MR. MAYOR, DEPUTY MAYOR, HEAD OF DEPARTMENT, DEPARTMENTAL OFFICIALS, MUNICIPAL OFFICIALS, COMMUNITY LEADERS, DISTINGUISHED GUESTS,

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:

Mr. Mayor, I have to start by congratulating the Overstrand Municipality for receiving the NHBRC award for the "best subsidy home builder's project of the year" both provincially and nationally. It is more interesting to note that the same award we talking about is directly linked to the project that we handing over today. Once again, well done and keep up the good work.

I am glad that we have finally come to this point where we can officially hand the complete houses to the people of Gansbaai. Our bottom line as the Government is to fulfill the constitutional obligation of our country which is directly informed by the freedom charter of 1955 that," there shall be houses, security and comfort.

The provincial housing development board approved a project linked subsidy application for 350 subsidies in 2004, which was subsequently increased to 388 subsidies and comprises of three townships namely:

• Masakhane (black community): 148 subsidies- 60 completed
• Blompark (coloured community): 176 subsidies- 153 completed
• Die dorp (white community) 64 subsidies- 48 completed.

Once more, I want to congratulate all the beneficiaries.

The situation of housing delivery in our country is a complex one and this can be attributed to a number of reasons. For while great strides in housing delivery have been achieved in the past decade, we now find ourselves challenged in our ability to deliver by an unprecedented exponential growth of housing needs compounded by rapid urbanization and migration, politically and socially sensitive environment, massive unequal distribution of wealth, and an increasing anger from beneficiaries about the pace of our delivery, example, (demand against allocated budget/supply).

Integrated Human Settlement, which guides us on our implementation of houses, speaks on the following:
" The first decade of democracy concentrated on the quantitative roll out of housing. Now the focus is on quality human settlements. Through this approach the effects of previous housing strategies and policies can be reserved, the first and second economy could be bridged and the racially and economically divided societies can be integrated. The poor can be empowered, social capital and extend economic opportunity could be developed through where houses are located, designed and built. The plan speaks to spatial restructuring, densification of urban form, the upgrading of informal settlements and the acquisition of well- located public, Parastatal and private land in order to enhance the location of new housing projects. We will be closely observing the required improvement in this regard and we should state upfront that, the next project in this area should address this concern.

I have mandated a sustainable human settlement summit to be held from 24-25November 2005, To create space for debate, and to encourage participation of all stakeholders in the development of a provincial implementation strategy.

I have also called for an extensive stakeholder engagement process to be undertaken prior to the summit to fulfill the following

• For stakeholders to receive information on the sustainable human settlement summit and its outcomes to ensure constructive participation at the summit.
• The create an opportunity for stakeholders to provide input and influence the development of a provincial implementation strategy
• To assist the conceptualisation of pilot projects that would demonstrate the principles of BNG and iKapa elihlumayo.

Apart from housing deliveries there are other basic service deliveries we can't leave behind. We are quite aware of the fact that, our people at masakhane and Beverly Hills are still without electricity. We have been informed that an application has been submitted to Eskom and the municipality is waiting for positive outcome. We are calling up on the municipality to speed up the process and make sure that the communities are electrified as soon as possible.

We are also through the municipality looking at improving the issues of water and sanitation services as the matter of urgency in the Masakhane informal settlements.

The question of backyard dwellers is also receiving our undivided attention. Applications were received for the for the following projects:

• Kleinmond : Overhills (611 project linked subsidies
• Kleinmond : Betty's bay (100 project linked subsidies)
• Gansbaai : Pearly beach (120 project linked subsidies)
• Stanford : (400 project linked subsidies)