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#rublogs will South Africa have more people living on the street after free housing is being reconsidered? http://www.news24.com
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Free housing
MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela believes that free housing for people should be reconsidered because South Africa is the only country who gives away free houses. The huge unemployment rate means that the employed are supporting the unemployed and that is unfair. “This is not an easy decision to make... But we need to decide: do we continue to do a lot for a few people or do we shift towards a little for many people?” (Madikizela 2009). Madikizela wants to stop the free housing because “South Africa appeared to be the only country in the world that gave people free homes” (Madikizela 2009), but has he ever thought that this might be true because South Africa is a third world country? In many ways this is very unfair. Firstly to the unemployed people who were expecting a house are now going to be disappointed. Secondly it is unfair because how can they give away free houses to some and then not to the rest. Lastly it is unfair from the start to feel sorry for the unemployed and give them free housing when the employed are working extremely hard so that they can build their own homes but all the money is going into taxes to pay for the unemployed. The DA MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela should have thought about the repercussions before he started granting free houses because now, either way, in the end one side of the party is not going to be happy with the decision.
Tamaryn Olsson
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tammy
2 comments:
If you listen to the argument carefully, you might think differently. The Minister is saying that government should move away from providing a few people with a serviced site and a top structure, as it currently does. Instead, it should provide many people with a serviced site now and provide the top structure once everyone has access to basic services later. Access to basic services (water, electricity and sanitation) is a far more pressing need than a top structure. If government goes this route, it could provide 3 or 4 times more people with a serviced site than it does currently. The art of government is decide how best to spend scarce resources. The DA government in the Western Cape believes it is better to give something to many instead of a lot to a few. As the Minister said, he would rather give 10 people a Citi Golf than 1 person a Rolls Royce.
Let me add that it was not the DA government that started granted free houses, as you state. The DA has been in office in the Western Cape for 5 months. You say that it is unfair to give away free houses to some and not the rest. Well, that is exactly what is happening now. The housing backlog in the Western Cape is 500,000 but there is only enough funding to build 12,000 houses. This means that some people are getting free houses and basic services, whilst hundreds of thousands stay in backyards and informal settlements without even access to basic services. THAT is unfair. It is also unsustainable. If we continue with this rate of delivery, the housing backlog will not even be dented. In fact, when you factor in migration into the Western Cape, it will mean that the backlog will have doubled by 2040.
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