The City of Cape Town has unveiled an extensive and ambitious plan to get homeless people off the street leading up to the winter season - 34 days before thousands of soccer fans descend upon the city for the 2010 World Cup. Working closely with NGOs, the city plans to accommodate, employ and reunite with their families hundreds of homeless men and women. The Cape Times reports that the plan details how the homeless will be categorised into groups and how they will benefit. Armed with more than 1 000 disposable razors, 6 000 bars of soap, 6 000 toothbrushes, 4 000 tubes of toothpaste and 1 000 blankets, the city is also to make sure the people are clean and well groomed for the duration of the programme.
Chris Moerdyk, News24: In spite of a lot of conjecture about the only people who are going to make money out of this are FIFA, SAFA, the government and assorted passengers on the 2010 gravy train, the facts tell us otherwise.
If you have a look at just one aspect of the World Cup, there is proof aplenty that everyone in the country will benefit one way or another. Quite simply, before and after each of the 73 matches as well as during half time and during highlights, TV coverage will feature short documentaries on South Africa as a travel and investment destination. And could one not argue, given the massive stakes involved, that anyone who purposely disrupts the World Cup is guilty of treason? Is it time they should be named and shamed?
Landlords evicting tenants for 2010 fans - 07/04/2010
Landlords with apartments near 2010 World Cup venues are evicting tenants in the hope of making a fortune during the 30-day soccer showpiece. Dozens of people, including some Cape Argus staffers, have been given notice by their landlords to vacate their flats ahead of the World Cup. Landlords are also believed to have drawn up leases that expire at the end of the month, so they have time to renovate before the June 11 kick-off.
Homeless forced off streets ahead of WC - 28/03/2010
Thousands of homeless people are being forced off the streets of South Africa to hide the scale of poverty there from 2010 World Cup fans. The Mirror reports that more than 800 tramps, beggars and street children have already been removed from Johannesburg and sent to remote settlements hundreds of miles away. And in Cape Town, where England face Algeria on June 18, up to 300 have been moved to Blikkiesdorp camp where 1 450 families are crammed in a settlement of tin huts designed for just 650 people.
A UN human rights investigator has criticised FIFA for failing to ensure that cities staging the 2010 World Cup explicitly commit to protecting housing rights. Raquel Rolnik says football’s world governing body hasn’t responded to repeated demands to make housing rights a key part of the bidding process for hosting the event. Rolnik said that she has received reports over 20 000 residents from a makeshift settlement near Cape Town were moved to impoverished areas at the edge of the city.
City of Cape Town officials say they have a ’constitutional’ 2010 World Cup plan for street children and homeless people which will ensure they are treated with respect and dignity. The Cape Times reports that they have rejected claims that law-enforcement officers are rounding up vagrants and dumping them on the city’s outskirts. But details of the ’2010 Street People Readiness Plan’, operational between May and July, would only be ’unveiled’ in about three weeks. Pam Naidoo, the city’s 2010 operations project co-ordinator, said World Cup-specific plans dealing with street people, child safety and substance abuse prevention would be unveiled next month, but she had been asked ’to keep the details quiet for now’.
The excitement of watching the 2010 biggest soccer feast at home becomes a reality on February 28 when MTN gives away the first apartment in their Goal for Goals 2010 World Cup promotion, notes a New Vision report. The winner of the first of 12 fully furnished apartments at the ’World Cup Village’ in Namungoona will be announced during a draw. Other winners will walk away with prizes ranging from home theatre systems to fridges, among others. It will run for 12 weeks
A Durban family is planning to sue the city for more than half a million rand for demolishing its home and tavern next to the new entrance to Umlazi’s King Zwelithini Stadium, which is undergoing an upgrade for the 2010 World Cup. Speaking amid the rubble of the tavern, Mandla Obabamkhulu, adjacent to Mangosuthu Highway , Ntombifuthi Bhengu, 46, said she had given birth to her six children on the property. According to a report on the IOL site, the Bhengus’ attorney, Nathi Ngcobo, said the land on which the head of the household, Bhekathina, 50, had traded and lived for 30 years now belonged to Passenger Rail SA.
Homeless South Africans complained on Thursday they were being
forced from the streets of Cape Town to make way for a host of
star-studded, glamorous events surrounding next year’s World Cup
tournament. Isaac Lewis, 41, said police have arrested him for loitering six
times in the past month. Before that, Lewis said police mostly left
him alone. According to a report on the News24 site, he said he’s been homeless for most of his life. Police harassment ’is increasing, everyday it’s increasing,’ he said. ’It’s because they want to make a good impression for the
foreigners coming. We are like insects to them, or flies.’
