Master of Ceremonies
MEC for Housing in Gauteng, Nomvula Mokonyane
Your Worship, Executive Mayor Amos Masondo
Officials from both the province and the national Department
Friends
Comrades
Ladies and Gentlemen:  

Again this year, the focus on women has brought us here to highlight the role that women can play in the rebuilding and the reconstruction of society. As was established last year it has brought us to one of the areas in need of enhanced efforts aimed poverty alleviation; only this year has to be different because we celebrate the achievement of women of the age-group we are building for today.           

We owe what we have today as women to the quiet courage and determination of these women. Today we give back to these women 50 houses: a symbolic gesture of the distance we have traveled in time where ironically we have stood still in relation to the real tangible benefits for the quality of life of this age-group. I feel privileged that I have the opportunity plough back my gratitude.
We should ensure that no woman reaches the age of 89 before she can own a home. For a country like ours this should not ever happen.  

The success we achieved in 2005 in partnership with Women For Housing when we built fifteen houses in Protea South demonstrated to us that up-scaling was possible and achievable. Thus, for Orange Farm we will build 50 houses that are for the benefit elderly women. As part of this event 50 women from Women for Housing will receive training to ensure skills development for women constructors. Furthermore, we are here with additional partners in the form of Thubelisha and the National Housing Builders Registration Council. The Gauteng Provincial Department is joining us for yet another event.  

It is good to be here at Orange Farm to start the second Women’s Build. You all know that the people of Orange Farm are known to be very pro-active in development. They work closely with the municipality to bring much of the development that we see around this venue. Though it might not seem like much, I think we need to acknowledge what the community here has been able to achieve.  

Statistics indicate that in 2002 this area had a population of 350 000, with very little development. Shacks abound here majorly due to an increase in the number of farm workers who are taking up settlement here after they are laid off. Thus, the settlement is the biggest and most populous in the country. In addition, unlike others, the settlement also has the highest number of gravel roads in the country. Consequently, crime levels in 2002 were high including unemployment and poverty. The City of Johannesburg now estimates that crime levels have dropped, in particular serious crime that affected women mostly such as rape. Partly, this is due to the initiatives that had been taken by community members.   

I am told that the keen interest they have taken in their own development has resulted in large amounts of development funding being channeled here. Thus, there is an ongoing housing development program taking place through the Peoples Housing Process and where 250 housing units are being built in Extension 1. I am told that a support centre is already up and running; that a new sewerage system is being built; a multi-purpose centre that includes a swimming pool is on the way including a library; and that a one-stop shop for information on municipal services is also being built.  

These are the kinds of activities wherein women participate that define our age of hope. Women are key in influencing changes in society.  

They are key in helping resolve the myriad problems and challenges presently confronting us. Aware about the impact they could make they therefore are finding new forms of organization to highlight their role. Hence, formations such as Women for Housing and the recently launched Progressive Women Movement, in Bloemfontein. All of this is in part attributable to the fact that despite achievements in the last decades in understanding issues related to political economy, urban planning and design – all of which have major contributions to concerns relating to sustainable development – those that are key in shaping the form that cities and towns take remained largely ignored. Now women are increasingly finding avenues to raise their voices and organize.  

It is no wonder therefore that women consistently identify themselves with the cause of the poorest of the poor. They can relate the poverty of the others to their own. They can identify with the powerlessness of others when they themselves are in a similar circumstance. And it is this compassion that enables them to do work for others who are in similar position.  

It is thus through constant organization and mobilization that women play the critical role of injecting greater sensitivity to urban planners and designers, architects, geographers, economists and land surveyors political decision-makers to issues affecting the poorest of the poor. 

As our urban areas continue to be recipients of ever larger volumes of migration it will be women who will sensitise policies to issues of secure land tenure, gendered land-use planning and administration including forms of integration with the rest of society. This imperative is not only the result of the recognition that women are the most who are migrating from rural areas in comparison to men. Nor should it be seen as simply as realization that female-headed households are on the increase. For purposes of policy-making and understanding it is a posture that posits that woman’s access to and control over land, housing and property is a determining factor in the nature of their living conditions. For economic security and survival, women deeply rely on land, housing and property.   

In confronting this challenge, we are faced of course by the reality that a significant portion of these resources we need are in the hands of the private sector. Hence, our continued efforts aimed at seeking collaboration with the private sector through in particular the public private partnerships. These initiatives however also present their own challenges to women since the unlike the public sector our private sector remains largely indifferent to gender issues. Their participation in events, particularly those that are nationally organized is of course not a problem. It is in actual demonstration of commitment to gender specific issues such as integration that you would find commitment by the private sector lacking.  

The state therefore always leads, albeit, with insufficient resources and capacity. Our initiative at forming a land-acquisition vehicle must be seen in this context. Through it, we will enable the state to amass appropriately located land that would serve both the social and economic needs of the poor. I am hoping that by the time we repeat the Women’s Build initiative in 2007 land that would have been identified and allocated by the land vehicle would be used. This is land, I believe, that would lead not only to increased access to housing but would also enable the integration of women into the rest of society.  

Against this background, I would like to thank everyone who saw it necessary to come out and support this initiative. This is a critical initiative that serves two purposes of giving houses to those that do not have them and highlighting our role as women. Hence, our launching at the same time of the Guidelines on Mainstreaming Gender in Housing and Human Settlement.  

With our mid-term review we have had to gauge how far we have come in our efforts to empower the poor. In housing we are proposing a new approach to how we empower the poor. We all recognize that women are at the bottom of the pile. It goes without saying therefore that if we aim at alleviating the poverty of the poorest of the poor we are essentially talking about women. Our poverty alleviation strategies therefore should aim at women.  

This, being such a significant milestone in what the women can do for themselves, there could not be a better time to start so that we can make a difference in the lives of the women who made all of this possible.  

We will be commissioning research with a view to making changes to our laws to ensure that the main beneficiaries of the state’s efforts to house our people are actually women, some affirmative action for women. Further, the research will investigate the possibility that where a couple are the beneficiaries of our efforts, upon dissolution (divorce) of that marriage, the house automatically reverts to the woman.  

We are in the process of auditing and compiling our waiting list. We would want to make sure that as we do that we ensure that we prioritise the needs of women with particular emphasis on the elderly, the sick and also that most vulnerable group; namely, child-headed households. In this case we already have been in discussions with ABSA Bank to see how we can ensure that our laws allow children in child-headed households to legally own their homes.  

In reiterating therefore what already I have spoken about the Guidelines seek to raise the level of participation by women in housing delivery. They seek to infuse housing with the critical understanding of the specific housing needs of women and to accord women greater access to resources. They will assist the department and the role players in Housing and Human Settlements in mainstreaming gender in their day to day activities. They will ensure that the programmes and projects planned and implemented at national, provincial and local level take into considerations the different housing needs of women and men. 

In being here you have showed that you understand the need for the creation of these linkages that are entailed in the Guidelines. I thank you for that and for your support. 

I also would like to thank Thubelisha and the National Homebuilders Registration Council for their tremendous support including Women for Housing. Our partnership is strengthening setting new trends and benchmarks as we proceed. I am thankful that you agreed to form part of that process.  

To my staff from the Department: this is our time for delivery.  I am glad that you have come to realize that and resolved to show that commitment through the arrangement of this event. To Gauteng: thank you for being with us all the time.  

I thank you.