Daily News: Doubts over ANC’s housing promises

http://www.dailynews.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5663661

Doubts over ANC’s housing promises

September 27, 2010 Edition 3

NONDUMISO MBUYAZI

THE shack-dwellers’ movement, Abahlali BaseMjondolo, says it fears that government officials may be promising homes for the homeless to get them to vote for the ANC in next year’s elections.

The movement’s spokeswoman, Nomhle Mkhetho, said yesterday that they had been promised that houses would be built in Reservoir Hills.

“We welcome this promise; however, we do fear that all these promises could just be to try and trick us into voting in the next election and (then) the bulldozers will come to destroy the settlement. We cannot relax until the promises that have been made to us are kept.”

Lennox Mabaso, spokesman for the KZN Department of Co-operative Governance, which is responsible for disaster management in the province, said shack dwellers needed to understand the challenges within the context of historical facts.

He said the shacks were a consequence of years of people’s housing needs being neglected by the apartheid-era government. “However, the government is doing all it can within the available resources to attend to the housing needs, including doing away with informal settlements and providing people with shelter. This will not be an overnight process but it will be a steady progress. The government has already (provided) over 4 million houses.”

nondumiso.mbuyazi@inl.co.za