Crispin Pemberton-Pigott
I wonder if you up in Johannesburg could hear us rolling off our chairs in laughter as we read Patrick Bond’s ad hominem response (M&G January 12 to 18) to Dominic Tweedie’s compelling argument for the provision of land first (and fast) to the homeless (M&G January 5 to 11).
We who, like Tweedie, struggle with our hands dirty and our accounts in overdraft, know there is plenty of housing being built — anywhere and everywhere by people who have nowhere else to live. It is financed by the owners, in cash or through informal loans and community ”kulima” assistance. Tweedie’s ”grassrootsy-sounding” observations are not a defence, they are observations. I challenge Bond to be more observant about the housing
Are the homeless ”builders all”? Certainly not, according to the NHBRC. Do they build homes? Yes. Are they qualified to get mortgages? Certainly not, according to the NHFC. Do they get loans anyway at much higher rates? Yes.
Could Tweedie have built his Lombardy East home with his own hands? Certainly, if one considers his diverse practical and professional training, but certainly not, according to the NHBRC. In fact, he goes one better by having trained many young black men how to do build. But, will these newly skilled men be allowed to help build homes in the new South Africa? Certainly not. All they have is skills, not papers.
The ”brutal economy” Bond speaks of is that perpetuated by the technical elite, who, without a shred of a mandate, insist on ”fiscally and technically feasible” programmes (whatever that means). There is nothing fiscally feasible about planning for the state or big business to build millions of houses for the poor. In our present environment, ”flush toilets for all” is not technically feasible either.
There is not enough money to build a ”legal” house for all. The poor have to be helped to build houses for themselves (so do I, for that matter). First, they need a piece of ground. That would not be a burden, particularly for women, whose main problem in the past has been getting land. It would be a great freedom for women. The last burden they need is the ruminations of a high-priced Bond.
As for Tweedie being a well-off white consultant, the last time I checked the family, his wife was distinctly brown and he is a sort of pinkish chap, both quite