DA failed the poor people of the Western Cape

The fires in informal settlements that leaves hundreds of people homeless and where many die every year raises serious questions about the commitment by the DA provincial government and many municipalities in the Western Cape to assist the poor people to get a place they can call home.

It is the fault of this government and the DA MEC that has to look after the housing needs of these people that have left about ten thousand people without a housing opportunity during the past financial year as the DA targets were not met.

The ANC raised the alarm at the slow rate of delivery and meeting the DA's own targets. Even the national department wanted to take some of the unspent money away from this province. But, many denials and promises were made by the DA... Now that the annual reports are before the Western Cape provincial legislature, the full picture unfolds. And, the DA as well as its MEC has been weighed and found wanting.

Western Cape Human Settlement MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela made a joke of himself this last week and become a candidate for the infamous "Mampara of the Week" award.

Instead of acknowledging and accepting the fact that the DA led government in the Western Cape failed dismally in its performance to build houses which is its key function and mandate, Madikizela decided to blame the previous ANC led government.

I think both former MEC's Richard Dyantyi and Whitey Jacobs would be laughing loudly wherever they are with this kind of joke. They would find Bongikosi Madikizela funny and entertaining.

The DA through its MEC Madikizela set a target of about 15 000 houses and about 18 000 more serviced sites in the informal settlements for the 2010/2011 financial year. The ANC at this point was not in power and it was the DA led government that set the target on its own.

With the facts at our disposal which were also reflected quite correctly in the media, Madikizela's department delivered only 11 860 houses against the 15 000 target (short of 3 140) and 11 141 services sites in informal settlements against their 18 000 target (6 859 short). This brings the figure to the total of 9 999 households that have to go without proper housing opportunities due to Madikizela and the DA's failure to stick to its targets of service delivery.

Both Dyantyi and Jacobs did not impose any target. It was Madikizela who wanted to demonstrate from the word go when he took over the DA led government's one-upmanship with the ANC.

Although I did not want to make any comparisons, but Madikizela‘s attitude and outburst forced me to take a trip down memory lane... In the 2007/2008 financial year the department planned and delivered accordingly. Out of the voted budget of about R1,2 billion the department delivered 16 093 houses and 18 064 serviced sites in informal settlements, which in a nutshell translates to more than 34 000 housing opportunities.

In the ensuing 2008/2009 financial year, they delivered 15 779 houses and 15 297 serviced sites from the voted budget of about R1,4 billion, which gives about 31 000 housing opportunities.

Therefore one does not necessary need to be a scientist to see the difference here where Madikizela delivered less than 23 000 housing opportunities!

The fact of the matter is that the loud mouth DA has failed the poor in the Western Cape who are waiting to have a roof over their heads while the DA is interested in playing political games with them.

In 2009 just three months in the new financial year the new administration took over and immediately made a big noise about the shift in strategic direction of the department where they claimed that the previous ANC strategy was not working. In fact this was just a political statement that was covering the fact that building houses for the previous disadvantage communities was never a priority of the DA since its core constituency which is the rich and mostly white section of our society do not necessary need RDP houses.

Hence in 2009/2010 in a budget of about R1,58 billion, they built 16 566 houses and 12 388 serviced sites. The number of the houses might look higher, but unfortunately 99% was already kick-started and initiated by the previous administration under the ANC.

That is why they could not process that number the following financial year, hence the radical decline.

A second excuse from Madikizela is the poor quality of the houses build by the ANC led government. But with the same breath this MEC Madikizela is talking about concentrating serviced sites in the informal settlements.

That means the DA, that promised our people houses, is now going to move our people from one shack to another shack and spend very little in building houses. 

Frustration is fast driving Madikizela to convert his position into that of an MEC for infrastructural development, which might not be a bad idea considering the fact that the DA does not have an interest of building houses for the poor.

I hope he will still remain within his mandate because the last time I checked on infrastructure development, it is not entirely the competency of the department of human settlement.

Already I smell something funny in his failure to meet the target while his department finished the whole allocation of R1,9 billion for 2010/2011 financial year. The question is where I the rest of the taxpayer's money? Perhaps it drained into fiscal dumping and other tactics to expend the money without building housing? People have a right to know.

Statement issued by Khaya Magaxa, ANC Western Cape spokesperson on housing, October 30 2011

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter