Speaker's notes for Limpopo Premier Mr Sello Moloto at the National Youth in Housing Indaba, Forever Aventura Resort, Bela-Bela

Executive Mayor of Waterberg District
MECs for Housing from various provinces
Director-General of the Department of Housing
Chairperson of the National Youth Commission and provincial commissioners
Housing heads of departments (HoDs) from various provinces
Practitioners in the housing industry
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

Theme: "Creating an enabling environment through policy strategy development for the effective participation of youth to accelerate housing delivery"

It is a long stated ideal of the Freedom Charter that our people shall be provided with houses, security and comfort. The Freedom Charter further goes on to say that, "All people shall have the right to live where they choose, be decently housed and to bring up their families in comfort and security, slums shall be demolished and new suburbs will be built where all have transport, roads, lighting, playing fields, crèches and social centres, fenced locations and ghettoes shall be abolished and laws which break up families shall be repealed."

Since 1994 our government has made significant strides in the delivery of houses to the vulnerable and marginalised population of our country. To date we have built over 2,3 million housing opportunities for middle income and the low income beneficiaries which have provided accommodation to 8,7 million people. But our achievements get obscured immediately when account is taken of the huge and increasing demand we still face. For example, government still has to address the backlog of approximately 2,4 million households which are presently located in informal settlements. This will obviously require that we involve every sector of our population in the extension of housing delivery to our people.

However, we are pleased that our government has since developed a housing vision called Breaking New Ground which addresses a number of wide ranging measures to achieve some of the objectives and challenges we have referred to and particularly the demands enshrined in the Freedom Charter. The plan includes amongst others the building of integrated non-racial settlements, revision of subsidies, the extension of rental housing, deepening partnerships between government and the private sector and the eradication of informal settlements. The plan presents a reaffirmation of government's commitment to delivering opportunities for the poor, women, youth and other vulnerable groups in our society.

Of importance is that the new human settlements plan reinforces the vision of our government in so far as it relates to the promotion of a non-racial and integrated society, through the development of sustainable human settlements and quality housing. Within this broader vision government is committed to meeting the following specific objectives:
a) accelerating the delivery of housing as a key strategy for poverty alleviation
b) utilising provision of housing as a major job creation strategy
c) ensuring that property is accessed by all as an asset for wealth creation and empowerment
d) leveraging growth in the economy
e) combating crime, promoting social cohesion and improving quality of life for the poor
f) supporting the functioning of the entire single residential property market to reduce duality within the sector by breaking the barriers between the first economy residential property boom and the second economy slump
g) utilising housing as an instrument for the development of sustainable human settlements, in support of spatial restructuring.

Programme Director, we have always recognised as government that the youth are a dynamic, energetic, vibrant sector of our society that can play a meaningful role in addressing the challenges facing the delivery of housing in our country. It is not by coincidence nor by chance that we are now involving the youth in the programmes of housing development. This is a sector that is very rapidly on the move, migrating from one part of the country to another in ever greater numbers in search of economic opportunities and livelihood. But because of problems related to skills and education they incessantly find themselves in some tough and uncompromising environments where they must live. Despite their being the most dynamic, energetic, vibrant and talented of the sectors of our society they continually find themselves vulnerable, excluded and marginalised. Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) finds that as many as 25,7% of our young people are in households where parents are absent. In addition, six in every 10 that is 60,3% of the youth live in informal structures. This state of affair obviously places some significant responsibilities on our youth who are mostly vulnerable, marginalised and unemployed. This is the reason why we have prioritised their participation and involvement in the housing delivery of our country as a mechanism by which they can directly attack two critical challenges of lack of housing and unemployment.

We are aware that government has already put in place a number of programmes to benefit the youth such as the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP), internships and learnership programmes, urban renewal projects, housing bursaries and scholarships, Emerging Contractor Programme (ECP) to name but a few.

However, we believe that a coherent and integrated approach is required to address challenges around housing and human settlements with full participation of youth.

High on our agenda for youth development is correctly the questions of skills development, job creation and poverty alleviation. The national programme of the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) and our own Provincial and Growth Development Strategy (PGDS) have in particular, singled out the area of skills development as one that needs urgent attention in order to address unemployment and to grow the economy. It has been stated many a time that the skills of most young South Africans are generally inadequate to meet the demands of a commodity based, globalising economy which is mainly service and knowledge driven. The reality of the matter is that without these skills unfortunately many young people would not be able to fill up vacancies that require specialised knowledge and expertise.

As government, we have already realised that our country cannot be able to cope with the demands of skills required by the huge infrastructural developments that are currently unfolding in our country. This is not only just about the construction of stadia for 2010 FIFA World Cup games but also about meeting the AsgiSA aims related to infrastructure development in the areas of urban renewal, information and Communication Technology (ICT), water delivery, roads networks, energy and telecommunications.

One of the challenges facing government as highlighted earlier is the need for high level scarce and priority skills required for effective housing delivery and the socio-economic development of the country. As already highlighted by Joint Initiative Priority Skills Acquisition (Jipsa), the critical scarce skills required within the housing sector include project management, artisan, engineering (industrial and civil), monitoring and evaluation, town and regional planning, housing as well as economics. The need to engage youth interest in housing programmes is thus critical in addressing this challenge.

Overall the programme will ensure that the youth gain as both participants and beneficiaries of the housing programme whilst transforming their own communities through service. This process entails the participation of youth in building houses and refurbishing old dilapidated buildings into residential housing units for low and middle-income residents. This programme would ensure that the youth are skilled through theoretical and technical construction training which is also accredited. Further, at the exit stage, a career pathway for the youth is already in place and youth are linked with various opportunities to further their personal transformation process. In addition, further interaction with the youth would be maintained through the alumni programme to ensure sustainability.

This is not the only programme where the youth can be involved in as community volunteers. Various departments have other countless initiatives which require their services and volunteering spirit. There are opportunities for youth to help other departments like education and public works in the renovation of schools and community centres. Opportunities are there to help the Department of Transport in putting up fences alongside busy public roads to prevent stray animals from getting into the roads, the youth could also become police reservists or act as anti-crime ambassadors for 2010 FIFA World Cup, they could also act as adult basic education and teaching (Abet) facilitators to reduce the rate of illiteracy in our society or participate in home based care and counsel those with HIV and AIDS in our society.

Apart from acquiring much needed skills and experience in the field of housing, the youth also stand to benefit from learning progressive sets of values such as:
* national pride and patriotism
* a culture of service and civic duty
* a sense of work ethic and discipline.

We have got no doubt to believe that this intervention is necessary and important for keeping the youth away from the streets which are a source of drugs, prostitution, crime and loitering. We believe that there is truth in the old saying that "an idle mind is a devil's workshop".

Programme Director, the lessons we have learned from all our national pilot projects should serve as a guide of what must be avoided and improved in the future if the youth in housing programme is to make an impact in the delivery of social housing in our communities. Mediocrity is not an option and we expect nothing less from those who shall be taking part in this programme. They must be motivated by nothing else other than the pride to serve their people and their communities.

We wish this conference every success in its deliberations!

I thank you!

Issued by: Office of the Premier, Limpopo Provincial Government
17 May 2007