Chairperson, let me thank all members for their counsel, wise words, advice, remarks, observations, criticisms - which are very welcome - as well as their support for this budget. Let me respond to something that was mentioned by the last speaker, the hon Mashishi. She spoke in my mother tongue and said - I have never heard of this before, although it is in my mother tongue - "tsebe ga e na sekhurumelo". It is very great and sage advice - an ear has no lid. I'm saying this as the Minister of Human Settlements to indicate that I have heard you. I take the issues you have raised on board. I can try to be as smart as possible by giving you all the answers here, as a Minister who is one month old. I don't pretend that I have all the answers.
Hon Beauty, our visit to Eshowe, as you will remember, was on the celebration of June 16. I want you to appreciate that. You levelled criticism at the houses you saw, at the sinks, but you also lavished praise on how they had been built. They were constructed actually by children for old people. I think that is very applaudable. [Applause.]
The other fact is that we were visiting a construction site. If there was anything to hide, we would not have taken members of the portfolio committee to the site. We wanted you to see work in progress so that the next time we invite you, you will have the benefit of seeing much more improvement and greater success.
Let me also say that we have heard the wise counsel of other hon members here. Hon Botha, your wise counsel is accepted. I wish you were still in the ANC. [Laughter.] Nevertheless, I want to point out - as I warned you yesterday while we had some cocktails - that you must be careful with what you say in this House in front of me. You were the adviser of the previous Minister. [Laughter.] I want to believe that everything good she achieved was due to her own thinking. If she had any failures, we will put them at the level of Cope. [Laughter.] In any case, your wise counsel is that we have to be very careful about how we treat land.
You also made a point around the question of contractors. This point was also made by others, and I know the Deputy Minister is very passionate about it. But let us differentiate between good and bad contractors - both large and small - particularly those coming from the black economic empowerment side. I have seen a lot of fly-by-nights; be very careful. Some people are assisted by government. They get contracts, but they spend the capital. After spending the capital, they get into a loss-making situation. They buy cars they should not have bought; they buy houses they should not have bought; and they take children to private schools, which is something they should not have done. Then, of course, their businesses collapse, and they fail.
That is why I said we want this House not just to hold us accountable for spending money on the implementation of policies and on all sorts of things, but also to send a very strong message to those contractors as well. If they want to get into business, they must do the right things. There is a difference between capital and money for leisure, inasmuch as revenue does not mean the same as profit. They must know that when they get into a profit situation, it is time for them to plough back, before they start buying BMWs, Ferraris and other things.
Hon Bonginkosi Dhlamini, we heard you very well. I accept your invitation to visit the hostels. [Applause.] I would like to believe that the previous Minister did not do so out of malice. She is my friend. I don't think Lindi is afraid to go into a hostel. She was born next to one, where the house of her father, Walter Sisulu, is. I want to accept this invitation in her name and in my name as well. I am very passionate about hostels. I come from Dube, named after John Langalibalele Dube, who came from your province and was the first president of the ANC. There is a hostel across from my home as well.
I want to bring to your attention the fact that there is a policy now to change the hostels. Nine percent of the budget, this time around, has been allocated towards changing hostels from being single-sex migrant places to being homes. We have started with the Dube hostel. I want to go to Mzimhlophe hostel, because the last time I met with you, that hostel was visited by violence during the days when our country was teetering on the brink. So, I'm looking forward to visiting the hostel with you. We are committed to doing this because it is the worst area. It is very horrific and has the kind of circumstances that the special development of apartheid imposed upon our people, particularly the men who are there and are away from their families. They are now permanently in those hostels, and we must accept that we have to rebuild those places. We are committed to doing that.
Borman, I also understand that there are four other projects. I would like to invite you to those projects to see how developments are shaping up there.
I know a lot has been spoken about the Land Bank. I just want to respond to what was said by Minister McGluwa ... hon McGluwa. Maybe it will be Minister McGluwa next time! [Laughter.] One of the things we should ask ourselves here is whether there should be a housing bank. There can be a land bank. We should interrogate this issue. I think ideas on a housing bank must come from this House because we will be your students eternally. Is it possible that we can continue to do what we are doing in view of the numbers? Many billions are mentioned in terms of the shortfall of our own budget in 2012 and 2016. These are hundreds of billions that will be involved. Can we do it without a housing bank?
I think we should put our heads together and see if we can find alternative ways of addressing the question of the "unbanked". If we can draw a line, we will find that above that line there are people like you and me, whose calls are taken by banks. In any case, some banks must take my call, and it is important. But there are people below that line - banks don't take their calls because they are not creditworthy. Those are the people we would like to help. Some of those people - the top pile - are people who qualify for subsidies, and at the bottom are people who don't even qualify for anything. That is why we would like to engage business so that we can go that extra mile. I know and I understand. I said to businesses that I don't want to commit them to things that are beyond their abilities. I know what they do. But I believe we can make a much greater difference in a partnership as civics, as business and as government if we put our minds together and have a closer look at the best step we can take on behalf of those people who are not bankable.
I don't want to take the matter very far, except to talk about the issue raised by the hon Figlan - the question of illegal land occupations. This is not nice. I have done this as the Premier of Gauteng in the past - to remove people who are occupying land. We will continue to remove people, but not in line with the policy of apartheid, where people were forcibly removed without any alternatives. But land is prime.
And people are very clever. You must credit them for where they want to be. All informal settlements throughout South Africa are not that far away from urban settlements. They are just where you and I want to be. They are next to electricity, transport, schooling, leisure places and shopping malls. The people are telling us something. Human settlement is about bringing all these facilities around the houses which we are building. The core part of what we are doing is housing, but the rest of it is human settlement.
We are not talking semantics here. I have traced this thing from the days of the Freedom Charter, the Vancouver Conference, the World Summit, the Polokwane conference, the state of the nation address, as well as the Budget Vote of The Presidency. I took all these and recognised that even though it was originally not policy, there was something that was said by the last Minister of Housing. There is no other Minister of Housing; there is a new Minister of Human Settlements. I understand that in the Breaking New Ground area, they did refer to "human settlements". We don't want to engage in semantics; we want to make a difference.
I know we are saying a lot of things here, and sometimes we are contributing to climate change. [Laughter.] But the reality is that we say these things and we have to discuss them here. I see Parliament, as well as the National Assembly, as a place where ideas should be churned out.
We really mean it when we say that human settlements should apply. Yes, housing has been there. But beyond semantics, it is really making sure that the whole issue is integrated, co-ordinated and holistic. In that way, where you and I stay - next to amenities and facilities - will be doubled up by people who will also be experiencing the same things.
A lot can be said around this. But then I thought we are going to be together for the next five years. So, I will be answering many questions and also asking many questions as we go forward. I will remain your student, your Minister and your representative in the Cabinet so that we can change. I believe that "working together we can do more". I thank you. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.