Cape Town - Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Sihle Zikalala went on a walkabout at the Castle of Good Hope to witness for himself a homeless encampment in front of the historic fort.
He said the department was employing various strategies to optimise the utilisation of state-owned buildings and curb the illegal occupation and hijacking of them.
Zikalala was in Cape Town to host the Property Sector conference at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, where he emphasised redress and transformation.
According to the Property Sector Transformation Charter, despite significant progress since the establishment of a democratic government in 1994, South African society, including the property sector, remains characterised by racially based income and social services inequalities.
It says this is not only unjust but inhibits the country’s ability to achieve its full economic potential.
“Commercially, direct property ownership is dominated by institutional investors, large private owners, collective investment schemes, property loan stocks, and listed property entities, with the government being the largest commercial player. There is limited participation of black people, particularly women, in ownership and control of these entities.
“The commercially driven activities surrounding property, including development, management and sales, rests largely in white-owned hands,” reads the charter.
Addressing the stakeholders in the conference, Zikalala said transformation is what his department aspired to achieve.
“We must work together to transform the property sector by ensuring that property becomes affordable not only to tenants but to all South Africans. Implementation is a critical issue, and we really take this seriously. We know that we have been perceived as a department that lacks implementation.
“We agreed that the acting DG (director-general) and the Head of Property Management should quickly look at how we can improve performance and delivery across the department. There will be issues that we need to address with speed, and we are committed to moving with speed.
“We hope we will not be here next year to discuss the same thing again, and therefore I commit that we will follow up continuously on issues at least every quarter,” said Zikalala.
Speaking on the sidelines of the conference, Nontsha Mkhunqana, from South African Women in Construction, said she hoped the minister would assist them as black women in finding jobs within the property sector and uplifting their business because many construction jobs were dominated by men.
“As the minister said, there’s a lot of buildings that are underutilised and vandalised, and he says his department will revamp them. We hope that as he embarks on this journey, he will include women in construction to also be part of these projects, even if he gives us 50% of the work,” said Mkhunqana
zolani.sinxo@inl.co.za