Chairperson, hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, hon Members of Parliament, treasured guests in the gallery ...
... Mageba, nethimba lakho mqondisi-jikelele wethu ... [Mageba, our director-general and your team] ... ladies and gentlemen, I greet you all.
When the ANC set out its vision for a nonracial society on 8 January 1912, we did not know how long it would take to achieve it. What we knew was that we would not rest until these ideals were realised. Any solution to the crisis of apartheid needs an approach that rises above narrow interests and harnesses all our country's resources. A roof over one's head and reasonable living conditions are not a privilege. They are a basic right for every human being.
Key to rolling out government programmes and ensuring the tracking of its successes and priorities is the fast-tracking of immediate, quantifiable deliverables according to agreements that are in place with the President of the country. The ANC-led government has taken the lead in reorganising and renaming the housing department the Department of Human Settlements. The ANC government is no longer focusing just on providing houses. It is focusing on creating human settlements. We are focused on how best to settle our people, because if they remain unsettled, we ourselves may not know peace. As one Afrikaner industrialist put it, "If your neighbour is hungry, you cannot sleep." The concept of human settlements may be a new one for many South Africans, but it has been part of the global developmental lexicon for many years now. It was first coined at the UN Global Habitat Summit in Vancouver, Canada, in 1976. It gained ground at the World Summit on Sustainable Development at the Sandton Convention Centre in 2002 and it informed the adoption of several resolutions on human settlements and housing at the 52nd national conference of the ANC in Polokwane in 2007.
How best can residential deracialisation be achieved to erase the negative impact of apartheid spatial planning? This refers to the yawning gap between Johannesburg and Soweto, Durban and Umlazi, Pretoria and Mamelodi, Cape Town and Khayelitsha, and so on. Since 1994, approximately 3 million housing units have been distributed to people in our society, particularly to the poorest of the poor. Consequently, the amount of land parcelled away, together with these housing units, is estimated at more than 76 000 hectares. So, how best can the strategy of land redistribution through human settlements be enhanced at the same time as housing opportunities are accelerated?
Regarding state access to increased urban land for housing, the Reconstruction and Development Programme made an ambitious call to break up the monopolisation of land, which was addressed to some extent through the Development Facilitation Act of 1995 and other institutional mechanisms. However, given constitutional property rights and hence the difficulty of land expropriation, the limited taxation of municipal land and the intense opposition from higher-income prospective neighbours to Provincial Housing Board applications for well-located settlements, most housing projects were peri-urban in character and on the outer edges of existing settlements. The geographically remote location of most post-1994 settlements pushed up the cost of infrastructure, but because land costs were less expensive and acquisition procedures usually easier, far-flung locations were favoured by developers.
Rural people have specific concerns around housing, such as tenure forms on trust land, the relationship with the commercial agriculture sector, inadequate or nonexistent bulk infrastructure, farm workers housed on the farms, the legacy of apartheid removals and resettlements, access to land, and land claims procedures and processes.
In rural areas, problems of ensuring full property rights and home ownership rights for women are likely to be greater. While the ANC-led government has implemented a number of initiatives to address the scourge of poverty, unemployment and inequality in South Africa, it has to be acknowledged that these can only be achieved if integrated service delivery remains a priority. This means that rural areas should receive equal attention. However, we should note that reference to a rural area does not necessarily imply villages only but also includes rural towns. The Department of Human Settlements' motive force is Outcome 8, which informs both the Minister and the government whether activities and programmes are progressive in addressing the issues of Outcome 8. Outcome 8 is clear and specific with regard to the deliverables and the mandate driving the output that still has to be achieved. Key among other measurable interventions is the provision to lower-income families of affordable rental housing stock of high quality.
The outcome is of critical importance for various reasons. Firstly, it is a requirement of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Secondly, it is central to human dignity and social stability and a key enabler of health, education and social cohesion outcomes. Lastly, it also serves as a catalyst for economic development and job creation.
Ultimately, the outcomes of the national effort around human settlements must be seen in the context of social development and transformation, as well as meeting the objectives of rolling back underdevelopment. To have a house is to have a social asset, in that it provides a social safety net for family members. It contributes towards citizenship-building by offering the resident household an address and linking them with the local government system. Neighbourhood consolidation occurs around housing units, providing access to all sorts of other social benefits, including networks, community support and so on. Housing is a financial asset in that it can be traded or used as something against which mortgage finance can be accessed. When traded, the value of the transaction contributes towards a household's actual worth and can then be reinvested in better quality or more appropriate housing for the family's individual circumstances. It is an economic asset when it is used to generate income, either through renting out a portion of the house, using it to sell services or goods, or for manufacturing.
The obvious value of a title deed is that it protects the rights to a property and records changes in ownership. Title deeds also provide individuals with an address, recognising the owner as being part of the municipality, enabling the owner to secure loans and to pass it on to family members when they die. Consequently the failure to provide title deeds to these beneficiaries means that they are being denied a critical point of entry into the formal property market.
The Jabulani Hostel redevelopment project is the most recent successful Community Residential Unit housing project development. It was developed by the Gauteng Department of Local Government and Housing, in partnership with the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, with Nedbank as the financial institution and Calgro M3 as the main contractor.
I would like to conclude by emphasising the fact that democracy means more than just having the vote. It must be measured by the quality of life of ordinary people. The ANC supports the Budget Vote. [Time expired.] [Applause.]