SACP Gauteng memorandum of demands delivered to the Minister of Human Settlements, comrade Tokyo Sexwale
10th May 2013
SACP Gauteng and its Alliance partners COSATU and SANCO, and the Greater Lenasia Residents Committee, representing various working class and poor communities in the province that are severely affected by the lack of houses and land for residential purposes, calls on the Minister of Human Settlements to intervene decisively within the Department and lower spheres of government in Gauteng to urgently address a fast developing and growing housing crisis in the province.
Political Context:
SACP, COSATU and SANCO in Gauteng province as Alliance partners of the African National Congress (ANC) appreciates and acknowledges significant and commendable progress made by the democratic government to improve the living conditions of the people in general and the working class and poor in particular,
We further extol and deeply appreciate the consistent and renewed commitment moving forward to deliver houses within the historic context of the Freedom Charter and the 2009 electoral mandate bestowed on the glorious movement by the revolutionary people, the working class and poor of our country. We are confident that this mandate will be reaffirmed in many rounds of electoral processes for years and decades to come.
We are deeply encouraged and confident that government under the most capable leadership of President Jacob Zuma remain committed to deliver quality housing as part of its historic mandate to defend and consolidate national democracy and improve the living conditions of the people and the working class.
We firmly believe and recognise that our country, unlike many in the world has suffered many decades and years of a distinct and unique national oppression, gender and class exploitation under the yoke and devastating status of a Colony of a Special Type (CST), and that no country in the world has the magical power to address this type of challenges dating back to more than 300 years in just less than 19 years of democratic and majority rule.
It is in this context that we believe that the Minister must act decisively to ensure that officials within the Department and lower spheres of government in Gauteng act in a manner that is consistent with the overall objectives of the developmental state to address the following key demands.
2012 Lenasia Housing Demolitions:
We have noted the lack of progress on this matter since the court decision of November 2012 and the negative and severe impact it has on the working class and poor of Lenasia. We therefore call on the Department, as the convener of the task team set up to deal with this mater to fast-rack and speed up the resolution of the Lenasia housing demolition crisis of 2012.
We request the Department to set up a clear process that will ensure that this matter is resolved urgently. We believe that given the nature of this issue, a full-time and dedicated capacity be urgently created to work on this matter and ensure that the people of Lenasia can realise the historic dream of a better and quality life they once enjoyed before the shocking demolition of their houses. We request that in the next sitting of this task team, such capacity will be created and progress made in this regard.
We also call on the task team to investigate the history, root-cause, class character and bias of the land allocation against the working class and poor in favour of the bourgeoisie and rich of Lenasia, and that the findings of such an investigation be made public.
We are deeply concerned that whilst the people Lenasia, in particular Africans and poor people are prohibited from building houses and legally occupying land in the context of the demolition of houses, the rich and bourgeoisie still continue to build houses and occupy land. We believe that this is unfair and must be addressed urgently.
We are also concerned that the people affected by the demolition of houses experience selective and unjustifiable water and electricity disconnection and that this is contrary to the decisions of the task team.
We also noted that the task team includes in its composition people that were directly involved in the demolition of houses, and those that are referred to as legal residents and that this situation cast aspersions on and severely undermines the integrity of the task team.
We are also surprised that given the history of land distribution and allegations of corruption dating back to many years, that there are people in the task team referred to as legal residents. We believe this matter must be thoroughly investigated and that their claims to legitimate ownership of land be supported by clear evidence and that this should include all property, in particular business property.
We frankly believe this view is further strengthened by the controversial and selective demolition of houses and in the main leaving untouched business property. We seek clarity and wish to know the criteria used in this regard. We further believe that reference of the affected residents as illegal residents in the task team is derogatory, dehumanising and prejudiced and that such reference should be dropped and or stopped as a matter of urgency.
We also request that the task team protect and defend members of the committee against political victimisation and attempts at divide and rule, and call for the dropping of charges. We refer in this particular to the charges brought against the current Chairperson of the Committee comrade, Lazarus Baloyi.
We also request that members of the task team, especially those from the provincial government refrain with immediate effect from convening unauthorised and un-mandated meetings with certain residents of Lenasia. This is a cheap and exhausted tactic of divide and rule, and to date has failed to divide the people of Lenasia.
We hope that the meeting scheduled for the 13th May 2013 will deliver concrete results. We believe that the people of Lenasia waited for far too long and deserve better. We also congratulate the people Lenasia for their peaceful conduct under very difficult and testing conditions.
Housing and Land provision in Gauteng:
We have noted a recent and renewed wave of recent violent service delivery protests in the province. We have also noted the series of crisis affecting mainly residents of informal settlements as a result of floods and fire that destroyed many shacks, and more often with serious threats to lives. We refer here to many informal settlements across the province.
We have also noted the shocking and unacceptable state of the sewerage and ablution facilities in many of this communitiesthese communities, and in certain cases where temporary ablution facilities are poorly maintained and serviced by local municipalities. We have further noted the negative impact of provision of electricity and water as a result of the housing service delivery problems in the province.
We call on the Department to facilitate an urgent process of intervention in the province to urgently address this situation on a short to medium and long term basis. This we say fully aware of the demographic and migration patterns in the province.
We wish to bring to your attention the urgent and dire situation of the residents of Orange Hof in Springs and Etwatwa and Wattville Benoni whose houses are owned by Transnet and are currently facing eviction anytime next week. We urge your Department to intervene urgently and put on hold plans to evict these residents. We have also noted the current court processes to evict the people of Angus Building in CBD Johannesburg, Jeppe Street and believe that government should intervene urgently.
Corruption in Housing delivery:
Whilst we appreciate and acknowledge progress made by your Department and government to fight corruption, we wish to bring to your urgent attention continued acts of corruption in the province, especially on awarding of tenders, poor quality of work, and manipulation of waiting lists, illegal sale and renting of the houses to non-deserving people. We believe that an urgent process is required to finalise all investigations and set a clear example, whilst dealing with new cases. We also wish to reaffirm the need to review the tender process to ensure that it addresses the root-causes of corruption and mismanagement of housing projects.
Evictions by Banks
As you may be aware, the SACP has recently re- launched its Financial Sector Campaign that seeks amongst others to address the conduct and attitude of banks towards the working class and poor in our country. We have noted an increasing spate of evictions of people from houses in the province, and this practice is rife in many parts of the country, especially Soweto and Midvaal.
We call on the Department to defend our people against these forces and ensure that proper and sustainable solutions are found to this problem. We also call on the Department to ensure that the banking sector makes positive contributions to the housing infrastructure programme and refrain from plunging the working class and country into destructive and dangerous housing and loan schemes that are not sustainable.
Request for urgent intervention:
We therefore call for your urgent and swift action to ensure that these demands are addressed and that a clear plan be presented on how each of these demands will be addressed.
As stated in previous correspondence sent to the Department before this march, we remain committed to a discussion that may include the Alliance in the province to address issues that are contained in this memorandum.
We hope to hear from you within a reasonable time
Delivered and Signed on Behalf of the SACP by ..
Received and Signed on behalf of the Department of Human Settlement by .
For enquires please contact:
Mamabolo Jacob, Provincial Secretary, 082 884 1868
SACP Spokesperson: Lucian Segami: 079 522 0098
