SOUTH AFRICA: An Irish businessman has set a housing challenge in S Africa, writes Deaglán de Bréadún in Cape Town.
The Irish philanthropist and millionaire businessman, Mr Niall Mellon, is proposing a World Cup campaign to the South African government aimed at replacing the country's estimated 2.5 million shacks with an equal number of new houses.
The aim of the "Shack Attack" campaign would be to eradicate all shantytowns in the country and replace them with proper housing in time for the World Cup soccer tournament which is being hosted by South Africa in 2010.
Mr Mellon has already made a name for himself with his project in the impoverished Imizamo Yethu township outside Cape Town, where 270 houses have been built in the last two years, many of them by volunteers travelling from Ireland at their own expense. This week Mr Mellon welcomed the Minister of State for Development, Mr Conor Lenihan, who visited the township with an Irish delegation and donated €250,000 in Official Development Assistance to the project on behalf of the Government.
Mr Mellon said former South African president Mr Nelson Mandela had recently spoken to him in complimentary terms about the fact that "so many Irish people would come so far to help people they hadn't met".
Now the Dublin property developer is lobbying "to encourage South Africa that they have to make the opening day of the World Cup the closing day for all shacks". He was due to meet the Minister for Housing, Ms Lindiwe Sisulu, on the issue. Part of the proposed drive would be an advertising campaign featuring Mr Mandela, international soccer stars and rock musicians.
"South Africa built 200,000-odd houses last year but there's 2.5 million houses needed and a population of about nine million still in shacks. The only way South Africa is going to have a chance of solving the housing crisis is to truly accelerate the house-building programme," he said.
"The great honour of hosting the World Cup brings with it an extra responsibility to eradicate shacks. The world in general may not look kindly on South Africa if it spends $2 billion on a soccer game while millions of its people are still living in shacks. I have suggested that the positive energy of the World Cup could be harnessed to involve all South Africans and particularly the private sector to play their part in eradicating shacks."
He acknowledged that "as a foreigner, talking in another person's country about things they should do can be a sensitive issue.
"The Housing Ministry have listened to what we have to say about accelerating the programme and I'm hoping that it will result in an enlarged housing situation in South Africa," he added.
Mr Lenihan said Mr Mellon had "established a non-governmental organisation structure that is rather unique. We think it is a very innovative, very dynamic way of lifting the whole consciousness of development issues at home in Ireland as well as achieving a very hard practical result on the ground."
On Mr Mellon's campaign to remove all shacks, Mr Lenihan said: "It's a very worthy campaign because it is a serious issue for South Africa that they are hosting the stellar competition of the World Cup, and it is important that, when countries host those, that they try to set themselves ambitious targets in terms of the improvement of their society.
Last weekend, as part of the campaign, a 67-foot yacht, Shack Attack 2010, sponsored by Mr Mellon, joined the Governor's Cup race out of Cape Town harbour, crewed by six volunteer members of different nationalities.