From electronic food vouchers and dance classes to ’concentration camps’ - South Africa’s major cities have vastly different plans for the homeless ahead of the 2010 World Cup. Cape Town is planning performing arts training for its street children, but Johannesburg has told nongovernmental organisations about temporary solutions that include moving the problem out of sight, ’away from the city’. The Sunday Times reports that Durban has identified a site - in the shabby Warwick Triangle precinct in the city, where tourists are unlikely to venture - to house street children leading up to the World Cup. Bill Rogers from the Addiction Action Campaign, who attended a meeting with Johannesburg’s Displaced Persons Unit this week, said: ’We were made aware of the city’s plans to relocate thousands of homeless people to shelters away from the city.’
Residents of Riverlea, south of Johannesburg, yesterday stoned police vehicles, blockaded roads, burnt tyres and torched trees during protests against poor service delivery. The Times reports that they live within sight of the R1-billion Soccer City stadium that will host the World Cup opening and closing matches. The residents vowed there would be ’no 2010’ because they had no houses and no jobs, and were being excluded from working on the stadium. They also said they were tired of a permanently absent ward councillor. ’They are pouring money into 2010. Why are they not pouring money into housing?’ said a lifelong resident of Riverlea who asked not to be named.
Ruling bans mass ’clean-up’ ahead of 2010 - 16/10/2009
A Constitutional Court ruling against a section of the Slums Act would prevent mass evictions in a ’clean-up’ before the 2010 World Cup, the Black Sash rights group said. ’I hope this judgment sends a very clear message to all the other provinces that might try to copy this law, particularly in their haste to ”clean up” before the World Cup,’ said Evashnee Naidu, regional director for the Black Sash in KwaZulu-Natal. The Daily Dispatch reports that the Constitutional Court declared the KwaZulu-Natal Elimination and Prevention of Re- emergence of Slums Act (Slums Act) unconstitutional. The piece of legislation would have allowed mass evictions in KwaZulu- Natal.
If you are planning to use your house as accommodation for tourists during the 2010 World Cup, please do so with caution. The Sowetan reports that the Tourism Grading Council of South Africa has issued a warning to people joining agencies who promise big returns if people registered on their databases. The council’s chief executive, Thembi Kunene, said they received more than 100 enquiries over the last two years about these ’agencies’. ’We do not support home stays because the risks for both the hosts and visitors are high.The homeowner does not have a 100percent guarantee that the tourists will come to the house and that the agency will deliver on its promised financial returns,’ Kunene said. Kunene’s warning comes after a number of agencies allegedly registered homeowners who want to go into the hospitality business and promised to put their properties on databases that will be accessed by tourists when they come for the soccer showpiece.
Some of the world’s top media could find themselves homeless when they arrive in South Africa for the 2010 World Cup. The City of Johannesburg is fighting off an urgent court bid to stop it from proceeding with a R72-million housing development next to Soccer City, the venue for the opening ceremony and the final. The Sunday Times reports that the city and Fifa’s local organising committee have been hauled before court by the Expo Centre at Nasrec, south of Johannesburg, over the ’hostel-type’ dwellings to accommodate the media for the duration of the World Cup.
The centre objected to the apartments after it saw the ’inferio’” plans in April this year. Concerned about a drop in property values in the surrounding Nasrec area because of the apartments, the Expo Centre wants the court to order the city to stop building and start over again, adhering to better standards.
Cabinet approves privacy protection law – 17/08/2009
Cabinet has approved the Protection of Personal Information Bill to go before Parliament. Lawyers say the draft law has been nine years in the making and will have a profound impact on business. Lawyer Lance Michalson says the length of time was due to the initial discussion paper drawing more than 5 000 responses that had to be collated and examined. Lawyer Mike Silber says the advent of the 2010 World Cup has also played a role in suddenly emphasising the urgent need for such a law. ’The prospect of thousands of visitors coming to the country (means) their personal information needs to be protected, and this includes the exchange of travel information and accommodation,’ he said.
Minister of Human Settlements Tokyo Sexwale has clarified media speculations that government will evict people living in informal settlements to hide them from tourists during the 2010 World Cup. Sexwale said those were dense assumptions and government had never planned to evict people living in shacks. ’There is a no policy that says government must evict people who are living in poverty or in shacks nearby venues. We cannot do that,’ he said. LOC CE, Danny Jordaan said government and the LOC cannot be hypocritical by hiding people who are stricken by poverty, adding that media must stop spreading unnecessary and fallacious statements. ’That is not a position and tourists have been in these areas and are part of South Africa. Why would the government hide them?’
The people of a squatter camp for whites in Krugersdorp have successfully opposed an eviction order sought by the Mogale municipality. A report in The Times says the 225 mainly Afrikaner residents of Coronation Caravan Park were taken to court by the municipality, which wants to evict them to make way for a park for the influx of soccer fans expected for this month’s Confederations Cup. But the Coronation residents refused to be moved because, they said, the site allocated to them was too close to a ‘black township’ and they feared for their safety.
’Millions for stadiums, but no houses’ - 21/05/2009
Macassar Village housing protesters burnt tyres and stoned the police, who then fired on them with rubber bullets to disperse the crowd, arresting four people, including a University of the Western Cape professor, for public violence. The Cape Argus reports that the informal residents had illegally cleared a piece of land alongside the N2 owned by the City of Cape Town and erected structures vowing not to move from the area. The protest turned ugly, resulting in the arrest, and subsequent release of Professor Martin Legassick, along with three other men. ’We have no place to stay. The government has millions to spend on building stadiums for 2010, but I have been waiting for a house for the past 20 years,’ said mother-of-three Clarissa Benjamin.
Mail & Guardian: What on earth could Simon Jenkins have been thinking? The Guardian writer landed the respected paper in hot water after he wrote a op-ed in which he quoted an unnamed ’friend’ as suggesting that Jacob Zuma was a ’criminal and a rapist’. Zuma immediately sued for defamation and demanded an apology. Jenkins (says) that under Zuma’s sway the once formidable South African army is in disarray’. ’Power generation is collapsing. How South Africa will host the Soccer World Cup next year remains moot. The pledge of "No shacks by 2010" is mocked by the shanty towns growing to the perimeter of Cape Town airport.’
A meeting of hundreds of Alexandra residents who illegally occupied RDP houses was postponed on Saturday morning after police arrived in the area. Organiser Thabo Modisane criticised governments spending on the 2010 Soccer World Cup while hundreds of South Africans are homeless. ’The government prioritised billions of rands for a two week spectacle, the 2010 world cup. Many of the homeless do not know if they will even live to see this capitalist venture. Rather than a life plagued with cholera, the people have taken the bold step of occupying all the vacant houses that were due for handing over to friends of ANC councillors and made available for sale to their friends,’ he said.
Over 50 people In Woodstock, Cape Town are under threat of evictions. Bush Radio reports that the Western Cape Anti-Eviction said the owner of flats in the street, and the City of Cape Town would like to demolish the buildings to build luxury flats in time for the 2010 World Cup. Anti-Eviction Campaign, co-ordinator Willy Heyn said those resideing in the flats received an eviction order from the court, stating that they should vacate the premises on or before the 24th of this month.
Sleaze and anger as Africa heads for first World Cup – 01/02/2009
In fewer than 500 days, football’s greatest prize comes to the continent at a cost of Ł800m. Little of that investment will benefit workers on breadline wages or communities being evicted from their homes. Now allegations of corruption and even murder loom over next year’s contest Stephen Maseko’s mudbrick house in Mbombela has no electricity or running water, but it does have a room with a view. In the distance, a multicoloured structure sits perched in the tropical greenery like a giant trampoline. Without a trace of affection, Maseko calls it the ’playground’. The Guardian reports that Mbombela Stadium, near Nelspruit, will be ready and bristling with 21st-century technology in good time for the 2010 World Cup. Last week posters and logos for the tournament were unveiled across the country as organisers launched a 500-day countdown to the first time the tournament has been staged in Africa.
The housing market can look forward to a better year in 2009 as cooling inflation and lower interest rates put consumers in a better position to enter the market, industry players say. The Cape Argus reports that FNB property strategist John Loos said the recovery would be gradual due to slowing economic growth and more likely job losses. But by the second half of 2009 there should be year-on-year growth in new mortgage loans. The same could only be said for house price growth in 2010.
The long-running political stand-off between parliament’s portfolio committee on home affairs and the department now threatens to derail a much-vaunted turn-around strategy, and perhaps affect planning for the 2010 World Cup.
After a 10th successive disclaimer for the department from the auditor-general, the committee passed a controversial resolution urging treasury and the department of public service & administration to intervene.
If confirmed by parliament, the move will sideline embattled minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and her director-general, Mavuso Msimang. The project is also crucial to 2010, as it will link the SA immigration and visa systems to the passenger lists of airlines flying into the country. It allows for listed soccer hooligans to be screened and refused entry.
SA’s treatment of the poor under fire - 15/10/2008
SA, and the eThekwini municipality, in particular, need to move away from the idea that the poor should be hidden from view in world-class cities, the Geneva-based Centre for Housing Rights and Evictions (Cohre) warns in a scathing report. Durban might be hailed for the many low-cost homes it is building, but it has been accused by the centre of evicting hundreds of shack dwellers illegally, of building houses far from the city, and of building small, poor-quality homes. Business Day reports that the municipality was also criticised for its failure to provide sufficient basic services to those shack dwellers still waiting to be placed in houses, leading to a high number of shack fires and sanitation problems. The Swiss-based research has implications ahead of the 2010 World Cup, with concerns by civil rights organisations that instead of the government dealing effectively with the poor, they will simply be shipped out of the cities ahead of the event. Durban was criticised during the 2010 preliminary draw in November for its removal of street children, some of whom were allegedly housed at Westville Prison.
The Reserve Bank’s decision to hold interest rates at its August bi-monthly meeting suggests that we have reached the peak and that rates will start coming down from next year.
The move has drawn an almost audible sigh of relief from the latest Pam Golding Properties Intellectual Properties, who were quick of the mark in pronouncing it “good news for the housing market!” This time, according to an article in the magazine, the Reserve Bank has ignored those diehards urging it to continue with raising interest rates – which so far has been the chosen weapon with which to try to stem the inflationary spiral. The Bank’s monetary policy committee, chaired by the governor, Tito Mboweni, decided to listen to the clamour of protest from hard-pressed consumers and take cognisance of our sliding economy. Mboweni announced that the bank expects inflation to be down significantly in the first quarter of next year and that the inflation rate should creep down within the target level of 3%–6% by 2010 – just in time for the World Cup.
Ponte City in downtown Johannesburg is set to revolutionize inner-city living as it undergoes a refurbishment to the tune of R10-million. The 56-storey Ponte City is one of the city’s more notorious landmarks and towering at almost 200m above the skyline, with views of the 2010 World Cup Ellis Park stadium, Ponte is the tallest residential building in Africa. Massive infrastructure investments in anticipation of the 2010 Soccer World Cup are being realized as part of the refurbishment plans.
The City of Johannesburg has responded to the need to provide affordable housing in the inner city as poor people, including those evicted from dilapidated buildings, are being driven out of the city as they can no longer afford proper accommodation. Development in the inner city — which has attracted about R5.7bn from the private sector — has led to property values going up, making it difficult for poor residents to afford rental accommodation. The Johannesburg Social Housing Company (Joshco) launched a development project to provide affordable accommodation to the city’s poor residents. Business Day reports that Johannesburg mayor Amos Masondo opened the BG Alexander Building, a former nurses college, which will offer 402 units. The project is a partnership between local, provincial and national government and the private sector. About 227 units are already occupied by tenants who had moved from the Ellis Park precinct, which is being upgraded for the FIFA 2010 World Cup.
South Africa’s second-largest gold producer Gold Fields would be spending R500m-million in the next four years to upgrade its hostels and build 780... N2 Gateway pilot project, Western Cape province, South Africa The project will entail the transformation of the informal settlements along the N2 outside Cape Town. The areas which were engulfed by violence and attacks on foreign nationals were in informal settlements and in hostels. These areas often experience a lack of service delivery and are where the poorest people reside. Characteristic of the violence in some areas is a lack of development, while in others there is a suspicion among some residents that they will be left out of the delivery of houses and services.’ PPC’s projections for cement demand indicate that the BNG housing programme demands more cement than the Gautrain, and 2010 FIFA soccer World Cup, Airports Company South Africa and Department of Water Affairs and Forestry infrastructure projects combined.
Investors should forget about real (after-inflation) returns on residential property for at least the next two years, warns an Absa economist. Jacques du Toit, Absa Home Loans’ senior property analyst, says in his latest quarterly housing review that interest rates will continue an upward march over the next few months, placing a further dampener on an already depressed housing market. FIN24 reports that Du Toit says latest indications are that rate cuts won’t happen before early 2010, as the SA Reserve Bank attempts to get rampant inflation under control. Housing sales and house price growth are therefore likely to soften further over the next 12 to 18 months, as households’ financial positions come under more strain.
