Chairperson; hon Minister; hon Deputy Minister and MECs; hon members; people in the public gallery; our people in the mining towns across the country; and all South Africans, greetings.
The 2014-15 Vote No 31: Human Settlements affords us another opportunity to critically scrutinise and consider the department and its entities' progress, strengths, weaknesses and opportunities presented in this Budget Vote, strategic plans and annual performance plans included.
It is indeed a great honour for me to present our support and areas of concern that need the attention and consideration of both the Minister and her department. [Interjections.] We also wish to congratulate Minister Sisulu and the President for appointing her once more to the Department of Human Settlements.
We take our hats off to our voters who went out in their numbers on 7 May 2014, despite many lies and fabrications, and voted for our glorious movement, the ANC, embarrassingly shutting up the big mouths of many prophets of doom and the so-called opinion makers with 62%. [Applause.] To you, the voters ...
... siyabonga, siyanconcoza, sithi Mazenethole. [Thank you very much.]
Chairperson, we are quite excited and encouraged by Minister Sisulu's Budget Vote, as it is clear to us that ...
... abantu bakithi, okudala belindile ukuba le mini yezindlu ifike nakubo, bazothola izindlu ezilinganiselwa kwizinkulungwane ezingama-270 000 unyaka nonyaka. Abanamehlo bayabona; abathanda iqiniso bazobonga. (Translation of isiZulu paragraph follows.)
[... our people, whose names have long been on the waiting list to get houses, will be allocated 270 000 houses per year. Those who have eyes can see what is happening and those that appreciate that we keep our promises will be grateful.]
In his state of the nation address, our President, ubaba obekekileyo uGedleyihlekisa Zuma, [Hon Gedleyihlekisa Zuma] directed, amongst other things, that building houses and other services to revitalise mining towns as part of the October 2012 agreement between business, government and labour must be part of the department's focus. The same applies to the upgrading or conversion of hostels into family units.
As I was listening to the Minister's budget speech, it was clear to me that the President's directive had not only been heard but was also being implemented.
To you people in the mining towns and townships ...
Uhulumeni wenu eniwuvotele akafikanga ugalelekile; eholwa uNgqongqoshe kanye noNgqongqoshe beziFundazwe ezweni lonke. Abanamehlo bayabona; abathanda iqiniso bazobonga. [The government that you voted for, led by the Minister and the Provincial Ministers in the whole country is going to deliver on its promises soon. Those that have eyes can see and those that appreciate that we do keep our promises will be grateful.]
As both a peasant and mineworker for the greater part of my working life, it is indeed an honour to be allowed to remind hon members here, and South Africans in general, of the significance of reviving mining towns and townships and impress on mine owners the conversion of their employees' hostels to family units, as well as highlighting some truths about why this mammoth task was waiting for the ANC government when the mining industry has been in existence for more than 120 years.
What was the role of the apartheid government and mine owners? What did they do with those huge profits during the heyday of oppression and cheap mining? [Interjections.]
Let us look at some of the background to the mining industry and urbanisation. Indeed, the discovery of diamonds and gold in 1867 and 1886, respectively, changed South Africa's outlook dramatically. The areas around Kimberley became the battlefield of diamond diggers.
By the 1940s already, the area then called the Witwatersrand, which included the East Rand, Johannesburg, West Rand, etc, boasted a population of 1 million people scattered all over the new mining towns, including Marabastad, Pretoria, Vaal and many others, that had sprung up across the Transvaal veld.
The then central government policy of segregation declared by Prime Minister Smuts in Parliament was based on maintaining white supremacy. The migrant labour system, linked to extreme exploitation, humiliating practices and dangerous working and living conditions in the single-sex compounds, brought immense hardship to blacks simply because they were black.
In spite of the state and mine bosses making huge profits through low wages, there was no willingness to change the black mineworker's situation, and there was also no willingness to deal with a crisis caused by rapid urbanisation and industrialisation.
South Africa's cheap black migrant labour system aggravated the social problems all over the mining towns and in the remote rural areas from which these migrant workers were recruited. Over time, many of these workers could not stand the mining and hostel life and opted for life outside the hostels. Some ended up refusing to go back to their homelands ...
... bathi "kusekhaya nalapha". Yasho yakhula iSoweto, iKagiso, iGaleshewe, iThabong, iKhutsong, njalo njalo. [... and ended up settling in Soweto, Kagiso, Galeshewe, Thabong, Khutsong, and so on, and that is how those townships grew.]
As the homelands' economies began to break down, the apartheid government could not curtail the flow of people streaming from the poverty-stricken rural areas. There were no rural development programmes for our people; there was no SA Social Security Agency, Sassa, to hand out social relief food parcels and alleviate hunger and poverty for the majority of South Africans. [Interjections.]
Thank you to those who voted for the ANC. Today even remote rural areas have many government programmes on rural development, such as electrification, social grants, etc.
Hon Minister, the responsibility now rests with you to drastically reduce the backlog mentioned above that accumulated during all those years. Co- ordinated, integrated, comprehensive and sustainable human settlements and quality housing will be the result of united actions led by your department, to which you have committed yourself.