ANC Today 

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Volume 3, No.35, 5-11 September 2003 

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THIS WEEK:

* Letter from the President: The people of the Western Cape have spoken 
* Sanitation: A national campaign to meet 2010 target 
* Housing: People are building their own homes 

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LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

The people of the Western Cape have spoken

Last week we participated in our Sixth Provincial Imbizo. This time it was the
turn of the Western Cape, following the izimbizo held in the Limpopo, Eastern
Cape, Free State, Gauteng and North West provinces. As with its predecessors,
the Western Cape Imbizo was highly successful, attracting thousands of our
people. This included the largest gathering of opinion-makers in all the
Provincial Izimbizo so far. 

During the Imbizo we were able to interact with a wide cross-section of our
people in the Western Cape. As before, all these spoke very openly about their
concerns, made proposals about what government should do, and gave reports about
the problems they are experiencing and the progress they are making as they
confront the challenges they and our country face.

In all the interactions we had with the population of the Western Cape, the
resounding message from the people and the spirit they conveyed, was one of
working together with government in a people's contract to push back the
frontiers of poverty and build a better life for all.

Perhaps because they do not quite understand the nature of the interaction
between the government and the masses of our people, sections of the press
reported that we were "grilled" during these interactions. In this context, they
picked on a few questions posed, and comments made by some participants in the
Imbizo, ignoring hundreds of others they could not describe as "grilling".

At the Imbizo in Worcester, a former member of the ANC, who had run as an
"independent" against an ANC candidate in the last local government elections,
attacked the ANC for working with the NNP and pledged to fight against this.

Oblivious to the fact that no genuine member of the ANC would ever take such a
public position, given the extensive discussions that had taken place in the
structures of the ANC in the Western Cape on this matter, some in the media were
happy to peddle the falsehood that the person who made this point was a member
of the ANC. As happens ever so often, the truth had to suffer at the hands of
people who are pursuing particular political agendas.

At this same Imbizo in Worcester, an AIDS activist, who is a member of the ANC,
suggested that people who are determined to be HIV-positive should receive
disability grants. He deliberately prefaced his proposal by saying that,
contrary to what some people are saying, he is very pleased with the programme
the government is implementing to combat AIDS. What he sought was a further
improvement of this government programme.

All this was reported by sections of the media as "grilling", to implant the
notion in the public mind that the people have a negative attitude towards the
government. And yet the journalists who attended the various events of the
Western Cape Imbizo saw with their own eyes the great warmth and enthusiasm with
which the government representatives were received by the people, with no sign
anywhere of a negative attitude among them.

Throughout the Western Cape Imbizo, not a single person asked a question or made
a comment about the current controversy relating to the Deputy President. And
yet when we participated in the standard radio "Imbizo-on-air" from the SABC
studios in Cape Town, during which we responded to questions and comments from
the public, the SABC said that because "many people" are interested in this
matter, they would pose a question on the issue.

This was despite the fact that nobody anywhere had raised this question, as we
visited various parts of the Province. The SABC knew this. Its reporters were
present at all the interactions we had with the people of the Western Cape.

We make these observations because, necessarily, the overwhelming majority of
our people depend on the media to inform them about what is happening at home
and abroad. But the reality is that some in the media are preoccupied with
advancing particular political agendas. For this reason they are quite happy to
sacrifice or corrupt the truth, to create the space for themselves to pursue
their partisan objectives.

Our first point of call in the Western Cape was a clothing factory in Cape Town.
This major clothing manufacturer has joined hands with small manufacturers in
the sector to respond to the challenge of skills development. Here we met with
employed workers whose skills are being upgraded, training together with
unemployed workers who are gaining skills that will make them both employable
and capable of starting their own businesses.

The clothing, textiles and leather Sector Education and Training Authority
(SETA) is financing this training programme. The programme demonstrated the
correctness of the positions we have taken with regard to the task of skills
development, which include cooperation between government, business and labour.
It also showed what the larger companies could do, to assist in the development
of small business, responding to the national challenge to build the SMME
sector.

