SDI BULLETIN 13 – MAY 2005 – SOUTH AFRICAN FEDERATION RESURGENT

 

On Sunday the 29^th of May, Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu gave the keynote address at the National Forum of the SAHPF in the settlement of Piesang River, near Durban in kwaZulu-Natal province.  Her appearance came at the end of a week marked by sporadic unrest throughout South Africa’s major cities, driven by impatience with human settlement development.

 

Minister Sisulu’s visit to the SAHPF marked the resuscitation of a once-close bond between the ‘Federation’ and national government, which had become dormant in recent years.  This interregnum was due to a variety of factors on both sides, including multiple changes in the Housing cabinet portfolio and reorganisation of the SAHPF. 

 

As often happens, the reunion was marked by dramatic progress around core issues.  Minister Sisulu was effusive in her praise of the Federation’s self-help and partnership approach to housing development in poor communities. Indeed, in reference to the SAHPF’s core methodology of daily saving, she proposed a revision to South Africa’s iconic Freedom Charter, now 50 years old: “The People Shall Save”.

 

Minister Sisulu went much further than words, however.  Towards the end of her speech she promised an injection of government resources into the Federation’s Utshani Fund, a bridge finance facility set up and controlled by the Federation. She also requested that the SAHPF form a partnership with government to enumerate shackdwellers in Cape Town, where a massive urban upgrading project is underway.

 

A day after the event, flesh began to appear on the bones of the revived people-government partnership.  A high-ranking official of the Department of Housing wrote to Utshani Fund to say that “arrangements are in place to have Utshani recapitalised by NHBRC to the tune of R10 million during this financial year.”  This offer came almost ten years to the day after South Africa’s first Housing finance Minister, the late Joe Slovo, promised the Federation R10 million to kick-start its Utshani Fund, which subsequently built over 15 000 high-quality houses with this and other funds.

 

With this renewed partnership with government, the SAHPF plans to strengthen its human settlement development activities, starting with completion of developments around South Africa comprising nearly 5 000 households on land acquired by Utshani Fund but not yet developed for lack of bridge finance.

 

The events of the past week demonstrate, once again, that the Federation model for transformation is historically and contextually appropriate. Those who still trot out the tired arguments that the Federation “lets government off the hook” or that its policy of engagement is a case of compromise and capitulation have learnt very little from the history of proletarian struggle and understand South Africa’s political, economic and power relationships even less.

 

Invariably these arguments come from intellectuals and professionals who, in post-apartheid South Africa, can do anything and say anything they want. Here is a case in which freedom to think does not translate into the capacity to do so. In a quiet but clearly audible sub-text to the dialogue with Government, the Federation was saying a few things to NGOs and professionals who claim to support their struggle. Their statements were extremely compelling, if not particularly original. They told those who wanted to listen that the rumours of their demise were both exaggerated and suspiciously self-justifying.