ADDRESS BY MEC OF HOUSING ON REPAIR OF DAMAGED HOUSING IN MEADOWLANDS

ADDRESS BY THE MEC IN CHARGE OF HOUSING AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT ON THE REPAIR OF DAMAGED HOUSES IN MEADOWLANDS ON 26 OCTOBER 1995

Issued by: Gauteng Provincial Government

Distinguished Guests, Friends and Comrades,

The repair of damaged houses programme is a reflection of a history of conflict within our communities. Conflict between residents and people living in hostels. This conflict damaged the fabric of the community, led to casualties, and left scars that will take a long time to heal. Sometimes this conflict was characterised as political and at other times as criminal. Whatever the reasons the damage to our communities was substantial.

As a result of extensive violence that erupted in Soweto, Dobsonville, Diepmeadow and Alexandra between hostel residents and members of the surrounding communities during the period 1990-1993, many houses as well as hostel buildings were damaged.

To address the appalling conditions in the hostel the government announced the hostels redevelopment initiatives during the latter half of 1991.

Before hostel upgrading/conversion can take place it was required that consensus must be reached with, amongst others, the surrounding community. Through ongoing negotiations conditional consensus has been reached on the future of most hostels in the various areas (except Alexandra), the condition being that the damaged houses surrounding the hostels must also be repaired and should preferably happen at the same time as the hostel upgrading.

The programme to repair damaged houses and the programme for the redevelopment hostels is to repair the physical damage caused during those turbulent times. We also need to repair the emotional and psychological damage caused as well. that will take a while but the reconstruction and development of communities at every level must be undertaken.

The first step is to repair the houses and redevelop the hostels. In terms of the repair of housing the following steps have been taken:

• Consultants were appointed to prepare an overall usiness plan, and to evaluate the extent of the repair work.
• The following areas were identified for the repair of houses programme: Alexandra, Dobsonville, Soweto, Vaal Triangle and Meadowlands.
• The initial estimates were that 400 houses need to be repaired.
• The preliminary plans will be in place by 10 December, and the final business plan by the end of January 1996.
• Funds available are R12 million from the provincial budget, and this will be topped-up by the RDP and by Local Authorities.
• Restoring and redeveloping the housing damaged by the violence will, we believe, improve the relationship between hostel residents and surrounding communities and ensure that the hostel redevelopment programme can get of the ground in these areas.
• The Greater Johannesburg TMC has invited tenders for the Sinquobile hostel in the vicinity. Evaluation reports have been submitted to the TMC for consideration.
• The first six tenders in Meadowlands were awarded on 20 October 1995, to the value of R60 713.
• The houses were handed over to the Contractor on 23 October 1995.
• Tenders were called for from local builders. The names of the builders were obtained from the local civic organisations.
• Corobrick has made a donation of 1 million bricks to be used in restoring houses in Gauteng. This is the Corobrick contribution to the Reconstruction and Development Programme. Therefore I think we need give them a special word of thanks for their contribution which will assist the Province greatly in the various programmes it has undertaken.
• The intention is to restore the houses to their previous state.
• We are also formulating a process to determine the rightful owners or tenants of those houses requiring restoration. It is important that this process is transparent and fair to ensure that justice must be seen to be done by the community.

The process has been defined as follows:

• Each affected metropolitan substructure of the Greater Johannesburg Transitional Metropolitan Council must appoint a small committee which includes an architect and/or a quantity surveyor to identify the damaged houses and owners of such houses, to identify repairs, prepare a bill of quantities and estimates, to submit a business plan for a specific area with all the relevant details and estimates and to manage the repair of the houses once approval has been obtained.
• The Committee must also ascertain where insurance existed at the time of the violence and recover money from insurers where possible.
• The Committees must further ensure that the process is inclusive and based upon agreement among the stakeholders and an undertaking by the occupants that all future rent and service charges will be paid by them.
• Indications are that the following amounts will be needed for the repair of houses:

Alexandra - R4 000 000 Dobsonville - R 300 000 Diepmeadow - R1 000 000 Soweto - R 700 000 TOTAL R6 000 000

• The average overall cost per house should not exceed R15 000 to bring it in line with the directives applicable to the hostel redevelopment programme.

Those are the technical details of the process, the funds to be spent and the guidelines recommended.

There are other developments occurring in Meadowlands. I want to mention two:

• TRANSFER OF HOUSING

About 45 days ago we opened a transfer of housing bureau in Meadowlands. So far we have received 4293 claims which represents 54% of total claims. That is double the provincial average. This is very positive and I want to thank the Meadowlands community for their co-operation.

• SUBSIDIES

We have reached agreement with Buildware Market to set up a subsidy information centre in Meadowlands. The intention is to ensure that this information is more accessible to the community so that they can take advantage of the various subsidy schemes.

As I said at the beginning of the speech we need to rebuild communities so that they can be viable and prosperous. That is motto of my department. One of the essential building blocks of successful communities is a functioning and democratic local government. As you know on Wednesday is the first truly democratic local government elections. It is vitally important that you participate and to encourage your neighbours and colleagues to vote. My advice to you is to vote for people who be good servants of the people.