Serviced stands for self-built homes one solution to crisis
Now that the land question is at the forefront of political dialogue, are there more land grabs by shack and backyard dwellers than before? Will there be even more in future?
If so, that will mean a great many land occupations. The City of Tshwane, for instance, says that in 2017 alone it dealt with more than 4,000 cases.
Land invasions and occupations have been a phenomenon since 1994; it is how SA’s 300 informal settlements at the time of the transition have grown to more than 3,000.
Human Settlements Minister Nomaindia Mfeketo thinks occupations will increase. She told a Sunday newspaper the political environment was having this effect, a view that is quite widely shared on an anecdotal level.
It makes sense. With 60% of the population living in cities and towns, the question of the redistribution of land (in so far as it is about actual land and not a metaphor for wealth and access to the fruits of the economy) is more an urban question than a rural one. It is also the case that the urban land problem is more difficult to solve than agrarian reform.
For the poor (those who earn less than R3,500 a month) in urban areas, housing options include: wait for a Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) house for an average of 10 to 16 years; buy a shack from someone in an informal settlement; live in someone’s backyard and pay rent; or join a land invasion, stake out a new piece of land and build your own shack.
Apart from building RDP houses (now known as BNG — breaking new ground — houses after former minister of human settlements Lindiwe Sisulu improved on their size in her first stint in housing), government policy also allows for the in situ upgrading of informal settlements, gradually over time. These are settlements local government has decided to recognise and service, with sanitation to lighting incrementally installed. UN Habitat guidelines are that the full upgrading of an informal settlement can take 25 years.
For the nonpoor (a term invented by the Department of Basic Education) whose household income is between R3,500 and R15,000, housing options in the city include rentals where there is sufficient housing stock, or buying an RDP house from a poor beneficiary who has fallen on times hard enough to sell an asset worth about R160,000 for R100,000. As the RDP property market is mostly informal this involves an agreement, drawn up between the parties and stamped and signed at a police station, in lieu of a title deed.
Curiously, though neither in the case of the poor nor the nonpoor (the Department of Human Settlements calls this group the gap market) is the provision of land for selfbuilding an option the government has considered as a way to deliver affordable housing.
In the Western Cape, this is beginning to change. In every new low-cost development a substantial portion of serviced stands – with electricity, water and sewerage connections – is now set aside for owner-builder home construction. Households with incomes of between R3,501 and R7,000 are allocated stands free; those with incomes up to R15,000 must make some contribution to the cost of services, usually about R40,000.
For the gap market, people who don’t earn enough to get a bond, or who cannot afford one due to other debt obligations, this is an innovation that is long overdue. Gauteng is said to be exploring a similar model.
LAND INVASIONS AND OCCUPATIONS … IS HOW SA’S 300 INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS HAVE GROWN SINCE 1994 TO MORE THAN 3,000
But why not also do it for those in the 10-year queue to get an RDP house?
The Western Cape government says it tried this before and failed. It argues that people with such low incomes cannot afford to build, so the sites end up being an eyesore. But maybe this is more about what politicians think acceptable and affordable housing should look like and less about what is in people’s interests.
Sisulu, for example, is said to have complained about the Cape Town N2 Gateway housing programme, which was intended to put a better face on the shack settlements on the road from the airport to the city ahead of the World Cup bid. In the drawings she had seen the roofs of the welldesigned duplexes were red. Once built they were brown, resulting in a strong rebuke for the officials in charge.
For many, waiting 10 years for a house while living in an informal settlement that will take 25 years to upgrade, or in a backyard, is not considered a better option than invading a new, welllocated piece of land.
If Mfeketo thinks this is going to increase she would be well advised to provide land that is serviced and can be occupied for the poor to build houses of their own.