ETHEKWINI ANC BREAKS ANOTHER ELECTION PROMISE

August 28, 2006

Another stony silence has followed an ambitious ANC pre-election R10-billion low-cost housing plan for 20,000 families on a site bordering Umhlanga Ridge, Mount Edgecombe and Phoenix.

ANC eThekwini Metro Mayor, Obed Mlaba, promised the development of the Phoenix East integrated housing project would start early this year. The project was to be completed in four years.

"A year on, we have heard nothing of this celebrated housing initiative. This pre-election promise, like so many others in the past, was just a careful deployment of vocabulary," said IFP eThekwini Metro Councillor and member of the Executive Committee, Gladwin Ndlela, who has been following the matter on behalf of shack dweller families.

Ndlela also pointed out that the original promise came out of the blue, that is without consultation with or even a warning to the council. No consultation with the council has taken place since.

"This reckless pre-election promise has served its only purpose: to increase the ANC majority on the council in the last municipal elections. We can see today that it has also reinforced the ANC culture of breaking election promises," said Ndlela.

The IFP remains sceptical about the ruling party's commitment to alleviating housing shortages in eThekwini Metro and elsewhere in the province. "This particular incident puts the promise by the national Minister of Housing to eradicate shacks by 2014 into perspective as unattainable," said Ndlela.

Contact: Councillor Gladwin Ndlela, 083 799 6769