​Ladies and Gentleman, as MEC responsible for Human Settlements, Urban Planning and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, a task has been assigned to me by 6 Administration under the able leadership of Premier David Makhura. We have called this Media Briefing to respond to a number of inaccuracies and distorted information pertaining to the Alexandra Renewal Project (ARP).
On May 31, 2019, apartheid-style demolitions were carried out in Alexandra Township by City of Johannesburg (CoJ). This left hundreds of families displaced and homeless. Eighty (80) houses built on illegally occupied land were demolished. The Department of Human Settlement in Gauteng Provincial Government, came through to provide temporary relief to the affected families.
A plethora of accusations have been made, as a result of the wretched conditions of the people of Alexandra find themselves in, 25 years later, since the dawn of our democracy. It has been widely alleged without a shred of evidence that R1.6 Billion was misappropriated more than a decade ago. In 2001, former President Thabo Mbeki launched (8) urban renewal programmes in the country, and four in Gauteng, including Alexandra Renewal Project (ARP). The ARP budget was estimated to be R1.3 Billion for over a period of seven (7) years.
It should be stated here that the said R1.3 billion was never a ring-fenced amount where a particular individual or official was responsible. This amount was a total sum of contributions that were going to be made by all spheres of government as well as by all provincial departments. Departments and the CoJ were expected to come up with projects that they, within their mandate and capacities, were going to implement. This amount was informed by the Business Plan that had been put together at the time. Therefore, to conclude that a specific individual was responsible for managing the R1.3 billion is incorrect.
It is within this context, we seek to use this Media Briefing, to set the record straight and account for all programmes that have implemented since the ARP was announced by former President Mbeki in 2001. We are doing this guided by highest standards of openness, ethical leadership, and clean governance, as demonstrated by current administration for successive years.  The ARP was an off shoot of the Urban Renewal Programme (URP) and the Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Programme introduced as a national and presidential priority programme to mitigate the impact of rural and urban poverty, including underdevelopment.
Since the democratic breakthrough of 1994, Alexandra's population has drastically increased as people moved in search of employment or better opportunities. They flock into Alex from rural areas and neighbouring countries. This has contributed significantly to the congested informal settlements and overloading of an infrastructure that is already overstretched.
One of the core features of the Urban Renewal programme was a sustained campaign against rural and urban poverty, and underdevelopment, bringing in the resources of all three spheres of government in a coordinated manner.
From its inception until 2003, the programme managers were the following individuals:
Carien Engelbrecht, 2001-3 
Mike Maile , 2003-4 
Izzy Raboroko, 2004-5

From the City of Johannesburg: 
Julian Baskett 
Job Sithole 
Neels Letter 

Through our records or information at our disposal, the ARP has delivered a number of projects ranging from housing projects to bulk infrastructure to social infrastructure. The following provides the high level summary of what was done by the ARP since its inception in 2001: 

Housing:  
Far East Bank Extension 7: 1700 units built 
Far East Bank Extension 8: 181 units built 
Alexandra Extension 9: 840 double storey units and 1424 double storey semi-detached housing with two rental rooms (and a shared abolition facility). This project started in 2009 and completed in 2011.
Alexandra Extension 10: 527 units stand-alone units; 224 two rooms rentals and 111 one room rental units;
M2 Nobuhle Hostel: The project was supposed to redevelop the single-sex hostel into family units. 406 units were redeveloped but have since invaded 
Bothlabela Flips Project: 127 units built 
Marlboro Flats: 250 flats built and allocated to deserving beneficiaries 
Tsutsumani Village: 1799 units allocated. This was part of the All Africa Games.

