- The government has made a new commitment to meeting service delivery in the country following weeks of violent protests as well as wildcat strike.
Minister of Human Settlement, Tokyo Sexwale said despite low budgets as a result of the effects of the global economic crisis, the government will ensure that basis services are delivered to the communities.
During his visit at one of the hotspots in Diepsloot, yesterday, Mr Sexwale said that government's budget for this financial year has declined by about R60 billion due to the global economic downturn, which has negatively impacted on government's developmental projects.
"We are currently having problems of local and global economic recession which has decreased government's budget by R60 billion which will affect our programmes including human settlement programmes. However, with this insufficient budget we will make plans which will guarantee that these people are living in better and appropriate conditions," said Mr sexwale, who had set up a makeshift office in the area to receive queries from the members of the community.
Mr Sexwale also spent the night in the informal settlement interacting with people in order to get first hand experience on the living conditions of the people in Diepsloot.
The Diepsloot residents had recently embarked on violent demonstrations after rumours that they were to be relocated.
The minister’s mission was also to dismiss the rumours saying only those families that had settled on a broken sewerage pipeline would be moved to a more suitable place within the area.
The minister was later today expected to meet Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, who heads government's war on poverty project, to give a report back.
Speaking on his experience at a shack in Diepsloot, Mr Sexwale, a wealthy businessman, who was a t one point tipped to succeed former president, Thabo Mbeki, in the ruling party’s presidential candidate race, said: "The 24 hours that I have spent in the informal settlement was absolutely informative. We have collected valuable information about the plight of the people living in Diepsloot. We will use this information as part of the department's planning strategy," he said in an interview with 702 Talk Radio on Tuesday morning.
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