Ngiyathemba sesikhulumile ngayo lento. Siyavumelana nawe baba uDhlamini ukuthi amahositela asesimweni esimbi kakhulu. [I believe we spoke about this thing. We are in agreement with you, hon Dhlamini, that hostels are in a terrible state.]
Many of them are terrible. We urge the department to do something about these hostels. But there is another area that we sometimes overlook, namely privately owned hostels on the mines. We think the Minister must engage the mining sector to address the whole question of these single-sex hostels because they are horrible too. These issues should be addressed. We think it is very important.
Other hon members have raised matters that we have been discussing in the committee and we have agreed with them. Therefore, I think I must just say, hon Chairperson, hon Minister and Deputy Minister, and hon members, as we stand here to participate in this policy debate we would like to reiterate that ANC policies and programmes are intended to serve the purpose of pushing back the frontiers of poverty and underdevelopment.
The ANC policy on human settlements is rooted in the Freedom Charter, the policy document of the ANC, umbutho wesizwe [the people's party], and the specific clause that says, "All people shall have the right to live where they choose, be decently housed and to bring up their families in comfort and security." This clause wonderfully embodies the ethos and intention of the ANC's concept of human settlements.
The conceptual shift of the ANC-led government from "housing" to "human settlements" arose because of the need for a new approach; a paradigm shift that went beyond housing. The shift is about homes. It is not just a change of name; it is about a change of mind-set, taking us from a new concept to concrete reality. This approach informs our response as the ANC to the development of human settlements. We are in the process of a fundamental paradigm shift and the consolidation of an approach to developing human settlement. The ANC's focus seeks to foster greater integration and the building of homes in secured living environments, where everyone will have access to basic supporting services and economic opportunities.
The most urgent priority is to ensure that settlement development and redevelopment is provided with infrastructure such as clinics, schools, police stations, community facilities and economic activity space within the vicinity of quality homes. The ANC-led government's task is to restore humanity and dignity, to address spatial inequalities, and to provide comfort and security for all South Africans.
Human settlements are vehicles for the promotion of sustainability and social cohesion, which promotes human solidarity. In considering this Budget Vote, we therefore have to conceive of Human Settlements as an anchor department that is fundamental to the social transformation of our society. It is a department that needs the necessary financial resources to build social cohesion and solidarity.
The ANC's approach is to see people as their own developers who have the necessary inner resources and initiative and who, working with Human Settlements, can defeat the stubborn legacy of apartheid housing and its spatial disfunctionality. This we shall achieve by planning and building human settlements in an integrated, co-ordinated and holistic way. These human settlements should be greened to create landscaped communities; nice places where people can live, learn and have leisure.
Human settlement is not just about the provision of houses, since such an approach will leave the community in the same economic and social situation as before. Underlying our theory of human settlement is an integrated approach which means that various Ministries and departments have to work together in the development of human settlements. The ANC has always emphasised that human settlement should ensure that communities are geographically located in areas that are environmentally safe, well above water lines, not on soil that has toxic attributes and well within easy commuting distances from work opportunities.
Since 1994 our country has been driving the project of nation-building. Human settlements are a natural development of this project. It is true that the building of human settlements and the content that goes with them will achieve nation-building because they are premised upon human solidarity and the practice of ubuntu. They contribute directly to the principles of the type of society we are trying to build - that is, a nonracial, nonsexist, democratic and prosperous society.
The ANC recognises that housing is a significant part of our economic development strategy, and that the resources devoted to the provision of houses will have to be consistent with the need to maintain microeconomic balances.
The prevalence of settlements and spatial disfunctionality and inefficiencies is a legacy of apartheid development. This is what is being systematically tackled today. The quality of settlements and neighbourhoods is central to the social transformation we are seeking to realise.
The Medium-Term Strategic Framework, MTSF, of the ANC and government places human settlements central to the achievement of two strategic priorities: expansion of social and economic infrastructure and building cohesive, caring, sustainable communities. The MTSF recognises that in order to address the severe stress that the social cohesion of South African society has suffered, homes that are decent, appropriate and sustainable need to be provided, within settlements. This means a new way of delivering human settlement that is developmental, internal, cohesive and able to interact with civil society, and a market to bring about economic development locally.
Through Human Settlements, we, as the ANC, are responding to two things: the need to restore humanity and dignity to the people, and building places where people can stay and learn. For this we need to build homes and the right environment.
We are confronted with the objective reality that there are large urban concentrations showing high productivity, yet we know the urbanisation process is far from over. The current patterns and trends of urban migration from rural to urban in search of economic activities is set to continue for many years and could grow into even more unfavourable spatial patterns, resulting in the economic marginalisation of the working class and the poor.
The patterns of population densities resulted from interactions between market forces and investment in transport and other infrastructure. Also significant is the fact that government regulations, taxes and subsidies often lead to unintended impacts on densities and spatial dispersion. For example, the housing subsidy programme's current design becomes a major factor in the dispersion of our population within our cities and metropolitan areas.
Most workers cannot afford to commute by individual car and the road infrastructure is simply not sufficient to handle traffic efficiently in our cities. Low-income households use various forms of public transport, in particular taxis, as a substitute for individual cars, because densities are too low and jobs geographically too dispersed to allow the use of mass transit efficiently. Low-income populations are dispersed in dense settlements far from employment areas which are themselves dispersed. Public transport remains a problem and so taxis are currently the main means of transportation.