We also visited a highly successful engineering factory in Atlantis, which
produces vehicle components for export. With the Industrial Development
Corporation (IDC) as one of its investors, this showed the benefits of public-
private sector cooperation, which, among other things, ensures the provision of
jobs to the population of Atlantis, which suffers from a high level of
unemployment. A large employer in Atlantis also expressed concern about the
rising foreign exchange value of the Rand.

Sensitive to the requirements of our labour legislation, and the need to build a
new South Africa, the company producing vehicle components also employs
significant numbers of women and people with disabilities, as a matter of
policy.

Because of the levels of efficiency and productivity it has achieved, the
company is able to compete with European component manufacturers to produce
components required by European manufacturers of vehicles and engines,
delivering these from Atlantis into factories in Europe at competitive prices.

We also visited black and white fruit farmers in Ceres. Here we saw some of the
progress being made with regard to black economic empowerment, with the
emergence of new black farmers. At the same time, we were exposed to some of the
problems facing these black farmers, relating to such matters as the cost of
water for irrigation, access to farming implements and operating capital.

The whole community of Ceres is also grappling with the problem of a privately
built dam, whose cost of construction escalated from a budgeted R43 million to
over R100 million. This has placed an intolerable debt burden on everybody in
this important fruit-producing region of our country. This includes black and
white farmers, the municipal authorities and the people resident in this area.

It is clear that all spheres of government, the farmers and the communities will
have to join hands together to solve the water problems that have arisen. The
white farmers offered that as part of any solution, there should be further land
redistribution to benefit black farmers. They even suggested that perhaps up to
60 percent of their farms should pass into black ownership.

The matter of a speeded up process of land redistribution was raised by both
black and white in other engagements we had in the Western Cape. Fortunately,
Agri Wes-Kaap, the Western Cape Agricultural Union, is itself committed to this
expedited process of meaningful land redistribution, as is the Government of the
Western Cape. This government would like to see the empowerment of 7,000 new
black farmers over the next five years. A company based in Atlantis, which
produces very good implements for small-scale agriculture, joined the call for
faster land redistribution.

Another important issue that was raised relating specifically to the farming
areas of the Province, was the matter of continuing racism on the farms, which
includes eviction of farm workers from their houses.

Clearly, we will have to follow up on these allegations, as well as the recent
report of the Human Rights Commission on conditions in the commercial farms. We
called on the people of Worcester, who also focused on this issue, to unite and
oppose racism, avoiding just waiting for the government to act on this important
matter.

In this context, we must mention the beautiful sight presented by the children
at a primary school in Atlantis, which we will also mention later, which has
children who cover the entire racial spectrum of our country, including the
Khoisan, all learning together under one roof, with no tension or conflict among
them. Here was a practical demonstration of the truth that nobody is born
hating! It may very well be that the national struggle for a non-racial South
Africa will finally be fought and won in the Western Cape!

Similarly, I am certain that the Pastor and the congregation of the 350-year-old
Groote Kerk of the NGK in Cape Town, which we visited on Sunday as congregants,
will play an important role in ensuring that the Western Cape discharges its
responsibility to our country and the world in this regard.

As in other parts of the country, the people of the Western Cape are concerned
about the need for our economy to create more jobs. Accordingly, the matter of
jobs in general, and youth unemployment in particular, was raised at many of the
meetings we attended. As demonstrated at the clothing factory we visited, the
people also understand the importance of the acquisition of relevant skills to
ensure that even this youth becomes employable.

In keeping with this, a young person at the Khayelitsha Imbizo made the useful
suggestion that final year high school students should be taught to drive motor
vehicles. Most appropriately, the Umsobomvu Fund had a bus at the venue of the
Imbizo ready to expose the youth to the services the Fund offers.

We also visited a most impressive building site in Mitchell's Plain. Here a
massive shopping centre is being constructed, which will also include other
facilities such as restaurants, a cinema and recreational facilities.

Built as a result of an initiative taken by local Mitchell's Plain business
people, the complex will be opened in October. The Cape Town Metro has also
given land to the Mitchell's Plain community, opposite the shopping complex, to
develop an industrial park.

The Mitchell's Plain committee responsible for this massive project thanked the
Cape Town Metro Council, the Provincial Government and the ANC for the support
they had given, which made it possible for the complex to be constructed. This
spoke directly to the strengthening of the people's contract to push back the
frontiers of poverty, and ensure the achievement of the goal of a better life
for all.

