It’s a windy Wednesday morning in East London as I make my way to the department of human settlements office in Chiselhurst, in the city centre.
My meeting with the newly appointed human settlements MEC, Babalo Madikizela, is scheduled for 11am.
The fresh-faced Madikizela is regarded by some in the media fraternity as aloof. Others deem him shy or reserved.
He is a politician who rose up the ranks at lightning speed. He was elected ANC Eastern Cape treasurer on ANC chairman Oscar Mabuyane's ticket at the infamous “festival of chairs” provincial elections in September 2017 and was appointed to the legislature by premier Phumulo Masualle in November.
He now has a portfolio that has proved decidedly challenging for previous MECs.
Fifteen minutes after I arrive at the MEC’s HQ, his spokesperson, Simthandile Ford, ushers me into his office where I am greeted with a warm smile.
“Hola,” he hails me in Tsotsi slang. “U grand,” I ask back which, for those who don’t know, means ‘how are you’?
His office is of a grand design fitting for his new role. Piles of files are stacked on his desk.
“You have been busy,” I remark.
“There is no time to play,” he responds, indicating his approach to the task at hand.
Aged 43, Madikizela has no experience in government, much less in a role as big as this one.
With a background in business, having achieved success in his home town of Bizana in Pondoland, Madikizela prides himself on his meteoric rise in the ranks of the ANC.
But he wants to debunk the notion that he suffers from lack of political experience.
“The systems are relatively easy to understand. It’s not like I’m going in and starting my own things. Yes, I have never been at the table of government but what is important is that I have grown within the structures of the movement and you get to learn a lot of things.
“There is a first time for everything but you always learn, " he elaborates.
The issues he has to grapple with are myriad.
The human settlements departments in the province have been rocked by scandals.
The delivery backlog is staggering, sitting at about 66,000 units.
Fewer than 14,000 houses are built each year and the department’s audit records leave much to be desired.
Legal fees are piling up.
Madikizela however is confident that he is the right man for the job.
“The expectation was that I should excel to my best ability as per the mandate of the department, which is mainly to give people some dignity by providing them with shelter. My own targets are to ensure that within a short period of time, I monitor the delivery of such services to our people, fast-track title deeds to people and hand over houses."
Madikizela explains that he wants to eliminate the frustrating process of title deed handovers to beneficiaries, adding he’s sure of meeting 100% delivery of the department’s own targets.
That’s a tall order since so far only 500 title deeds have been handed over whereas the annual target was 3,000.
“We are slightly behind, but there are plans to hand over more title deeds. The MEC will hand over 500 title deeds in the Sundays River local municipality on Tuesday. More title deeds will be handed over during this financial year,” corporate communications assistant director Phiwokuhle Soga tells me.
Madikizela says he has great confidence in the officials at the department to get the job done.
“We have the right officials, very competent officials, but from time to time what happens is contractors don’t deliver. That is the problem. You can’t blame officials for contractors,” the MEC said.
Then there’s the issue of having to cut one’s cloth according to one’s means.
In May, human settlements minister Nomaindia Mfeketo cut the national department’s budget by R10bn for the next three financial years.
By November, the provincial department had spent more than half of its budget, according to the chairperson for the provincial human settlements standing committee, Mary Ndlangisa Makaula.
The MEC acknowledges the budget constraints are limiting what can be delivered.
“We have to tighten our belts. We try to cut where we can. We have areas where we targeted to build 1,000 units but we try to build where we can.
“It’s affecting us very badly especially with the backlog that we have in the province," Madikizela said.
But he still has high hopes that quality housing will be delivered to the people of the province.
When asked what he hopes to be remembered for achieving in his portfolio, Madikizela says: “One thing I want to leave is that in this era we tried our best to fast-track the delivery of houses – quality houses that do not fall apart after three weeks. Give people their pride by handing over title deeds and allocating houses to deserving people. This ANC is a renewed ANC and we want to restore its pride. This can only be done if we ensure that the work is done, and that our people receive services. We must be intolerant of incompetence.
“I believe that this can be done, and it will be done."..