The notorious Lennox Mabaso strikes again….Once again the poor are blamed for failing to endure the consequences of poverty without accident or complaint while any attempt to hold the state accountable for the conditions in which people are forced to live is considered unacceptable….At least this time Mabaso doesn’t make wild allegations about the movement being under the sway of a ‘foreign intelligence agent bent on destabalizing South Africa’ and hasn’t issued any threats of arrest against the leadership….That’s his usual style. Maybe the Daily Sun needs to renew its call for Mabaso to spend some time living in a shack before he comments on shack life again.

News
Anger over ‘no housing’ comment

July 17, 2008 Edition 3

MPUME MADLALA

THE Department of Local Government, Traditional Affairs and Housing has been angered by comments made by the shack dwellers of Clare Estate’s Kennedy Road informal settlement after their homes went up in flames on Monday.

It is believed the fire was started by a paraffin stove that had not been switched off.

The residents said they were disappointed that after 30 years of living in the informal dwellings, they have no hope of getting proper homes.

Spokesman for the department, Lennox Mabaso, said the comments made by the president of the KwaZulu-Natal Shack Dwellers’ Association, S’bu Zikode, who said minister Mike Mabuyakhulu had failed his people by not giving them houses over the years, were misleading.

“Since the start of building low-cost houses, our department has built 500 000 which has exceeded the backlog,” he said.

However, Mabaso said there was still a great deal of work to be done and plans were being made to increase the number of houses being built.

“We would appreciate it if Zikode did something to educate his community on fire safety instead of talking the whole time,” he said.

However, Mabaso said they would still help those people who had been left destitute.

“Houses are not built overnight, because everything is done according to budget,” he said.