We must also mention that other participants in the Imbizo reported on actions
they had taken to start community development projects, responding to our call
for self-reliance through the vuk'uzenzele campaign. However, what was also
clear is that these initiatives require the determined and sustained support of
all spheres of government.

Various matters relating to the social sector were also raised during the
Imbizo. These related to such issues as housing, health, access to basic
services and indigent support, crime and recreation. In this context we met and
were inspired by volunteers who are working among the people to assist the
government to improve service delivery in all these areas.

It was also truly inspiring to be with highly motivated health workers at the
Mitchell's Plain grossly overburdened Community Health Centre; activists engaged
with the People's Housing Process and cricket development in Khayelitsha; the
volunteers who look after the homeless on the Strand in Cape Town; the people
who run the non-governmental Shelter in Worcester; those who work at the
Surveillance Centre in Cape Town that operates the cameras that help the city to
deal with the challenge of crime and traffic management; and the Principal and
teachers at the primary school in Atlantis who, together with the provincial
government, have given the children at the school and their parents access to
computers, are implementing the outcomes-based curriculum, and have developed an
agricultural project to improve nutrition among the children and raise funds for
the further development of the school.

Government in all its spheres will also have to respond to the challenges raised
by these and other builders of the new South Africa, public servants and
volunteers who are part of the mass army of patriots that is driving the
implementation of the people's contract for a better tomorrow.

We cannot end this Letter without paying tribute to the Government of the
Western Cape for its commitment to serve all the people of the Province, which
we were able to see and assess directly. As part of the Imbizo, we had occasion
to meet the full Western Cape Cabinet, which meeting was also attended by the
provincial Director General.

Among other things, the Premier and his colleagues in the Provincial Cabinet did
not hesitate to admit that much remained to be done to meet the needs of the
people. But of great importance, was the fact that the Provincial Government was
also applying its mind very seriously and creatively to meeting the challenges
it faces.

One of the important failings it admitted was that the Province had not done
enough to respond to the fact that Mitchell's Plain and Khayelitsha are
identified nodes for our national Urban Renewal Programme. This is being
corrected, thanks to the resolution of the political tensions that existed when
the Province was governed by a different coalition government.

In this regard, we must also mention the fact that the people at the Worcester
Imbizo drew our attention to the serious difficulties being experienced by
people living in municipalities controlled by the DA, which, allegedly, are not
responding to the national agenda for progressive and people-centred change.
Interestingly, the media has not reported on the comments made at this Imbizo on
this matter.

The people of the Western Cape informed us of the challenges they face and what
they are doing to respond to these. What they demonstrated in practice is their
commitment to be part of the people's contract that will take us forward to the
construction of the people-centred society that stands at the centre of all our
efforts.

Both our government and the ANC must respond speedily to the challenge placed at
our feet by the people of the Western Cape, both black and white. The Western
Cape Imbizo communicated the message, firmly, that we are on course towards the
achievement of the goal of the creation of the new South Africa visualised in
our Constitution. However, there is much work to be done by all of us. The
people of the Western Cape have spoken. They told us that this work will be
done, whatever the difficulties.

Thabo Mbeki

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SANITATION

A national campaign to meet 2010 target

Government plans to embark on massive national campaign to meet the country' s
targets for the provision of sanitation, Water Affairs and Forestry Minister
Ronnie Kasrils said this week.

This was necessary to reach the 17 to 18 million South Africans who do not have
adequate sanitation. Kasrils was briefing media in parliament on his
department's work in providing water and sanitation to the country's poor.

"If we are to meet the target, to which we are committed, we will have to think
big and beyond business as usual," he said.

He said government has given sanitation high political priority: "It is an
intervention that speaks to peoples' dignity as well as to their health."

The push to meet the sanitation backlog follows significant progress in the
provision of water to millions of South Africans. Already an additional nine
million people have received safe, clean water since 1994.

The backlog inherited by the ANC of 14 million people without safe water has
been reduced to five million, while the backlog of 21 million people without
access to adequate sanitation has been reduced by around three to four million.

The water affairs and forestry department calculates the infrastructure backlog
for basic water supply will be wiped out by 2008 and for sanitation by 2010.

Alongside the provision of basic water supply and sanitation, government is
working to move people up the 'water ladder' - ensuring that people currently
with access to communal taps at a distance from their homes have taps closer to
their homes or in their yards.

The provision of sanitation is faced with a number of challenges. Not least of
these is the need to substantially increase the pace at which toilets are
delivered. Around 50,000 were delivered last year, and around 85,000 this year.
However, if the backlog is to be eradicated by 2010, then this figure will need
to increase to around 300,000 annually.

This will be made harder by the trend, indicated in the Census 2001 results,
towards smaller average household size and, therefore, increasing numbers of
households. This means that more toilets need to be provided. More taps will
also need to be provided as people 'climb the water ladder'.

Another challenge is limited capacity in local government, which slows down
delivery. Kasrils said the Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) system would be
important in addressing this problem, facilitating and ensuring more effective
and integrated service delivery. The future funding of water and sanitation
services through MIG would however need to be sufficient, he said.

Kasrils said he saw the sanitation programme as part of the Expanded Public
Works Programme, a community based, job creating activity that empowers people
as well as improving their health: "Working with municipalities, our approach
would see community members trained as builders, running their own businesses."

He estimated that, with an allocation of R700 million a year, the programme be
able to create more than 50,000 jobs over three years.

"The challenge is to make sanitation a national campaign, a national movement,"
he said. 

MORE INFORMATION

Department of Water Affairs and Forestry http://www.dwaf.gov.za/ 

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HOUSING

People are building their own homes

The increased participation of people in building their own houses has had a
positive impact on rates of delivery, housing quality and empowerment through
skills development.

Briefing media in parliament this week, Housing Minister Brigitte Mabandla said
this follows a decision taken last year to increase beneficiary participation in
housing delivery and improve the quality of low-cost houses.

People either contribute a required amount of R2,479 or participate in the
physical construction of their houses, contributing their sweat equity and
meeting their own housing needs. Mabandla said the immediate outcome of this
approach has been an increase in the number of the people's housing process
projects or self-building and the emergence of more and more bigger and better
structures.

"The growth in popularity of self-building is a positive step for our housing
programme as it means more and more of our poor communities are empowered in
various skills. Of more importance is the fact that more benefits of self-
building go to women and youth, who constitute more than 90 percent of people
currently involved in this type of housing delivery," she said.

The experience of the delivery of 1,5 million houses in the past nine years had
shown the importance of beneficiary participation in the construction of their
houses.

Additional support to this type of housing delivery has been provided by 38
Cuban architects and engineers who have been deployed in the provinces. Cuba is
one of the countries known for using a similar approach in housing construction,
through 'building brigades', where skills are imparted to the community.

The success of the people's housing process, together with the increase in
housing subsidies announced earlier this year, would increase further the
quality of housing, Mabandla said. The increased subsidies from April
practically means that people earning below R1,500 a month and those suffering
from ill-health and disability would have a better chance of getting homes of
better quality.

Mabandla said one of the department's priorities remains the diversification of
housing options for people. The recently developed Social Housing Policy would
create an enabling environment for the social housing sector to develop, grow,
and deliver mainly rental housing stock at scale.

"The policy will culminate in the satisfaction of the needs of low to medium
income members of our community, and those who wish to reside in rental
accommodation as well as close to work opportunities. The policy also allows
people to participate in the management of their living environment and exercise
their right to permanent ownership of a residential property," she said.

The Medium Density Housing Development programme will cater for the needs of
single persons, who have been excluded from government's housing assistance
programme, and people with special housing needs. This targets the lower to
medium end of the rental market, and will have particular relevance to inner
city regeneration.

"Housing projects undertaken through this approach, will provide a variety of
built form options, ranging from small one room apartments with shared
facilities suitable to accommodate single persons through to two and three
bedroom units for family occupation," Mabandla said.

These projects would also need to provide for social and community facilities.
They would cater for a social and income mix to ensure the achievement of
integrated development and the promotion of financial viability of the social
housing institutions.

MORE INFORMATION:
Department of Housing 
http://www.housing.gov.za/

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