Western Cape Social & Economic Development Forum-THE MOVEMENT FOR TRANSFORMATION OF THE MEDIA IN SOUTH AFRICA

MEMORANDUM To the Premier of the Western Cape

She signed acceptance to our Memorandum

We the people of the Western Cape across sectors, racial divides, religious and economic inequities hereby wish to state the following:

The Western Cape Social & Economic Development Forum and its partners Seskhona, SAARSA, Black Business Chamber, Black Assessors Association, Black Contractors Construction Association, along with support from Unions, NGO’s, Faith based organizations and individual business are embarking on this march as a physical demonstration of our dissatisfaction of the levels of corporate and provincial government collusion, greed, poor service delivery and skewed racial procurement and representivity in the western cape.

We hereby place the Western Cape government and the entire Social Housing and Affordable housing Industry on notice that we will no longer tolerate poor service delivery, bad workmanship and the slow pace of housing development nor will we accept any form of procurement and economic discrimination and victimization on the basis of race. We rise up on behalf of those in the informal settlements, backyard dwellers, hostel dwellers and the poor. We also stand in solidarity with the exploited bonded home owners who are oppressed by an anti-poor banking system and for our next mass action we will march to these banks and we shall name and shame them, boycott them, divest from them and whitelist them as early as at the end of May in this very province.

Our people have suffered for many decades because of apartheid and it seems as if, generally speaking, the country has changed for the better everywhere, but not here in the Western Cape, especially in informal settlements. Economic, social and political oppression still exists here in the Western Cape and it is unacceptable that whilst we have one of the best constitutions in the country, racially discriminatory practices with respect to service delivery and the provision of housing still exists within the borders of South Africa. This is no longer a country where race is legislated by the group areas act, but racial discrimination still happens upon the basis of geographic location wherein which racial groups are dealt with differently due to their prevalence in a certain area. This is borne out by the facts of severe skewed spending priorities and lack of urgency when dealing with the problems facing the informal settlements and is a throwback to darker days in our history. We can no longer accept this as a fact of life in the Western Cape.

We hereby demand the immediate transformation of the entire provincial government housing policy and the industry as a whole and a revision of every contract issued to large white owned corporates over the past ten years by the Western Cape government. A revision of housing standards of the Western Cape is needed and a complete turnaround in the Western Cape governments strategy which places the needs of wealthier white suburbs before the needs of informal settlements.

Following are a number of the demands we are making:

We demand that The Western Cape Minister of Human Settlements, Bonginkosi Madikizela be removed from the position with immediate effect and that the department come under review and investigation for maladministration and racially discriminatory practices, especially for its poor handling of informal settlements, backyard dwellers and hostel dwellers.

We demand that the Western Cape Government address the serious backlog of housing by contributing land which it has held back from releasing to the city for housing developments

We demand a revision of the provincial governments laws and policies regarding housing, especially regarding norms and standards and public participation

We demand that the provincial government ensure that the City of cape Town is placed under pressure through its oversight and financing mechanisms to deliver much needed homes for the poor in a short time, and that the city root out corruption and nepotism, political favoritism within its ranks and forces the city to provide adequate and humane sanitation to the people in informal settlements.

We demand that Service delivery to our people in informal settlements gets prioritized and depoliticized so that people from different racial and political persuasions are not discriminated against or victimized by the provincial government. We are all citizens of the Western Cape, even those who did not vote for the Western Cape ruling party, and once you became the government here in the Western Cape you became the government of all its people.

We demand that the Western Cape government step in to put a stop to the senseless evictions perpetrated against our people by the city of Cape Town and other provincial government institutions.

We demand Decent housing for our people that has all the basic services and amenities and that can be accessed by public transport and is built in accordance with accepted national housing norms and standards.

We demand running water with no restrictions and that legislation be passed that forces municipalities to increase the amount of free water households are given daily.

We demand that drastic measures be taken by the provincial government through public private partnerships, community participation and new developments being established on land that the provincial government can identify and release for housing. This needs to happen urgently to address the housing backlog estimated at 400 000, and the waiting lists and its processes need to be revised and depoliticized as this has led to increased tensions between backyarders and informal settlement residents.
On the matter of the waiting list and housing plans, the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape Department of Local Government and Housing needs to be improve their levels of cooperation.

We demand that the barriers to entry and restrictive tender processes that have been put in place by the provincial government which have become a way of keeping black business, especially black smme’s out of the housing industry, be removed with immediate effect. This administration refuses to acknowledge the economic and social disparities caused by the legacy of apartheid and creates a policy that fails to see that the playing fields are not level or equal. It chooses to ignore affirmative action, enterprise development and BBEEE national policy because of its limited perspective. We the people of the Western Cape, will not accept racially skewed procurement practices of the Western Cape provincial government anymore.

We demand an end to BEE Fronting by white business delivering goods and services to the Western Cape government and demand an investigation to the myriad of companies practicing this despicable and racist behavior across the Western Cape governments departments.

We demand that the Western Cape Government do away with the large number of white consultant companies currently employed by the provincial government as their advice is leading to the further impoverishment of black business and black communities in favor of creating a white race based economy on the Western Cape, ruining black business in the process.

We demand an end to black smme’s being treated as second class businesses by the provincial government, good enough to sub contract to white owned contractor but not good enough to get the big contracts in the housing and construction industry.

We also demand an end to undercutting black smme’s and pricing them into poverty by creating unreasonable margins that make business unprofitable for them as contractors whilst the same does not apply to their white owned counterparts.

We demand an end to white cartels and monopolies in the building industry and social housing and affordable housing in particular, whose existence is supported and perpetuated by the Western Cape government’s procurement policies.

We demand that Worker’s Rights be honored be in the housing industry and that national norms and standards for workers’ rights and benefits be adhered to by companies doing provincial government and municipality developments. It is incumbent upon the provincial government as the client and oversight of its own developments and those of the city of Cape Town, to ensure that workers are not exploited in developments within this province.

We demand Transformation as per National Government norms and standards now, both within the department here in the western cape and the service providers it procures its good and services from
We demand that there be no exploitation of workers in the building industry anymore, that collective agreements be honored and that the Labor relations act 66 of 1995 be upheld within this province

We demand that the Western Cape Government must ensure jobs for African, Colourdes and Indians and that it move away from its policies, which affords greater opportunity at senior levels for whites only.

We demand transparency in tender and procurement processes and want to know the amount of procurement which has gone to white owned companies versus that of black smme’s over the past ten years.

We demand that all service provider construction companies of the Western Cape government and its Municipalities must be fully compliant in terms of Tax, VAT, PAYE, UIF, SDL and Collective Bargaining (refer to labor relations act 66 of 1995) and Occupational Health and Safety Act No 85 of 1993 and amendments’ and No 181 of 1993 pertaining Building Industry. Usages of non-compliant companies are not to be tolerated and resolve with immediate effect.

We kindly request the office of the Premier reply to our demands within 7 days.