R2K Western Cape: Show us the audit on our houses, Minister Sexwale!
R2K Western Cape Statement
The residents of Newfields Village are still waiting for Minister of Human Settlements Tokyo Sexwale to respond to their demand for access to an audit of the low-cost housing provided by the controversial Cape Town Community Housing Company (CTCHC).
The Auditor-General conducted a preliminary investigation of houses provided by the CTCHC in November 2010, following years of residents’ complaints of the shoddy quality of houses and mismanagement of funds.
On 24 May 2011, residents of Newfields Village approached the National Department of Human Settlements to make a formal demand for access to the audit in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA). When the Minister failed to respond within the 30-day period stipulated in the Act, our attorney submitted a Notice of Internal to Minister Sexwale for a response within an additional 30 days.
The legal deadline for Minister Sexwale is Monday 15 August 2011.
(Read the background to R2K’s demand for information from the Department of Human Settlements here and here. This report in the Sowetan details the auditor-general’s inspection of CTCHC houses.)
The residents of Newfields Village have struggled for over ten years to fulfill their right to adequate housing – a struggle that has been hampered at every corner by lack of transparency and lack of access to information from officials at every level of government.
At the same time that the community of Newfields Village is mobilising against the Protection of Information Bill in Parliament, the community’s struggle for adequate housing is equally mired by the existing climate of secrecy in South Africa.
As communities of the Right2Know campaign, we call on Minister Sexwale to release this report now!
For comment please contact:
Gary Hartzenberg (Newfields Village CRC Chairperson): 072 392 5859
Nkwame Cedile (R2K Western Cape coordinator): 078 227 6008
About the Right2Know’s InfoAccessNow programme:
The campaign against the Secrecy Bill forms the backdrop of broader struggles for transparency within the private and public sectors in South Africa. Access to information is central to service delivery: a responsive and accountable democracy able to meet the basic needs of our people is built on transparency and the free flow of information.
In April 2011 the Right2Know campaign Western Cape hosted a series of public meetings in communities across Cape Town to find out what challenges they were experiencing with access to information. What we heard is that many communities are struggling with secrecy on a daily basis – they want access to basic information that concerns their livelihood. A number of community organisations are now working within Right2Know to get access to that information.
