Housing Sec. Cuomo Promises Aid For Home Mortgages, Improvements In South Africa During Visit

Jet, May 10, 1999

Help for South Africa to provide more homes in low-income communities was promised by U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo during a three-day visit to the country.

His itinerary included meetings with Deputy President Thabo Mbeki and Housing Minister Sankie Mthembe-Manhayele along with business leaders and students in four areas--Johannesburg, Pretoria, Soweto and Capetown.

In addition, Cuomo toured Robben Island--where now-President Nelson Mandela and other freedom fighters were imprisoned during White minority rule. Cuomo laid flowers at a memorial to Black South Africans killed in Soweto during the struggle to end the White-supremacist policy of apartheid.

"In overturning apartheid, the people of South Africa won a historic victory against racism and oppression, for equality and freedom," the Clinton Cabinet member told an emotional audience. "WE salute them for this victory, and we look forward to strengthening the partnership between our nations to help South Africa build a better future for themselves and their children."

Cuomo announced agreements to jointly develop programs to make more home mortgages available in low-income communities so that more South Africans can own homes; to develop laws and regulations against discriminatory lending to home buyers; and to share information on housing and economic developments.

The HUD Secretary said that the U. S. government's South Africa Housing Guarantee Program will provide an additional $25 million guarantee of loans for mortgages and home improvements in the country's low-income areas. The program recently announced nearly $50 million in borrowing for infrastructures in low-income communities.