SPEECH BY LN SISULU MINISTER OF HOUSING AT THE

HAND-OVER CEREMONY OF HOUSES AT DELFT

7 June 2007

Deft

Cape town

MEC Richard Dyantyi

Councillor Mjobo, Mgodoli

Distinguished guests

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I am glad that we finally have reached this point in our development of the N2 – where the first beneficiaries of the N2 can be presented with the first BNG house. It is significant that the first recipient is a woman who has lived through it all – the hardships of discrimination, the triumph of democracy, the long wait in anticipation and finally the benefits of a much better product. I hope that you will find that this was worth all the wait.

This is an asset of a great deal of value, whose quality is in line with our new specifications of 40m2 and covered by a five (5) year warranty against any defects. This is the extent to which as government we have gone: expending to the maximum the resources we have and with more efficiency so that the ideal of a better life for all indeed becomes a reality.

As we indicated on previous occasions, the N2 is our testing ground for this resolve whilst providing us at the same time with the opportunity to address a whole range of injustices of apartheid starting with the disinherited communities of District Six; to the dislocated backyarders who have waited for years for an opportunity to own a house; to residents of informal settlements; to the community of Netreg that fought for the right to decent housing; right through to New Rest, Boys Town and Delft itself.

This moment therefore to which we are all witness is one that gives the clearest indicators there could ever be that the test of our resolve is beginning to bear the expected results.

Delft, as you would know, is a recently developed residential area of about 12 500 households. It was developed in 1990 and represents an overlap between an area formerly classified as ‘coloured’ and the township of that under apartheid was designated for black people. It is therefore an entirely new type of suburb in Cape Town but one where irrespective of changes in the cultural and ethnic identities of residents is nonetheless characterized by a persisting legacy of residential segregation. The N2 project will change all of this and enhance the mix of cultures already prevalent. It will give all people the identity that they are all South Africans, they all belong to a single country. I am told that Delft’s ubiquitous ‘RDP’ houses were built though the Integrated Service Land Project which began under the apartheid government in 1990 but was taken over as a Presidential Lead Project after 1994. This was a classic developer-driven approach to mass housing delivery based on the concept of a project-linked subsidy which limited not only community participation but also the housing choices people had including location. With the N2 project that too is being changed. Hence, the conviction we have that the testing is producing some results that are indicative of the way forward.

You would have heard that the N2 is a flagship project that will see a total investment of R3 billion into Cape Town from national government. On completion it will have 26,000 housing units which will have replaced all informal settlements in the areas I have mentioned. Banks, such as the First National Bank and ABSA have come through to offer a hand. The projects that they will be implementing are already at advanced stages.

We chose and prioritized the settlements I have talked about targeted by because they suffer acute shelter and income poverty. Income levels are depressed, education levels extremely low, unemployment is three times higher than in the rest of the and access to water, sanitation and energy is poor. The selection was further guided by the following criteria of high density settlements located centrally within the metropolitan area; settlements that are well located relative to regional movement systems and economic opportunities; and settlements with low levels of settlement security and high levels of physical and socio economic vulnerability.

The project seeks to secure an appropriate balance between three competing objectives. These are, first, to have sufficient scope to allow the concentrated focus of resources which are necessary to move rapidly into implementation; second, to allow scope to develop innovative solutions to complex and fluid settlement dynamics; and third, to catalyze the urban-shelter developmental outcomes detailed in the Breaking New Ground strategy.

It is the quest to achieve these objectives that bring us to this hand-over of 96 houses in Delft. It is the quest to achieve a better life for all.

In total we should have here 2,764 units are presently being constructed which will be completed by September 2007.

Ladies and gentlemen, please join me as I officially handover this third phase development of the N2 Gateway project.

I thank you.