19 February 2008
The African National Congress has noted developments in Delft, Western Cape where residents have for sometime been locked in a dispute with government over the allocation of houses.
We applaud the residents who had illegally occupied the premises for complying with the police who were deployed to carry out evictions this morning.
The ANC is however deeply disturbed by the conduct of a councillor belonging to the Democratic Alliance who influenced and misled the community to invade the premises, ignoring the existence of an allocation procedure by the departments concerned.
We believe that his actions were irresponsible for someone who is expected to uphold the rule of law and lead by example as a community leader.
His behaviour should be strongly condemned and discouraged as it has the potential to drive an unnecessary wedge between the community and elected public representatives.
We support the recommendation of the MEC of Local Government and Housing in the Western Cape for action to be taken against the DA councillor.
The ANC-led government remains committed to the objective of providing decent housing to all South Africans.
The massive N2 Gateway Housing Project is one the initiatives of the ANC-led government to address the housing challenge and fast track the delivery of decent houses to our people.
The development of integrated human settlements is a critical element in our fight against poverty and in improving the quality of life of our people.
We declared in our January 8 statement that we will need to implement a number of conference resolutions, including the issue of a Housing Development Agency, legislation to address the proliferation of informal settlements, interventions to curb the costs of construction, and a central planning approach for directing resource allocation to human settlements.
The ANC will continue to work closely with communities and all stakeholders involved to work towards finding a lasting solution to the housing challenges we face as a nation.
For more information contact: Jessie Duarte on 079 506 6756 or Tiyani Rikhotso on 079 879 7974