More than a year after launching the comprehensive plan on sustainable human settlements, aimed at eradicating slums, South Africa still has a backlog of 2,4-million houses.
There are delays in the new housing plan, with most provinces yet to launch pilot projects. Is it really possible to eliminate slums by the target date of 2014?
I have no doubt that we can. It is not about pilot projects, it is a plan, and we are dealing with every facet of it as we conclude the first phase. That is why we are negotiating with municipalities to give us access to their land before they dispose of it.
The banks promised R42-billion for low-cost housing in the Financial Services Sector Charter, but now they are looking for government guarantees …
The bottom line is that both we and the banks want to have a sense that this is a shared responsibility. We, as government, don’t want to feel that we are being made to take the burden of this whole venture … banks had worked out an equation where government unfortunately ended up with the bigger chunk of the risk. We are trying to negotiate this. There are historical problems with the market we have inherited. We have to normalise it together; when it is normalised the banks will benefit most.
Where is the Community Re-investment Bill, which set targets for low-cost mortgages?
If we had reintroduced the Bill last year, it would have gone through by now. It is a succinct piece of legislation; it has already gone through the necessary processes. But cooperation is better than dragging people there. The banks will have to spend their R42-billion commitment; we are in a position to take that money. The market is now ready, too, to take that money with the necessary responsibility, after our housing finance education process.
You say municipalities should deliver housing. Yet Johannesburg has not delivered half its promised houses; Cape Town built a few hundred last year …
It is the way to go: if you are to deliver an efficient service, it can only be done at the level closest to the people. But we should make sure that when we give municipalities the responsibility to build, they have the money, the capacity and the understanding of what is involved. The reason we have so many blocked projects throughout the country is because we went ahead and gave municipalities responsibilities that were far beyond their capacities.
We have identified Cape Town, Johannesburg, Buffalo City, Ekhuruleni, eThekwini and Port Elizabeth in a pilot project to create fully-fledged departments of housing with clearly defined responsibilities.
You are accountable as national housing minister, but it is the provinces that must deliver …
Three months ago the MECs and I took back housing powers given to municipalities. The reason the number of housing subsidies per province has declined is because we are consciously unblocking blocked projects. Limpopo alone had 91 blocked projects at a total cost of R428-million. We can’t have people who have waited eight years for houses see us build houses for people who have just arrived.
Is a national housing plan possible?
We have tackled a huge problem under difficult conditions. We have even managed to turn the Treasury round: they have given us the biggest chunk they have ever given to housing.
Aren’t proposals, such as including low-cost housing in every property development, clutching at straws?
In Malaysia, anywhere the private sector builds, 30% belongs to low-income housing. This is an instrument without which [South Africa] will not succeed. Their law is borrowed from Australia; the Irish have similar laws.
Does the backlog keep you awake at night?
Not any more: there is a plan in place.