Chairperson,

Members of Parliament,

Fellow South Africans,

It is said that you judge a person by what they do and not what they say they will do. In my language we say Mintirho ya Vulavula. So when one assesses the budget of the department and the promises that the minister has just made today, one needs to check what has been delivered from the promises made in the last two years.

Since your return to the ministry you have made a lot of promises that unfortunately have not been met by any serious action. In July of 2014 you promised to have a credible Housing Demand database that would help municipalities in the allocation of State subsidized houses. You had promised that it would be done within 12 months. It is now 2 years, we still do not have a credible database that can be trusted by everyone.

Minister, if we had a credible database the current housing situation in Marikana would not have escalated to the level it has. The list of intended beneficiaries would have been known and there would not have been an illegal occupation of houses.

Had the list been known, the rental units in Marikana Extension 2 would be occupied by now. We would not be hearing talks of possibly sending the army to Marikana to evict people.

Hopefully you will make an unequivocal statement today that No Member of the army will be sent to Marikana to deal with a Human Settlements problem that was created by your department.

In my budget in 2014 I made the plea that beneficiaries of BNG houses must be identified and be involved in the construction process.

You seemed to have agreed with me on this point last year when you said “…for far too long we have treated benefitting communities and individuals as if they are physically incapacitated.” I expected a change in approach, however things have remained as they were before this statement was uttered.

Beneficiaries only become aware that they have benefitted after a house has been completed, they continue to have no say whatsoever in the construction of their asset. We continue to treat our people as passive recipients of government services. This has to change, Minister.

Minister, you might recall that we agreed and supported your call to apply brakes when it comes to the rectification programme. We agreed that the developers should rectify their shoddy workmanship and that going forward there should be no rectification of BNG houses as NHBRC is now fully involved.

However Minister, we continue to see provinces like the Free State and Northern Cape spending astronomical amounts, some as high as R700 000  to repair a single house.

I believe the time has come to properly do an audit of real houses that needs to be rectified and put a stop to it. The rectification programme seems to be a way to steal money from the poor, a house that cost R160 000 to build cannot have repairs that costs R700 000.

One matter that I keep raising and nothing seems to be changing is the Hostel upgrades programme. It would seem that the department refuses to learn from its past mistakes, especially the Soweto hostels. We are now approaching 10 years, the units are still unoccupied. Minister after minister, MEC after MEC has promised that the matter will be resolved, but it is just empty promises. Ku fikele rini holobye? What must happen for the matter to be resolved? Sethokga Hostel in Tembisa has joined the queue of completed and unoccupied units.

The living conditions in hostels are undesirable. I believe the time has come for the department to do away with the Community Residential Unit (CRU) programme for Hostels’ Upgrade and include residents of hostels in BNG houses and Social Housing stream. We also need to review the qualifying income band for BNG house, Social Housing and Institutional subsidy.

Last year you encouraged BNG/RDP housing beneficiaries to sell their house back to government if they wish to sell their house within 8 years.

This was to curb the illegal sale of RDP houses at low prices, I remember you quoted a figure of R10 000.

I looked through the department budget to see if there are any funds allocated to buy RDP houses from previous beneficiaries, there is no such provision, NOTHING, ZERO. So where will the money to buy back the houses come from? I guess it was one of your many empty promises.

It’s time you realize that the 8 years waiting period is actually the cause for the resale of RDP houses at low price. Remove the restriction, and you will see the market prosper. You don’t even have to regulate it.

It is interesting to see the department pulling all stops to assist the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality now that you stand to lose the municipality in August. Funds are being channelled to Nelson Mandela Bay from Gauteng and Limpopo to help you stay in power. Unfortunately for you and the ANC it is too late, the voters of Nelson Mandela Bay have had it with you, on the 3rd of August they will vote for Change, A change that delivers real housing opportunities for all the people.

This budget and your speech are just empty promises. You have failed to act.

Fellow South Africans, Change starts on the 3rd of August by voting the ANC out of power in municipalities.