Zille lacks housing strategy – Fransman

CAPE TOWN, 2014/06/20, Marius Fransman - Official opening ceremony of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament, The Premier Helen Zille to deliver her State of the Province Address. Reporter: Jan Cronje / Picture: Adrian de Kock

CAPE TOWN, 2014/06/20, Marius Fransman - Official opening ceremony of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament, The Premier Helen Zille to deliver her State of the Province Address. Reporter: Jan Cronje / Picture: Adrian de Kock

Published Jun 21, 2014

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Cape Town - What about sanitation? That was one of the responses by ANC provincial leader Marius Fransman to Premier Helen Zille’s State of the Province address on Friday.

The ANC has 14 of the 42 seats in the legislature, the DA 26, the ACDP 1 and EFF 1.

Fransman, who gave up his position as deputy international relations minister to return to the provincial legislature, questioned why Zille had not addressed the plight of those living in informal settlements.

“There are people consistently living in dire need. But they are human. The Premier didn’t touch at all on the issue of sanitation in these settlements.”

He said more details about how the province’s housing shortage could be addressed should have been given.

“Go into what she offered. There was nothing. So she acknowledged the problem but then she says she doesn’t have a plan to tackle this particular problem,” he said.

Fransman, leader of the official opposition in the only legislature where the ANC does not have a majority, said that as the DA was elected to govern, Zille should have given concrete plans on how to build houses.

In her address, Zille said it would cost more than R70 billion to provide land, services and houses to all who need them in the province. This is nearly double the Western Cape’s total yearly budget.

Zille called for “new and improved strategies” to tackle the housing backlog, and mentioned a new housing model in the works, but Fransman said this was not enough. “What she has offered is too little to address this issue,” he said.

Fransman also questioned whether Zille had the political will to change the legacy of the city’s apartheid spatial planning.

“In the past five years there were no integrated human settlements created,” he said. Coloured, black and white residents still lived in different communities.

The Economic Freedom Fighters’ sole member in the legislature, Nazier Paulsen, said he should have been given the opportunity to state that his party does not support the National Development Plan.

Paulsen was brought to order by the Speaker when he interrupted Zille’s speech to say her phrase that “all major parties support the plan” was false, as the EFF does not support it.

He said it was “poor practice” that the speaker did not ask Zille to retract her alleged follow-up statement that the EFF was “another type of party”.

Opposition parties will deliver their full responses this week.

Weekend Argus

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