Chairperson, hon Minister, and the staff of the Housing department, the good intentions of providing houses may be fraught with many challenges. Changing the approach to housing provision by the department is welcomed and encouraged. The proposed legal framework has to be accompanied by business plans as well as architectural plans so that construction on site is started immediately when the budget is available. Underspending on the housing budget in the sea of housing needs is unimaginable.
Poor service delivery in rural areas has resulted in a massive exodus of people to towns and cities in search of job opportunities. Being poverty- stricken, all they can do is to put up shacks for accommodation.
Therefore, the Social Housing Bill is welcomed and has to look at accommodation that can be provided.
Street vendors who make less than R100 a day and have no shacks sleep on the streets under the blue sky and on rainy days they cover themselves with plastic sheets. So, open holes with a roof above one's head are needed. People in transit provide themselves with sleeping bags or blankets but they must have adequate toilets and showers that are clean and hygienic. We will remember in the olden days there was a place called Kwa-Tiki or Three Pence.
Rental flats with single, double or multiple accommodation for people who work in town and cannot move their families because they need to work there have to be provided as well. The word "hostel" is out, but partnered workers still live there and they cannot without partners go to their homes. They only go to their homes over weekends or at the end of the month, just like parliamentarians. Their housing needs need to be provided for as well.
The housing budget should be used for solid houses with a good foundation. Even poor people need quality houses, be it small. Fly-by-night contractors distort the image of the department and its partners. Bigger companies could act as mentors and provide support. The promotion of unbiased rural development could assist rural communities to be economically viable and reduce the exodus of the people to towns, particularly in the present economic climate.
According to the chairperson of the Select Committee on Finance, this Social Housing Bill may look into providing miniature houses in rural areas, versus the provision of sites for storing food and farming equipment.
Rural communities build spacious houses so that these sites could be treasured for life. Of course, even then there will be poor households and we will still need housing. Housing co-operatives will ensure that communities assist each other. Communities in rural areas are often promised houses when there are elections.
Amakhosis and iziNdunas have to be part of these programmes. The issue of land should be discussed with them with regard to building houses or expanding towns or suburbs. The state law advisers did not see the need to refer the Bill to the National House of Traditional Leaders. This is cause for concern because the perception may be that traditional leaders are persona non grata, and this would leave a bad taste in the mouth of leaders in all spheres who come from the countryside or the indigenous areas. The IFP supports the core Social Housing Bill, but further attention should be paid to development as it occurs or unfolds. I thank you.