News from the Mission
Secretary Clinton Revisits Cape Townships
August 8, 2009
Secretary Clinton visited two Cape Town townships on Saturday to see homes built by the South African Homeless People Federation.
The first home she visited was in Philipi. She had visited the site in 1998 with her husband, then President Bill Clinton and laid some of the bricks in the foundation. When she returned on August 8, 2009, she met the Mkhize family which now lives in the home. The second site she visited was in Khayelitsha, where the SAHPF has nearly finished construction on a home. While at the site, the Secretary and members of her party planted trees and flowers.
The SAHPF aims to alleviate poverty in the poorest communities through community-based approaches to the construction of homes, skills training, employment generation (including handy-crafts), health awareness, and HIV/AIDS prevention. The organization operates through the voluntary financing and labor of its members. The core activity, and the basis of group cohesion and problem solving, is a savings scheme to which all members belong. Housing is the primary focus of the SAHPF. To date it has built more than 50,000 homes nationally, including 6,000 homes in the Western Cape Province, through taking advantage of a government subsidy scheme. As of 2007, there were more than 100,000 families that were members of SAHPF.
USAID became involved with SAHPF through a $300,000 grant to People’s Dialogue, an NGO with expertise in community organization and housing issues based on its experience in other developing countries, including India. People’s Dialogue furnished the fledgling SAHPF with the technical assistance required to build SAHPF’s capacity to organize and manage the provision of housing for South Africa’s homeless
Patricia Matolengwe is the founder and current head of the Victoria Mxenge branch of the SAHPF, located in Philippi, a township in the Cape Flats. Through her leadership, the branch has constructed three phases of homes, with each phase producing higher quality houses as members improve their construction and planning skills. She also continues to participate actively at the national level of SAHPF and was elected its Director in 2008.
In 2005, People’s Dialogue was disbanded; however SAHPF, under the leadership of individuals such as Patricia, continues to function independently. Since 2005, they have continued their work with minimal external technical support, creating new housing developments throughout the country.
In 2008, Patricia gave a presentation to the Planning Africa Conference that heightened the quality of dialogue between the South African Ministry of Housing and the homeless and resulted in an increase in the number of housing subsidies received by SAHPF and the development of more sites.