Category Archives: Thabisile Gumede

Witness: Elecricity not for ‘muddy houses with no formal plan’

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Municipality approves electricity provision for Edendale
•Fri, 5 Oct 2007

By Thabisile Gumede

RESIDENTS in the greater Edendale area can look forward to brighter surroundings after the Msunduzi Municipality’s executive committee (Exco) yesterday approved the long awaited provision of funding for electricity connections to indigent households inclusive of low-cost housing schemes and informal settlements.

Edendale councillors previously expressed dissatisfaction with council’s failure to spend the budget of R5,81 million received from National Treasury for Free Basic Electricity (FBE), while neglecting the Greater Edendale area when it comes to the provision of free basic electricity to the Greater Edendale Development Initiative (Gedi) and indigent households. The municipality has only managed to spend R12 574,27 from FBE budgeted for the 2007/08 financial year.

Due to the slow housing delivery process aimed at including the provision of electricity connections, communities have become impatient and have expressed displeasure at utilising alternative sources of energy like liquid paraffin as a substitute.

The municipality will connect 1 250 houses, each connection estimated to cost R4 000. However, special caution will be taken in selecting which indigent households qualify for the electricity. Inhabitants whose houses are built in areas where there is soil erosion, around swamp areas and Spoornet servitudes, nearby rivers or dangerous electric lines and muddy houses with no formal plan or those that are not listed on the housing department’s plan to be replaced as low-cost houses within five years will not have electricity connected as this would pose a risk to
the inhabitants.

By funding this initiative, the municipality hopes to relieve electricity service provider Eskom from the burden of funding these connections and fast track service delivery which has been slowed down by residents connecting electricity illegally in the Edendale area.

Phil Mashoko, strategic executive manager of infrastructure, services and facilities, said that the approval of the electricity connections will assist the business unit to deal with challenges that have resulted in certain communities in the Edendale area being without electricity for the past 15 years.

Electricity manager Maxwell Mthembu said that the connection of electricity to indigent households will have a positive influence on the community as a whole as it will lead to job creation and increase productivity levels.

Published: 5 October 2007

Witness: Shack dwellers to oppose ‘slum’ bill

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(Mnikelo is from Foreman Road, not Kennedy Road and S’bu and the meeting in general stressed the need for mass mobilization and legal strategies and discussed, carefully, how to ensure that the later don’t weaken the former)

Shack dwellers to oppose ‘slum’ bill
•Mon, 16 Jul 2007

By Thabisile Gumede

THE Abahlali baseMjondolo (shack dwellers’’) Movement, an organisation of shack dwellers with members in more than 40 informal settlements in the province, has vowed to oppose the KZN Elimination and Prevention of Re-emergence of Slums Bill, 2006 by all means necessary.

This was revealed at a meeting to discuss legal and political strategies to oppose the slums bill on Friday at the Kennedy Road settlement community hall.

The meeting set up a “slums bill elimination task team” that will educate shack dwellers about the bill. Chairman Sibusiso Zikode said the task team will ensure even the most uneducated shack dweller is familiar with the contents of the bill.

“Abahlali has realised we can’t tackle this bill by thousands of people marching to the streets. We need a technical approach — lawyers and a coalition of experts and NGOs that will assist us in reading through the
documentation in preparation for a legal battle to forge a way forward,” Zikode said.

Representatives from the movement will meet with a team of advocates this week.

The bill makes it illegal to occupy a building or land without permission from the owner.

The bill will give municipalities the authority to formulate slum clearance plans. Municipalities will be able to take land from landowners to set up transit areas and also to evict people in the public interest. Any person who attempts to stop an eviction can be fined up to R20 000 or face five years’ imprisonment.

Abahlali expressed concern the bill will not oblige government to provide existing settlements with basic services while they wait to be relocated or upgraded, or prevent government from evicting citizens without a court order.

“We want government to follow the existing laws and policies that protect against evictions, like the ‘breaking new ground’ policy, that aims to upgrade settlements where people are already living instead of relocating them far from work and schools,” said Mnikelo Ndabankulu of the Kennedy Road settlement.

‘Little consultation’

“The government is very good at doing things in the name of the poor but there is little consultation with the people they claim to assist,” Zikode said.

The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions , which works closely with the Abahlali movement, has written to Premier S’bu Nebele, Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu and KZN MEC Mike Mabuyakhulu, expressing concern about the KZN legislature’s approval of the bill, which it says may be
in conflict with other laws.

“This is in our view a totally inappropriate piece of legislation that represents a giant step backwards in national efforts to improve slum dwellers’ lives and which should be urgently reconsidered,” the letter
said.

When the bill was announced, Housing Department spokesman Lennox Mabaso said it would assist municipalities to act against land invaders.

Published: 16 July 2007

Witness: Housing policy ‘anti-poor’

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Housing policy ‘anti-poor’
•Tue, 19 Jun 2007

By Thabisile Gumede

MSUNDUZI’S low-income housing policy has been criticised by housing rights organisations for being regressive and anti-poor.

A document sent to city officials and residents by the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (Cals) and the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) states that the general lack of affordable housing in the city has led to an increase in the number of informal settlements.

The two organisations embarked on a joint investigation of possible housing rights’ violations after the 2005 Willow Gardens estate evictions.

Initial research found rentals for state-owned and council-owned housing are being increased at a rate of 15% per annum.

The municipality said the percentage will be revised when “break-even” market rentals are reached.

The report gives the municipality suggestions on how they can go about addressing inadequate housing provision.

The organisations recommend the municipality recommit itself to providing affordable social housing and negotiate an amicable resolution with low-income residents. Planning the phased in situ upgrading of informal settlements instead of disruptive and costly relocations was also emphasised.

Democratic Alliance (DA) caucus leader Bill Lambert said he is particularly concerned by the housing problems of the poorest residents and the apparent shortcomings of the municipality’s response to these housing needs.

“The DA has never supported the imposition of market-related rentals on council’s existing low-income tenants,” Lambert said.

Msunduzi Municipality spokesman Skhumbuzo Mpanza said he was not aware of the report from Cals and COHRE, but that the municipality is in the process of addressing housing issues.

Published: 19 June 2007