Bulk Infrastructure: 

In the initial report that the ARP did before undertaking its task, it discovered that at the time Alexandra population had grown exponentially thus putting a serious strain on the infrastructure. The population for whom the infrastructure had been put on the ground had quadrupled. The following are examples of infrastructure projects that were done: 
A new western outfall sewer was constructed to eliminate outdated and malfunctioning pump stations;
Bruma and Modderfontein outfall sewers were upgraded;
A new water reservoir was built in Linbro Park;
Two pedestrian bridges were built across Jukskei River;

Social Services: 
A new police station was built to maintain law and order 
Four clinics were refurbished and a new clinic was built on 18 Avenue;
Edenvale Hospital was upgraded to serve as a referral hospital for Alexandra Township;
 40000 households have been connected to the new and upgraded electricity reticulation network;

Financial Expenditure: 

In the fifteen (15) years since 2001 the following expenditure was incurred by the ARP from various government departments as indicated below: 

Gauteng Department of Human Settlement (previously Housing): R600 million 

City of Johannesburg                                                                      : R463 million 

Human Settlement Fund (2001-2005)                                             : R88 million 

MIG/CMLIP                                                                                      : R173 million 

Gauteng Department of Transport                                                    : R109 million 

Gauteng Department of Economic Development                             : R15 million 

Total                                                                                     R 1, 4 billion 

2016/17 Budget Allocation 

Gauteng Department of Human Settlement                                        : R46, 7 million 

City of Johannesburg                                                                           : R48, 3 million 

Projects in 2016/17 Financial Year 

These are projects funded by GDHS and either are not completed or never got off the ground 
M2 Hostel re-development phase 3 (642 units) R27 570 467.50
River Park Rental Housing (450 units) R11 543 103.00
Alexandra Ext 31 BNG Housing (84 units) R10 600 000.00
Bohlabela Phase 2 Remedial R11 000 000.00
Lombardy West Rental Housing (255 units) R1 500 000.00
M1 Hostel re-development (1750 units) R5 179 112.02 
Security Services R2 250 240.48 

Project funded by CoJ and taken over by JDA
4 Avenue Clinic (near completion) R19 000 000.00
Thoko Mngoma clinic (completed) R13 000 000.00
Ikage BNG Housing (180 units) not done R20 000 000.00
Vincent Tshabalala pedestrian bridge (not done) R10 000 000.00
Maputo Park (not done) R5 000 000.00
Linear Market Pan Africa (not done) R7 000 000.00
Alexandra Automotive Hub R23 000 000.00
Alexandra Heritage Centre R1 000 000.00

Project planned for 2018/9 – 2018/9 – 2019/20 
Linbro park (5500 housing units)
Frakenwald Social Housing (3500 units)
Modderfontein BNG Housing (3500 housing units)
Waterval Estate BNG Housing (5500 housing units)
Implementation of Alexandra Land Agreement (2483 potential claims)

In this current financial year the Department will be focusing on the following:
Implementation of the Statement of Intent. This agreement should have been driven by the City of Johannesburg but they have failed dismally to do so because they do not care about Alexandra people
Finalize issuing of title deeds to all qualifying beneficiaries 
Rectify and rebuild all projects that have been abandoned, invaded and/or destroyed
Work with different stakeholders to secure land for redevelopment of Alexandra

It should be noted here that we are publicly declaring funds spent thus far, to demonstrate to our people that we have acted with upright honesty and accountability. Through this demonstration, it buries the falsehood that has been spread by many political figures that ARP funds were misappropriated to benefit certain politically connected individuals and families. 

We remain committed to serve and deliver on our electoral promises as the 6 administration. In the next coming 5 years Mega Human Settlements will be rolled-out to meet the housing demands of our people.

The current projects in Alexandra:

In the 2019/20 Business Plan for the Gauteng Department of Human Settlement, R28 million has been allocated to complete four projects that are in various stages of completion because of various technical and administrative reasons.

Nobuhle Hostel R10 million 
Extension 31 R8 million 
River Park R5 million 
Bothlabela FLISP Project R5 million 

We reaffirm our commitment to work with the people of Alex and many other communities in Gauteng, as part of restoring their dignity to live in decent, humane and safer human settlements. 

Furthermore, given the information that we have provided of how the money was spent on Alexander Renewal Project, anyone who might have contrary information, we encourage those people to come forward and approach their nearest police station or relevant law enforcement agencies. They must do so without fear or favor because that will help this Gauteng government to unearth the truth of what really transpired if such allegations are true that there was a misappropriation of funds.

In terms of our own records as Human Settlements the above mentioned funds is what we have spent as part of ARP.

I THANK YOU