Affordable Housing Institute : South Africa

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A recent wave of riots in South African townships over a lack of housing and basic services for millions of poor is sparking concern that the growing unrest could destabilise the continent’s youngest democracy.  SAPA 29 May – Cape Town

 

Minister Sisulu is faced with a problem. 

 

In the past year since her inauguration as the fourth Minister of Housing in the new South Africa, she has been very busy.  In September of last year she submitted a new housing strategy to Cabinet, entitled then as “Breaking New Ground”, and to which she now refers as the “Comprehensive Plan for Human Settlements”.  This was approved, and since October of last year, she has used it as the basis for implementing major shifts in the country’s housing policy.  She has also spearheaded efforts into a massive, integrated development scheme around the formalisation of settlements that border the N2 highway in Cape Town between the airport and the downtown core.  She has reached agreement with the banks on the overall parameters for the most significant private sector investment in low income housing this country has ever seen.  During her term of office thus far, delivery has been increasing from a virtual standstill.  She has spoken openly about delivery delays, stumbling blocks, the ravages of life in informal settlements.  She has reshifted the focus of her Ministry on the whole housing market, acknowledging the critical linkage between the lower end of the market and performance at the upper end.  In the policy circles I move in, people are generally happy with her performance, impressed with the assertiveness of her actions.

 

And the people are rioting.  

 

Stories have been coming through in Cape Town, and Port Elizabeth.  In the past eight months, these areas, as well as Kliptown, and Durban, areas in the Free State and elsewhere have witnessed people marching to the town councils and submitting memoranda with a litany of complaints: poor service delivery and no housing.

 

 

Residents of Guguletu and Nyanga in Cape Town have taken to the streets to protest against alleged “unfair housing practices”. (Obed Zilwa, AP)

 

Minister Sisulu is surprised.  “The current wave of protest is totally out of sync with what we are doing” she said this weekend.  She’s not alone.  “We are flabbergasted. We thought this (protest action) would be done by now. Money for housing has been made available, they accepted the explanations (for the delays) by the [Port Elizabeth] mayor, Nceba Faku. A third party is somehow involved,” said the Police Superintendent Johann Van Greunen.

 

Indeed, South Africa’s housing delivery rate of about 1,6 million houses in ten years is unparalleled internationally.  No other country has ever delivered at such a massive scale.  So why is there such dissatisfaction?

 

There have been a number of reasons put forward to explain the riots.

 

Some say it has to do with mounting political tensions before the local government elections in December.  In Cape Town, where politics often goes hand in hand with race, coloured residents have complained that whatever housing delivery they see is going to black residents.  Political analyst from the Institute for Security Studies, Mpho Mashaba, said “residents feel that somebody is manipulating housing waiting lists as newer people are getting houses earlier”.

 

Others have wondered if people are being encouraged to riot by a special, anti-government force.  These speculations are being taken so seriously that the National Intelligence Agency has been called in to investigate.  The NIA’s involvement has been criticised by some, saying that peoples’ democratic right to protest against poor government performance is being threatened.  NIA chief, Ronnie Kasrils, says they’re just looking into the situation to find out what’s going on.

 

Certainly, the rioting has given an opportunity to the parties for political posturing.  In his weekly letter to the public, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon wrote:

 

“With 170,000 Capetonians waiting for housing, it should be quite clear why people are feeling frustrated.”

 

And he has a point.  People have been waiting ages for housing throughout the country.  Notwithstanding 1,6 million houses since 1994, this delivery has been uneven throughout the country, and had its peak in the 1997/98 financial year.  Since then, delivery has dwindled: last year, only 11 756 houses were either completed or under construction in the whole of the Western Cape – and the year before that, only 15 735 were built.  Delivery nationwide last year sounds fairly impressive with 178 612 units built – but this less than the estimated 200 000 units needed annually just to keep up with new family formation, not to mention make a dent into the backlog.  Delivery problems are likely to remain.  In Mpumalanga for example, all housing contracts have been cancelled due to shoddy construction.  This will create more delays.

 

I have a different take on all of this.  I think the riots are about hope.  With this Minister, people are seeing quite clearly that housing is a national priority.  The N2 project in Cape Town involves a massive public investment in an area that has been neglected for decades.  When there was very little delivery, people didn’t expect that their housing needs would be met by government, and in a way, their despondence was articulated in their silence.  Now, they see that there’s movement, when they hear of delivery increases and a promise to formalise all informal settlements by 2014, they feel a sense of hope.  They see construction happening across the street.  They read about it in other provinces.  And they don’t want to be left out. 

 

Ironically, there is the risk that the Minister’s success might actually undermine her intentions.  A quick fix solution would be to engage in mass delivery – build millions and millions of houses for everyone, just like the original policy in 1994 envisioned.  But that would have its costs, not least of which is her broader intention for the development of sustainable human settlements which are integrated in the existing urban fabric.

 

Thankfully it appears as though the Minister is not allowing her focus to be shifted even if it doesn’t mean mass housing delivery immediately.  In a statement released together with the MEC for Housing in the Eastern Cape and the Mayor of Port Elizabeth, she promised enhanced capacity building for the metro so that it could meet its housing responsibilities, and she announced a pilot project for an integrated settlement in the Port Elizabeth area.  Still, these riots suggest we are on the cusp of a paradigm shift – how do we respond to desperate need with desperately limited capacity?

 

A Cape Town shack dweller had an idea this week:  “We are tired of hearing government officials saying Rome was never built in one day. They must allocate us land and we will show them that we can build our houses in one day,” said Zolile Sonqishe.

 

Maybe its time for government to actually listen to what the people are saying when they protest in the streets.