Speech by ANC Western Cape spokesperson on human settlements, Khaya Magaxa, in the Western Cape Provincial Parliament, in the debate on Premier Helen Zille's State of the Province Address, June 24 2014
1. Speaker, as a revolutionary organisation the ANC's objective is to consolidate and advance the National Democratic Revolution through a program of transforming white minority interest to the interest of the majority. The policies of the ANC will therefore always be biased towards the poor.
2. Over the past 20 years, remarkable achievements have been made in increasing access to services such as water, sanitation and electricity.
3. National government has begun an intensive programme to eliminate the bucket system. About 3 million free housing units and more than 855 thousand serviced sites were delivered since 1994 benefitting more than 16 million people. Nearly 500 informal settlements have been replaced with quality housing and basic services over the past five years with around 850 000 free houses having been built. Speaker, as a historically advantaged province, the Western Cape can no longer remain an outpost of racial segregation. This province should be setting the pace!
4. Speaker, no matter how much Premier Helen Zille wants to spin and waste tax payers' money with her fairy-tale manufactured audits, the facts tell you that the ANC had a much better housing delivery record than this racist and classist administration of Helen Zille.
5. The ANC built a total of 72 729 units when we governed the Western Cape whilst the DA has only built 59 764 and continues to annually fail in reaching housing delivery targets. The ANC built more houses with far less of a budget than that of Zille's administration.
6. The DA-led City of Cape Town has even admitted that it lacks a clear housing delivery policy and plan. Perhaps this is why the City prefers spending R7, 2 million on the cosmetics of designing a logo as opposed to investing this into human settlements.
7. This speech by the Honourable Premier will go down as the most aloof and far removed from reality.The fact that this is her second term as Premier, and based on the content in her address, presents a very concerning future for poor citizens in the Province under her administration for the next five years.
8. This speech was unapologetically clearly aimed and presented to the Democratic Alliances' (DA) core constituency - white monopoly capital and the privileged elite that cannot fathom integration and a black majority democratic government - those living in the shadows of Table Mountain.
9. By virtue of the Premiers "business plan" address, the current DA administration will commence its governance policy and application (or lack thereof) where it ended off. It will be the same administration whom in the main completely neglected the poor and downtrodden of the Western Cape.
10. It will be the same government that will skew the budget allocation towards benefitting the rich whilst leaving the scraps to the poor. We will yet again see poor housing delivery and porta potties. What was shocking but not surprising, is the Premiers complete failure to take responsibility for the housing crisis in the Province.
11.This is underlined by her reappointed of the incompetent and divisive MEC for human settlements Honourable Bonginkosi Madikizela. The Premier does however reveal something that the poor in the province should take note of.
12.There is a concerning admission that the DA is not prepared and willing to serve the interests of everyone in the province. There is a shocking admission that the Premier and her administration have completely absolved any responsibility to provide the majority of people with adequate housing, most noticeable in her contradictory statement that "...with the available resources and the escalating need, this will take centuries."
13.The poor in the Province must not be manipulated by this devious statement. We denounce this escapist proclamation, and demands that the Premier apologies for this misleading and dangerous remark. How can the Premier state that the provision of housing will take centuries? · Lest we forget the clear and unambiguous reality that the national ANC government has constructed over three million houses in the past twenty years. The reason that the DA leader quickly throw hands on the provision of free housing in precisely because DA as a political party is against the provision of free houses to the poor.
14.To add insult to unashamed injury, the Premier has placed her administration's failure and negligence of the housing crisis squarely on working class communities.
By the way Speaker, Madam Zille uses housing as mechanism to frustrate black people refer to as refuges not to come to this part of our country .
15. We condemn this insult to our people, the prime cause of the housing crisis in the province is not "... fights over control of these projects within communities.", it is the incapacitated MEC appointed to this portfolio, it is the wedge driving and divisive techniques implemented by the DA administration during these projects; it is the neoliberal character of the DA that seeks to ensure that African and Coloured masses remain in stratified human settlements. And it is corruption among certain officials that are very close to the MEC of which even himself is not immune from it
16.What is clear is that the people of Lwandle, Valhalla Park, Masipumelele and many other working class areas, whom are constantly subjected to seasonal disasters will have to wait CENTURIES before their basic right is provided by the DA administration in the Province.
17.The failing of DA government in the Western Cape will continue to serve an elitist agenda; in particular the Departments of Human Settlements, Safety and Security, Education and the corrupt Public Works have been privatised to maintain a regressive stance on transformation and integration.
18.On Safety and Security in particular, the Premier made one of the most appalling statements in her address when she proclaimed that due to provincial and city intervention Manenberg is now a "peaceful" place, void of crime and gangsterism. This acclamation is a clear indication of how far removed the Premier and her administration is from the reality of the situation on the ground.
19.In comparison to previous SOPA addresses, the Premier seems to have imitated hot-air rhetoric by once again attempting to take credit and responsibility for NGO, and ANC national government initiatives and programmes in the Province.The ANC has observed that the Premier continues to opportunistically use ANC policies, such as National Development Plan, by cherry-picking selective programmes and initiatives and supplanting and presenting it as if it were its own.
20.Instead of developing programmes and strategies that would assist in the integration and improvement of the lives of our people, the Premier merely aims to score political points by manipulating the intelligence of the people of the Western Cape, accrediting falsehoods to her administration by claiming ANC national government programmes such as the N2 gateway housing project, Atlantis DTI initiatives, Saldanha IDZ and SITA broadband roll-out.
21.It is the Premier that has indeed politicised crucial socio-economic initiatives, it is not surprising then that her and her officials are constantly been chased out of working class community's similarly when she received a less than warm welcoming from community members in Saldanha. Indeed the next five years will parallel to the past, the working class should expect the implementation of regressive policies, a government who has no will in fighting drugs and gangsterism; a government that is unable and unwilling to emancipate women from gender violence; a government who does not value human dignity across racial lines and another term of under-development within the working class communities. The absence and negligent nature of the neoliberal DA as well as the baseless address from the Premier will require the ANC to take responsibility for the defence of working class interests in the Province.
Issued by the ANC Western Cape, June 24 2014
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