Minister Sisulu must account for appalling conditions at Soweto's unoccupied hostels 

23 March 2015

Note to editors: The following remarks were made today by the DA's Shadow Minister of Human Settlements,Makashule Gana MP, following an oversight tour of Soweto's hostels. 

The Minister of Human Settlements, Lindiwe Sisulu, owes the residents of Soweto's hostels an explanation as to why her department has continually failed to upgrade living conditions in these facilities. Residents in Soweto are fed up with the government and it is for this reason that they so often take to the streets in protest. 

I visited 5 hostels in Soweto today to investigate the appalling conditions that residents are living in and the conditions of the unoccupied hostels.

What I witnessed contradicts Minister Sisulu's reply this week to a DA parliamentary question where she stated that the Department has embarked on a total of 45 hostel upgrading projects in six provinces since 1 January 2009. Too many hostels remain unoccupied whilst there are scores of qualifying residents who can reside in them. 

At Dube hostel, residents told me of the plight face on a daily basis - toilets and washing basins are broken and parts are stripped. Residents at the various hostels showed me some of the walls that are crumbling and plasterwork that is falling off. Windows are broken and electricity is disconnected. Toilet facilities are few in number and there is litter everywhere. 

I also visited the hostels in Jabulani, Mzimhlope, Difateng, Mapetla, , Meadowlands and Nancefield, what I discovered was shocking: 

In Dube residents fear for their lives daily. "Crime has increased over the last few years", I was told. There are also empty clusters of double-storey units that are severely damaged;

Mzimhlophe's hostels are a dilapidated unoccupied slum, due to shoddy workmanship by contractors. This will require millions of rands to restore these buildings and residents have to now wait longer for placement in these units; and 

Jabulani has recently been upgraded, however due to protests by residents to fill the open single-sex dormitory units; good work has been harshly damaged. 

It is unfair that people have to live in squalor while Minister Sisulu remains out of touch with the real conditions on the ground. 

Soweto's hostel residents need answers and the DA will therefore be submitting a series of parliamentary questions pertaining to the conditions, funding and occupancy at these specific hostels. 

I will also be writing to the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements, Nocawe Mafu, to request that she summon Minister Sisulu to account for the desperate situation in Soweto. 

My colleague, DA Shadow MMC for Housing in the City of Johannesburg, Cllr Sipho Ndlela will focus his attention over the coming months on working with residents to keep the full state of affairs at Soweto's hostels on government's agenda.

Text of the parliamentary reply:

MINISTRY FOR HUMAN SETTLEMENTS

REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

QUESTION FOR WRITTEN REPLY

QUESTION NO.: 446

DATE OF PUBLICATION: 27 FEBRUARY 2015

Mr S M Gana (DA) to ask the Minister of Human Settlements:

(1) How many units were built as part of the hostel upgrade programme in each province in the (a) 2006-07, (b) 2007-08, (c) 2008-09, (d) 2009-10, (e) 2010-11 and (f) 2011-12 financial years;

(2) how many of the units in each province (a) have been allocated and (b) are currently legally occupied;

(3) whether there are any units that are still unallocated in each province; if so, (a) how many and (b) what is the cause of the delay in the allocation of the units;

(4) (a) how many of the unallocated units have been invaded in each province and (b) are there any plans to evict those who are occupying the units illegally;

(5) how many units built as part of the hostel upgrade programme are currently incomplete in each province? NW523E

REPLY:

(1) The National Hostels Redevelopment Programme became dysfunctional when it was replaced by the Community Residential Units (CRU) Programme in December 2006. This programme encompasses eight development options to deal with public owned buildings and although it covers the redevelopment of hostels, it is not limited to such.

All hostel redevelopment projects that were in the implementation phase during the approval of the CRU policy had to be halted due to the termination of the hostel redevelopment subsidy and these projects transitioned to the Community Residential Units programme and were completed using the CRU subsidy.

Statistics for completed units is only available from the 2009-2010 financial years onwards as projects were in the planning and implementation phases during the 2007-2008 financial years. Statistics for hostels upgrades prior to the approval of the CRU policy are not accurate as most hostels have since been refurbished or re-upgraded using CRU funding and hence fall within the statistics of the CRU programme.

Although all Provincial Human Settlement Departments are currently implementing the CRU programme, not all have embarked on redeveloping hostels. As per the question, information on provinces that have upgraded hostels is provided below.

The Department has embarked on a total of forty five (45) hostel upgrading projects in six provinces since 1 January 2009 and the total number of units is as follows:

(2) The following units per province have been allocated and are legally occupied:

(3) The following units are un-allocated and reasons for such are provided per province:

(4)  (a) Gauteng is the only province that has 252 units which are illegally occupied.

(b) Court processes are currently underway to evict the illegal occupiers.

(5) Due to the large size of CRU developments, most projects are completed per phases over a period of three to four financial years or more. There are projects that the completion date is as far as 2019-2020 financial year, hence there are no incomplete projects because the completion date is not passed yet.

ENDS

Statement issued by Makashule Gana MP, DA Shadow Minister of Human Settlements, March 23 2015

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