Item 443 - Speech by President Nelson Mandela at the opening of Protea Glen Extension 11

TRANSCRIPT

Minister of Housing;
Premier of Gauteng and MEC for Housing;

Distinguished guests;

Ladies and gentlemen,

When the people of South Africa voted in 1994 for a better life for all, a massive housing programme was central to the mandate which they gave the country's first democratic government.

Inevitably it has been a slow start. There were many inherited problems to overcome. Capacity and skills had to be developed; consensus on policy had to be forged; democratic government, including local authorities, had to be established.

All this has taken time. But we have turned the corner. The housing programme is now visibly under way. And there is no going back.

The housing ministry is likely to have spent all its budget by the end of this financial year. Rolling over of funds from one year to the next is becoming a thing of the past. Three provinces have already spent their budget - Free State, Western Cape and Gauteng - and more may do so by the end of the financial year.

The challenge is to turn this flow of funding into a growing stream of bricks and mortar.

The number of subsidies being released each month nationally has leapt from around 500 last year to almost 6 000. And that means that around 30,000 people a month are now benefiting from the subsidy scheme. We can also take pride in the fact that the bulk of subsidies are going to the poor.

After only two and a half years there are over 139 000 houses in production nationally. This is the highest number of low-cost houses under construction at any time in the history of South Africa.

We are determined to reach our target of one million homes within five years. And we are on track to achieve it.

Today we can witness the success of one project amongst almost a thousand across the country since the subsidy scheme was implemented.

A partnership of government and developer has turned Protea Glen into a housing project that is accessible to low income earners with less than R40, 000 a year. When the project is completed, 25, 000 houses will have been built, about a third of them involving subsidies. The 100 houses currently being built each month is expected to double next year.

The project has much else to commend it. What is being built here is not just houses, but a community with a library, crèches, two churches, a sports centre and sports fields. It involves a police station as well as the first sports stadium to be built in Soweto in more than a decade.

Job creation and skills training are helping develop the people of this community. Local developers and contractors are involved, creating 2, 000 to 3, 000 jobs. Other job-creation aspects range from a vegetable project employing 35 formerly unemployed women to a planned industrial park and shopping centre which will significantly increase work opportunities.

The local authorities who have worked with the developer have helped speed up the process, and we commend them for this.

Ladies and gentlemen;

For all these reasons, it gives me great pleasure to be in Protea Glen today, to celebrate with you the handing over of the keys for the 200th house built in Extension 11.

We have laid sound foundations for our housing programme in our first two and a half years of democratic government.

Now is the time to build on those foundations. Let us join hands to ensure that our people's right to decent shelter becomes a reality.

I thank you.