statistics so that we can check if you are correct. Thank you.