Politics.za

Is anyone besides me getting a little bit nervous that in a country with an average income of about R50 000 a year, the average house price is now over R900 000?

Average house price to hit R1m mark

The average price of a house in South Africa is set to top the R1 million mark next year – and economists warn that this will make it difficult for first-time buyers to enter the market.

The projected price is based on house price index figures supplied by Absa bank, which showed that by April the average price of a house in SA was R911 800.

A few months ago the national and provincial housing departments excluded the Cape Town municipality from the N2 Gateway Housing project claiming that it was a project of national importance. Well that decision seems to have come back to haunt them because the CT municipality would have been perfect scapegoats for the current problems at the project.

Residents slam govt houses

It will cost millions of rand to repair structural damage caused by poor workmanship to the N2 Gateway housing project.

Richard Dyantyi, provincial minister of housing, said it was shocking that problems were being experienced at rental units in phase 1 less than a year after construction.

The N2 gateweay project is still way way behind schedule. 705 units have been made available but when you consider that Cape Town has a housing backlog of 400 000 people then it really is more of a shiny showcase than an actual solution to Cape Town’s housing problem.

One of the more controversial plans put forward by the Department of Housing has been the idea to build low cost housing alongside or in more expensive housing areas. Of course the greatest outcry to the plan came from existing (white) property owners and (white) property developers. In Durban however it seems that the outcry has turned to into something more physical:

...angry residents … demolished a matchbox council house being built in the area’s affluent section…

Now two people have been arrested and are due to appear in court on charges of malicious damage to property.

The house, which was at roof level when it was destroyed, was part of an eThekwini Municipality project to build low-cost housing in Ward 97…

Existing property owners were vocal about their opposition to further construction of low cost housing:

We spoke to the owner, a guy from Umhlanga, and asked him, ‘Do you think what you are building will fit in here? Would you be happy if we came to your suburb and started building cheap houses…

Why can’t they build these houses across the road from here, which is an area demarcated for low-cost housing?

We have invested in our homes and you can’t just come here and do as you please. What will the banks (who have financed these houses) say about this? We are prepared to go to the High Court to fight this if we have to.

That’s pretty harsh words and the destruction of the constructed house shows they’re willing to act on them.

Of course if I had linked to the article reporting on this earlier you would have known that the residents who did the demolition were in fact black.

Which just goes to show, NIMBYism crosses all colour lines.

Gauteng MEC for Housing Nomvula Mokonyane is planning to blacklist any company that employees a senior department official. I guess she’s decided to accelerate the proposed cooling off period for civil servants entering private enterprise.

The MEC however still has a lot of explaining to do for the housing backlog in Gauteng and can’t place all the blame on departing staff. Perhaps she’d like to explain how a R58 million contract to build low cost housing granted in 2004 has yet to actually produce a house.

Correctional Services came under fire on Tuesday as parliament demanded to know why the very same high-level officials who awarded contracts for the construction of new prisons later became directors of the same companies that won the lucrative tenders.

Still fresh after putting the spotlight on transport issues Trevor Manuel has decided to lay his skeptical gaze on housing. Now this is actually quite interesting as Manuel seems to be publicly casting doubt over the achievements of a fellow minister. I’m sure Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu would have liked to have held up the estimates of close to two million houses supposedly built for the poor as an achievement but Manuel has come out pretty quickly not only casting doubt over the actual number of houses built but also asking why government spending has doubled on housing but delivery has slowed.

The task of governing and providing for Cape Town’s citizens is not getting easier for Mayor Helen Zille and the DA led coalition. New investigations have now shown that the housing shortage in Cape Town is a bit worse than expected. Instead of the previous estimation of the former ANC led council of 260 000 families that require housing, the new figure is closer to 400 000.

Good thing we’re spending R1.8 billion (and that’s a mimimum figure, could be closer to R4 billion) on a new stadium.

Auditor-General Shauket Fakie is due to leave the post later this year and who can blame him. The Auditor-General is possibly one of the most depressing jobs in government as you dutifully report on financial management troubles and advise on ways to correct them only to have government ignore you completely.

In the past few weeks the Auditor-General’s office has released report after report slating the financial mismanagement at the departments of Home Affairs, Justice and Housing as well as local governments. Doing all that detective work and then watching while it continues unabated must depress even the most optimistic of people. Let’s hope that the candidates being interviewed – Deputy Auditor-General Terence Nombembe, the auditor-general’s corporate executive officer, Diatile Zondo, and the chief executive officer of the Independent Regulators Board of Auditors, Kariem Hoosain – have got the required mindset (or a recurring prescription for anti-depressants).

Although considering the exemplary work the AG’s office has been doing lately and the challenges that still remain you would expect better then a 5% increase in budget?