DA Gauteng proposes Motion on Living Conditions in Hostels

 

The following speeches were delivered in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature today by DA Gauteng Spokesperson on Community Safety, Michele Clarke MPL and DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Human Settlements, Mervyn Cirota MPL, during a debate on living conditions in hostels across Gauteng.

Michele Clarke MPL

“Hostel dwellers in Gauteng deserve better housing”
• The hostels in our province are unsanitary and pose a severe health risk to residents. There is no access to water and electricity in some of our hostels. The safety of residents is often under serious threat, there is a high rate of crime that includes murder and prostitution.
• The living conditions in the Gauteng hostels are inhumane and not conducive for human habitation. The hostel’s infrastructure is crumbling, old and dilapidated;
• The Gauteng Department of Human Settlements should ensure the regular maintenance of hostels that require urgent maintenance, not waste money in maintaining hostels that need to be demolished; and
• The Gauteng Provincial Government, together with all municipalities in the province should prioritize delivering services such as water, electricity, and refuse collection to all the hostels in Gauteng.

The full speech can be obtained here.

Mervyn Cirota MPL

“Hostel dwellers must be treated with dignity and respect”

• It is thus with deep frustration and disappointment that I report to this house that undertakings by the ANC remain hollow and unfulfilled and that residents continue to live in squalor and despair;
• The lack of basic facilities such as water supply, the lack of basic sanitation and the filth and decay that exists with the full knowledge and consent of the ANC administration in Gauteng, is appalling;
• Both the Premier and the MEC have in this house acknowledged that urgent steps need to be taken to provide suitable living conditions that guarantee these residents dignity and a dignified environment as specified in our Constitution, yet to date not much has been done to improve the conditions in hostels across the province.

The full speech can be obtained here.