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Date : 16/08/2004
Source: Ministry of Housing
Title: L Sisulu: National congress of National Association of Social Housing Organisations


SPEECH BY LN SISULU, MINISTER OF HOUSING, AT THE NATIONAL CONGRESS OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SOCIAL HOUSING ORGANISATIONS (NASHO), Durban, 16 August 2004

Chairperson
National Office Bearers of NASHO
Delegates from the different housing associations
Invited Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen:

I would like to thank the Acting President for having invited me to this important occasion. I want to assure all of you, that I would not have missed this opportunity.

This being my third month since appointment as Minister of Housing, anyone wiser than myself would have taken time to familiarise themselves with the new terrain before plunging headlong into accepting the invitation to speak on such an occasion. But seeing as I have been plunging headlong anyway, I intend to take it in my stride. But beyond that, I am hoping that it does send a message to you that I value your work and I would like to take you along with me on this arduous journey.

Housing has been identified by the ANC as one of our priority areas for delivery. We took this deliberate decision as we worked out our election manifesto. As we trudged up and down the country canvassing, we were convinced of the correctness of our decision. Everywhere we went, especially among the poor, we were struck by two urgent needs among our people: high unemployment and the challenges around housing. Not only was there a shocking shortage for housing, we were also struck by the quality of the houses that had been provided.

We pride ourselves in the great strides we have made in housing provision: 1.6 million houses in ten years is no mean feat. But when the demand grows at the rate at which it is being generated in South Africa, churning out statistics on what has been produced rings hollow. We resolved therefore during this campaign that in this second decade of freedom we would dedicate sufficient energy to this area.

My presence here is part of this energy, it is part of our recognition that for us to deliver on this challenge we need you. We need to harness whatever other energies are generated b civil society and the private sector. We emerged from the elections and set ourselves timeframes for reversing the fortunes of our people.

As you, the President instructed me to produce a strategic plan that would move us from apartheid townships into human settlements that reflect our aspirations, into human settlements that provide a healthy sustainable living environment, one that would allow people to access all the goods and services produced by society.

Our priorities remain the same, but our strategies will shift drastically to ensure that we can provide adequate, decent and affordable housing that is fully integrated with all the basic amenities. And we have to do that with speed.

Further, we have to ensure that human settlements provide secure and non-racial entities that will break apartheid spatial patterns. Social housing can provide this.

In order to provide the plan required of me, within the time dictated to me I have, together with my team, been travelling around the country listening and learning from a cross section of stakeholders including some of you. At the same time, I have taken the liberty inform stakeholders that their inputs would inform the plan to delivering sustainable human settlements throughout South Africa. This is the basis of how policies will be determined in future.

Secondly, that which is not working will be replaced with a policy that works. For yourselves, the timing is opportune if not somewhat unfortunately premature for me. A weak from now would have been ideal for me. Nonetheless, I am advised that congress will in the course of its deliberations be taking decisions relating to the functioning of the association as the mother body and decisions that affect the way member associations will function. I regard this objective as very critical.

Social housing has an immense potential to contribute immediately to the development of holistic human settlements. It has the potential to remove the remnants of apartheid spatial planning, provide a mix of housing options including rental, and create viable and sustainable commercial and social centres. Further, it has the potential to achieve, the integrated non-racial society we are envisioning.

During our Imbizo campaign that we took around the country; we came across a few sustainable social housing projects. I am looking forward to hearing why we do not have many more success stories and for you to tell us how we can have a 100% success rate and provide for the poorest of the poor. With your potential, operating at maximum rate, I can only dream of what we can achieve. We are looking to you, to deliver your mandates in a sustained manner, while reducing dependency on state/donor funds for administration costs.

On Friday, last week, your leadership spent some time with us in Pretoria briefing us about the sector. What became clear was that both ourselves and NASHO have a common agenda and purpose. Off course, there were one or two matters we could not resolve. It is with a great sense of pride that I find myself in a sector that concerns itself with the provision of settlements with little or no commercial gain and I am hoping that before I leave here today, I will be able to persuade you to that if we run our associations productively and professionally we will have amazing success as a country. And one that holds up hope for the rest of the developing world.

We appreciate and understand the formation of NASHO in the context of the Social Housing Foundation, an institution created by government to build capacity in this sector. We have noted the commonality of objectives between the two of you and we need to quickly agree on how to ensure the delivery of these objectives without duplication. We must seek ways to ensure the maximum utilisation of very scarce resources!

Your leadership also lobbied hard on fees payable to the National Homebuilders Registration Council, another housing institution created by government to ensure the maintenance of quality and standards. The issue before us then is to address, in a transparent manner, a fee structure that is not only fair and equitable, but one that allows the NHBRC to fulfil its mandate, long after the construction company has left the building site. Perhaps, you could have a full discussion on this and propose options to us?

As Minister of Housing, I commit to addressing these and other matters in the context of a review and an evaluation of all the housing institutions and policy. We invite NASHO to provide us with inputs on matters of concern to the sector and on the housing institutions.

I note that as part of objectives, you want to lobby on policy matters. This is good news. I am hoping that with your formidable research capacity and vast experience, you will do just that, as this will benefit the sector and government.

In particular we need to document "Best Practices" with regards to management, rent collection and facilities management. Given the nature of your membership and mandate, NASHO, is in the best position to collect this information and develop a "Code of Conduct'' for the management and the running of social housing institutions.

As part of this research may I suggest that you urgently begin to evaluate and agree on governance and management issues in the light of experiences in South Africa?

Mr President, I cannot wait for this partnership to take off and I assure you, we will welcome your lobbying activities.

As part of our Imbizo, representations were made to allow facility management to be outsourced to those professionals who know best and that governance matters be left as the responsibility of the housing institutions and run by the individuals on a volunteer basis. At first sight, this would seem to be a reasonable proposition, as this will reduce the need for dependency on government for the operational budgets. We are urging you to also give this matter some serious thought and we look forward to hearing from you very soon, perhaps by the middle of September.

On behalf of government I am committing to make financial resources available to this sector and to support social housing consistent with our commitment to support projects that are viable, self sustaining and meet the demands of the homeless. For this to happen however I will need your dedicated support and commitment to deliver.

Government will make funds available to house construction, capacity building, and to start-up operational costs of social housing projects. These allocations will be reviewed by the sector as well as government on a quarterly basis. The agreement can only work if it is sustainable and part of our plan is to limit the duration that you can receive operational funds.

In return, our expectation Mr. President is that you and the membership of NASHO commit to making each association profitable, sustainable and capable of delivering innovative settlement projects all over the country so that our people can live and socialise in areas that all of us can be proud of.

Let me, in conclusion finish off by saying that my department and I have resolved that the development of sustainable human settlements will be fast-tracked and the homeless will be housed. The rate of delivery in the last ten years is no longer an option.

Mr President, we are in a different mode, a mode dictated by the patience of our people wearing very thin, a mode dictated by the fact that after ten years, delivery should be at a scale and speed second to none and that our appeal to the homeless to be patient is no longer reasonable. We invite all of you to join us. In that way we cannot fail.

As government we look forward to a very constructive partnership.

I thank you.

Issued by: Ministry of housing
16 August 2004
Source: Department of Housing (http://www.housing.gov.za)

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